Before I give the account of the delivery by our authorities of three of the four notorious Tasmanian bushrangers to the prison establishment of Van Diemen's Land, and relate what became of the fourth member of the gang, it is necessary to go back and take advantage of the recital given to our police officers by the sailor from the whaling ship, who was sent to identify the desperate men who deserted from her when at sea to the south of Kangaroo Island in the boat which they stole, added to which will be the simple tale of the released sailor who had been arrested with the three culprits.

These narratives, together with the boastful voluntary confessions of the three prisoners to the constables in charge of them, will form the most astounding portion of this sad and humiliating history of depravity almost unparalleled. I will first take the prisoners' own account of themselves, in giving which it appears they were prompted by a desire to impress on our police, who had so cleverly taken them, with what renowned men they had been engaged and had conquered.

At this time they were perfectly aware that there was not likely to be a chance of their escape from captivity, and they too well knew to what a certain fate they were going, and so were determined to exhibit foolhardy gameness to the end of their career, and to die heroes — so much for the case-hardening effects of outlawed lives.

With perfect glee and unconcern they told the following execution of a cold-blooded murder by them, which I select out of their long list of crimes as the one committed shortly before they effected their escape from Tasmania in the whaler, and when they found the hue and cry after them had become too hot and strong for them to escape capture.

Their statement, divested of their accustomed embellishments, is as follows : —

At a time when the four had found shelter in a lone and unoccupied hut on a blustering and rainy night, being short of meat, two of them, Rogers and Lynch, started to the nearest sheep-station to steal a sheep. Shortly after their departure on that errand the two who remained in the hut heard a knock at the door and a demand for the door to be opened in the name of the police, whereupon Riley seized his gun, saying aside to his mate, " Yes, I'll police you, you," &c. ; and, opening the door suddenly, shot the officer, who was an Inspector of Police, through the brain, and wounded the constable who accompanied him, who, however, managed to escape.

It will be remembered how these bloodthirsty men upbraided Mr. Tolmer and his party with creeping upon and capturing them unawares in a cowardly manner, as they called it, as appears in a previous number. It is very probable that the murdered Inspector and his man were not aware of the characters who were temporarily occupying the hut or they would not have so carelessly exposed themselves. It must not be forgotten that in an attempt to take them, which had occurred a very short time prior to this fatal night, the police had been engaged in a regular skirmish with the four outlaws, when one of the police was killed, the remainder driven off, and some of them wounded. Lynch, one of the bushrangers was wounded on the face and hand on that occasion.

Not long after Riley had shot the Inspector, Rogers and Lynch returned carrying a slaughtered sheep, and, stumbling over the dead body of the Inspector lying across the doorway, exclaimed, "Hullo ! who have you got here ?" " Only a — policeman." Well, this to them ordinary occurrence only necessitated a hasty preparation and dispatch of grilled chops and an early change of quarters.

The next matter they divulged to the police was the plan they had devised to be put in practice after they had recruited themselves in Mr. Bowden's employment, of effecting their exit from Yorke's Peninsula, and which would have been carried out if it had not been providentially frustrated by their capture. It has been mentioned that the greater part of the men engaged on the Peninsula sheep-stations were of the prison class. The arrival of any of the cutters at Oyster Bay was soon known on all the neighboring stations, so that the plan which Rogers had devised could have been easily carried into effect, all other things falling out favorably. I now give his scheme as related by him to the three ruffian's guards : —

On one of the returned trips of the Midge, which he might choose to adopt, the three professionals, with their prisoner the sailor, were to make Oyster Bay before daybreak, and taking one of the shore boats which were in fine weather always handy, get silently alongside the Midge, surprise the captain, and dispatching him, press the two sailors ordinarily on board; having succeeded so far, without delay they were to up anchor and away, making sail for Western Australia, where on making a favorable part of the coast, first cutting the throats of the three sailors, they would sink the Midge, and escape in the small boat, and on making the settlement represent themselves as castaways to the authorities, with the ultimate intention and hope of obtaining passages to India.

First to plan such deliberate murders, and then to boast of such shocking depravity, is almost beyond credence, and language is wanting to sufficiently express deep enough abhorrence of such wolfish men-demons.

I now come to information given by the sailor.

The captain of the whaler in which these men, lost to all humane feelings, managed to escape from Tasmania, had been ordered to cruise for whales, from the south of Kangaroo Island, along the southern coast of South Australia. After sighting Kangaroo Island he bore up for Hobart Town for supplies and water ; after leaving that port and again sighting Kangaroo Island, he returned to a a lone part of the coast of Tasmania. Feeling himself to be short of hands, and from the statement of the two sailors on landing in his boat, he found four men who desired to ship with him. On this he engaged them. They were all armed with guns, which they gave up to the captain, saying they had been out kangarooing, but they did not 'let on,' as they say, that they had pistols also. The captain after this did not report himself at any Tasmanian port, and there are strong reasons to suppose he was aware he had taken into his service escaped prisoners. Although ignorant what Tartars he had caught, or as to the loss and inconvenience he was entailing on himself— although he might have been, and no doubt was, aware of the risk he was running — of a heavy fine if caught in Tasmanian waters.

