THE MUTINY AT DARTMOOR.

Colonist, Volume XXVII, Issue 3924, 1 September 1884, Page 4

THE MUTINY AT DARTMOOR.

The following further particulars of this mutiny are taken from the London ' Times': —A Plymouth correspondent telegraphs a remarkable story in regard to Dartmoor Convict Prison. A tew days ago a party of about 25 convicts were at work in a bog some, distance from the prison. One of the prisoners suddenly .picked up some large stones and threw them i at the warder in charge, felling him to I the ground insensible. The loaded rifle which- he carried fell from his hands, and. the convicts then made a rush towards him. A convict named Stevens,, who has only recently arrived from Princetown, seeing the danger to which the warder was exposed, outstripped the other convicts, and reaching the fallen warder first, picked up the rifle and the pouch of ammunition. Standing over the prostrate warder, Stevens fired at his advancing comrades', disabling five or six of them by shooting them in the legs. The ammunition becoming exhausted, the convict seized the rifle by the barrel and knocked'over ' about .an equal number. As Stevens stands over six feet in height, and is powerful in proportion, he was able to deal terrible blows with the clubbed, weapon. By this time the warders' who are posted at commanding points all around the farm were closing in, and Stevens/on their arrival, threw down the rifle and explained what had 'occurred. Carts were obtained to convey the wounded convicts to the prison infirmary, and the remainder were handcuffed find escorted .to prison. At the latter part "of last week all the convicts were paraded within the prison' walls, and Stevens was colled up by the Governor, and informed that in recognition of his corag'eous conduct the Home Secretary had ordered that he should be released and rewarded. Stevens was so overcome;by the intelligence that he sobbed like' a child and had to be assisted back tothe cell, from which in a few days he will emerge a free man. His feelings ,can bo understood when it is mentioned that the sentence he was undergoing was penal servitude for life. He had only served 12 months.