Ned's famous letter
dictated to Joe Byrne. This amazing 56 page document was never
published till nearly 50 years after Ned's death.
Ned
Kelly’s Famous Jerilderie letter.
Dictated by Ned Kelly to Joe Byrne in
1879
Every paragraph represents 1 page (the
document being 56 pages)
Spelling is EXACT as contained in the
document
Dear
Sir I wish to acquaint you with some of the occurrences of the
present past and future. In or about the spring of 1870 the ground
was very soft a hawker named Mr Gould got his waggon bogged between
Greta and my mother's house on the eleven mile creek, the ground was
that rotten it would bog a duck in places so Mr. Gould had abandon
his waggon for fear of loosing his horses in the spewy ground. he
was stopping at my Mother's awaiting finer or dryer weather Mr.
McCormack and his wife. hawkers also were camped in Greta the
mosquitoes were very bad which they generally are in a wet spring
and to help them
Mr.
Johns had a horse called Ruita Cruta although a gelding was as
clever as old Wombat or any other Stallion at running horses away
and taking them on his beat which was from Greta swamp to the seven
mile creek consequently he enticed McCormack's horse away from
Greta. Mr. Gould was up early feeding his horses heard a bell and
seen McCormack horses for he knew the horse well he sent his boy to
take him back to Greta. When McCormack's got the horse they came
straight out to Goold and accused him of working the horse; this was
false, and Goold was amazed at the idea I could not help laughing to
hear Mrs. McCormack
accusing him of using the horse after him being so
kind as to send his boy to take him from the Ruta Cruta and take him
back to them. I pleaded Goulds innocence and Mrs McCormack turned on
me and accused me of bringing the horse from Greta to Goolds waggon
to pull him out of the bog I did not say much to the woman as my
Mother was present but that same day me and my uncle was cutting
calves Gould wrapped up a note and a pair of the calves testicles
and gave them to me to give them to Mrs McCormack. I did not see her
and I gave the parcel to a boy to give to her when she would come
instead of giving it
to
her he gave it to her husband consequently McCormack said he would
summons me I told him neither me or Gould used their horse. he said
I was a liar & he could welt me or any of my breed I was about
14 years of age but accepted the challenge and dismounting when Mrs
McCormack struck my horse in the flank with a bullock's shin it
jumped forward and my fist came in collision with McCormack's nose
and caused him to loose his equillibrium and fall postrate I tied up
my horse to finish the battle but McCormack got up and ran to the
Police camp. Constable Hall asked me what the row was about I told
him they
accused me and Gould of using their horse and I hit
him and I would do the same to him if he challenged me McCormack
pulled me and swore their lies against me I was sentenced to three
months for hitting him and three months for the parcel and bound to
keep the peace for 12 months. Mrs McCormack gave good substantial
evidence as she is well acquainted with that place called Tasmania
better known as the Dervon or Vandiemans land and McCormack being a
Police man over the convicts and women being scarce released her
from that land of bondage and tyranny, and they came to
Victoria and are at present residents of Greta and on
the 29th of March I was released from prison and came home Wild
Wright came to the Eleven Mile to see Mr Gunn stopped all night and
lost his mare both him and me looked all day for her and could not
get her Wright who was a stranger to me was in a hurry to get back
to Mansfield and I gave him another mare and he told me if I found
his mare to keep her until he brought mine back I was going to
Wangaratta and seen the mare and I caught her and took her with me
all the Police and Detective Berrill seen her as Martains girls used
to ride her about
the
town during several days that I stopped at Petre Martains Star Hotel
in Wangaratta. She was a chestnut mare white face docked tail very
remarkable branded (M) as plain as the hands on a town clock. the
property of a Telegraph Master in Mansfield he lost her on the 6th
gazetted her on the 12th of March and I was a prisoner in Beechworth
