Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land

by Thomas Reid

For many reasons, therefore, that situation was looked upon as one of extreme difficulty, and in many instances of hazard. The convicts were on this account treated as irrational beings; in dens like wild beasts; like them fed and kept in the closest restraint consistent with their health. The conduct of the prisoners in general seemed to justify severe measures of precaution and confinement. Many accounts of their having made attempts to regain their liberty; rising on their guards; and endeavouring to take possession of the ship, for the purpose of proceeding to a port remote from their place of destination, had been in circulation; but in no instance have any of those daring enterprises even in part succeeded, except in one which occurred about the beginning of 1798.

At that time the system of transportation, it appears, was not so well organized as at present; for when a ship had been taken up for female convicts, if the proper number were not ready, the vacant portion was filled with male convicts to be secured in a separate prison. The Lady Shore was engaged as a convict transport on such an occasion, and the consequences of placing male and female prisoners in the same ship unfortunately became evident, although the number of women was inconsiderable. In the course of the voyage an illicit intercourse had taken place between the female convicts and the sailors, of which it seems the male convicts, together with the recruits for the New South Wales corps which were on board, took advantage, by making the women induce the sailors to assist them in taking the ship.

The plan was so well laid that the design was not at all suspected, until one night, when the sailors had liberated the prisoners both male and female, and were joined by the recruits, a general mutinous rising took place. The commander and his first mate were murdered; and the ship, containing, besides the public stores, a great deal of private property, (which was a heavy loss to the colony,) was taken and carried away to the river La Plata, where she was delivered up to the Spaniards. The prisoners, however, I believe, most of them, were afterwards sent again in pursuance of their sentence.

Even when in any attempts of such a nature the convicts have been disappointed, their plans being detected before they were ripe for execution, their licentious and abandoned conduct still frequently continued to excite alarm, and to keep the guards on constant and harassing duty. The various artifices to which some of those desperate and dangerous characters had recourse, if detailed, would run to great length; but it is sufficient merely to mention the above incident, to show that the conveyance of convicts to the colonies is an undertaking not free from care and anxiety.

Instances too have been mentioned, in which some have risen en masse in female convict ships, to commit personal violence on the surgeon superintendent for the restraint which his sense of duty compelled him to impose. In one of those it became necessary for the surgeon to carry pistols for his defence, in consequence of an attack meditated against him by the women, who had provided themselves with sharpened knives for the purpose of performing a surgical operation of a very unpleasant nature, which would have entailed upon the gentleman the most dangerous and melancholy consequences. In other cases the conduct of the abandoned women has been so unmanageable, that it was deemed necessary, as in the instance of the ship Janus at Cork in 1819, to require a military guard to keep them in subordination and security. In fact, the undertaking has been ever attended with circumstances which made the duty at all times extremely repulsive, and rendered this branch of the public service disagreeable and irksome.

Being fully aware of these circumstances, it became necessary for me to act upon some method of treating the convicts committed to my charge, so as to obviate as much as might be disorders generally prevailing during the voyage; and, by establishing an undeviating order, if possible, in their management, prepare their minds for that moral change which was materially in view.

In the present state of their feelings, humbled in some degree by shame, and the comparative misery brought upon them by their own folly and unrestrained passions; when reflection on their degraded state bitterly and poignantly occupied all their serious moments; there appeared then the most favourable occasion to draw them back to a sense of virtue, which, although it might have been long banished from the breasts of some, the example of others more awake to its influence might assist in reviving. To excite a feeling of repentance, was the first step: this once gained would lead to a train of sober reflections; for no heart can be so thoroughly corrupt as not to exhibit some pure spot for virtuous reflection to take root, and produce its salutary blossoms.

It is not when the feverish glow of successful plunder excites the bacchanalian roar around the fell-grouped table, that the wholesome intrusion of the still small voice of conscience can reach the ear; when the drunken participators of his crime inflame the vulgar vanity of the intemperate wretch, and some vile Thais intoxicates him with passion. Vain would be the effort to reclaim the infuriated savage at such a time as that. But when the dark cell of the prison has shut out his associates, the mind may involuntarily turn back upon itself, and the culprit, under the pressure of infamy, want, and punishment, may open his heart to the language of religious admonition, inviting with its peculiar consolations. No longer buoyed up with speculations, he is naturally disposed to throw himself on the first humane help that presents itself, and to seek in moral and religious truths a repose and security to which he may have been heretofore a stranger.

Many such characters are every day passing before the watchful eye of justice, and, without a single humane effort assisting in the way of reformation, moving on almost imperceptibly to a disgraceful termination of their career. To many so circumstanced, death is a relief from that mental suffering which must attend their neglected and miserable lot; whilst, if the unhappy being has unexpectedly received a capital respite, and is allowed afterwards to have his sentence commuted for transportation, he becomes even more than before a fit subject for ascertaining whether amendment be then possible. The number of convicts on board the Neptune presented abundant materials for such an experiment; and, although the task appeared discouraging, I was determined on the undertaking.

The first object worthy of attention was the establishment of a fixed system of order and regularity in the prison. In this respect I have to acknowledge the favour of some suggestions received from the Rev. Mr. Price at Sheerness. I drew up, therefore, the following regulations for their guidance; and on reading them over before the convicts, assembled for that purpose, I had the satisfaction of finding none at least expressed a dissentient voice; on the contrary, the most cordial concurrence assented to their propriety.