Page 463 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

an officer or constable it was strictly ordered that a pris-
oner ‘must be most respectful in his manner and language,
when speaking of or to such officer or constable”. He was
held responsible only for the safety of his chains, and for the
rest was at the mercy of his gaoler. These gaolers—owning
right of search, entry into cells at all hours, and other droits
of seigneury—were responsible only to the Commandant,
who was responsible only to the Governor, that is to say, to
nobody but God and his own conscience. The jurisdiction
of the Commandant included the whole of Tasman’s Penin-
sula, with the islands and waters within three miles thereof;
and save the making of certain returns to head-quarters,
his power was unlimited.
A word as to the position and appearance of this place
of punishment. Tasman’s Peninsula is, as we have said be-
fore, in the form of an earring with a double drop. The lower
drop is the larger, and is ornamented, so to speak, with bays.
At its southern extremity is a deep indentation called Main-
gon Bay, bounded east and west by the organ-pipe rocks of
Cape Raoul, and the giant form of Cape Pillar. From Main-
gon Bay an arm of the ocean cleaves the rocky walls in a
northerly direction. On the western coast of this sea-arm
was the settlement; in front of it was a little island where
the dead were buried, called The Island of the Dead. Ere
the in-coming convict passed the purple beauty of this con-
vict Golgotha, his eyes were attracted by a point of grey
rock covered with white buildings, and swarming with life.
This was Point Puer, the place of confinement for boys from
eight to twenty years of age. It was astonishing— many

For the Term of His Natural Life