Page 595 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

charge, Captain McNab, has been induced by Frere to in-
crease their duties in many ways. The cords of discipline
are suddenly drawn tight. For the disorder which prevailed
when I landed, Frere has substituted a sudden and exces-
sive rigour. Any officer found giving the smallest piece of
tobacco to a prisoner is liable to removal from the island..
The tobacco which grows wild has been rooted up and de-
stroyed lest the men should obtain a leaf of it. The privilege
of having a pannikin of hot water when the gangs came in
from field labour in the evening has been withdrawn. The
shepherds, hut-keepers, and all other prisoners, whether at
the stations of Longridge or the Cascades (where the Eng-
lish convicts are stationed) are forbidden to keep a parrot or
any other bird. The plaiting of straw hats during the pris-
oners’ leisure hours is also prohibited. At the settlement
where the ‘old hands’ are located railed boundaries have
been erected, beyond which no prisoner must pass unless
to work. Two days ago Job Dodd, a negro, let his jacket fall
over the boundary rails, crossed them to recover it, and was
severely flogged. The floggings are hideously frequent. On
flogging mornings I have seen the ground where the men
stood at the triangles saturated with blood, as if a buck-
et of blood had been spilled on it, covering a space three
feet in diameter, and running out in various directions, in
little streams two or three feet long. At the same time, let
me say, with that strict justice I force myself to mete out to
those whom I dislike, that the island is in a condition of ab-
ject submission. There is not much chance of mutiny. The
men go to their work without a murmur, and slink to their

For the Term of His Natural Life