The captain having obtained his complement of men bore up again for Kangaroo Island, which he sighted before sundown, the weather being calm. On turning-in he set a watch of four men. About midnight each of these sailors was suddenly throttled, and a pistol pressed to his head, with threats of instant death if they gave the least alarm. [This part of the sailors' account I rather doubt, and prefer to suppose, as more likely, they had been induced to desert, as from the numerous robberies these Tasmanians had committed, they would most probably have possessed some quantity of gold and silver coin, and other valuables secreted in their swags.]

I continue the mariner's tale as he gave it, only shortened.

On the sailors finding themselves in this position they obeyed the orders of Rogers, who was the leader, and lowered the quarter-boat. She was fitted out complete, with oars, sails, biscuits, water, and compass, ready to be lowered. Whilst they were being forced on board, Rogers stood outside the ship holding on by the bulwarks, with a whale spear in his hand, ready, as he said, to kill the captain if he appeared. On the boat pushing off, he jumped into the sea and swam to the boat, prior to which he had lashed the helm of the ship so as to keep her on the same tack.

In compliance with his orders, the boat was steered in the direction of Kangaroo Island, which they reached some hours after leaving the ship. The night being very dark, and not knowing the nature of the coast at the south -west point of the island, or the heavy current setting in upon its dangerous rocks, the boat became unmanageable, and was dashed on the rocks and smashed to pieces. One of the sailors and the fourth man of the bushrangers were drowned ; two of the sailors landed without much injury, but the other one, who was taken on Yorke's Peninsula, was cast with his feet on sharp rocks and received sharp cuts. Rogers, Lynch, and Riley were also carried on to the rocks and escaped without injury, but no swags were saved.

The two sailors lost no time in taking to the bush to escape from their (as they said) forced companions, and kept on travelling eastward at the best speed they could make through the scrub. The sailor who had his feet cut was so disabled as to be hardly able to walk, and so could not make his escape with his comrades.

Soon after daybreak the three bushrangers, with their lame captive, skirted the coast, where the Cape Borda lighthouse now shows its light, and in time reached Western River, living on such shellfish as the rocks afforded. At this place (due south from the Althorpe's) a settler named McCullum was residing, engaged at the time in building a schooner, to whom they applied for food and relief, after concocting a pitiful tale of their wreckage and misfortunes. This kind Samaritan showed them every hospitality, and entertained the wrecked sailors for several days; but one morning, on turning out, he found to his sorrow that the four men whose misfortunes had so much excited his compassion had made him a return for his kindness by absenting themselves and stealing his only boat, and in addition, also, a gun, ammunition, and twenty-five shillings, the only money he had in the hut. It is supposed as they had pistols when taken that they had them on their persons when wrecked.

With the boat they crossed to Yorke's Peninsula, and in this trip made use of their captive sailor. On landing, they abandoned the boat, leaving it high and dry, and travelled along the beach in a northerly direction. They had not been able to secure any stock of provisions, and so were soon hard up ; they had after they landed passed a stranded whale-calf, some of the flesh of which they carried with them — their sole subsistence.

After following the coast some days and meeting with no settlement, and despairing of being able to reach any inhabitants, they retraced their steps to get a further supply of food from the carcase of the young whale. On the eighth day after landing they started inland and soon came, upon sheep-tracks, which they followed, and eventually reached one of Mr. Bowden's sheep-stations, whose owner gave them food, and subsequently engaged them to work for him, taking Lynch and the lame sailor to an out-station where he required a dam to be constructed, and Rogers and Riley to build a hut and make yards at a new station he wished to form near the coast and not far from Oyster Bay.

The links in the history of these outlaws having been filled up from the murder they committed immediately before making their escape from Tasmania, and all that is necessary to narrate of them until they were engaged and placed by Mr. Bowden as related, I have only to add one more link, namely the account of the two sailors who parted company at Cape Borda, the scene of the boat accident.

These men, pushing on through the scrub, missed McCullum's temporary residence on Western River, and made the coast after crossing that watercourse more inland ; they afterwards kept to the coast until they reached Nepean Bay, existing on shellfish. On arriving at the Bay, to their joy they saw their own ship lying at anchor, and as soon as they could reported themselves to their captain, who appeared to believe their tale.

I now return to the Inspector, who with his prisoners had arrived at Port Adelaide, and immediately communicated with the Commissioner of Police, reporting his successful capture of the bushrangers, and advising that extra heavy irons should be placed on them before they were removed from on board the cutter.

