CHAPTER XVIII.

Observations on the Convicts.

A short account of that cla.s.s of men for whose disposal and advantage the colony was princ.i.p.ally, if not totally, founded, seems necessary.

If it be recollected how large a body of these people are now congregated in the settlement of Port Jackson and at Norfolk Island, it will, I think, not only excite surprise but afford satisfaction, to learn, that in a period of four years few crimes of a deep dye or of a hardened nature have been perpetrated. Murder and unnatural sins rank not hitherto in the catalogue of their enormities, and one suicide only has been committed.

To the honour of the female part of our community let it be recorded that only one woman has suffered capital punishment. On her condemnation she pleaded pregnancy, and a jury of venerable matrons was impanneled on the spot, to examine and p.r.o.nounce her state, which the forewoman, a grave personage between sixty and seventy years old, did, by this short address to the court; 'Gentlemen! she is as much with child as I am.' Sentence was accordingly pa.s.sed, and she was executed.

Besides the instance of Irving, two other male convicts, William Bloodsworth, of Kingston upon Thames, and John Arscott, of Truro, in Cornwall, were both emanc.i.p.ated for their good conduct, in the years 1790 and 1791. Several men whose terms of transportation had expired, and against whom no legal impediment existed to prevent their departure, have been permitted to enter in merchant ships wanting hands: and as my Rose Hill journals testify, many others have had grants of land a.s.signed to them, and are become settlers in the country.

In so numerous a community many persons of perverted genius and of mechanical ingenuity could not but be a.s.sembled. Let me produce the following example. Frazer was an iron manufacturer, bred at Sheffield, of whose abilities as a workman we had witnessed many proofs. The governor had written to England for a set of locks to be sent out for the security of the public stores, which were to be so constructed as to be incapable of being picked. On their arrival his excellency sent for Frazer and bade him examine them telling him at the same time that they could not be picked.

Frazer laughed and asked for a crooked nail only, to open them all. A nail was brought, and in an instant he verified his a.s.sertion. Astonished at his dexterity, a gentleman present determined to put it to farther proof. He was sent for in a hurry, some days after, to the hospital, where a lock of still superior intricacy and expense to the others had been provided.

He was told that the key was lost and that the lock must be immediately picked. He examined it attentively, remarked that it was the production of a workman, and demanded ten minutes to make an instrument 'to speak with it.' Without carrying the lock with him, he went directly to his shop, and at the expiration of his term returned, applied his instrument, and open flew the lock. But it was not only in this part of his business that he excelled: he executed every branch of it in superior style. Had not his villainy been still more notorious than his skill, he would have proved an invaluable possession to a new country. He had pa.s.sed through innumerable scenes in life, and had played many parts. When too lazy to work at his trade he had turned thief in fifty different shapes, was a receiver of stolen goods, a soldier and a travelling conjurer. He once confessed to me that he had made a set of tools, for a gang of coiners, every man of whom was hanged.

Were the nature of the subject worthy of farther ill.u.s.tration, many similar proofs of misapplied talents might be adduced.

Their love of the marvellous has been recorded in an early part of this work. The imposture of the gold finder, however prominent and glaring, nevertheless contributed to awaken attention and to create merriment.

He enjoyed the reputation of a discoverer, until experiment detected the imposition. But others were less successful to acquire even momentary admiration. The execution of forgery seems to demand at least neatness of imitation and dexterity of address. On arrival of the first fleet of ships from England, several convicts brought out recommendatory letters from different friends. Of these some were genuine, and many owed their birth to the ingenuity of the bearers. But these last were all such bungling performances as to produce only instant detection and succeeding contempt.

One of them addressed to the governor, with the name of Baron Hotham affixed to it, began 'Honored Sir!'

A leading distinction, which marked the convicts on their outset in the colony, was an use of what is called the 'flash', or 'kiddy' language. In some of our early courts of justice an interpreter was frequently necessary to translate the deposition of the witness and the defence of the prisoner.

This language has many dialects. The sly dexterity of the pickpocket, the brutal ferocity of the footpad, the more elevated career of the highwayman and the deadly purpose of the midnight ruffian is each strictly appropriate in the terms which distinguish and characterize it. I have ever been of opinion that an abolition of this unnatural jargon would open the path to reformation. And my observations on these people have constantly instructed me that indulgence in this infatuating cant is more deeply a.s.sociated with depravity and continuance in vice than is generally supposed. I recollect hardly one instance of a return to honest pursuits, and habits of industry, where this miserable perversion of our n.o.blest and peculiar faculty was not previously conquered.

Those persons to whom the inspection and management of our numerous and extensive prisons in England are committed will perform a service to society by attending to the foregoing observation. Let us always keep in view, that punishment, when not directed to promote reformation, is arbitrary, and unauthorised.

CHAPTER XIX.

Facts relating to the probability of establishing a whale fishery on the coast of New South Wales, with Thoughts on the same.

In every former part of this publication I have studiously avoided mentioning a whale fishery, as the information relating to it will, I conceive, be more acceptably received in this form, by those to whom it is addressed, than if mingled with other matter.

