A SMART CAPTURE.
Colonel Mundy, in his excellent work "Our Antipodes", narrates the following incident which was related to him by a gentleman well acquainted with the chief actor. It was a remarkable case of capture of a large band of armed convicts by an officer's party of the mounted police. He says:–
This gallant officer having, to the surprise of the people and garrison of the town of ———, marched one day, as prisoners to the gaol, a body of bushrangers three or four times the strength of his own force, was asked by his admiring comrades how he had contrived this sweeping capture with such long odds against him. The readers of Joe Miller will recollect the Hibernian soldier who boasted, according to that veracious annalist, that he had made prisoners of a whole section of the enemy, single handed, by surrounding them. Mr.———, not being an Irishman, did no such impossible thing. Stealing cautiously through the bush, with his little party of four or five men, he espied the banditti, in number about sixteen, busily cooking and eating in a hollow, some thirty yards below where he stood—their arms piled a few paces distant.
Leaving the men above with orders how to act, and creeping down the bank, he suddenly jumped into the midst of the robbers, shouting out, "Yield in the King's name, ye bog-trotting villains!" Then, looking up towards his party, "Send down," cried he, "two file to secure the arms; stand fast the remainder, and shoot the first man that moves." About twenty stand of arms were thus taken possession of, handcuffs were applied as far as they would go, and, incredible as it may appear, the disarmed banditti, with their teeth drawn, were safely conducted by their captain to a neighbouring township.
Here is another extract from Mundy:–
While on a visit at ———, the Messrs.———, who are natives of the colony, informed me that in their numerous journeys through the bush, over a period of thirty or forty years, they had never but once fallen in with bushrangers. It occurred as follows: the two brothers, with an old gentleman, a friend of theirs, were riding together unarmed, but accompanied by some dogs, when the elder brother saw two men, one carrying a musket the other a bundle, dive into the bush on the roadside. He told his companions, but they thought he was mistaken. However, on reaching the spot, he threw the dog into the covert, and they soon "unkennelled the varmint." The old gentleman, who, it appears, was of choleric temper, called upon them to yield, at the same time pouring upon them a torrent of abusive epithets, and closing upon them with his horse. "Stand back, and keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll blow out your brains!" exclaimed the man with the musket; "I don't want to hurt you if you let me alone, but I'll have some of your lives if you meddle with me!" Mr.——— then addressed them mildly, but firmly, advising them to surrender, as the gentlemen were determined to capture them. He pointed to two stockkeepers who were near at hand to assist, if necessary, and reminded the musketeer that his shot could only kill one of their party, and that murder would make his case worse.
"Have you any firearms about you," demanded the sturdy footpad; "if you have not, I can't and won't surrender. I'm an old soldier; fought through the Peninsula, and I'm d——d if I strike to an inferior force!" Mr.——— replied that they had no firearms, but could get them in a few minutes. "Produce them, and I will give in," was the rejoinder; "that will be an honorable capitulation."
Meanwhile the man with the bundle had been secured and placed in charge of a shepherd who came up, and a mounted stockman rode off for the stipulated firearms, the old soldier-robber remaining doggedly at bay. Unfortunately, during this interval, the peppery old gentleman recommenced his vituperation, upon which the other, swearing a terrible oath, cocked his piece, and pointed it at his head, when Mr.——— spurred his horse upon the robber and threw him to the ground. He recovered himself actively, however, placed his back against a tree, and coming down to the "Prepare for cavalry", showed once more an impracticable front; then suddenly rising, he was in the act of falling back into the woods to escape, when the accession of force necessary to dignify the act of laying down his arms arriving, this stickler for the honor of the army permitted himself to be made a prisoner of war without further resistance.
Before I pass on to deal with the later-day bushrangers—who for the most part were native-born Australians—I will give just two or three more cases, which occurred in parts of the country far removed from each other, in which "old stagers"—men who had borne the convict's chain and were of the class to which reference has previously been chiefly made—were the principal actors.
Source: A Smart Capture (1915, March 30). The Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955), p. 7.
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