Читать книгу Under the Broad Arrow - George Forbes - Страница 4

Table of Contents

AS a punishment transportation was much dreaded by law-breakers in the old country during the last century, and with some reason, for confinement in the gaols and penitentiaries of England, where, by comparison, labor was light and the food good, was not at all equal to the hardships attendant upon banishment beyond the seas.

At Woolwich, John Fitch and the other prisoners from the hulks destined for Australia were put on board the convict ship Asia; every man as he descended into the hold being numbered on the back like one of a flock of sheep. The centre of the vessel was divided into compartments, each accommodating eight men, with a square table and seats of portable deal boards arranged in tiers above and below. At night they were so disposed as to form sleeping berths.

With that strange admixture of severity and freedom which characterised the prison discipline of former times, the convicts at Woolwich were allowed to say good-bye to their friends, and much latitude was given them upon these occasions. The friends, of course, brought liquor with them, and all were soon more or less under the influence of ardent spirits, which manifested itself in songs and ribald jests, and even dances, on the part of the wretched convicts, some of whom could be seen step-dancing to the tune of an obliging fiddle, with their irons held up so as to give their feet better play. These scenes, revolting as they would appear now, were common enough then, and excited no more than a passing notice amongst those who witnessed them, inured as they were to the barbarous penal code in force at the time.

The heartless indifference sometimes shown by these involuntary exiles was remarkable. On one occasion the grief displayed by a young convict when bidding good-bye to his wife appeared to be so real and genuine that the sympathy of the onlookers was aroused. He wept over her, and clung to her in a manner that excited the pity of all beholders. But when, at last, she had torn herself from his embraces and was being taken on shore, the boat put back, when the young wife once more boarded the vessel and accused her husband of having robbed her, at the time of his affecting farewell, of her wedding ring and the money she had brought with her to pay her fare back to London.

After remaining for several days at Woolwich, the Asia set sail, and the long voyage to Australia, which would probably last for more than three months, began.

Life on the Asia became a round of dull routine, coupled with harsh and unremitting discipline, which differed in no respect from that endured by prisoners under sentence of transportation upon other similar vessels at the time, and when it is considered that the crowded state of the prison ship between decks made it difficult to breathe the foetid atmosphere, and that the daily food of the convicts consisted of salt meat, so bad that only starving men would eat it, and Indian corn-cake, beside which the coarsest bread would have been a choice delicacy, it will be seen that the real suffering of the prisoners lay in the manner in which they were fed and berthed upon these floating penitentiaries.

Of vegetables there were none, and the only water available was a muddy liquid, drawn from a well in the hold of the ship and afterwards permitted to become tepid by exposure to the sun.

In order to prevent scurvy, through lack of vegetable food, when the ship had been ten or fifteen days at sea, and once a fortnight afterwards, an anti-scorbutic beverage, consisting of water, lime juice, sugar, and very strong rum, was served on the quarterdeck, the prisoners being called up one by one to pass through the door of a barricade, and, having drunk their allowance, to cross the deck and return to their prison through another doorway.

Such was life on board the Asia when John Fitch came out in her to New South Wales, but although he was probably among the worst of the convicts, his aristocratic connections—for he came of noble lineage—saved him from sharing the hard fate of those less favored, and special quarters were allowed him during the voyage.

Upon the ordinary prisoners the effects of their long confinement on these convict ships became very noticeable. Their energies seemed to be impaired, and their powers of thought, their common sense, and, above all, their memory, appeared to have almost gone. Many of them were like children, and all complained of an inability to perform any considerate or concerted action.

The voyage occupied 124 days, and, when it is remembered that one half of that time was passed in the loathsome prison between decks, in darkness and among the most debasing associations, some idea may be formed of the miseries that were attendant upon transportation in the last century.