He told me to hold my jaw: 'it will be a satisfaction' he said, 'to see the dignity of a colonial officer righted; I shall remain and see the punishment, and if the scourger does not do his duty, he shall have three dozen himself.' Seeing he was inexorable, I broke from those who held me, dragged the scourge from the hands of the man who held it, and gave my unjust and cruel master the lashes he intended for me. None of the other convict servants would interfere, and I thrashed him until he was quite disfigured: his face was sliced with the thongs; and had I got him now here before me, I would repeat the punishment, or perhaps do more; for to this ill-bred hound, to his cruelty, his utter want of all consideration for others, his avarice and despicable hypocrisy, (for he pretended to be a Christian, and read prayers night and morning to his household, to which, by the bye, if any neglected attending, he would be ordered three dozen lashes), may I attribute all my sufferings and every crime I have committed since. Such was my master, better known as Black Robberson."
"Robberson! why what kind of a man was he?" said Hugh.
"Stout and coarse—he looked like what he is, a cowardly bully."
"The same who returned to the colony in our ship," said Slinger—"the very same."
"He had better have remained away," said the bush-ranger! "After I had treated him as I have told you, I was sent to Sydney to be worked in a chain-gang, from whence I escaped a short time ago, and have ever since been at large. In making this escape I should have been shot by a sentry, had I not struck him with my hand-cuffs: I fear he has since died of the blow. This is the only murder I ever committed, if it must be termed so; but I have saved the lives of
