“On the evening of the 6th, about six o’clock, it was clearly proved to us:—
“That a breach had been made in one of the prison walls sufficient for a full sized man to pass and that others had been commenced in the course of the day near the same spot though never completed;
“That a number of prisoners were near the railing erected to prevent them from communicating with the sentinels on the walls, which was of course forbidden by the regulations of the prison, and that in the space between the railing and these walls they were tearing up pieces of turf and wantonly pelting each other in a noisy, disorderly fashion;
“That a much more considerable number of the prisoners were collected together at that time in one of their yards, near the place where the breach was effected, and although such collection of prisoners was not unusual at other times (the gambling tables being commonly kept in that part of the yard) yet when connected with the circumstances of the breach and the time of the day, being after the signal for the prisoners to go to their respective prisons had ceased to sound, it became a right and just ground of alarm to those who had charge of the depot. Upon these grounds Captain Shortland appears to us to have been justified in giving the order, which about six o’clock he seems to have issued, to sound the alarm bell, the usual warning for collecting the officers of the depot and putting the military on the alert. However reasonable and justifiable this was as a measure of protection, the effects produced thereby in the prisons, but which could not have been intended, were most unfortunate, and deeply to be regretted. A considerable number of the prisoners in the yards where no disturbance existed before, and who were either already within their respective prisons or quietly retiring as usual towards them, immediately upon the sound of the bell, rushed back from curiosity—as it appears—towards the gates where by that time a crowd had assembled.
“Captain Shortland, in the first instance, proceeded out of the square towards the prisoners, having ordered a part of the different guards to the number of about fifty only, though they were increased afterwards, to follow him. For some time both he and Dr. Magrath (the chief medical officer) endeavoured by quiet means and persuasion to induce the prisoners to retire to their own yards, explaining to them the fatal consequences which must ensue if they refused, as the military would in that case be necessarily compelled to employ force. Captain Shortland finding persuasion was in vain, at last ordered about fifteen file of the guards to charge the prisoners back to their yards. With regard to any order having been given to fire the evidence is very contradictory. Several of the Americans swear positively that Captain Shortland gave that order, but the manner in which from the confusion of the moment they describe this part of the transaction is so different in its details that it is very difficult to reconcile their testimony. Moreover Captain Shortland denies the fact.
“The firing in the square having continued for some time, by which several of the prisoners sustained injuries, the greater part of them appear to have been running back with the utmost precipitation and confusion to their respective prisons and the cause for further firing seems at this period to have ceased. The subsequent firing appears to have arisen from the state of irritation and exasperation on the part of the soldiers who followed the prisoners into their yards and from the absence of nearly all of the officers who might have restrained it. Captain Shortland was from this time busily occupied with the turnkeys in the square receiving and taking care of the wounded.”
Great efforts were afterwards made to bring home the responsibility for the deaths or wounds inflicted, and to identify the soldiers who had opened fire, but with no satisfactory result. The men to blame could not be discovered, and indeed they must have been sheltered under the orders that must almost certainly have been received. The commissioners in the end came to a rather lame and impotent conclusion, and wound up their report with the words: “Whilst we lament most deeply the unfortunate transaction which has been made the subject of this inquiry, we find ourselves totally unable to suggest any steps to be taken as to those parts of it which seem to call for any redress or punishment.” This “horrid massacre,” as it was freely styled at the time, was subsequently submitted to a joint commission of English and Americans who awarded no special blame, but were unanimous in deploring the costly mistake made by too easily excited prisoners on the one side, and authorities too hasty in availing themselves of savage and ferocious means of repression.
It was not the only outbreak of dangerous dimensions at Dartmoor, but that of 1812 was happily quelched without bloodshed. The mutineers were Frenchmen and, according to a contemporary account, the prisoners rose in protest against the issue of biscuit as a ration in lieu of bread. The bake house had been recently destroyed by fire, and it was necessary to give biscuit; at first an increased allowance of one and a half pounds, but reduced presently to one pound. Any interference with the dietaries is a dangerous proceeding with prisoners and generally resented. On this occasion some seventy-five hundred of them broke out in open insurrection. They attacked and broke the ponderous bars of the principal gate, but could do no more mischief, and as a last resource sought to set fire to the prison and escape en masse. The troops saved the situation, assisted by three pieces of artillery brought to bear upon the mutineers, which overawed them without opening fire.
Dartmoor was vacated on the advent of peace and remained empty for many years. It was maintained in a habitable condition, however, and another use was found for it as time passed, somewhat on the old lines, still as a prison, but for criminal offenders. When the cessation of transportation beyond the seas brought about a complete change in the British methods of secondary punishment, and it was essential to provide penal establishments at home, Dartmoor was converted into a convict prison appropriated at first to invalids, but eventually to the able bodied; and felon labour was applied in large quantities to the reclamation of the barren moorland and its conversion into productive farms. It was an ideal penal settlement; at first a wild, barbarous place remote from the busy haunts of men, yet not too far for effective control and supervision. When here, stern salutary discipline could be enforced for the correction of wrong-doers and their removal, although falling far short of the old penal exile with its many evils and drawbacks, would act as a deterrent from the commission of crime.
The Dartmoor of to-day is an object lesson to prison administrators. It is a striking proof of what patience and the judicious application of a well conceived, admirably well worked out system can accomplish. It has had a double aim; the useful and remunerative employment of depredators making restitution, and the endowment of the country by bringing wide areas of waste land into cultivation. In the earlier stages of its renewed life, incessant labour was bestowed upon the improvement and adaptation of ancient buildings to modern requirements, to fencing, draining, road-making and then the regeneration of the soil to agricultural pursuits. The prison farm, now of more than two thousand acres, has been created by convicts in upwards of forty years. The whole of this acreage, once a mere common and unenclosed waste, is now transformed into productive fields worked with a proper scientific rotation of crops. “Ground that was once mostly rushes is now able to carry a bullock per acre through the summer. No purer or cleaner pastures are to be found anywhere.... Sixty-seven acres of meadow land have been laid out for irrigation and utilisation of the sewage from the prison establishment, which at times numbers upwards of one thousand persons. A dairy herd of forty-five cows is kept and all the cows are reared ... a flock of four hundred sheep, ‘Improved Dartmoors,’ is kept and has frequently been successful in the local show yards. The wool, for so high a district, is remarkably good and of long staple. Pony mares and their produce are run in the fields. One of the ponies bred on Dartmoor won first prize at the Royal Show at Plymouth. Thirty acres of garden are devoted to the growth of garden vegetables of which all kinds are grown, and much success has been obtained with celery and cucumbers. The whole of the work is done by convicts, without the aid of horses except for carting.”