Excerpt from The Story of the Bushrangers: Published in Numbers I to VII; No. 3There was a vast difference between the men who took the bush during the old convict days and those who made bushranging a profession after the country had been fairly opened up and settled; and there was also a vast diflerence between the methods adopted by each. The former class, as I pointed out when dealing with the convict bushrangers of Van Diemen's Land and the other colonies, in many cases escaped convicts, who had either been brutalised by the harsh treatment to which they had been subjected under the convict system, or who, knowing that a price was set upon their heads for escaping from custody, were prepared to go to any lengths in preserving their freedom. The latter class was made up chiefly of native-born Australians whom an idle life had spoilt, and who, seeing in the dashing enterprises of the bush roamer something congenial to their tastes, had beenfirst enanoured of the life, and then drawn into the vortex. In not a few cases love of excitement more than desire of pillage led the latter-day bushrangers to take up the pro fession, and the writer knew of at least three cases in the Western District, to which reference will hereafter be made, in which a bushranging career had its origin in a midnight lark-when punishment for indulging in fun at a dangerous period wrought recklessness and turned erstwhile harmless youngsters into criminals. They played with edged tools and were injured almost beyond recovery in the first contact.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.