“It is probable that a great deal of stolen gold is concealed in the country bordering the road from Melbourne to the gold diggings which will never be found. Many of the bushrangers were killed while fighting with the police, died of their wounds, or in prison, or managed to flee the country without giving up the secret which would have enabled the authorities to find where their treasures were concealed. Occasionally one of their deposits is found by accident, but there are doubtless hundreds which nobody will ever come upon.
“There was a great deal of lawlessness in and around Melbourne in those days. One afternoon a band of robbers took possession of the road between Melbourne and Sandridge, and ‘stuck up’ everybody who attempted to pass. People were tied to trees and robbed, and for an hour or two the bandits were in full possession of the road. They had one of their number on watch who gave the signal when the police approached, and thus they were enabled to get away in good time, leaving their victims fastened to the trees.
“Once a ship was anchored in the harbor, ready to sail for England, with several thousand ounces of gold on board. She was to leave the next forenoon, and was to receive her crew and passengers early in the morning. There were only some ten or twelve persons on board. Along about midnight a boat came to the side of the ship, and, when hailed by the lookout, the answer was given that two passengers were coming on board. Two men came up the side of the ship dressed like ordinary passengers, and without any suspicious appearance about them.
“While they were in conversation with the lookout and asking about the location of their rooms, they suddenly seized and bound him, and put a gag in his mouth to prevent his making an outcry. Then several other men came up the side of the ship very quickly, and one by one all on board were bound and gagged so quietly and speedily that they could not give the least alarm. The robbers then opened the treasure-room, took possession of the gold, lowered it into their boat and rowed away. They were not on the ship more than half an hour, and as no one came to ascertain the state of affairs and give the alarm until the next morning, the robbers succeeded in getting away with all their plunder. It was a very bold performance, but from that time such a careful watch was kept on board of the ships that it could not be repeated.
“A fair proportion of the successful miners kept their money and went home with it, but there was a large number who seemed to believe that the best use to be made of gold was to get rid of it as quickly as possible, and they found plenty of people ready and willing to help them in this work; and it was not infrequently the case that miners were killed for the sake of their gold, and their bodies disposed of in the most convenient way. Most of the men who thus disappeared had no relatives or intimate friends in the country, and consequently their disappearance caused no inquiries to be made concerning them. If the waters of Hobson’s Bay would give up their dead, and the dead could speak, there would be a long series of fearful tales.”
“Those bushranger fellows must have been terrible men,” remarked Harry as the gentleman paused. “What did the authorities do with them whenever they caught any?”
“They disposed of them in various ways,” was the reply. “Those who had been guilty of murder or an attempt at it were hanged, while those against whom murder could not be proved were sent to the hulks for life or for long terms of imprisonment.”
“What were the hulks? I don’t know as I understand the term.”
“Oh, the hulks were ships, old ships that had been pronounced unseaworthy and dismantled. They were anchored in Hobson’s Bay after being fitted up as prisons, and very uncomfortable prisons they were. A most terrible system of discipline prevailed on board of these hulks. The man who established the system, or rather, the one who had administered it, was beaten to death by a gang of desperate convicts, who rushed upon him one day on the deck of one of the hulks, with the determination to kill him for the cruelties they had suffered. Before the guards could stop them they had literally pounded the life out of him and flung his body overboard.”
“How long did they keep up that system?” one of the youths asked.