He had been once sent to Sydney in the interval on indulgence, but being re-convicted, was returned within two years. He was a very bold, daring man, who set his face against petty theft, and would even expose and detect it, but could not resist the temptation of what was striking or hazardous. Some little time before he went away he earnestly dissuaded some of his companions from a proposed theft of sacramental plate from the quarters of the Protestant clergyman. He said that "such a theft would bring a curse with it;" and meditating, as he must then have been, his other enterprise, it is possible that a touch of early reverence for things sacred may in this instance have kept him back. But, in general, he would refuse what did not involve danger or striking enterprise, and nothing that did. Had he been a soldier, in stirring times, his career might have been very different.-6. (1843). Three soldiers on duty, one over the gaol, which is near the boat-harbour, another over the boat-sheds, and the third at the door of the harbour guard-room, deserted their posts in the middle of the night, and, in concert with six prisoners, who had previously made all necessary preparations, carried a whale-boat to the harbour, and succeeded, with the exception of one of the soldiers, now waiting a court-martial, in getting away. They were first discovered making off by a prisoner, who slept in the neighbourhood, and who was awaked by the noise made by a dog about his house. He alarmed the police-runner, who called out the guard, and so little time was thus lost that a heavy, and it was thought not ineffectual, fire was poured into the boat as the men in her were endeavouring to haul in their companion, the soldier left behind, who in the bustle had got overboard. It was thus that he was retaken. The others got away. Two boats were instantly sent after them, but, the night being dark, they were not seen; and the following morning proved also thick. They were not discovered till sunset, when they were seen from Mount Pitt, on the extreme verge of the horizon, W.N.W., and thus far beyond pursuit.

It will be observed that these casualties have been much more common of late years than formerly, and this may, perhaps, be attributed to the want of old precautions. But on considering the circumstances attentively, this will not appear so certain a solution. The navigation of the Pacific is now so well known, that enterprises of this kind are stripped of half their old terrors; and the tendency of public opinion in England has of late years been so pronounced in favour of the amelioration of prisoners' condition and prospects, that those of them who, from accidental circumstances, have no very favourable prospect before them, are much more impatient in this position than they used to be. The prospects of escaped men are also fairer now than they were. When all capital and trade were in this neighbourhood confined to the penal colonies, eventual escape appeared so difficult, that all but the very stoutest shrank from attempting it; but now New Zealand, many extensive whaling establishments, and a better knowledge of the islands and inhabitants of the Pacific, all open more extensive views, and excite to more active enterprise. I thus doubt much whether any measures will entirely prevent absconding from this island in future, unless the prospects of the prisoners confined on it are materially improved; but the most efficient means and the most likely to be successful would, I think, be the maintaining the communication with head-quarters by two small vessels,

instead of one, and keeping one of them constantly about the island till relieved by the other, which should then take her turn. The constant presence of a cruizing vessel would, in some degree, deter from such attempts; and when made she could not but sometimes overtake and bring the delinquents back, which would still farther contribute to damp succeeding enterprise.

5. Men who have died from natural causes.- For use in this report I have obtained a detailed account of all diseases treated in the Civil Hospital here since 1837, with the number of deaths and medical remarks, furnished by Mr. Colonial Surgeon Graham, the senior medical officer. The records of the hospital do not go farther back. I have further, however, obtained from the other records of the island a detailed account of men (150 penal prisoners and 80 belonging to the new establishment), who have died since the beginning of 1833; and in the following tables I condense the chief information so afforded. Dr. Graham's recapitulation of hospital cases since 1837 is as follows:-See Table, page 27.

On which the following observations occur:-1. By referring to the population return, p. 11, it will be seen that the collective population within the period here embraced, viz., from the beginning of 1837, is 10,476; the cases have accordingly been 1 in 24, and deaths 1 in 56%. 2. The rate of sickness and mortality, it will be observed, however, has been very different among the penal and new prisoners, 2429 cases having occurred among 8059 arrivals, or 1 in 3, with 109 deaths, or 1 in 74 among the former; and 1622 cases among 2417 arrivals, or 1 in 1, with 80 deaths, or 1 in 30, among the latter. 3. This great difference I apprehend to have been caused mainly by the penal prisoners having been seasoned to the climate before coming on the island, and seasoned also in favourable circumstances, viz., on a full ration of food, consisting of fresh meat, wheaten flour, tea, and other luxuries, in private service in New South Wales; while the latter have here had only the Government ration of salt meat and maize meal, in itself not adequate to support the constitution under a change of climate, with labour, after a long sea voyage, and further rendered insufficient by the great repugnance felt by the men at first to the maize meal. 4. I consider this point, then, of great importance in the future appropriation of this island. I doubt if men should be sent to it direct from England at all, but at any rate they should not exceed in number what can be supplied from the resources of the island with two or three meals of fresh meat (beef and mutton) weekly; and for the first six or eight months they should have a proportion of wheaten bread with their maize. 5. In the peculiar circumstances, the mortality among the penal prisoners appears to me low. (The peculiar circumstances to which I allude may be thus summed up :- -On the one hand there are no young lives here, and the proportion of old is small. The climate is fine, and the temperature, in particular, is very equable. Exposure to sudden changes of any kind is thus rare. Vegetable food is good and abundant. Medical attendance is constantly at hand; and from circumstances connected with their penal condition, the men are disposed to complain soon and thus to give it fair play. On the other hand, having mostly passed a vicious youth, and many of them being the offspring of vicious parents, there is a strong scrofulous and scorbutic