Gaol until the 29 of March therefore I could not have Stole the
mare. I was riding the mare through Greta Constable Hall came to me
and said he wanted me to sign some papers that I did not sign at
Beechworth concerning my bail bonds I thought it was the truth he
said the papers was at the Barracks and I had no idea he wanted to
arrest me or I
would have quietly rode away instead of going to the
Barracks. I was getting off when Hall caught hold of me and thought
to throw me but made a mistake and came on the broad of his back
himself in the dust the mare galloped away and instead of me putting
my foot on Halls neck and taking his revolver and putting him in the
lock up. I tried to catch the mare. Hall got up and snapped three or
four caps at me and would have shot me but the colts patent
refused.This is well known in Greta Hall never told me he wanted to
arrest me until after he tried to shoot me when I heard the caps
snapping I stood until Hall came close he had me covered and was
shaking with fear and I knew he would pull the
trigger before he would be game to put his hand on me
so I duped, and jumped at him caught the revolver with one hand and
Hall by the collar with the other. I dare not strike him or my
sureties would loose the bond money I used to trip him and let him
take a mouth ful of dust now and again as he was as helpless as a
big guano after leaving a dead bullock or a horse. I kept throwing
him in the dust until I got him across the street the very spot
where Mrs 0'Briens Hotel stands now the cellar was just dug then
there was some brush fencing where the post and rail was taking down
and on this I threw big cowardly Hall on his belly I straddled him
and rooted both spurs onto his thighs he roared like a big calf
attacked by dogs and shifted several yards of the fence I got his
hands at the back of his neck and trid to make him let
the revolver go but he stuck to it like grim death to a dead
volunteer he called for assistance to a man named Cohen and Barnett,
Lewis, Thompson, Jewitt two blacksmiths who was looking on I dare
not strike any of there as I was bound to keep the peace or I could
have spread those curs like dung in a paddock they got ropes tied my
hands and feet and Hall beat me over the head with his six chambered
colts revolver nine stitches were put in some of the cuts by Dr
Hastings And when Wild Wright and my mother came they could trace us
across the street by the blood in the dust and which spoiled the
lustre of the paint on the gate-post of the Barracks Hall sent for
more Police and Doctor Hastings Next morning I was handcuffed
a
rope tied from them to my legs and to the seat of the cart and taken
to Wangaratta Hall was frightened I would throw him out of the cart
so he tied me whilst Constable Arthur laughed at his cowardice for
it was he who escorted me and Hall to Wangaratta. I was tried and
committed as Hall swore I claimed the mare the Doctor died or he
would have proved Hall a perjurer Hall has been tried several times
for perjury but got clear as this is no crime in the Police force it
is a credit to a Policeman to convict an innocent man but any muff
can pot a guilty one Halls character is well known about El Dorado
and Snowy Creek and Hall was considerably in debt to Mr L. O.Brien
and he was going
to
leave Greta Mr O.Brien seen no other chance of getting his money so
there was a subscription collected for Hall and with the aid of this
money he got James Murdock who was recently hung in Wagga Wagga to
give false evidence against me but I was acquitted on the charge of
horsestealing and on Halls and Murdocks evidence I was found guilty
of receiving and got 3 years experience in Beechworth Pentridges
dungeons. this is the only charge ever proved against me Therefore I
can say I never was convicted of horse or cattle stealing My Brother
Dan was never charged with assaulting a woman but he was sentenced
to three months without the option of a fine and one month and two
pounds fine
for damaging property by Mr. Butler P.M. a sentence
that there is no law to uphold therefore the Minister of Justice
neglected his duty in that case, but there never was such a thing as
Justice in the English laws but any amount of injustice to be had.
