Convicts Transported

“Next morning, the largest boys were again selected, and put to work at cleansing mud out of the river – an employment in which they had to stand up to the middle in water. Others were put to drawing stone-carts, being yoked to the cart as horses are in England – each having a collar round his neck, and a bellyband and traces. After being at this work for some time, the young convicts were consigned to masters as their slaves, 20s. being paid to Government for each. The boys guilty of misconduct while working under Government, were punished either by being flogged, or sent to the penal settlement of Port Arthur, where they had to work in chains and perform the work of horses, having to drag the plough, harrow, and rollers. for misconduct under the master, the offender was sent before a magistrate – the master at the same time sending to the functionary a present of a fat goose or a pig. Usually the issue was that the Magistrate ordered the offender should be flogged, and then returned to his master; but if a present was not sent, the Magistrate would sometimes return the convict to the Government works. Many convicts, instead of going before the Magistrate (with the present and not always sent with it by the convict), would take to the bushes; and then, if apprehended, they were sent to Norfolk Island or to the coal mines, to work in chains for life; but if detected with fire-arms in their possession, they were hanged. The smaller boys were sent to Point Pure, a small place guarded by soldiers and trained dogs, where they were supplied with clothing made of sheep-skins, and employed in carrying wood and drawing stone-carts in the place of horses from 1/2 past 5 in the morning to 6 in the evening – the only intermission being the dinner hour, from 12 to 1, during which each had to wash his own linen. After leaving work, they were marched to the barracks, and the allowed half-an-hour for supper, at the close of which they were sent to the bed-rooms, where they slept on the floor, the bed-clothing allowed being a rug and a blanket for each. The diet was, for breakfast half a pound of brown bread, and a pint of gruel made of coarse flour; for dinner, 5 oz of meat, half a pound of bread, and a pint of soup; and in summer, in addition, three large potatoes, for supper, the same as breakfast. Boys transported for seven years, obtained, if their conduct had been good, tickets of leave a the expiration of 4 1/2 years, enabling them to let themselves to a master for the remainder of the term: 10 years, 5 1/2 years; and 14 years, 7 1/2 years. Sanderson so misconducted himself at Point Pure that he was flogged 15 times, and his leave-ticket was postponed for two years over the usual time; but, improving in his conduct, the interference of the Superintendent procured from the late Governor a remission of the two years, and a third-class ticket of leave, just at the time Bishop ~Willson (brother of Ald. Willson, of the Lincoln Town Council) and other Catholic Missionaries arrived in the colony: to them he was recommended as a servant, and remained with them until seven months after the expiration of his seven years’ sentence, when they paid for his passage to London by the Mayflower brig. Finding his father dead on returning to this country, Sanderson expressed his determination to return to Van Dieman’s Land, by working his passage; but adds, that he will never steal anything again, and that he would rather suffer death than be again transported. The hardships he describes to be so great that the convicts break one another’s arms or legs, for the purpose of obtaining a brief rest in the hospital. Crippled convicts are sent to Wedge Bay, where they are occupied in breaking stones, each having a square yard of pebble-stones to break daily: they live in bark-huts in a very wretched and miserable condition, the rain running through the huts, and no change of cloathing being allowed when their clothes and rug and blanket got thoroughly saturated with wet. They are guarded by soldiers and large dogs. – The youth states that he well knows Frost and Jones, the Chartists; that Jones is constable at the new gaol at Point Pure; Frost, clerk in the Government-office at Port Arthur; and Williams, schoolmaster at the coal-mines 21 miles distant. Convicts sent to Norfolk Island have to work in chain-gangs, with a large heavy chain round the middle, and another fastened to the leg: they are employed in dragging ploughs, harrows, and carts, and in cleansing the rivers of mud, and have to sleep in the chains. Whilst employed in river-cleaning, a long chain which is fastened to a post on shore is attached to the body-chain, so that if they attempt self-destruction, the overlookers or soldiers may immediately drag them ashore, and any convict making the attempt is severely flogged.”