CAPTAIN MELVILLE'S CHRISTMAS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

CAPTAIN MELVILLE'S CHRISTMAS

Fl9 certain that, had Captain Melville been spared to a ripe old age, he would have been the most confirmed of misogynists. H is bleak outlook might also have extended itself to seas and ships and sealing wax official sealing wax. These contained factors which caused the captain much bitterness —bitterness which, allied to a redspotted blue handkerchief, shuffled him finally off this mortal coil. No more colourful bandit, rode the mads In the "roaring fifties" than Frank Mcf'nllnm, alius Captain Melville. The earlier bnshrangers were products of the convict ei\ilisation of their day, a civilisation ruled by oppressive laws. Captain Melville was no exception to the rule; rather di<l ho embellish it.. Buslirnnging went out. of fashion with the bustle and the handlebar moustache. It wan a victim to the "change and decay which all around we see"; the voice 01 the gangster and his tommy-gun is loud in t.hc land. Captain Melville and William Huberts •were having a very merry Christmas in the year of IS.V.J. Hearing in mind the apliorjsm that one's wealth depends to a large extent upon other people, the twain made such use of their learning that large rewards were offered for them, dea«i or alive, also for any person who aided and abetted them. Mr. Aitchcson, owner of a sheep station at Wardy Yullak, was not surprised that morning of December IS to see a gentbnian dismount in front of his house and, after a short conversation with his overseer, come towards him smiling. Travellers wire always welcome. What did astonish him was the command to hoist his hands as fur skyward as they would go. With his overseer as dismal company, ho was marched to the woolshed. There ho saw—ho was having a surprising morning—lo shearers and other workmen seated in a row on the floor under tbe menacing guns of William Roberts. One by one the prisoners were -tied to the fence by the captain, who had some ■kill with knots. (It was said of him that

once he was the commander of an emigrant vessel who had deserted the ship with his crew and gone off to tbe grild diggings!) The two bushrangers went up to the house. "Wo do not." Melville told the women at the house, who naturally were a little distrait, "interfere with womenfolk any more than is necessary."' All the women were ordered into one rootnfwith the exception of one who carried food and two bottles of brandy down to the men by the shed as a season's gesture. Melville and Roberts then ransacked the house of everything valuable, and departed on two of the best horses that they could find. The idea of two men capturing IS and tying them to posts without a struggle as a preliminary to a robbery amused the country greatly. There was little sympathy for the station owner or his shearers. That same day, while camped by the side of the Ballarat road, the bushrangers spied two diggers, fresh from the fields, wit h the harvest in their pockets. It yielded £•?•!. "Where were you heading?" Melville nsked as they mounted. The diggers looked glum. "To Geelong to spend Christmas vith our friends, damn it! But now we'll be headin' back to the cursed diggings!" Robert® and the captain looked at each other. Throwing a £10 note to the victims, Melville cried: "Well, at least you can have a drink on us. Merry Christmas." During, the next few days Christmas trade was brisk. Travellers all alonpf the Ha 11a rat road were held up and robbed. On December 24 a man was held up at I* van's Ford, Ave miles out of the town of Geelong. Then into town to spend Christinas in the proper spirit came the bushrangers. Nothing but the best hotel in Corio Street would satisfy them. An expensive dinner and good feed for their horses, and the men went off to a party at a house rear the Corio Street lock-up. The drink gave out early in the afternoon. Money was no object—other people's money, that is. Melville sent out for lots more from a hotel in Moorabool Street. As he iippled far into the afternoon the gull ant captain grew boastful of his exploits.

A True Story Of Australia's Bushranging Days.

By--A. F. Bruno

As there was offered a sum of £100 "for information received," etc., tliis was unfortunate. One of tlie women put her arms around him tightly: another ran out the back door to fet#h the police. Something made Melville suspicious. He pushed the woman from him and reeled blearily to the window. "Fetch the horses!" lie roared at Roberts. AN i Ilium Roberts, however, was relaxing after the strain of the partv. He was very, very drunk—asleep on a "table. Melville could not rouse him. He stopped shaking his mate when he saw the two policemen and the woman entering by the front gate. He quickly seized a chair and knocked out a back window. Scrambling through,