In due time Capt. Dashwood arrived with the then Governor of the Gaol, the late Mr. Ashton, bringing a blacksmith, and heavy irons which weighed fifty pounds each, and these were riveted on the legs of the three men. After a magisterial investigation had been held, when their identity was proved as the men for whose capture the Tasmanian Government had offered a reward of one hundred pounds for each man, they were remanded to Hobart Town. They were transferred to the charge of Mr. Ashton, and ordered into the boat alongside, to be conveyed to the Adelaide Gaol, there to remain until a vessel could be procured to ship them to Hobart Town to be tried on some of the charges laid against them.

To give a further instance of the desperate character of these outlaws, after the prisoners Riley, Lynch, and the police had got into the boat alongside the cutter which had been anchored in the stream, Rogers, who was last to follow, and was a man of at least 14 stone weight in addition to his heavy irons, made a leap into the boat with the intention of knocking a hole in her bottom, and thus to end their guilty lives with intention of drowning some of the police; but fortunately the boat was strong enough to withstand the shock, which, through the massive irons on his legs; must have been severe enough to the ruffian himself.

Mr. Ashton safely conveyed his prisoners to "Ashton's Hotel," as the gaol was then playfully called. The Government, mindful of the desperate characters of these men, chartered as quickly as possible a vessel commanded by Captain Cameron to convey them to Hobart Town. When the ship was ready for sea the prisoners were escorted to Port Adelaide and securely placed in the hold on the stone ballast, where they could play no mischief.

They were under the charge of a sergeant of foot police/ and he had troopers Farrell and Morgan under him, who had been so active in effecting the capture of the men whom they had now to escort to their earthly doom. The three men not only kept up their assumed jolly defiance of all the present miseries which their reckless conduct had rendered necessary to be inflicted on them, but also as to the speedy and certain retribution to which they were approaching.

On the vessel reaching Hobart Town they kept up the same line of conduct. The news of their capture had preceded them, and, as may be supposed, there was a large concourse of people to see such notorious characters land. It might also have been expected of them that they would have shown anything but goodwill towards their captors. But in carrying out their eccentricities they elected to do them the greatest honor in their power, as on a guard of Tasmanian police coming on deck, the prisoners, who had been brought up, addressed them in the most contemptuous language in their vocabulary, and declined their escort, desiring to be conducted to 'quod' [gaol] by the gallant South Australian police, who had done in a short time what the miserable Tasmanian force had failed to accomplish ; " These are men ; you are a set of crawlers whom we defied for years," &c, &c. It may be here explained that the police of that colony were then principally men who had gone through the prison discipline, and were in consequence treated as traitors to their order.

Well, the Adelaide men had the honor of acting as guards, the Hobart Town police following. The greatest excitement prevailed. The Tasmanian Government immediately forwarded to the Government of South Australia the reward which had been offered, of £100 for each man captured, which was appropriated as follows: — To the inspector, £25 ; to each of the five men who captured them, £15 ; and to the sergeant who had charge of them on board the ship, £15.

It was seen by the Tasmanian papers that these misguided men were quickly brought to trial for murders committed, and for bushranging under arms, were found guilty, condemned, and hung at Hobart Town. The Tasmanian people, as was afterwards made known in Adelaide, expected that Inspector Tolmer would have accompanied the guards and prisoners to Hobart Town, when it was intended to have given a public reception to him and his brave men, and to entertain, him at a public dinner, as well as to confer on him a grant of land at Port Sorrel.

No doubt Mr. Tolmer felt greatly disappointed in not receiving orders to finish the work he had so ably conducted. As far as South Australia was concerned (selfish considerations entertained) it was as well that the Inspector was not despatched, or we might have lost his services, as there followed much good work for him to do, as will appear when ' later experiences' come out.

After preparing the history contained in this and the two preceding numbers I am led to make a few reflections on such a state of society. Under the modern and more humane administration of the criminal laws, society has been extending the lives of trained law breakers, depending still on milder punishments to deter from repetitions of lawbreaking, but with very unsatisfactory results.

To form part of the new systems affecting convicts the Imperial and Colonial Governments did not at the same time inaugurate any comprehensive scheme to meet the evil flood at its main source and origin. Nor were Government schools extended to embrace the lowest depths of crime and ignorance. The chief agent as a cure employed was still, as before, punishment as a deterrent. Then schools supported by public funds must be confined to secular teaching, and society at large jumped to the conclusion that at the secular line the responsibilities of Governments ended.

Well, take the children of the lowest grades of society at their miserable homes, there taught to lie, steal, and deceive, what will secular education do for them? If principles of rectitude — to be honest, to speak the truth, to obey authorities - are to be imparted how this is to be done except for love of God and man, and by a reference to laws higher than man's, I do not know. Facts as to the results of secular systems have not yet shown such a result. I do not see how the gutter children are to be reached at all except by taking them away from their miserable homes, hotbed nurseries of crimes, and cleaning, clothing, feeding, housing, and training them in principles beyond the secular line now laid down under the present systems. (To be continued.)