THE SETTLEMENT OF 1803 43 



during that vessel's stay, borrowed one non-commissioned officer 

 and ten privates to strengthen his own company for sentry and 

 other duties, and when he surrendered these and allowed for the 

 men who were under arrest or punishment, the weakness of his 

 position was brought home to him. The pressure of additional 

 work, which he had to put upon the convicts to get the transport 

 loaded as soon as possible, for which purpose they were building 

 a jetty, probably helped to make them more discontented. The 

 character of his general orders issued about this time seems to 

 indicate an excess of disciplinary severity, and although the reason 

 assigned for requiring the men to work on the Sundays and Satur- 

 day afternoons is that they may the sooner be freed from " this 

 unpromising and unproductive country," to where they would 

 enjoy the comforts of more fertile surroundings, the inducement 

 was probably insufficient to make them cheerfully acquiesce in 

 forced extra labour. The Governor, therefore, in conference with 

 the chaplain and the heads of the staff, organised a plan of associa- 

 tion by which the whole of the civil officers of the settlement 

 formed themselves into a kind of vigilance committee, doing night 

 patrol duty, armed with a pair of pistols, in case of any disturbance 

 in camp. Fortunately there was no general rising of the convicts, 

 and the courage of the gallant special constables was not severely 

 tested. They had their regular patrols, their watchwords and 

 countersigns, and more than once turned out with vigorous inten- 

 tions of capturing runaways, in which they were generally un- 

 successful. On the 7th of January, 1804, no less than twenty -nine 

 in all started in pursuit of some escaped convicts, and returned at 

 dusk without finding them, though, according to the chaplain's 

 diary, "it was computed that the distance we walked could not be 

 less than fifty miles, some said more ". The loss of time and waste 

 of energy so irritated the Governor at last that he proclaimed in 

 one of his general orders his intention of making no further search 

 for absconders, who if they did not return voluntarily must be left 

 to perish of famine, so the loading of the Ocean was pushed on 

 without intermission, and on the 24th of January 120 of the convicts 

 were embarked in her with a guard of twenty marines. On the 

 next day the free settlers, and some of the civil staff, were embarked 