Out of over thirty head of the very best horses the land could
produce I could only find one when I got my liberty. Constable Flood
stole and sold the most of them to the navvies on the railway line
one bay cob he stole and sold four different times the line was
completed and the men all gone when I came out and Flood was shifted
to Oxley. he carried on the same game there all the stray horses
that was any time without an owner and not in the Police Gazette
Flood used to claim
He
was doing a good trade at Oxley until Mr Brown of the Laceby Station
got him shifted as he was always running his horses about. Flood is
different to Sergeant Steel, Strachan, Hall and the most of Police a
they have got to hire cads and if they fail the Police are quite
helpless. But Flood can make a cheque single-handed he is the
greatest horsestealer with the exception of myself and George King I
know of. I never worked on a farm a horse and saddle was never
traced to me after leaving employment since February 1873 I worked
as a faller at Mr J. Saunders and R Rules sawmills then for Heach
and Dockendorf I never worked for less than two pound ten a week
since I left Pentridge
and
in 1875 or 1876 I was overseer for Saunders and Rule. Bourke's
water--holes sawmills in Victoria since then I was on the King
River, during my stay there I ran in a wild bull which I gave to
Lydicher a farmer he sold him to Carr a Publican and Butcher who
killed him for beef, sometime afterwards I was blamed for stealing
this bull from James Whitty Boggy Creek I asked Whitty Oxley
racecourse why he blamed me for stealing his bull he said he had
found his bull and never blamed me but his son-in-law Farrell told
him he heard I sold the bull to Carr not long afterwards I heard
again I was blamed for stealing a mob of calves from Whitty and
Farrell which I knew nothing about. I began to think they wanted
me
to give them something to talk about. Therefore I started wholesale
and retail horse and cattle dealing Whitty and Burns not being
satisfied with all the picked land on the Boggy Creek and King River
and the run of their stock on the certificate ground free and no one
interfering with them paid heavy rent to the banks for all the open
ground so as a poor man could keep no stock, and impounded every
beast they could get, even off Government roads. If a poor man
happened to leave his horse or bit of a poddy calf outside his
paddock they would be impounded. I have known over 60 head of horses
impounded in one day by Whitty and Burns all belonging to poor
farmers they would have to leave their
ploughing or harvest or other employment to go to
Oxley. When they would get there perhaps not have money enough to
release them and have to give a bill of sale or borrow the money
which is no easy matter. And along with this sort of work, Farrell
the Policeman stole a horse from George King and had him in Whitty
and Farrells Paddocks until he left the force. And all this was the
cause of me and my step-father George King taking their horses and
selling them to Baumgarten and Kennedy. the pick of them was taken
to a good market and the culls were kept in Petersons paddock and
their brands altered by me two was sold to Kennedy and the rest to
Baumgarten who were strangers to me and I believe honest men.
They
paid me full value for the horses and could not have known they were
stolen. no person had anything to do with the stealing and selling
of the horses but me and George King. William Cooke who was
convicted for Whittys horses was innocent he was not in my company
at Petersons. But it is not the place of the Police to convict
guilty men as it is by them they get their living had the right
parties been convicted it would have been a bad job for the Police
as Berry would have sacked a great many of them only I came to their
aid and kept them in their bilits and good employment and got them
double pay and yet the ungrateful articles convicted my mother and
an infant my brother-in-law and another man
who
was innocent and still annoy my brothers and sisters and the
ignorant unicorns even threaten to shoot myself But as soon as I am
dead they will be heels up in the muroo. there will be no more
police required they will be sacked and supplanted by soldiers on
low pay in the towns and special constables made of some of the
farmers to make up for this double pay and expence. It will pay
Government to give those people who are suffering innocence, justice
and liberty. if not I will be compelled to show some colonial
stratagem which will open the eyes of not only the Victoria Police
and inhabitants but also the whole British army and now doubt they
will acknowledge their hounds were barking at the
wrong stump. And that Fitzpatrick will be the cause of
