Apart from the wealth and gayety of Sydney, there is much in its various grades of society to interest the average tourist.  The “ticket-of-leave men”—­that is, convicts who, having served out a portion of their term and been favorably reported for good conduct, are permitted to go at large and begin life anew—­form a distinct class, and exert a widespread influence by their wealth, benevolence and commercial enterprise.

[Illustration:  Astrolabe and Zelee on coral reefs.]

Very many of the better class are talented and well educated, with the manners and appearance of gentlemen; and in some cases there has been perhaps but the single crime for which they suffered expatriation and disgrace.  Such as these, as a rule, conduct themselves with propriety from the moment of being sentenced; never murmur at their work or discipline, be it ever so hard; and probably after a single year of hardship are favorably reported, and permitted to seek or make homes for themselves.  Many of them own bank shares and real estate, and some become immensely rich, either by ability or chance good-fortune.  The property is their own, but the owners are always watched by those in power, and are liable at any moment to be ordered back to their old positions.  These “remanded men” are treated with the greatest severity, and few have sufficient power of endurance to live out even a short term with its increase of rigor and hardship.  Yet to the energy and enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than to any other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long since rendered these colonies not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue to the Crown.

[Illustration:  Cannibal fires.]

Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those known as “bushrangers.”  They are desperate fellows, composed of the very lowest scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced for life, and, having no hope of pardon or desire for amendment, they escape as soon as possible, often by the murder of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in the wilds of the interior.  Some of these bushrangers are associated together in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other desperadoes like themselves.  There are hundreds of these lawless men prowling like wild beasts for their prey in the vicinity of every thoroughfare between the cities and the mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers, plundering the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks and herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated positions dare not refuse their demands.  So desperate is the character of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though thousands of pounds are occasionally offered for the head of some noted ringleader.  They may be killed in skirmishes, but will not suffer themselves to be taken alive.  A man calling himself “Black Darnley” ranged the woods for years, committing all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.