In proportion, however, as lenity and mitigation were extended
to inability and helplessness, inasmuch was the most rigorous justice executed
on disturbers of the public tranquillity.
Persons detected in robbing gardens,
or pilfering provisions, were never screened because, as every man
could possess, by his utmost exertions, but a bare sufficiency to preserve
life*, he who deprived his neighbour of that little, drove him to desperation.
No new laws for the punishment of theft were enacted; but persons of all
descriptions were publicly warned, that the severest penalties,
which the existing law in its greatest latitude would authorise,
should be inflicted on offenders. The following sentence of a court
of justice, of which I was a member, on a convict detected in a garden
stealing potatoes, will illustrate the subject. He was ordered to receive
three hundred lashes immediately, to be chained for six months to two
other criminals, who were thus fettered for former offences, and to have
his allowance of flour stopped for six months. So that during the operation
of the sentence, two pounds of pork, and two pounds of rice (or in lieu
of the latter, a quart of pease) per week, constituted his whole subsistence.
Such was the melancholy length to which we were compelled to stretch
our penal system.
[*Its preservation in some cases was found impracticable. Three or four
instances of persons who perished from want have been related to me.
One only, however, fell within my own observation. I was passing
the provision store, when a man, with a wild haggard countenance,
who had just received his daily pittance to carry home, came out.
His faltering gait, and eager devouring eye, led me to watch him,
and he had not proceeded ten steps before he fell. I ordered him
to be carried to the hospital, where, when he arrived, he was found dead.
On opening the body, the cause of death was pronounced to be inanition.]
Farther to contribute to the detection of villainy, a proclamation,
offering a reward of sixty pounds of flour, more tempting than the ore
of Peru or Potosi, was promised to any one who should apprehend,
and bring to justice, a robber of garden ground.
Our friend Baneelon, during this season of scarcity, was as well taken care of
as our desperate circumstances would allow. We knew not how to keep him,
and yet were unwilling to part with him. Had he penetrated our state,
perhaps he might have given his countrymen such a description of our
diminished numbers, and diminished strength, as would have emboldened them
to become more troublesome. Every expedient was used to keep him in ignorance.
His allowance was regularly received by the governor's servant, like that
of any other person, but the ration of a week was insufficient to have
kept him for a day. The deficiency was supplied by fish whenever it could be
procured, and a little Indian corn, which had been reserved was ground
and appropriated to his use. In spite of all these aids, want of food
has been known to make him furious and often melancholy.
There is reason to believe that he had long meditated his escape,
which he effected in the night of the 3rd instant. About two o'clock
in the morning, he pretended illness, and awaking the servant who lay
in the room with him, begged to go down stairs. The other attended him
without suspicion of his design; and Baneelon no sooner found himself
in a backyard, than he nimbly leaped over a slight paling, and bade us adieu.
The following public order was issued within the date of this chapter,
and is too pleasing a proof that universal depravity did not prevail
among the convicts, to be omitted.
The governor, in consequence of the unremitted good behaviour
and meritorious conduct of John Irving, is pleased to remit
the remainder of the term for which he was sentenced to
transportation. He is therefore to be considered as restored
to all those rights and privileges, which had been suspended
in consequence of the sentence of the law. And as such,
he is hereby appointed to act as an assistant to the surgeon
at Norfolk Island.
CHAPTER VII
Transactions of the Colony in June, July, and August, 1790.
At length the clouds of misfortune began to separate, and on the evening
of the 3rd of June, the joyful cry of "the flag's up" resounded
in every direction.
I was sitting in my hut, musing on our fate, when a confused clamour
in the street drew my attention. I opened my door, and saw several women
with children in their arms running to and fro with distracted looks,
congratulating each other, and kissing their infants with the most passionate
and extravagant marks of fondness. I needed no more; but instantly
started out, and ran to a hill, where, by the assistance of a pocket glass,
my hopes were realized. My next door neighbour, a brother-officer,
was with me, but we could not speak. We wrung each other by the hand,
with eyes and hearts overflowing.
Finding that the governor intended to go immediately in his boat
down the harbour, I begged to be of his party.
As we proceeded, the object of our hopes soon appeared: a large ship,
with English colours flying, working in, between the heads which form
the entrance of the harbour. The tumultuous state of our minds represented her
in danger; and we were in agony. Soon after, the governor, having ascertained
what she was, left us, and stepped into a fishing boat to return to Sydney.
The weather was wet and tempestuous but the body is delicate only when
the soul is at ease. We pushed through wind and rain, the anxiety of our
sensations every moment redoubling. At last we read the word 'London'
on her stern. "Pull away, my lads! She is from Old England! A few strokes
more, and we shall be aboard! Hurrah for a bellyfull, and news from
our friends!" Such were our exhortations to the boat's crew.
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