greater slaughter to the Union Jack than Saint Patrick was to the
snakes and toads in Ireland. The Queen of
England was as guilty as Baumgarten and Kennedy Williamson and
Skillion of what they were convicted for When the horses were found
on the Murray River I wrote a letter to Mr Swanhill of Lake Rowan to
acquaint the Auctioneer and to advertize my horses for sale I
brought some of them to that place but did not sell I sold some of
them in Benalla Melbourne and other places and left the colony and
became a rambling gambler soon after I left there was a warrant for
me and the Police searched the place and
watched
night and day for two or three weeks and when they
could not snare me they got a warrant against my brother Dan And on
the 15 of April Fitzpatrick came to the Eleven Mile Creek to arrest
him he had some conversation with a horse dealer whom he swore was
William Skillion this man was not called in Beechworth, besides
several other Witnesses, who alone could have proved Fitzpatricks
falsehood after leaving this man he went to the house asked was Dan
in Dan came out. I hear previous to this Fitzpatrick had some
conversation with Williamson on the hill. he asked Dan to come to
Greta with him as he had a warrant for him for stealing
Whitty's horses Dan said all right they both went
inside Dan was having something to eat his mother asked Fitzpatrick
what he wanted Dan for. the trooper said he had a warrant for him
Dan then asked him to produce it he said it was only a telegram sent
from Chiltren but Sergeant Whelan ordered him to releive Steel at
Greta and call and arrest Dan and take him into Wangaratta next
morning and get him remanded Dans mother said Dan need not go
without a warrant unless he liked and that the trooper had no
business on her premises without some Authority besides his own word
The trooper pulled out his
revolver and said he would blow her brains out if she
interfered. in the arrest she told him it was a good job for him Ned
was not there or he would ram the revolver down his throat Dan
looked out and said Ned is coming now, the trooper being off his
guard looked out and when Dan got his attention drawn he dropped the
knife and fork which showed he had no murderous intent and slapped
heenans hug on him took his revolver and kept him there until
Skillion and Ryan came with horses which Dan sold that night. The
trooper left and invented some scheme to say that he got shot which
any man can see is false, he told Dan to
clear out that Sergeant Steel and Detective Brown and
Strachan would be there before morning Strachan had been over the
Murray trying to get up a case against him and they would convict
him if they caught him as the stock society offored an enticement
for witnesses to swear anything and the germans over the Murray
would swear to the wrong man as well as the right. Next day
Williamson and my mother was arrested and Skillion the day after who
was not there at all at the time of the row which can be proved by 8
or 9 witnesses And the Police got great credit and praise in the
papers for arresting the mother of 12 children one an infant on her
breast and those two quiet
hard
working innocent men who would not know the difference a revolver
and a saucepan handle and kept them six months awaiting trial and
then convicted them on the evidence of the meanest article that ever
the sun shone on it seems that the jury was well chosen by the
Police as there was a discharged Sergeant amongst them which is
contrary to law they thought it impossible for a Policeman to swear
a lie but I can assure them it is by that means and hiring cads they
get promoted I have heard from a trooper that he never knew
Fitzpatrick to be one night sober and that he sold his sister to a
chinaman but he looks a young strapping rather genteel more fit to
be a
starcher to a laundress than a Policeman. For to a
keen observer he has the wrong appearance or a manly heart the
deceit and cowardice is too plain to be seen in the puny cabbage
hearted looking face. I heard nothing of this transaction until very
close on the trial I being then over 400 miles from Greta when I
heard I was outlawed and a hundred pound reward for me for shooting
at a trooper in Victoria and a hundred pound for any man that could
prove a conviction of horse-stealing against me so I came back to
Victoria knew I would get no justice if I gave myself up I enquired
after my brother Dan and found him digging on Bullock Creek heard
how the Police
used
to be blowing that they would not ask me to stand they would shoot
me first and then cry surrender and how they used to rush into the
house upset all the milk dishes break tins of eggs empty the flour
out of the bags on to the ground and even the meat out of the cask
and destroy all the provisions and shove the girls in front of them
