"it was in the early ’60’s at the diggings. i was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; i got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber. there were six of us, and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. black jack of ballarat was the name i went under, and our party is still remembered in the colony as the ballarat gang.