a
boat and the keeper in charge of it and take possession. The plan
succeeded and the escaped convicts pulled to the shore in safety,
although fired upon by all the hulks and war ships in the harbor.
Melville was soon recaptured, and at his trial he defended himself
brilliantly, relating in burning words the horrors of the penal system
on board the hulks.

"The speech was published in the Melbourne papers and caused a great
sensation. A great mass meeting of the citizens was held, and
resolutions were passed in favor of abolishing the convict hulks. The
popular feeling aroused against them was so strong and general that,
although the government had sentenced Melville to death for killing the
keeper in his attempt to escape, it was compelled to commute the
sentence to imprisonment for life. He was not sent back to the
_Success_, but was incarcerated in the jail at Melbourne. According to
the official report, he committed suicide there, but the unofficial
version of the affair is that he was strangled to death by a keeper
during a struggle in which the prisoner was trying to escape.

"Melville at one time had eighty men in his gang, the largest number of
bushrangers at any time under a single leader. Another scoundrel who was
confined on the _Success_ was Henry Garrett, who, in broad daylight,
'stuck up' the Ballarat bank and robbed it of 16,000 pounds. One of his
tricks consisted in wearing a suit of clothes of clerical cut, a white
necktie, and broad-brimmed hat. On one occasion he walked into the bank
dressed in this manner, stepped up to the safe and began to plunder it.
He was a man of good education, and varied robbery with the pursuit of
literature. He used to write essays and other articles, which he sent to
the newspapers, and on one occasion he wrote an essay on crime.

"One man, William Stevens, helped Melville and his gang in their
attempt to escape from the _Success_. He struck down a warder with a
stone-cutter's axe and jumped overboard. He was never seen again, and
the authorities were always in doubt whether he escaped or went to the
bottom, the prevailing opinion being in favor of the latter result.
Another famous bushranger was Captain Moonlight, who served his time and
became a respectable citizen. Another prisoner, after serving for
fifteen years, was given the position of 'guide' upon the vessel by her
owners, and made a comfortable income by showing visitors around."

CHAPTER XI.

GEELON