[CHAPTER III.]
"Fresh Fields and Pastures New."
"There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."
—Shakespeare.
My first assignment was to Mr. Sam Terry, on his station at Mount Pleasant. Here I had little or nothing to do, and this man was a good master—he would never have his men flogged. But I had the misfortune to be stricken with the sandy blight at this place, and I was sent to the Windsor Hospital, where I remained for 10 months. From here I was sent to Windsor Gaol, but instead of a bed, I had to lie on a flag-stone, which was not conducive to building up my health. From Windsor I was transferred to Parramatta, and eventually to the Barracks again. Shortly after this, I was sent on to that beautiful vessel known as the "Phœnix" hulk—prison ship. This was the first occasion on which I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Dr. ——, the man who conspired with two others to rob a house, and when they were in the act of doing so, he assailed them with a gun, fired and wounded one of them as he came out of the window, and secured his freedom for catching thieves. This was a very cunning trick, as he arranged the plot himself, and he afterwards became prominent. I saw him shortly after this took place, when he was assuming all sorts of things, and I said "Hulloa! how are you getting on?" He looked at me, and said, "Why, I never saw you before, sir." "That'll do," I said, "you forget that I saw you on the "Phœnix" hulk, and don't try to put on side before me." He said no more.
[CHAPTER IV.]
To Port Macquarie.
"O suffering, sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones,
Steeped to the lips in misery."
—Longfellow.
It was not long before my health had sufficiently repaired to allow of my being sent to Port Macquarie, and as this journey had to be accomplished by water, the steamer "Little Billy," (William the Fourth) came into requisition. I left Sydney in this vessel on Monday, and she reached her destination on the following Sunday, after we had been on deck the whole time tossing about. There were a good number of us on board, and sometimes we got tea, and more often we didn't. We were inspected on arrival, and afterwards landed at the barracks, which stood on the water's edge against the river. The first incident that came under my notice on arrival was a lean, hungry-looking fellow named "Nipper," going along with his head down, apparently in a tit, until he reached and hit up against a wall, then he fell on his back like a cockroach—he was bloated out nearly as large as a cask with "hominy." Then I saw another man named "Larry" coming along; he was positively mad, for he used to go along singing out "Larry! Larry!! Larry!!!" This man was reputed to have knocked his wife's brains out with a saucepan. Still another I saw, who was called "Captain." He had been a pirate, and used to walk about the roofs of houses with a piece of stick, using it as a telescope, and giving orders. I heard him sing out "Chuck us up that Jew —— to deal with," and I don't know whom he meant, but it was quite enough for me, so I left. Night came on, and one of the men—Jack Sleet—had a few shillings in his pocket. Some of the others heard the money jingle, and needless to say he was watched to bed, the money being placed very safely underneath him. Everything was quiet towards the middle of the night, when suddenly we were all awakened by hearing a man sing out, "Oh! h——, Oh! h——, somebody's cut me." It transpired that someone, in cutting the money from under him, had forced the knife rather too much, and it had entered his flesh, but the money was gone all the same, and every one appeared to be asleep.
When all the men retired to barracks at night, it was so crowded that where to lie down became a puzzle, and it was dirty besides. Men still kept on coming from Sydney, which made matters ten times worse. One day while in these quarters, I was sent down to one of the wharves to help unload a boat laden with produce. I worked very hard all day, and it was late in the evening before I returned to the barracks. On arrival I asked the master's permission to bake myself a "johnny cake" for supper. In due course I had the cake mixed, and placed it on the fire to cook in an old frying-pan that was more "hol(e)y than righteous." Seated beside the fire watching my cake, I felt a nasty hit with a stick from behind, and as there was no other weapon handy with which to return the compliment, I grasped the frying-pan by the handle, and, turning round, brought it down full force on to my assailant's head. Needless to say, his head was harder than the bottom of the pan, and the next thing I remember was seeing him wriggling about with the hot pan on his neck, and exclaiming, "Oh! my G—, this pan is burning me!" Then a by-stander came up with a bucket of water and poured it on him, and afterwards the pan was removed. I turned to him, and said; "The next time I am at the fire perhaps you'll leave me alone." But my feet hardly had time to touch the ground before I was landed in the lock-up, and the next day I was brought before the court and sentenced to 36 lashes, and it would have been "100" only that the overseer spoke up for me, and said that I was quite justified in my action. But even "36" was a fine cure for the "prickly heat." I got full of this and ran away to the Green Hills—15 miles distant—with a mate. When we got there, it seemed that we were to get no peace, for the aborigines came around us with their "yabber," and it was but a short time before they were off to the police and informed them of our whereabouts. Two days later we were caught, and I got "50" more to "clench the bargain."