DIGITIZED BY PETER KILLACKEY THE BUSHRANGERS - BRITTON, THE LOST BUSHRANGER. James Bonwick - 1856 Born in a village near Bristol, he was well-known as an itinerant vendor of fruit and fish, and appreciated by the Fancy as a good judge of a horse. His abilities at horse fairs were not always esteemed. Some ungrateful customers doubted his honesty more than his judgment; and others were ill-natured enough to say, that he would occasionally dispose of other folks' horses, under the absurd delusion that they were his own. An unavoidable mistake of this nature led him to exchange the damp air of the West of England, for the exhilarating atmosphere of Van Diemen's Land. He was a man of gigantic strength, with a neck like that of an ox. Snch was his agility, that he would vault over a horse. Upon his arrival in the island gaol, he soon got disgusted with interference with his own will, and brooked not the gentle influence of felon constables. Associated with Jeffkins, Brown, and others, he became a dreaded Bushranger, and continued so for several years. He paid a visit to Sawyer's hut, near Kerry Lodge, in May, 1833, but took no plunder. In February, 1834, Britton, Jeffkins, and Brown, came to the out-station of Mr. Wm. Field, on the Liffey. Ten men were inside. Two robbers stood at the door with pieces, and desired them to tie each other. As this was a second visitation, some apology was necessary. Britton told them that he felt quite hurt at the lying reports about him, especially in the remark concerning the quantity of spoil he had carried off on the previous occasion, which he indignantly asserted was considerably less than that of which he had been accused. It was not his intention to rob them again, but the overseer's watch might be handy in the bush. Expostulation followed, and the watch was permitted to remain in the owner's fob, as the robbers wished to act like gentlemen. However, Brown solicited the favour of wearing another man's hat; and Jeffkins gave a token of his friendship to a person, by exchanging boots with him. But the course of Bushranging never ran smoothly. Two of the pleasing trio were once admiring the beauties of Tasmanian scenery, when a party of four constables saluted them. A bloody contest ensued. Smith was shot dead by Brown, and his death was revenged by the fall of Jeffkins. Brown was severely wounded when captured. He reached Launceston Gaol and died there. Britton was only occasionally heard of afterwards. The close of his outrages was viewed as the termination of his life. While some supposed he had shot himself, the majority considered that he had been lost in the western scrub, and died of starvation; but after a lapse of nearly twenty years, he is said to have been seen in England by one of our colonists.