86 CONVICTS. 



of residence ; but at tlie same time they are expected 

 to give information as to where they reside to the 

 police, and to be within doors at 8 o'clock in the 

 evening. If these ticket holders continue to conduct 

 themselves in a praiseworthy manner, they then 

 receive a conditional pardon, which entitles them to 

 leave the country, but at the same time debars them 

 from returning to Great Britain or Ireland; or, if con- 

 demned in the colonies, from returning to the place 

 of conviction ; permission is, however, accorded to 

 them to take up their residence in any other part of 

 this colony, or in any colony under the control of the 

 English government — England, by this precaution, 

 guarding against the return of her prison population 

 to her own shore. Hence these men, knowing that 

 the stigma of conviction will cling to their skirts as 

 long as they remain in this country, anxiously desire 

 to embark in whalers — the United States being, in 

 their eyes, the land of promise — and in this way 

 numbers of emigrants of very doubtful character 

 land on our shores. It is customary for whale-ships 

 to engage some of these men ; occasionally discharging 

 their entire original crew, and shipping these in their 

 places. We had a number of them during the voy- 

 age, and in this port we shipped two. I cannot but 

 deprecate the practice of introducing men of such 

 vicious antecedents, into a forecastle in which are 

 American youths, who, by intercourse with such 

 people, begin quickly to have very crude ideas of 

 morality ; and, unless there is some strong-minded 

 person, with a clear, cool head, to rebut their specious 

 arguments, they exercise an injurious influence on 

 the minds of the young. 



