History of the Australian BushrangersBoxall, George
History
History of the Australian Bushrangers
Boxall, George
Bushrangers -- Australia
Although he appears to have been of humble origin he is credited with
having been highly educated. This point was especially insisted upon by
his eulogists among the old hands. By them he was always represented
as being "able to hold his own," in conversation, with "the best of
'em." I remember one old fellow telling me that when Jackey Jackey
met Governor Gipps (of which meeting, however, I can find no record)
the governor and the bushranger had a long conversation and parted
mutually pleased with each other. "You and me," said the old chap,
"couldn't have understood what they said though it was all English;
but, they talked grammar." What his precise meaning was I had no
idea, but I have always thought that he intended to suggest that
their conversation was all carried on in what he might have called
"dictionary words;" that is, words not used by the uneducated. But
everything said of Jackey Jackey redounds to his credit from the old
hand point of view. He was emphatically "a good man." The meaning
attached to words is purely conventional, and is therefore liable
to vary with the conventionalities. The point of view of the convict
being entirely different to that of the law-abiding citizen, the terms
"good" and "bad" changed places in their vocabulary. Thus the clergy,
the magistrates, the free men, were generally "bad men," while those
who resisted authority, who fought against law and order, were "good
men." Even the cannibal Pierce was a good man from their point of view,
however strongly they might condemn his methods. But Jackey Jackey,
although he continued the fight to the bitter end, and ended his life
on the gallows when he was only twenty-six, never did anything mean
or brutal or unworthy of a gentleman bushranger, until he was almost
goaded to madness by the cruel discipline of Norfolk Island.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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