Previous to entering on this detail, it must be observed that several of the last fleet of ships which had arrived from England with convicts, were fitted out with implements for whale fishing, and were intended to sail for the coast of Brazil to pursue the fishery, immediately on having landed the convicts.

On the 14th of October, 1791, the 'Britannia', Captain Melville, one of these ships, arrived at Sydney. In her pa.s.sage between Van Diemen's Land and Port Jackson, the master reported that he had seen a large shoal of spermaceti whales. His words were, 'I saw more whales at one time around my ship than in the whole of six years which I have fished on the coast of Brazil.'

This intelligence was no sooner communicated than all the whalers were eager to push to sea. Melville himself was among the most early; and on the 10th of November, returned to Port Jackson, more confident of success than before. He a.s.sured me that in the fourteen days which he had been out, he had seen more spermaced whales than in all his former life. They amounted, he said to many thousands, most of them of enormous magnitude; and had he not met with bad weather he could have killed as many as he pleased. Seven he did kill, but owing to the stormy agitated state of the water, he could not get any of them aboard. In one however, which in a momentary interval of calm, was killed and secured by a ship in company, he shared. The oil and head matter of this fish, he extolled as of an extraordinary fine quality. He was of opinion the former would fetch ten pounds per ton more in London than that procured on the Brazil coast. He had not gone farther south than 37 degrees; and described the lat.i.tude of 35 degrees to be the place where the whales most abounded, just on the edge of soundings, which here extends about fifteen leagues from the sh.o.r.e; though perhaps, on other parts of the coast the bank will be found to run hardly so far off.

On the following day (November 11th) the 'Mary Anne', Captain Munro, another of the whalers, returned into port, after having been out sixteen days. She had gone as far south as 41 degrees but saw not a whale, and had met with tremendously bad weather, in which she had shipped a sea that had set her boiling coppers afloat and had nearly carried them overboard.

November 22d. The 'William and Anne', Captain Buncker, returned after having been more than three weeks out, and putting into Broken Bay. This is the ship that had killed the fish in which Melville shared. Buncker had met with no farther success, owing, he said, entirely, to gales of wind; for he had seen several immense shoals and was of opinion that he should have secured fifty tons of oil, had the weather been tolerably moderate. I asked him whether he thought the whales he had seen were fish of pa.s.sage. "No,"

he answered, "they were going on every point of the compa.s.s, and were evidently on feeding ground, which I saw no reason to doubt that they frequent." Melville afterwards confirmed to me this observation. December 3rd, the 'Mary Anne' and 'Matilda' again returned. The former had gone to the southward, and off Port Jervis had fallen in with two shoals of whales, nine of which were killed, but owing to bad weather, part of five only were got on board. As much, the master computed, as would yield thirty barrels of oil. He said the whales were the least shy of any he had ever seen, "not having been cut up". The latter had gone to the northward, and had seen no whales but a few fin-backs.

On the 5th of December, both these ships sailed again; and on the 16th and 17th of the month (just before the author sailed for England) they and the 'Britannia' and 'William and Anne' returned to Port Jackson without success having experienced a continuation of the bad weather and seen very few fish. They all said that their intention was to give the coast one more trial, and if it miscarried to quit it and steer to the northward in search of less tempestuous seas.

The only remark which I have to offer to adventurers on the above subject, is not to suffer discouragement by concluding that bad weather only is to be found on the coast of New South Wales, where the whales have hitherto been seen. Tempests happen sometimes there, as in other seas, but let them feel a.s.sured that there are in every month of the year many days in which the whale fishery may be safely carried on. The evidence of the abundance in which spermaceti whales are sometimes seen is incontrovertible: that which speaks to their being 'not fish of pa.s.sage' is at least respectable and hitherto uncontradicted. The prospect merits attention--may it stimulate to enterprise.

The two discoveries of Port Jervis and Matilda Bay (which are to be found in the foregoing sheets) may yet be wanting in the maps of the coast.

My account of their geographic situation, except possibly in the exact longitude of the latter (a point not very material) may be safely depended upon. A knowledge of Oyster Bay, discovered and laid down by the 'Mercury'

store-ship, in the year 1789, would also be desirable. But this I am incapable of furnishing.

Here terminates my subject. Content with the humble province of detailing facts and connecting events by undisturbed narration, I leave to others the task of antic.i.p.ating glorious, or gloomy, consequences, from the establishment of a colony, which unquestionably demands serious investigation, ere either its prosecution or abandonment be determined.

But doubtless not only those who planned, but those who have been delegated to execute, an enterprise of such magnitude, have deeply revolved, that "great national expense does not imply the necessity of national suffering.

While revenue is employed with success to some valuable end, the profits of every adventure being more than sufficient to repay its costs, the public should gain, and its resources should continue to multiply. But an expense whether sustained at home or abroad; whether a waste of the present, or an antic.i.p.ation of the future, revenue, if it bring no adequate return, is to be reckoned among the causes of national ruin."*

[*Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society.]