roken, and they no longer hope
for freedom. The energy and enterprise of liberated felons have
increased the trade of Australia until she is no longer a burden to the
mother country, and I hope, before I die, to see this island conducted
as an independent government. It would be better for England, and I need
not tell you how much better it would be for us."

"Are the bushrangers, that we hear so much about, really dangerous
fellows to meet?" we asked.

"They are the very scum of the great cities of England--desperate men
who are usually sentenced for life, and therefore have no hope of mercy;
and many of them desire none. As soon as they can effect an escape they
do so, and fleeing to the wilds of the island, either join a band of
ruffians like themselves, or else, fearful of trusting to men that are
as treacherous as wolves, will roam without companions for many days,
living upon sheep, which are easily obtained from herds without the
knowledge of the shepherds, and very often with their consent, to be at
last betrayed and shot by the very man who was trusted most. There are
hundreds of them upon the very route that we must take, and every day
there are murders and robberies committed, and all the vigilance of the
guard, who escort gold dust from the mines to Melbourne, is necessary to
insure its protection.

"Teams like our own, however, are most attended to, and if we should
wake up in the night, and by the light of the camp fire see half a dozen
ferocious-looking fellows standing over us, it would be better to let
them take what they want, and go their way in peace, than to trust to an
appeal to arms or oppose them. Once rouse them to anger, and our lives
would not be worth a sixpence; for they think no more of shedding the
blood of a man than they would that of a sheep."

"I think it would be better to give them a trial than be robbed,
especially when we possess weapons like these," cried Fred, touching his
revolver, which he carried in a belt around his waist.

Smith looked at my companion for a moment in silence, as though trying
to satisfy himself whether Fred was in earnest, or only talking because
danger was remote.

"I've carried many men to the mines," he said at length, "and been
robbed some half a dozen times; but I always found that while my
passengers were firm for resistance at the beginning of the journey, yet
at night a different opinion was formed, and the boldest has consented
to give up a s