100 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



diseases made many of the later voyages unique in the 

 sin-stained annals of mankind. Honest women, trans- 

 ported for a bagatelle or a point of honour, were con- 

 strained to prostitute themselves, and not a few of the 

 ships were arenas of promiscuous sexual intercourse, 

 therein resembling som.e ancient heathen temples on 

 occasion of the worship of certain deities. 



The numbers of the convicts were considerable for a 

 new colony. The historical First Fleet brought out 

 565 men and 192 women, and two or three subsequent 

 " fleets," together with a large number of single vessels, 

 swelled the convict-population. In 1828, when he 

 introduced a bill to amend the constitution, Mr. Huskis- 

 son stated that there were only 18,000 free settlers in a 

 total population of 49,000, showing that New South 

 Wales was still predominantly a convict-settlement. 

 On the other hand. Sir James Mackintosh, supported 

 by Joseph Hume, claimed that there were in the Colony 

 55,000 free settlers — an obvious and gross exaggeration. 



In 1833 the convicts in New South Wales numbered 

 28,000. That was a large proportion in a population 

 of hardly 65,000, and it conclusively proved that the 

 Colony was still a convict settlement. But of the 37,000 

 free only 21,000 had been originally free ; 15,000 or 

 16,000 were freedmen, expiree or pardoned convicts, 

 emancipates or emancipists, as they were euphoniously 

 styled. Only 30 per cent, of the population consisted 

 of free citizens. In the same year there were in Van 

 Diemen's Land as many as 15,000 convicts. Governor 

 Sir J. Eardley Wilmot stated that 16,000 persons in 

 less than four years were transported to that Colony. 

 On the whole, it may be roughly computed that, when 

 transportation to New South Wales ceased in 1851, 

 some 90,000 convicts had been transported thither. 



It has often been said, in well-meant deprecation of 

 the possible evil consequences arising from the founding 

 of a community on a convict base, that most of the 

 convicts transported to New South Wales were guilty 

 only of minor offences, which the savage criminal code 



