Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1897-12-16
A BUSHRANGER.
BY @. B. LEWIS.

BY @. b. LEWIS.
10 begin at the beginning, Charles f.
Thorpe was the son of an innkeeper near
Cheltenham, England, and at the age of
IS had the reputation of being roisterer.
He did not drink or gamble, and no one
could say that he was dishonest or unfilial,
but he craved adventure, and was CON
stantly in trouble He became poacher
simply for the fun of outwitting the game
keepers. He took farmers horses from
the stables and rode them away that he
might enjoy the hue and cry raised over
horse thieves. He disguised himself and
stopped travellers ON the highway and gave
the newspapers and the tavern loungers
something to talk about. In one way and
another before he was 20 years old he had
cost his father FL, 900 and made himself
notorious, though no one believed him vi
cious. One night when poaching he acct
dentally wounded a gamekeeper, and for
this he was sentenced to 20 years of penal
servitude. This was in the days when
England sent her felons to Australia and
in due time young Thorpe landed with
Others at Botany Bay.
How long the innkeeper's son remained
with the convicts do not remember, nor
can recall the particulars Of his escape.
When first met him, and, in fact, when
l first heard his story, was herding sheep
on the Began river, in the provinces Of
New South Wales 300 miles to the north
west Of Sydney. l had a herd of 1900
sheep in charge and was living alone in a
rude shanty Is miles from any other herd
er or white man. Those were the palmy
days Of bushrangers, but had been care
fully coached as to how to treat them in
case Of a call, and also knew it to be fact
that they seldom offered violence to herd
ers.
One evening after my herd had been
rounded up and was cooking my supper
alone bushranger walked in ON me. He
had such a youthful face that at first
took him for some stocknan's son, but as
he shared my meal he told me his story.
He was young Thorpe, the innkeeper's
son, and he had then been in the bush sew
eral months. He had no complaints to
make about his sentence or how he had
been used at the penal colony. He was in
good health, full Of good nature, and his
convict life had not hardened his heart.
At that time he was alone, though he had
a splendid horse and good outfit of fire.
arms. He made not the slightest hesitation
in telling me his history and his future
plans.
The life Of a bushranger just suited his
adventurous spirit, and he said he would
not give it up if offered free pardon. We
did not exactly enter into an offensive and
defensive alliance, but before he went
away 1t was tacitly understood that l
would give no information to the authori-
ties and in return was not to be dis.
turbed. In the early days of sheep herding
In Australia the herder who did not make
some sort of compromise with bushrangers
was not sure of his life for week.
Young Thorpe had no sooner taken to
the bush than he was given the title Of
Captain Charlie" For the first seven or
eight months he had no companion. Dur
ing this time all his work was on the
highway. He held up several stages and
half a hundred Travellers and on three oc-
casions shot men from their saddles. He
had the reputation Of being brave to reck-
lessness and of being square man. He
would not rob poor man, nor would he
shoot unless fred upon first. If he stopped
stage and there were women passengers,
he treated them with the utmost courtesy.
He would take nothing from settler
without paying for it, and now and then
he gave them warning that the natives
were out on a raid and gave them time to
prepare for defense
As q matter Of fact Captain Charlie,
though an escaped convict, with reward
on his head, and bushranger and an out
law, with additional rewards offered for
his capture or death, was looked upon
with such favor by herders and settlers
that the mounted police hunted for him In
vain. He would probably have continued
to work alone had it not been for an
escaped convict named Treat. This man
was thoroughly vicious and had not a re-
deeining trait. In escaping from the penal
settlement he killed two Of the guards,
and he was no sooner in the bush than he
gathered around him five or six other hard
cases and began q merciless war on all
outsiders
In three months they killed eight trav-
elers, settlers and herders and, not content
with highway robbery, they loNted stores,
taverns and farmhouses and applied the
torch in sheer wantonness Locking upon
Captain Charlie as a namby pa1nby fellow,
who was unworthy Of being called a BUSH
ranger, they sought to hunt him down
and kill him. In self defense he organized
: band of his own, numbering five, and,
though they were pretty tough fellows, he
held them we'll in hand and would permit
Of no violence when 1t could be avoided.
rrIa Axuk ,,,oof{ 40 hntVxynou fhn two banda
took place on my range.
Treat had somehow heard that was
friendly to Captain Charlie. He made q
night ride Of So miles with his band to kill
me and destroy the herd. The captain
heard Of his Intentions, and just at sunrise
one morning both bands rode out of the
scrub within so rods Of my hut A fight
took place at once, and within ten minutes
Treats band was driven off with the loss
Of three men. Captain Charlie had one
man killed and two wounded. The latter
were made a. comfortable a. possible n : |
tnfnnnrarv shelter In the thioket, and Tor