the old gaol in South Geelong. There is little doubt that the Christmas Eve of 1852 was not brightened by carols for Captain Melville and William Roberts. The Christmas gift for Captain Melville totalled 32 years of penal servitude. William Roberts received similar sentences, but concurrent. To Ahe convict hulk President went Captain Melville. The Melbourne "Herald" of the day pithily observes that "the rigorous treatment might break his turbulent spirit.'" Presumably it had something to do with it, for a little over one year later we find the bushranger transferred to the hulk' Success. A little later, and Captain Melville, officially tamed, was ordered to the quarries at Port Gellibrand "for milder treatment." The captain, it is surprising to know, was at that time engaged in translating the Bible into Australian aboriginal, in which he could converse fluently! Two years, and there is nothing heard of the once turbulent knight of the highway. No news, however, was not good news. On October 22, 1856, a large launch with a cargo of 60 desperate felons aboard was

he dashed across the yard, over the back fence. At this point he collided vith another constable. The policeman did not get up. It was far too dangerous for the captain to gain his horse; he must trv other means. The pursuit was already starting. He raced away over the Geelong dam ... Young Mr. Guy, who lodged at the ' . . Inn, was out that afternoon exercising a racehorse from the Bull's stables. It was near sundown as he was returning. Suddenly there loomed in front of him a panting man who seized liii.i by the leg and hurled him from the saddle. Mr. Guy, however, was of stern stuff. He jumped to his feet and dashed at the man as lie was mounting. The fact that the horse was resenting a new rider gave him an added advantage. Captain Mehille and young Mr. Guy were still mixing it when the police arrived. w The bushrangers — Roberts had beer, apprehended at the house—were lodged in

being towed from ttie hulks Success and Lysander. Mr. Jackson, the oflicial in charge, suddenly observed the cargo crowding purposefully towards the bow oi the boat. He gestured angrily: , "Trim that boat, blast you!" Instead, some of the convicts laid firm hold of the tew rope and hauled the launch up to the stern of the boat towing it. With a savage yell they boarded, fighting _ mad. Captain Melville distinguished himself that day. His head a' bloody pulp, Mr. Jackson plunged over the side into the sea. Corporal Owen Owens, putting up a 4tern fight, was borne back by the sheer weight of the murderous attack. He, too, was thrown overboard with his brains smashed out. Down the placid stretch of Hobson's Bay the jubilant convicts pulled the boat. In the bow, in his best style, Captain Melville stood, waving a blood-stained hammer and screaming: "Adieu to Victoria." The guard on the hulk Lysander loosed an ineffective volley. The water police from NVilliainstown intercepted the bloodcrazy convicts, captured thein and towed them, without resistance, back to the hulk Success. Melville heard the death sentence pronounced on him at the trial unmoved. When he later heard it commuted to imprisonment for life, all he said was: "You'll be sorry for this." His sinister influence spread like a canker through the convict settlement. It was known that he was planning a mutiny on a terrifying scale. It started in the quarries near YVilliamstown on the morning of March 20, 1857. Mr. John Price, Inspector-General, of Convicts in the Crown Colony of Victoria, attended the quarry that morning to hear any grievances or complaints from tlie working gang. A man named Kelly demanded a ticket-of-leave. He was fierce in his demand. His fellow felons crowded around, all shouting at once their demands. No rations, they accused, ha.d been received for two days. What about it? Mr. Price wag a harsh man; his job had made him so. Angrily he ordered the petitioners back to their work. A stone flew through the air—another, and another. The Inspector-Gcneral of Convicts fell. The felons raised a mad yell —down rattled a barrage of stones . . .

When, a few minutes later, soldiers arrived at the double from the other side of the quarry, John Price was far beyond taking any further interest in convict 'weal or woe. He lay in a barrow, with his head battered to a pulp . . . Back to the ill-omened hulk. Success, marched the snarling gang, under armed escort. Cheering and laughter marked their progress and later boomed from the hulk in a riotous wave. Guns shotted and crews at action the harbour defence vessel Victoria moved alongside the hulk to sink if at the slightest sign of trouble. Still the cheers rose mightily . . . still raged the loud defiance. 'The bioody tyrant's done for! Hooray!" For this mutiny an/1 murder 15 felons were sentenced to death. The remainder were removed from the hulks to the rigours of Melbourne Gaol. The mutiny was broken. "Wintle's Hotel" (after the governor of the gaol, one W T intle) was quiet for a few months. Then a notorious prisoner became violent. Warders bringing food were attacked. Visiting officials escaped violence. The notorious prisoner staged a one-man reign of teror. This was John Smith, alias Frank McCallum, alias Captain Melville. Fearing that his brain was unhinged, the authorities ordered him to solitary confinement for medical observation. The morning of August 10 dawned hopelessly. The most noted bushranger of the gold-digging era did not see it. He wag found on the floor of his cell with a redspotted blue handkerchief. It was tied in a vicious slip-knot round his neck. •