The interior was wild and uninhabited, abounding with lonely
forests. Travellers were numerous, and mostly carried money or gold; for
none were poor. The roadside public-houses were daily the scenes of
drunken revelry. The police were few and untrained; and the mixed and
scattered population at the several diggings offered a ready asylum in
case of pursuit. Add to all this that, separated from Victoria by a mere
strait, was the depot for the most accomplished villains of Great
Britain, and it needed no prophet to foresee that the roads of the new
gold country would very soon be swarming with thieves and desperadoes.
It is no uncommon occurrence in the Australian Colonies for a large
number of shearers or others collected in the hut in the country to be
"stuck up," that is, subdued and bound, by two or three determined
bushrangers. Fifteen or sixteen strong active men may be thus treated,
and have been, frequently. At first, one is ready to conclude either
that they must have a private understanding with the robbers or else be
the veriest poltroons.
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