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4. T h e Overland Mail from Melbourne to Portland was waylaid and robbed near Bacchus Marsh, by two armed bushrangers on the night of the 9th October, 1848. T h e mailman when he had reached Pyke's Station, was suddenly confronted by two men, w h o levelled each a pistol at him, vociferating " surrender, surrender!" T h e mailman paused for a m o m e n t to consider what was best to be done, and the robbers, as if enraged at the hesitation, grasped the rein of the ridden horse, and the other discharged a pistol in the mailman's face. T h efirearm,was believed to have been primed with powder only, as the bodily injuries sustained were limited to a blackened face and scorched eyes. T h e mailman succeeded in making his escape, and gave information to the police. But this was of little use, as constable Tucker had no horse for pursuit. Warrants were issued, and ,£30 reward offered. District Chief-constable Brodie, with a couple of mounted police, went tearing away everywhere, but to no purpose. T h e mail had been robbed of several cheques, acceptances, letters of credit, and bills of exchange. Still no one was arrested on suspicion. S o m e time after, two persons named White and Sommerset were taken up for other offences. T h e one was sentenced to penal seivitude for burglary, and the other to six months' imprisonment for vagrancy. The police had a firm belief that this pair were the mail robbers, but no evidence was forthcoming to sheet h o m e the charge to them. 5. T h e mails from Belfast to Warrnambool, due on 22nd February, 1849, were not delivered until next day. W h e n examined by the Post-master he found that the bags had been opened and robbed, and the mail-carrier was non est. By some he was put down as a rogue, and by others a fool. T w o m e n were arrested, committed for trial, and convicted. Further particulars of this, and a Portland mail plunder, will be found in a chapter devoted to " Remarkable Trials." 6. A n attempted mail robbery was frustrated in a singular manner in 1849. Three of the most daring of the Melbourne thieving fraternity entered into a conspiracy to plunder the Overland Mail from Sydney, when it should arrive on the top of the Big Hill, near Kilmore. Their names were T h o m a s Mullins, T h o m a s O'Brien, and Arthur Day, and they set forth on their mission early on the 12th June. They raised supplies by obtaining cash and goods under false pretences from one Leary, a tailor, whose suspicions were aroused, and he took out a warrant for the apprehension of the supposed swindlers. S o m e of the District police started after the fellows, overtook and m a d e prisoners of them at Donnybrook, and by the time they calculated they would be overhauling the mail-coach on the Big Hill, they were returning in handcuffs to Melbourne. W h e n searched they were well armed. They were convicted and punished for "goosing the tailor," and, while taking it out in durance, the facts connected with the projected mail robbery leaked out. 7. T h e Melbourne and Sydney Overland Mai! was robbed on the 14th March, 1850, a mile and a half from Goulburn in N e w South Wales. T h e coach was stuck up by three armed m e n , who ordered the passengers to alight. These were a constable, a lady, and a Mr. T h o m p s o n from the Murrumbidgee, who were spoiled without exception of the contents of their pockets. Clothing was deemed more valuable than cash to bushrangers, but the policeman's uniform would be more an injury than a service, and the mail driver they did not care about stripping. T h e lady's apparel was useless to them, as stays and petticoats would embarrass more than facilitate predatory operations, but the squatter was comfortably garbed and wrapped up for his trip, and he was c o m m a n d e d to strip accordingly. H e was speedily ungarmented as if about to be triced up to the triangle, notwithstanding the vehement Caledonian patois in which he inveighed against such an invasion of all rights of personal property. H e was repeatedly ordered to doff the trousers, but here he drew rein, and declared that they might go as far as the waistbelt, but no further. Here he would draw the line certainly (though a leather one), but "he'd be shot," if he parted with his nether remnant of civilization. Shot he was going to be, but for the presence of mind of the lady, who, with a winning smile and silver tongue, pleaded hard on his behalf, though she put the case not so m u c h for him as for herself. She appealed not only to the humanity, but to the gallantry of the robbers, not to strip the man mother-naked, for if so she should herself go m a d ! T o be left in the wild bush with a nude blackfellow, even that she should not so much mind, but to have in her company a Scotchman, without even a shred of breeks or philabeg, as bare as A d a m before he took to the tailoring offig-leaves,would drive her to distraction—why, they might as well think of stripping herself. T h e picture of the situation, so drawn by the impassioned artist, who wound up with a peroration of hysterics, was so blended with the ludicrous and pathetic, that the thieves burst into afitof boisterous laughter, and with a few unpolite oaths, declared they