Michael Howe: The Last and Worst of the Bush-Rangers of Van Dieman's Land

Preface Narrative of the chief Atrocities committed by this great Murderer and his Associates, during a Period of six Years, in Van Diemen's Land. THE following account, of which some portions were published in Mr. Evans's work on Van Diemen's Land, will be read with interest. It was originally printed in the colony in the year 1818. The bush-rangers of Van Diemen's Land generally consist of men accused of crimes, or of prisoners escaped from gaol, who, retiring to the forests and intricate passes amongst the mountains, often contrive for a long time to elude the vigilance of their pursuers. But they invariably pay the forfeit of their temerity, being either shot in the woods by their pursuers, murdered by their confederates, or executed upon the gallows. another class of bush-rangers consists of men who, having been transported to Macquarie Harbour for offences committed in the colony, attempt an escape from that secluded spot to the inhabited parts of the island. Of these, the greater part have perished of hunger and fatigue in the pathless forests and mountains with which that port is surrounded. This also has doubtless been the fate of the military sent in pursuit of the runaways. In one of these expeditions, which originally consisted of six convicts, two out of the three survivors murdered their companion, while asleep, for the revolting purpose of appeasing their hunger, and a few days afterwards, having then wandered six weeks in various directions, they found themselves in sight of the settlement from which they were attempting to escape. Here they surrendered themselves