ies of fraud, or so useful to colonial traders,
that the magistrates held the payment of a gratuity to be a bar to
further inquiry.[65] The convicts were thus exposed to severe, and even
dangerous privations. Scurvy, a malady often in those days fatal to half
a ship's crew, broke down the strength of men emaciated, dispirited, and
diseased: many perished by the way, and a much larger number arrived
unfit for labor, and a public burden.

The management of a convict ship legally vested in the captain: his duty
contemplating nothing more than a safe arrival. The personal government
of the prisoners was confided to the surgeon, subject however to the
discipline of the ship, of which the captain was exclusive judge. The
health of the company was often sacrificed to the security of the
vessel: the prisoners suspected of piratical intentions, were battened
down and forbidden exercise, lest they should rise upon the crew. From
the first, the officers in charge claimed a right to inflict corporal
punishment; but, up to 1823, without the sanction of law. By the act
then passed, power to order punishment was confided to the
surgeon-superintendent, with the concurrence of the captain; who was
intrusted with a veto, and was bound to enter his assent in the
log-book, with the nature of the offence and extent of the
infliction.[66]

Apprehensions of mutiny were much more common, when transportation to
New Holland was recent, than experience has justified. On the slightest
alarm, the prisoners were loaded with chains, fastened to ring-bolts
attached to the ship's sides. Perhaps, no vessel ever crossed the Line
without some plot, rumoured or real; but the most ordinary precautions
have been found usually sufficient to detect and explode them: their
inventors have often been their discoverers. The prisoners, commonly
distrustful of each other, shrank from the confidence required to plan
and execute a revolt. But when timid officers were in charge, they
sometimes adopted restrictions severely oppressive; and which men of
more courage and experience perceive to be needless.

During the war, the deportation of prisoners was attended with special
difficulties: no ship's company were less likely to support the flag of
their country. They were often delayed until a convoy could attend them.
These hindrances were frequent, when this colony was founded. Both male
and female prisoners were commonly forwarded together: the officers and
soldiers