into the rooms like dogs so as if anyone was there they would shoot
the girls first but they knew well I was not there or I would have
scattered their blood and brains like rain I would manure the Eleven
mile with their bloated carcasses and yet remember there is not one
drop of murderous blood in my Veins
Superintendent Smith used to say to my sisters, see
all the men I have out today I will have as many more tomorrow and
we will blow him into pieces as small as paper that is in our guns
Detective Ward and Constable Hayes took out their revolvers and
threatened to shoot the girls and children in Mrs Skillions absence
the greatest ruffians and murderers no matter how deprived would not
be guilty of such a cowardly action, and this sort of cruelty and
disgraceful and cowardly conduct to my brothers and sisters who had
no protection coupled with the conviction of my mother and those men
certainly made my blood boil as I dont think there is a man born
could have
the
patience to suffer it as long as I did or ever allow his blood to
get cold while such insults as these were unavenged and yet in every
paper that is printed I am called the blackest and coldest blooded
murderer ever on record But if I hear any more of it I will not
exactly show them what cold blooded murder is but wholesale and
retail slaughter something different to shooting three troopers in
self defence and robbing a bank. I would have been rather
hot-blooded to throw down my rifle and let them shoot me and my
innocent brother, they were not satisfied with frightening my
sisters night and day and destroying their provisions and lagging my
mother and infant
and
those innocent men but should follow me and my brother into the
wilds where he had been quietly digging neither molesting or
inter-fering with anyone he was making good wages as the creek is
very rich within half a mile from where I shot Kennedy. I was not
there long and on the 25 of October I came on Police tracks between
Table top and the bogs. I crossed them and returning in the evening
I came on a dif-ferent lot of tracks making for the shingle hut I
went to our camp and told my brother and his two mates me and my
brother went and found their camp at the shingle hut about a mile
from my brothers house saw they carried long
firearms and we knew our doom was sealed if we could
not beat those before the others would come As I knew the other
party of Police would soon join them and if they came on us at our
camp they would shoot us down like dogs at our work as we had only
two guns. we thought it best to try and bail those up take their
fire-arms and ammunition and horses and we could stand a chance with
the rest We approached the spring as close as we could get to the
camp as the intervening space being clear ground and no battery We
saw two men at the logs they got up and one took a double barreled
fowling-piece and fetched a horse down and hobbled him at the tent
we
thought there were more men in the tent asleep those being on sentry
we could have shot those two men without speaking but not wishing to
take their lives we waited McIntyre laid the gun against a stump and
Lonigan sat on the log I advanced, my brother Dan keepin McIntyre
covered which he took to be constable Flood and had he not obeyed my
orders, or at-tempted to reach for the gun or draw his revolver he
would have been shot dead but when I called on them to throw up
their hands McIntyre obeyed and Lonigan ran some six or seven yards
to a battery of logs insted of dropping behind the one he was
sitting on, he had just got to the logs and
put
his
head up to take aim when I shot him that instant or he would have
shot me as I took him to be Strachan the man who said he would not
ask me to stand he would shoot me first like a dog. But it happened
to be Lonigan the man who in company with Sergeant Whelan
Fitzpatrick and King the Boot maker and constable O.Day that tried
to put a pair of hand-cuffs on me in Benalla but could not and had
to allow McInnis the miller to put them on, previous to Fitzpatrick
swear-ing he was shot, I was fined two pounds for hitting
Fitzpatrick and two pounds for not allowing five curs like Sergeant
Whelan O.Day Fitz-patrick King and Lonigan who caught me by the
privates
and
would have sent me to Kingdom come only I was not ready and he is
the man that blowed before he left Violet Town if Ned Kelly was to
be shot he was the man would shoot him and no doubt he would shoot
me even if I threw up my arms and laid down as he knew four of them
could not arrest me single-handed not to talk of the rest of my
mates, also either me or him would have to die, this he knew well
therefore he had a right to keep out of my road, Fitzpatrick is the
only one I hit out of the five in Benalla this shows my feeling
