144 Basil Hall's Account of the Penitentiary, 



it otters a point of very considerable importance for establish- 

 ments for whale fisheries. 



The black whale is abundant on all the coast from May to 

 August and Septemter, and between it and -Madagascar the 

 spermaceti whale is abundant in the months last mentioned. The 

 bay and its rivers produce seals, hippopotami, turtles, ambergris, 

 and abundauce of fish ; and by its situation it would command a 

 free intercourse and commerce with every point on the entire 

 coasts of Madagascar, at all seasons of the year. 



These are its positive advantages to Great Britain, to which 

 may be added, that her sovereignty might extend thence, 

 towards the Southward, until it embrace the whole coast of 

 Natal, apparently the richest and best endowed land in all Africa. 



But should this bay fall into the possession of either the 

 Americans, the French, or the Russians, it would be most 

 ruinous, not only to the Cape colony, but to our East India 

 possessions and commerce, either in peace or war. In peace 

 by becoming a mart for all East India productions; and in war 

 as being one of the finest ports in the world whence inimical 

 enterprizes might issue at pleasure. 



An Account of the Penitentiary, or State Prison, at 

 Sing Sing, near New York, and of the discipline 

 pursued towards the prisoners confined in it. By 

 Captain Basil Hall.* 



On Wednesday the 30th May, we visited the Penitentiary, or 

 State Prison, at a place- called Sing Sing, on the left or east 

 bank of the Hudson River, at the distance of thirty miles 

 from New York, 



I have yet seen nothing in any part of the world in the way 

 of prisons, which appeared to be better managed than this 

 establishment. It is no easy task to bring people who are 

 well disposed under the influence of strict discipline ; but 

 when the parties to be wrought upon are wicked and turbulent 

 by nature, and altogether unaccustomed to restraint, the 

 difficulty is considerably augmented. This problem, however, 

 has been, I think, pretty nearly solved in America. 



I had been told, in a general way, that several hundred 

 convicts were employed at this spot, in the construction of a 

 prison in which they themselves were eventually to be con- 

 fined ; but I could scarcely credit the accounts which described 

 the degree of order and subordination maintained amongst a 

 set of the most hardened ruffians any where to be found. 

 Accordingly, although prepared in some degree, my astonish- 



* Travels in North America, vol. 1. p. 51. 



