292 
Excursion to Port A thur . 
from Brown’s River for insolence to the superintendent, 
the only instance of his having demeaned himself with 
impropriety. There have been many falsehoods in the 
English papers with respect to Frost. For example— 
when first landed, lie was sent to Port Arthur, and there 
employed without pay as a writer, a mere copier in the 
Commandant’s office. This simple fact was tortured into 
an alleged Government appointment of profit and con¬ 
sideration , upon which fruitful theme various newspapers 
of the day took care to ring the changes. Knowing, 
from long colonial experience, that such a thing could 
not be, I (then in London) published the matter as it 
actually stood. As a further instance of the “ undoubted 
authority” of the press—three days have barely elapsed 
since I read a paragraph in a London weekly, copied 
from a Glasgow, paper, in which the journalist declares, 
upon the authority of a nameless person, who “ reports” 
having: seen the man in Van Diemen’s Land, that Frost 
was engaged with Williams in the latter’s attempt to 
escape : pure fiction every line, Frost being then at. Port 
Arthur, Williams at the coal-mines, more than twenty 
well-guarded miles apart. 
The attempts at escape by boats, canoes, and cata¬ 
marans are frequent; indeed. Captain Booth showed us 
a variety of such contrivances. Upon one occasion, his 
own crew made off with his boat. “ Who’ll volunteer 
in chase?” was the word in the penitentiary of Port 
Arthur. In an instant an able crew was at the Captain’s 
command, and a second boat in earnest pursuit. The 
men made their oars spring again ; and if the first boat 
had not had too great a start, she could not have failed 
of capture: she was re-taken soon after, and the 
fugitives transferred to their abandoned quarters. Upon 
another occasion a singular device was had recourse 
to.—This was a sort of packing case, about eight or 
nine feet in length, two feet and a half broad, and nine 