towards him as he said we were good friends & even swore it but
he was the biggest enemy I had in the country with the exception
of
Lonigan and he can be thankful I was not there when he took a
revolver and threatened to shoot my mother in her own house it is
not fire three shots and miss him at a yard and a half I dont think
I would use a revolver to shoot a man like him when I was within a
yard and a half of him or attempt to fire into a house where my
mother brothers and sisters was. and according to Fitzpatricks
statement all around him a man that is such a bad shot as to miss a
man three times at a yard and a half would never attempt to fire
into a house among a house full of women and children while I had a
pairs of arms and bunch of fives on the end of them
that
never failed to peg out anything they came in contact with and
Fitzpatrick knew the weight of one of them only too well, as it run
against him once in Benalla, and cost me two pound odd as he is very
subject to fainting. As soon as I shot Lonigan he jumped up and
staggered some distance from the logs with his hands raised and then
fell he surrendered but too late I asked McIntyre who was in the
tent he replied no one. I advanced and took possession of their two
revolvers and fowling-piece which I loaded with bullets instead of
shot. I asked McIntyre where his mates was he said they had gone
down the creek, and he did not expect them that night he asked me
was I
going to shoot him and his mates. I told him no. I
would shoot no man if he gave up his arms and leave the force he
said the police all knew Fitzpatrick had wronged us. and he intended
to leave the force, as he had bad health, and his life was insured,
he told me he intended going home and that Kennedy and Scanlan were
out looking for our camp and also about the other Police he told me
the N.S.W Police had shot a man for shooting Sergeant Walling I told
him if they did, they had shot the wrong man And I expect your gang
came to do the same with me he said no they did not come to shoot me
they came to apprehend me I asked him what they carried spenceir
rifles and breech loading fowling pieces and so much ammunition for
as the Police was
only
supposed to carry one revolver and 6 cartridges in the revolver but
they had eighteen rounds of revolver cartridges each three dozen for
the fowling piece and twenty one spenceir-rifle cartridges and God
knows how many they had away with the rifle this looked as if they
meant not only to shoot me only to riddle me but I dont know either
Kennedy Scanlan or him and had nothing against them, he said he
would get them to give up their arms if I would not shoot them as I
could not blame them, they had to do their duty I said I did not
blame them for doing honest duty but I could not suffer them blowing
me to pieces in my own native land and they knew Fitzpatrick wronged
us
and why not make it public and convict him but no they would rather
riddle poor unfortunate creoles. but they will rue the day ever
Fitzpatrick got among them, Our two mates came over when they heard
the shot fired but went back again for fear the Police might come to
our camp while we were all away and manure bullock flat with us on
our arrival. I stopped at the logs and Dan went back to the spring
for fear the tropers would come in that way but I soon heard them
coming up the creek. I told McIntyre to tell them to give up their
arms, he spoke to Kennedy who was some distance in front of Scanlan
he reached for his revolver and jumped off, on the off
side
of his horse and got behind a tree when I called on them to throw up
their arms and Scanlan who carried the rifle slewed his horse around
to gallop away but the horse would not go and as quick as thought
fired at me with the rifle without unslinging it and was in the act
of firing again when I had to shoot him and he fell from his horse.
I could have shot them without speaking but their lives was no good
to me. McIntyre jumped on Kennedys horse and I allowed him to go as
I did not like to shoot him after he surrendered or I would have
shot him as he was between me and Kennedy therefore I could not
shoot Kennedy without shooting him first. Kennedy kept firing
from
behind the tree my brother Dan advanced and Kennedy
ran I followed him he stopped behind another tree and fired again. I
shot him in the arm pit and he dropped his revolver and ran I fired
again with the gun as he slewed around to surrender I did not know
he had dropped his revolver. the bullet passed through the right
side of his chest & he could not live or I would have let him go
had they been my own brother I could not help shooting there or else
let them shoot me which they would have done had their bullets been
