Читать книгу Old Convict Times to Gold Digging Days - William Derricourt - Страница 17

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With my first irons in the Tench I had no leggings, up and down straps, or knee garters to protect my legs. Luckily, however, there was a man who in two days would finish his time who promised to let me have his "up and downers" if I would give him my dump. Meanwhile I tore off a piece of my shirt and the lining out of my hat to protect my legs as well as I could. I had to walk to Newtown in my irons, and a painful tramp it was. At this time I had in my kit two shirts. One was taken from me, and on Saturday afternoons, when shirts had to be washed, I was obliged to strip my body for the purpose. No fire was allowed, and so the shirt had to be dried by waving it in the air, or, on damp days, to dry on my back. At night we were sent on board the hulk, where there were two rows of bunks, one above the other. Mine was a lower bunk. On turning in, I found my legs so chafed by the basils that I could not for a long time go to sleep. At last I dropped off but soon awoke with a start, and, jumping out on the floor, found I had plunged into water about four inches deep. I shouted "The ship's sinking," but only got laughed at and told I was floating in lime juice. There was nothing for it then but to wait patiently until the tide went down, and thus cleared our deck of water.

I was employed for about a fortnight with the gang, carting metal and repairing the road. Our rations here were better and more regular than at former places, but we were still watched by the ever present sentry.

One day the sub-overseer ordered me to come with him into the bush, and cut hammer handles for the stonebreakers. On account of the state of my legs I could not walk well, and, when I was out of sight of the sentry I said, "You won't catch me going back to the gang."

"Won't I," said the sub-overseer.

"Come on;" and, on that, seizing my opportunity, I dealt him a blow with my full strength, stretched him senseless, and decamped. Afraid of losing myself in the bush I kept the road in sight. I came soon to a rocky place and there managed, by repeated hammering with a large stone, to oval my basils and get rid of my irons. My magpie suit I, of course, could not get rid of, having no other clothes. That night I slept in a hollow log, and next morning breakfasted on raw turnips from a field; but I was soon sighted by two armed constables, run down, captured, and returned to the hulk at Newtown, whence I was sent back to Hobart Town for trial, on the charges of assaulting the overseer and bolting, and placed in the "dust hole" at the lockup until my case should be called on.

Having my iron mess-spoon with me, I set about grinding the edge until I had made a sort of knife. With it I got one of the hoops off my night-tub, broke it in two, and, by hitting one edge against the other, made a rough sort of saw. I was now prepared to attempt my escape. With my spoon-knife I loosened all the mortar round one of the stones as high up as I could reach.

By means of a tub-stave I then prized out the stone and so got to the ceiling of my cell, which proved to be also the floor of the prison church. The church was partly inside the prison walls; but at the end of it for the public ran outside. In the floor of the church there was a small hole, probably that of a mouse. This gave me room to use my saw and my knife, and I soon had some boards cut away, and had forced myself into the church. With my rough tools I broke the clasp off the bolt of the door, and next minute stood in the street, opposite the "Old Commodore" public-house, a free man again, except that I still had on my fetters.

I crept along the streets, not knowing where I was, and was soon met by a prison constable (that is a prisoner acting as a constable, all constables then being prisoners). The man, hearing my chain clank, grappled me and held on by my irons.

I was overpowered, taken back to the Tench, this time placed in one of the Mill cells, and next morning brought up once more before John Price.

"Ho," said Mr. Price, "you are here again in spite of my threatening you and telling you what you would get. You dare me to my teeth. Take him away." In five minutes I had received a sentence of two years in chains at Port Arthur for bolting from the chain gang at Newtown.

I was then lodged again in the "dust hole," to be once more tried for breaking out of it. When there I ripped up every article of clothing that I had, even to my boots.

At 9 o'clock next morning a camp constable came to take me before Mr. Gunn. On opening the door, and seeing that I had not a stitch to cover myself with, he reported my condition, and was ordered to provide me with a long watchman's coat and bring me up. Standing in this single garment I was sentenced by Mr. Gunn to thirty days' solitary confinement. I returned to a cell under the mill to do my term, and never came out of it again for the full month, although in other places it was usual to allow a prisoner two hours' daily exercise in the yard. The only light I had in the cell was when my daily allowance of one pound of bread was brought me in the morning. My supply of water was passed me through a small hole in the wall.

As I was young I soon began to find my pound of bread was not enough to satisfy me, and I cudgelled my brains for a plan to get more. I hit upon one at last. Out of the up and down straps supporting my irons I made a line with a running noose. I intended that, when my gaoler came with the breads I would slip this noose round his neck, draw him up to the hole, and demand more. Everything turned out as I had planned. While I had the man tight in the noose I said "Give me more bread or I'll strangle you." When I lowered the fellow down again to his basket he gave me three pounds of bread, saying "Well, for a proby (probationer) you're a plucky one. I won't report you. You deserve credit." He kept his word and after this I always had something beyond my allowance. I met my gaoler years after on the Turon. He was known through the colonies as Paddy Sinclair, of fighting renown. Many a good laugh we have had about that bread.

I was now under a sentence of three years in irons, including the one year at the Newtown hulks from which I had bolted. At the end of my thirty days I got again on full rations, though still confined in the same cell. I was, however, allowed in the open air while my den was being thoroughly washed and cleansed. The first effect of the sudden change from darkness to the full light of day was to make me helpless and insensible, and thus I remained until nightfall.