tendency in the constitutions of most of them. This is fostered by the salt-meat ration, to which they are confined. Excluding the bone, this is generally deficient in quantity for the support of labouring men, and it is not unfrequently of inferior quality also; and some of the most prevalent habits among prisoners, as smoking and concocting trashy messes to eat and drink, as well as some of their too frequent vices, and the depression and despondency which cannot but weigh at times on all

their minds, must be prejudicial. The balance is undoubtedly against them.) 6. The prevailing ailments have been fevers, inflammation of the bowels and other intestines, dysentery, and consumption. 7. Cases are generally numerous in proportion to population. Among the new prisoners they are one-half more numerous even than the population. 8. With the exception of consumption generally, and dysentery among the new prisoners, cures are also numerous in proportion to cases. previously detailed circumstances appear sufficiently to explain both

facts.

The

Of the 150 penal prisoners who have died since 1833, and the 80 new prisoners who have died since 1840, the following is a distribution according to their countries, age when first convicted, and at death, and length of time that they respectively survived their original convictions. I add, also, the proportion of deaths in the several classes to arrivals in the same classes. Some of the facts so brought out appear to me

interesting :

1. Among the penal prisoners the total deaths are by this table about per cent. of the total arrivals. in the same class are to their arrivals in the same proportion. The Irish The deaths among the English proper are above it, being rather more than 6 per cent., and the Scotch below, being under 4 per cent. differ widely. The total deaths in this class are above 13 per cent. of 2. Among the new prisoners these proportions the total arrivals. The English deaths are 16 per cent. of their arrivals, the Irish not more than 9 per cent., and the Scotch 10. comparison may it not be inferred that the English constitution does not 3. From this

4.

stand a violent change of climate and diet so well as the Irish? In other words, it is likely to suffer more in all cases in seasoning than the other; but when seasoned, as originally the better fed, it is hardier and longer lived. The inference seems fair, but the premises are narrow. Among the penal prisoners, above a third (53) of the whole number of deaths is of men convicted under 20 years. Diseased parentage, with early vice and irregularity in themselves, and early experience of the hardships and initiation into the vices and practices of a prison life, abundantly explain this. Yet the proportion of this class is under a sixth among the new prisoners, and is not quite a half, even including men convicted between 20 and 25. 5. On the other hand, a list of aged prisoners now here, or who have died here, which I have now before me, shows that nearly all were convicted late in life. Only one of them was convicted under 33; he was 22: and the average of the whole is 472. 6. The average value of life in a penal condition here (38 years) is low; that was to be expected: but there is a remarkable agreement in the average periods that those convicted under 35 years of age have survived their conviction, that deserves notice. These are precisely the individuals who suffer most under the existing principles of prison management,-who are considered strongest to bear the inflictions directed by them, whose wills are strongest and consequently most strongly pressed on by them, and whose animal spirits are likely to carry them to the greatest lengths in resisting, evading, or solacing themselves under them by vicious indulgence. Does this combination of circumstances, then, constitute such an external pressure as to make the chance of life after conviction the same from 16 to 35 years of age, and reduce it to 11 years? I think it not improbable that something like this is the real effect; yet the facts here cited are too few entirely to confirm the inference.

In general the men here die very quietly and composedly, resigning themselves with little apparent reluctance to their fate, and receiving and applying, even the worst of them, to their own cases the consolations of religion with little apparent doubt or hesitation. There are exceptions, men who die utterly obdurate and impenitent, and men who show great uneasiness about their future prospects; but the reverse is the rule: and it is, I think, much to be lamented. A more painful death in the case of very wicked men would be salutary to survivors, and probably more beneficial to themselves. The circumstance proceeds, I think, from two causes-First, the ties of a prisoner to life are not strong, and his habits of enterprise reconcile him readily to any change; and secondly, the moral guilt of their several offences is very little felt by the body at large. They have for such a length of time looked to them as their only sources of indulgence and subsistence, that they have almost ceased to consider them as involving moral guilt at all. The degree in which I can trace this in the minds even of my best men is wonderful, and it proceeds, in a great degree, from the system of measuring sentences by time instead of by conduct. Conduct has thus no prominent value attached to it in their every-day life, and misconduct no directly injurious effect; while other circumstances also conspire. Men long kept without personal property, have little sympathy with the moral reasoning which would protect property; and where submissiveness is the only virtue