SCHEMING OF CONVICTS. 207 



The scheming of the assigned servants is very 

 annoying to the settler : the men often feign 

 sickness, to be revenged upon their masters : 

 several instances of this kind I have seen at a 

 distance of one hundred and eighty-six, and two 

 hundred miles from Liverpool. When requested, 

 during my visit to the interior, to see these men, 

 some were ill, but unable to undergo the fatigue 

 of travelling so far to the hospital ; others sud- 

 denly got well, and went to their work, when 

 medical assistance was so near them : one 

 boasted, that by methods known to himself he 

 could produce appearances of disease so as to de- 

 ceive any medical practitioner ; he had but just 

 returned from the Liverpool hospital, and was 

 always ill, his master informed me, during the 

 most busy times. The establishment of an hos- 

 pital at Goulburn Plains would obviate most 

 of this just cause of complaint made by the 

 settler.^' 



There is a lunatic asylum at Liverpool, which 

 I also inspected : there were several patients 

 of both sexes within its walls. The esta- 

 blishment was small, and the building did not 

 appear to have been originally constructed for 

 the purpose for which it was used. 



* Since the above was written, this inconvenience has 

 been obviated, by government establishing an hospital at 

 Goulburn Plains. 



