ore_ dissolved the illusion. The
persuasion of the women accomplished what the male prisoners rarely
attempted, and when on their passage to the colonies have never been
able to effect. The soldiers and sailors, seduced by their caresses,
seized the vessel, and having shot the captain and the chief officer,
steered into a South American port. Once only, did a piratical plot
assume a serious form. The prisoners by the _Chapman_ devised a capture;
but the report of the design being communicated, the guard was prepared
for resistance. A deadly fire covered the deck with carnage: several
were precipitated into the sea. The sanguinary conflict, which might
have been prevented by timely precautions, obtained for the _Chapman_
the popular prefix by which it is distinguished.[71] On one occasion, a
vessel was in imminent danger, through the foolish incaution of the
guard. It was the custom to discharge the fire-arms at sunrise, and to
load them at noon: the interval seemed to offer the fairest prospect of
success, and the prisoners extensively joined in the conspiracy; but
they were overheard in conversation by a soldier standing at the
hatchway: the ringleaders were seized, and the plot defeated.

During the shorter voyages, from port to port, such accidents have been
much more common, although rarely successful. Knatchbull, a relative of
the eminent Kentish family, and formerly an officer in the navy, enticed
his fellow prisoners to attempt the capture of the vessel which conveyed
them: but his device, to poison all but the conspirators with arsenic,
was denounced.[72]

The prisoners sent down from Sydney to Van Diemen's Land, were conveyed
in small crafts and small numbers, and without much regard to their
health; but as an example of wretchedness, nothing could exceed the
usual passage from Hobart Town to Macquarie Harbour. The unhappy men,
often destitute of clothing, were placed in the hold of a vessel,
without bedding or blankets, and were exposed, sometimes for five or six
weeks, to the chills of a wintry voyage: on one such, there were
thirty-five men, who had but four blankets among them; and one was found
without any other covering than his shirt, in which plight he had been
forwarded from the gaol.[73]

The surgeon-superintendent enters on his office at the same moment with
the guard: his duties are multiform--the magistrate, the chaplain, the
mentor, and the physician. The surgeons are usually popular with the
p