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[Cover]
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ILLUSTRATED NARRATIVE
OF THE
DREADFUL MURDERS
ON THE
MAUNGATAPU MOUNTAIN,
AND TRACK BETWEEN THE
WAKAMARINA RIVER AND NELSON,
IN THE PROVINCE OF NELSON, NEW ZEALAND.
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FIVE MEN FOULLY MURDERED BY BUSHRANGERS.
CAPTURE OF THE FOUR MURDERERS.
TRIAL, CONVICTION, & EXECUTION.
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STATEMENT OF SULLIVAN, THE APPROVER.
CONFESSION OF "BURGESS, THE MURDERER."
LIFE OF BURGESS, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,
ALSO
OTHER PARTICULARS IN THE LIVES,
AND
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OF THE MURDERERS,
AND A LITHOGRAPHIC PLAN OF THE DISTRICT.
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY
NATION & LUCKIE. "COLONIST" OFFICE, NELSON, N.Z.
1866.
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PORTRAITS OF THE FOUR MURDERERS.
TAKEN IN THE NELSON GAOL, JULY, 1866.
TAKEN IN THE NELSON GAOL, JULY, 1866.
[PREFACE]
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PREFACE.
ONE of the most painful episodes in the history of the Colony of New Zealand is beyond doubt the series of murders which were committed by a small gang of old convicts, men for the most part exiled for felony committed years ago in the Home Country, whose life has been a life of crime, and who, by their own confession, have followed robbery and murder as a trade.
The discovery of at least six of the most wicked murders committed by these felons, five of them perpetrated in the neighborhood of Nelson; the proceedings which led to the detection of the crimes and the recovery of the bodies, and the disclosures made by two of the prisoners, combine to make the trials take rank in the list of great criminal causes. The singular confession of Richard Burgess, the chief of the criminals, a confession unprccedent in its nature; the Story of his Life, written by himself in Gaol; the details of proceedings at the trials, with the strange addresses of some of the prisoners; the evidence of one of the murderers who confessed, and became informer; the efforts of another to implicate the accomplice and to free the two others by accusing only himself and the informer; the generous exertions of a large body of citizens of Nelson to explore the country in search of the bodies of the murdered men, while their fate was yet unknown;--all form a striking chapter in the social history of a gold-producing Colony, which it is thought deserves to be rescued from the ephemeral and fragmentary condition necessarily attaching to newspaper details.
For the purpose of presenting a complete account of this extraordinary trial in a permanent form, the following narrative has been prepared. Besides the Narrative of Events, which preceded the Trials, and a full account of the Trials themselves, which make strange disclosures respecting the villany which a gold-field congregates together, there will be found an Appendix, containing Sketch of the Life of Richard Burgess, from his own pen; incidents in the Career of Kelly and Levy; particulars of the proceedings of the Search Committee; a List of Subscribers to the Search Fund; together with an Account of the large sum expended in the search for the slain men.
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The Photographic Portraits hereto prefixed are exact likenesses of the criminals. They were taken by Captain Clouston, the Acting-Governor of the Gaol, in July last. The plan of the road over the Mountain shows the spot were the murders were committed; and this, together with the Table of Distances thereon, will enable the reader to understand certain points in the evidence, and give him a general idea of the nature of the country, which is more fully described in the early part of the Narrative.
Regarding a certain portion of Burgess's Biography,--that part where he speaks of having studied Navigation with the view of taking passage in a gold-carrying steamer, and ultimately capturing and navigating her himself,--I at first intended to suppress the statement, lest it might suggest a scheme of daring to some of those robbers who still infest the gold-fields. But on consideration, and seeing that Burgess had himself alluded in Court to an intention to capture a gold steamer, I have thought it proper to retain it as a warning; for, just as the disclosure of the project of the murderers to attempt to rob the Bank of New South Wales, in this City, and to murder its officers, has been the means of inducing precautions on the part of the Bank authorities, so will this disclosure convey to owners and captains of gold-bearing steamers, some information which may put them on their guard against possible and sudden surprises. Forewarned, is forearmed.
D. M. L.
THE COLONIST OFFICE,
NELSON, NEW ZEALAND, OCTOBER, 1866.