directed as they intended them. But as for handcuffing Kennedy to a
tree or cutting his ear off or brutally treating any of them, is a
falsehood, if Kennedys ear was cut off it was not done by me and
none
of
my mates was near him after he was shot I put his cloak over him and
left him as well as I could and were they my own brothers I could
not have been more sorry for them this cannot be called wilful
murder for I was compelled to shoot them, or lie down and let them
shoot me it would not be wilful murder if they packed our remains
in, shattered into a mass of animated gore to Mansfield, they would
have got great praise and credit as well as promotion but I am
reconed a horrid brute because I had not been cowardly enough to lie
down for them under such trying circumstances and insults to my
people certainly their wives and children are to be pitied but they
must remember those men came into the bush with the intention
of
scattering pieces of me and my brother all over the bush and yet
they know and acknowledge I have been wronged and my mother and four
or five men lagged innocent and is my brothers and sisters and my
mother not to be pitied also who has no alternative only to put up
with the brutal and cowardly conduct of a parcel of big ugly
fat-necked wombat headed big bellied magpie legged narrow hipped
splaw-footed sons of Irish Bailiffs or english landlords which is
better known as Officers of Justice or Victorian Police who some
calls honest gentlemen but I would like to know what business an
honest man would have in the Police as it is an old saying It takes
a rogue to catch a rogue and a
man
that knows nothing about roguery would never enter the force an take
an oath to arrest brother sister father or mother if required and to
have a case and conviction if possible Any man knows it is possible
to swear a lie and if a policeman looses a conviction for the sake
of swearing a lie he has broke his oath therefore he is a perjurer
either ways. A Policeman is a disgrace to his country, not alone to
the mother that suckled him, in the first place he is a rogue in his
heart but too cowardly to follow it up without having the force to
disguise it. next he is traitor to his country ancestors and
religion as they were all catholics before the Saxons and Cranmore
yoke held sway since then they were perse
cuted massacreed thrown into martrydom and tortured
beyond the ideas of the present generation What would people say if
they saw a strapping big lump of an Irishman shepherding sheep for
fifteen bob a week or tailing turkeys in Tallarook ranges for a
smile from Julia or even begging his tucker, they would say he ought
to be ashamed of himself and tar-and--feather him But he would be a
king to a policeman who for a lazy loafing cowardly bilit left the
ash corner deserted the shamrock, the emblem of true wit and beauty
to serve under a flag and nation that has destroyed massacreed and
murdered their fore-fathers by the greatest of torture as rolling
them down hill in spiked barrels
pulling their toe and finger nails and on the wheel.
and every torture imaginable more was transported to Van Diemand's
Land to pine their young lives away in starvation and misery among
tyrants worse than the promised hell itself all of true blood bone
and beauty, that was not murdered on their own soil, or had fled to
America or other countries to bloom again another day, were doomed
to Port Mcquarie Toweringabbie norfolk island and Emu plains and in
those places of tyrany and condemnation many a blooming Irishman
rather than subdue to the Saxon yoke Were flogged to death and
bravely died in servile chains but true to the shamrock and a credit
to Paddys land What would people say if I became a policeman and
took
an
oath to arrest my brothers and sisters & relations and convict
them by fair or foul means after the conviction of my mother and the
persecutions and insults offered to myself and people Would they say
I was a decent gentleman, and yet a police-man is still in worse and
guilty of meaner actions than that The Queen must surely be proud of
such herioc men as the Police and Irish soldiers as It takes eight
or eleven of the biggest mud crushers in Melbourne to take one poor
little half starved larrakin to a watch house. I have seen as many
as eleven, big & ugly enough to lift Mount Macedon out of a crab
hole more like the species of a baboon or Guerilla than a
man.
actually come into a court house and swear they could
not arrest one eight stone larrakin and them armed with battens and
neddies without some civilians assistance and some of them going to
the hospital from the affects of hits from the fists of the larrakin
and the Magistrate would send the poor little Larrakin into a
dungeon for being a better man than such a parcel of armed curs.
