428 VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. [CHAP. xix. 



between the convicts, and so prevents crime. As to a sense of 

 shame, such a feeling does not appear to be known, and of this I 

 witnessed some very singular proofs. Though it is a curious fact, 

 I was universally told that the character of the convict population 

 is one of arrant cowardice : not unfrequently some become desperate, 

 and quite indifferent as to life, yet a plan requiring cool or continued 

 courage is seldom put into execution. The worst feature in the 

 whole case is, that although there exists what may be called a legal 

 reform, and comparatively little is committed which the law can 

 touch, yet that any moral reform should take place appears to bo 

 quite out of the question. I was assured by well-informed people, 

 that a man who should try to improve, could not while living with 

 other assigned servants ; his life would be one of intolerable misery 

 and persecution. Nor must the contamination of the convict-ships 

 and prisons, both here and in England, be forgotten. On the whole, 

 as a place of punishment, the object is scarcely gained ; as a real 

 system of reform it has failed, as perhaps would every other plan ; 

 but as a means of making men outwardly honest, of converting 

 vagabonds, most useless in one hemisphere, into active citizens of 

 another, and thus giving birth to a new and splendid country a 

 grand centre of civilization it has succeeded to a degree perhaps 

 unparalleled in history. 



30th. The Beagle sailed for Hobart Town in Van Dieman's Laud. 

 On the 5th of February, after a six days' passage, of which the first 

 part was fine, and the latter very cold and squally, we entered the 

 mouth of Storm Bay : the weather justified this awful name. The 

 bay should rather be called an estuary, for it receives at its head 

 the waters of the Derwent. Near the mouth, there are some ex- 

 tensive basaltic platforms ; but higher up the land becomes moun- 

 tainous, and is covered by a light wood. The lower parts of the 

 hills which skirt the bay are cleared ; and the bright yellow fields 

 of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant. 

 Late in the evening we anchored in the snug cove, on the shores of 

 which stands the capital of Tasmania. The first aspect of the place 

 was very inferior to that of Sydney ; the latter might be called a 

 city, this is only a town. It stands at the base of Mount Wellington, 

 a mountain 3100 feet high, but of little picturesque beauty: from 

 this source, however, it receives a good supply of water. Round 

 the cove there are some fine warehouses, and on one side a small 



