The History of Tasmania Volume II Part 18

"The commandant will see that due attention is paid to the cleanliness of the convicts, and that those whose state of health admit of it, bathe regularly.

"A separate barrack is to be provided for the female convicts; and if employed in field labor, they are to be kept separate from the men.

"A was.h.i.+ng gang from among the female convicts shall be appointed, to wash and mend the clothes, and air the blankets and pallia.s.ses of the prisoners.

"The convicts are not to be allowed to possess knives or any sharp instruments; the knives, forks, and spoons, are to be under the charge of the barrack overseer, and he will be held responsible that they are duly collected from each convict before he is allowed to quit his seat at the mess table. This, however, is not to apply to those married convicts or overseers, who shall have been allowed to live in separate huts.

"The whole of the convicts will be mustered on Sunday morning, arranged in their several gangs, and attended by their respective overseers and constables, when they will be inspected by the commandant. The wives and families of the convicts will also be required to attend the Sunday morning musters.

"The prisoners will be mustered daily by the superintendent of convicts, at sunrise, before they proceed to labor, when they return to meals, and again when the work for the day is closed.

"No convict shall be allowed to receive or transmit any letter, excepting through the commandant, who is to exercise his discretion in opening such letters, and perusing their contents.

"The section regulating the discipline and employment of the convicts, is to be read once in every month to the troops and convicts on the settlement.

"These regulations shall be entered in the public order books of the settlement, and they are to be strictly and literally adhered to throughout; no deviation being permitted, except in cases of very great emergency, which are to be determined alone by the commandant, who will immediately report in detail his reasons for such deviation to the governor, in order that his excellency's sanction to the measure may be obtained."]

[Footnote 143: "The crimes for which they were sent down, were originally trifling: five or six for a robbery, petty theft, or disobedience to orders. One remained for a month, another for the term of his natural life,--for the same offence, and by the same sentence."--_Barnes: Par. Pap._

"Bryan Taylor, a convict holding a ticket-of-leave, having taken the Lord's name in vain, was ordered to be confined in his majesty's gaol for one week.

"Thomas Higgins, a constable, was found guilty of a rape, and was sentenced to be dismissed from his office, and transported for the remainder of his original term.

"Ralph Jacobs, found guilty of stealing one sheep; sentenced to receive fifty lashes, and to be returned to government.

"William Blunt, and another, for burglary and violence; sentenced one hundred lashes, and transported for their original term."--_Gazette_, Dec. 1821.]

[Footnote 144: _Ross's Almanack_, 1831.]

[Footnote 145: "The sight was awfully grand. The pilot commanded all below, but I said I should like to see the end of it: they counted off eleven feet; we drew seven and a half: there were but seven in the hollow of the sea! At this moment a large billow carried us forward on its raging head. The pilot's countenance relaxed: he looked like a man reprieved under the gallows."--_Backhouse's Narrative._]

[Footnote 146: Barnes: _Par. Pap._, 1837.]

[Footnote 147: Ibid.]

[Footnote 148: _Tasmanian Journal_, vol. ii. p. 205.]

[Footnote 149: _Backhouse's Narrative._]

[Footnote 150: Ibid.]

[Footnote 151: They called to the men, as they ascended the scaffold--"Good-by, Bob; good-by, Jack."--_Par. Pap._]

[Footnote 152: To describe this region, requires the awful coloring of Milton:--

"Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, Where all life dies; death lives; and nature breeds Perverse; all monstrous, all prodigious things; _Abominable_; UNUTTERABLE!"

_Paradise Lost_, book ii.]

[Footnote 153: _Sydney Cove, 17th July_, 1790.

"The consequence of a failure of a crop, when we no longer depend upon any supplies from Great Britain, will be obvious; and to guard against which is one reason for my being so desirous of having a few settlers, to whom, as the first, I think every possible encouragement should be given. In them I should have some resource, and amongst them proper people might be found to act in different capacities, at little or no expense to government; for, as the number of convicts and others increase, civil magistrates, &c. will be necessary."]

[Footnote 154: _Par. Papers_, 1792; quoted by Saxe Bannister, Esq.]