What would England do if America declared war and
hoisted a green flag as its all Irishmen that has got command of her
armies forts and batteries even her very life guards and beef
tasters are Irish would they not slew around and fight her with
their own arms for the sake of the colour they dare not
wear
for
years. and to reinstate it and rise old Erins isle once more, from the pressure and
tyrannism of the English yoke, which has kept it in poverty and
starvation, and caused them to wear the enemys coats. What else can
England expect. Is there
not big fat-necked Unicorns enough paid to torment and drive me to
do thing which I dont wish to do, without the public assisting them
I have never interefered with any person unless they deserved it,
and yet there are civilians who take firearms against me, for what
rea-son I do not know, unless they want me to turn on them and
extermin-ate them without medicine. I shall be compelled to make an
example of some of them if they cannot find no other employment
If I
had robbed and plundered ravished and murdered everything I met
young and old rich and poor. the public could not do any more than
take firearms and Assisting the police as they have done, but by the
light that shines pegged on an ant-bed with their bellies opened
their fat taken out rendered and poured down their throat boiling
hot will be fool to what pleasure I will give some of them and any
person aiding or harbouring or assisting the Police in any way
whatever or employing any person whom they know to be a detective or
cad or those who would be so deprived as to take blood money will be
outlawed and declared unfit to be allowed human buriel their
property
either consumed or confiscated and them theirs and all
belonging to them exterminated off the face of the earth, the enemy
I cannot catch myself I shall give a payable reward for, I would
like to know who put that article that reminds me of a poodle dog
half clipped in the lion fashion, called Brooke E. Smith
Superin-tendent of Police he knows as much about commanding Police
as Cap-tain Standish does about mustering mosquitoes and boiling
them down for their fat on the back blocks of the Lachlan for he has
a head like a turnip a stiff neck as big as his shoulders narrow
hipped and pointed towards the feet like a vine stake and if there
is any one to be called a murderer
regarding Kennedy, Scanlan and Lonigan it is that
mis-placed poodle he gets as much pay as a dozen good troopers, if
there is any good in them, and what does he do for it he cannot look
behind him without turning his whole frame it takes three or four
police to keep sentry while he sleeps in Wangaratta, for fear of
body snatchers do they think he is a superior animal to the men that
has to guard him if so why not send the men that gets big pay and
reconed superior to the common police after me and you shall soon
save the country of high salaries to men that is fit for nothing
else but getting better men than him self shot and sending orphan
children to the industrial school
to
make prostitutes and cads of them for the Detectives and other evil
dis-posed persons Send the high paid and men that received big
salaries for years in a gang by themselves after me, As it makes no
difference to them but it will give them a chance of showing whether
they are worth more pay than a common trooper or not and I think the
Public will soon find they are only in the road of good men and
obtaining money under false pretences, I do not call McIntyre a
coward for I reckon he is as game a man as wears the jacket as he
had the presence of mind to know his position, directly as he was
spoken to, and only foolishness to disobey, it was cowardice that
made Lonigan and the others fight it is only
foolhardiness to disobey an outlaw as any Police-man
or other man who do not throw up their arms directly as I call on
them knows the consequence which is a speedy dispatch to Kingdom
Come, I wish those men who joined the stock protection society to
with-draw their money and give it and as much more to the widows and
orphans and poor of Greta district wher I spent and will again spend
many a happy day fearless free and bold as it only aids the police
to procure false witnesses and go whacks with men to steal horses
and lag innocent men it would suit them far better to subscribe a
sum and give it to the poor of their district and there is no fear
of anyone stealing their property for no man
could steal their horses without the knowledge of the
poor if any man was mean enough to steal their property the poor
would rise out to a man and find them if they were on the face of
the earth it will always pay a rich man to be liberal with the poor
and make as little enemies as he can as he shall find if the poor is
on his side he shall loose nothing by it, If they depend in the
police they shall be drove to destruction, As they can not and will
not protect them if duffing and bushranging were abolished the
police would have to cadge for their living I speak from experience
as I have sold horses and cattle innumerable and yet eight head of
the culls is all ever was found I never was interfered with whilst I
kept up this successful
trade. I give fair
warning to all those who has reason to fear me to sell out and give
£10 out of every hundred towards the widow and orphan fund and do
not attempt to reside in Victoria but as short a time as possible
after reading this notice, neglect this and abide by the
consequences, which shall be worse than the rust in the wheat in
Victoria or the druth of a dry season to the grasshoppers in New
South Wales I do not wish to give the order full force without
giving timely warning. but I am a widows son outlawed and my
orders must be obeyed.
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