on their fees: by a casuistry, never long
wanting to those who earnestly seek it, even men beyond the rank of
overseers, persuaded themselves that the recognised stipends were never
intended to be reckoned as payment.[139] The tender of these supplies
was a source of profit to the officers; like the butlers of noblemen,
persons of the highest trust were not insensible to presents; and
merchandise was accepted only when the "regulars" were duly paid. The
waste of public property, occasioned by the system, was great. The loss
and sacrifice of clothing and tools; the spoiling of food, and the
wilful destruction of implements, proved how large may be the outlay of
the crown, without much advantage to a colony. Years were required to
reduce these evils; some of which are yet not unknown.

These were, however, small changes, compared with the total revolution
in the spirit and details of convict management, suggested by the
Commissioner. All those signs of advancement which he saw in the
material state of the colonies, in connection with the objects of
transportation, were anomalies in his eyes. He observed, that the
prisoners were always anxious to reside in the towns, where they
obtained, by casual labor, the price and opportunities of dissipation.
By a peremptory exercise of his authority, Mr. Bigge stopped some of the
public works, and promoted the dispersion of those multitudes who were
employed in the improvement of the capital.

The Commissioner, strongly impressed with the mischief incident to the
congregation of prisoners in the presence of a free community, proposed
several remedies. Among the most important was the establishment of
settlements, purely penal, at Port Curtis, Moreton Bay, and Port Bowen.
These places were explored by Mr. Oxley, the surveyor-general of the
colonies. Moreton Bay is situated 480 miles from Port Jackson: this
region, watered by the Brisbane, unequalled for climate and soil in any
part of the globe of the same latitude; adorned with trees of
magnificent growth,[140] had nothing in its natural features to repel.
Though the days are warm in summer (80 deg. to 100 deg.), the nights are cool,
and for several months fires are agreeable. Bananas, plantains, and
pines--cotton, tobacco, maize, the sugar cane, and all the ordinary
productions of a tropical climate, are cultivated with success. The
atmosphere is soft and salubrious: of 1,200 persons, afterwards
stationed there, sometimes not more