[Footnote 155: Besides the reference in Collins, several modern writers have alluded to this fact; but in conversation with Mr. G. W. Walker, the author has been given to understand, that neither he nor his colleague, Mr. Backhouse, ever heard of this projected emigration. The correspondence upon the subject would probably disclose more clearly the ultimate views of the imperial government. Dr. Laing a.s.signs, for the relinquishment of the project, a refusal to extend the laws of England to the settlement,--but gives no authority.]

SECTION X.

The spirit of the Commissioner's propositions was embodied by the home government, and its offers were published in various forms; chiefly, indeed, by the diligence of adventurers who, to freight their s.h.i.+ps, filled volumes, and depicted in lively colors the beauty of the colonies. The intending settler was told, that not only would he find cheap land and cheap labor, but a large return for his produce.

By the grants of Sir Thomas Brisbane, bonds were required to be given for the support and employment of prisoners, until their detention expired--calculated at the average term of ten years. For every hundred acres, the settler engaged to provide one convict with food and clothing, in return for his labor; and to contribute 18s. per annum towards the expense of medicine, police, and religious instruction (1822). Still further to encourage such contracts, the settlers were furnished with a cow, for every convict attached to their grants, to continue in their possession during the term of his servitude![157]

The regulation issued at Downing-street in 1824, engaged that the purchaser of land--who within ten years might save ten times the amount of his payment, by the employment of convicts, reckoning each at 16 per annum--should receive back his money, though without interest; but when the land was conditionally given, one-fifth part of that saving would pa.s.s to account of quit-rent, and thus probably ent.i.tle the employer to entire relief.

The Van Diemen's Land Company, by agreement with Earl Bathurst, entered into similar covenants, and received their land subject to a quit-rent, redeemable by the sustentation and employment of prisoners--to them a fortunate stipulation,[158] and which has relieved their vast territory from a heavy pressure. These various plans indicate the difficulties of finding masters, which once prevailed.

The government having roused the spirit of emigration, were soon enabled to grant a favor when they a.s.signed a workman, and rapidly withdrew from engagements no longer necessary. Hundreds of families arrived in a succession of vessels, and speedily fixed themselves in the interior: flocks were contracted, herds were slaughtered; fences, homesteads, and fields of corn divided and dotted the land. The least capital admitted was 500; and though several evaded the condition, many of the settlers brought much larger sums. They pursued their improvements, with all the vigour awakened by novelty, and stimulated by the prospect of considerable gains. The compet.i.tion for labor increased, until it created in the minds of the settlers a feeling of dependance and obligation--to refuse a supply, had been ruin. It placed before the prisoners, once again, the examples of emancipist opulence: mechanics earned more wages than officers of the army; again transportation was represented as a boon; and then came other changes.

In the official newspaper of 1827, it is stated that 1,000 applications were registered at Hobart Town. To an English reader, and to a modern colonist, the notices of this period seem like satire. "Better," remarks this organ of the higher cla.s.ses, "better send pet.i.tions for more prisoners--now that applications have lain dormant for twelve months: some for four, eight, and ten men--than trouble about trial by jury and representative government. The disappointment, we trust, will be temporary: when the last vessel sailed, the _York_ was freighting. We trust the home secretary will consider the deficiency"! The extremely earnest manner in which these felonious additions were implored, is a curious relic of a bygone era.[159]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 156: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 267.]

[Footnote 157: _Gazette_, 11th July, 1822.]

[Footnote 158: Bischcoff.]

SECTION XI.

The system of a.s.signment was first established in America (1718), and continued for fifty-six years: the rigid discipline permitted by the colonial law, the kind of labor usually performed by the servants, and their diffusion over an extensive surface, tended alike to restrain, to reform, and ultimately to merge them undistinguished. Many, endowed with good natural abilities, such as an accomplished thief usually possesses, succeeded in their pursuits, and became masters themselves, _by the purchase_ of the servitude of those afterwards sent out for sale.[160]

Thus, whatever complaints were raised against transportation itself, none objected to a.s.signment; and the long period of its duration, proves that the home government cared little for the state of prisoners, while there was no local press to vindicate their _rights_, and few readers of books to encourage romantic delineations of their _felicity_.

