MISCELLANIES. 



627 



a surgeon, who undergoes an exa- 

 mination at Surgeons' Hall and 

 the Transport- office. He is in- 

 structed to keep a diary not only 

 of the illness on board, but of the 

 number of convicts admitted on 

 deck ; of the scraping the decks, 

 cleaning the births, and general 

 treatment of the transports. The 

 sick are to be visited twice a-day, 

 the healthy once. He is ordered 

 to take the greatest precaution 

 against infection, and to fumigate 

 the clothes of those taken to the 

 hospital. He has not only power 

 to use medicines, but also the 

 stores, if any sick be in want of 

 greater nourishment. He is further 

 instructed to transmit to the secre- 

 tary of stateany observations which 

 may occur to him productive of 

 improvement in the mode of treat- 

 ment, and he is paid a gratuity of 

 10*. 6d. for every convict landed 

 in New South Wales. The in- 

 structions to the master are equally 

 satisfactory. He is to be particu- 

 larly cautious to receive no diseased 

 person on board during the voyage; 

 a proportion of the prisoners is daily 

 to be admitted upon deck, and 

 the births of all cleaned and aired ; 

 and these things are to be noted in 

 the log-book, which is afterwards 

 submitted to the governor of New 

 South Wales: and if the conduct 

 of the master appears to have been 

 satisfactory, he receives a gratuity 

 of 50/. If the contrary should 

 turn out to be the case, a power of 

 mulcting him is given by the con- 

 tract, and he becomes liable to a 

 prosecution. The ration of pro- 

 vision is fixed, and appears to be 

 amply sufficient for the support of 

 the men ; about 200 men or womt n 

 are generally embarked on board 

 one ship, with a guard of 30 men 



and an officer. Such are the pre- 

 sent regulations for the voyage ; 

 and however bad the treatment of 

 the convicts on board the vessels 

 may formerly have been, the 

 present system appears to your 

 committee to be unobjectionable. 

 The witnesses speak of it in terms 

 of high commendation, particularly 

 two of those who have been sent 

 out as convicts. Governor Mac- 

 quarrie, in his last dispatches, men- 

 tions the good treatment of the 

 prisoners on board the two trans- 

 ports last sent out ; and a still 

 stronger proof of the improve- 

 ment in the mode of conveyance 

 is, that from the year 1795 to 

 1801, of 3,883 convicts embark- 

 ed, 385 died on board the trans- 

 ports, being nearly one in ten; 

 but since 1801, of 2,398 embarked 

 52 only have died on the passage, 

 being one in 46. The only further 

 observation your committee have 

 to make on this part of the subject 

 is one of regret, that no arrange- 

 ment whatever is made for the per- 

 formance of Divine Service dur- 

 ing this six months' voyage ; that 

 this, which is the heaviest part of 

 their punishment, is also the least 

 likely to produce reformation. 

 With the dispatches from go- 

 vernment a list of the convicts is 

 generally sent, but this list has for 

 the most part been very deficient 

 in particularizing the offences of 

 which they have been convicted ; 

 and in distributing them upon their 

 arrival, the governor has no clue 

 to guide him in giving to them 

 more or less advantageous situa- 

 tions, according to the nature of 

 their crimes and characters : this 

 is a neglect easy, and at the same 

 time most necessary, to be cor- 

 rected. Upon the arrival of a 



