The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe . hey were under surveillance, though not always,and hence may be said to have enjoyed, with what zest the gregarious gaol birdsof a great city could, the open-air life of the Antipodes. But the great majority—men and women—were assigned as servants to the free settlers, who were so farresponsible for their safety that they were bound to report their escape immediately,and keep them under a wholesome condition of disciphne. These sometimes levanted, but. TASMANIA:
The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe . hey were under surveillance, though not always,and hence may be said to have enjoyed, with what zest the gregarious gaol birdsof a great city could, the open-air life of the Antipodes. But the great majority—men and women—were assigned as servants to the free settlers, who were so farresponsible for their safety that they were bound to report their escape immediately,and keep them under a wholesome condition of disciphne. These sometimes levanted, but. TASMANIA: THE CONVICTS. 145 as may be easily understood, tliey were not the material from whom the bushrangers wereprincipally drawn. The first preliminaries of escape were easy, writes the eminentnovelist whose graphic word-pictures I have so often quoted. A man could run into thebush, and be quit at any rate of the labour of the hour. If he were shepherding sheep,or building fences, or felling timber during the greater part of the day, no eye, unlessthat of a brother convict, was upon him. He could go, and the chances of the world. THE TASMAXIAX DEVIL (Dasyurus ursiniw). were open to him. But when these first preliminaries were so easy, it was, of course,essential that they should ordinarily be rendered unsuccessful, and that the attempt shouldbe followed by speedy and shar]) punishment. The escaped convict was at once hunted,and generally tracked by the facilities which starvation afforded to his pursuers. No onebut an escaped convict would feed an escaped convict, and none but they who hadestablished themselves as bushrangers had food either to eat or give. Even the establishedbushrangers who had homes of some sort in the mountain recesses, who were in league \\iththe natives, and who knew how to take the wild animals, the kangaroos, wallaby, and opossums,139 j jjj THE COUXTKIES OF THE WORLD. would not iinfrwiHently, Jrivon by famine, surrender themselves. Nevertheless, a few di
Size: 1609px × 1553px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondon, bookyear1876