On the arrival of a vessel, the chief officers of the government examined the prisoners, and the Governor himself addressed them. He pointed out their future position, their duties, and their dangers; the tone of promise usual in times past was considerably abated, but the awful rigours of their servitude were explained, often to their astonishment and horror.[161] Often the private examination of the prisoner confounded him with amazement: a gentleman, whom he had never seen before, unravelled with facility the mystery of his life. If he had been often in prison; if his brother had been transported; if his sweetheart had been deserted; whether he had been a pest to the lords of the manor, or to the parish, by poaching or b.a.s.t.a.r.dy: his whole life was read by his inquisitor, with supernatural clearness. The raw countryman did not know how far his course had been subject to the gaze of the stranger: denial gave way rapidly; he a.s.sented, and explained, and enlarged--and thus the office of the superintendent answered the purpose of a confessional. It was the practice to furnish all possible information to the local government, and to keep its details a secret from the prisoners: such had been the advice of the Commissioner. Thus the wonder of the country transport, to find that the picture of his life had preceded him--that all was known at the world's end.

Though no persons could have greater cause to confuse their ident.i.ty, the prisoners often stamped on their persons indelible distinctions; a custom, perhaps, introduced by the sailors, and encouraged by the officers, but which prevailed among London thieves. Those who suffered these figures to be pierced, were usually the most simple minded, or the most depraved. The figures themselves were sometimes obscene, but not commonly: often mermaids, still more frequently hearts and darts; sometimes the name, or the initials of the prisoner. Thus, in the runaway notices (1825), one had a hope and anchor; another, a castle, flower pots, hearts and darts; another, a man and woman, a heart and a laurel; another, a masonic arch, and moon and stars, and initials in abundance. An Irishman had a crucifix on the arm, a cross on the right hand, and the figure of a woman on the breast! Such were the ingenious methods which, induced by indolence and vanity, these men permitted, to lessen the chances of escape. The initials generally differed from those of the known name, and indicated that the wearer, some time or other, had occasion for disguise: others were obviously memorials of past affection, and of names perhaps a.s.sociated with blighted hopes and better days. Besides these marks, were others; scars, usually the result of a life of mingled intemperance and violence: thus, almost in succession, the list of absconders gives the following--"a scar on the forehead;"

"scar on the right eye;" "his arm has been broken;" "his nose inclines to the left cheek;" "a broken nose."[162]

All that might a.s.sist the police was registered: their native place, their age, their crime, and sentence. They were then detached to their masters; marched, sometimes, in considerable bodies, from Kangaroo Point to Launceston, 120 miles. The mechanics were reserved for government employ, and the concealment of a trade, was visited as a crime; yet convicts did conceal their trade, instructed by former experience, or a hint from a veteran predecessor. They knew that mechanical knowledge might prolong their detention, and deprive them of many present advantages. They knew that, though rated as laborers, they might obtain a master who would pay them. This was effected, sometimes, at once, or by the agency of a friend; or oftener by the prisoner, who, on his first opportunity, would hint to a builder or carpenter, that he knew something of a trade. An order was obtained for a _laborer_, which would not have been spared for a mechanic: a fee to the clerk, secured the intended selection; and the man a.s.signed to carry the materials of a building, was taught, in a time which seemed incredibly short, all the mysteries of line and rule. It is thus that weakness ever arms itself against might.

The increased demand for a.s.signed servants, enabled Governor Arthur to enforce the regulations which had been often promulgated in vain. It ceased to be necessary to pay wages, and the master was bound to provide sufficient food and clothing for his men: the scale was determined. The practice of lending out servants was restricted, and finally abolished.

All those means of stimulating labor, which had tended to suggest the rights of property, were forbidden. It had been the custom to permit a.s.signed servants to receive a share in the increase of stock; allotments of land had been separated to their exclusive use; they had been suffered to trade upon their own account. These arrangements were calculated to stimulate industry, but they also generated disputes, and led to petty theft. Thus reduced to an absolute dependance upon the liberality of their masters, they had no reward but as a boon: many of whom, however, evaded the regulations, and paid their servants the ordinary wages of free men.