till more severe,
lodged on a rock: the surf dashed with perpetual violence on its base,
and the men were compelled to pass through, wet to the waist, and even
to the neck. They were destitute of bedding, sometimes in chains; their
fires were extinguished, and they laid down in their clothes, in a cold
and miserable resting place.[146]

They were subject to a single will; moved often by perjury, and
sometimes by passion. One man, Alexander Anderson, a convict
overseer,[147] delighted in human suffering--this was his qualification
for office; yet seventeen persons have been flogged in one day, at his
single report. The instrument of torture was special; double twisted and
knotted cords: 100 lashes were given, and repeated at short intervals.
Even to repine was criminal: an expression of _anger from the sufferer_,
was a punishable offence: a second infliction has been known to follow,
by a sentence on the spot.[148]

The alleviations of religious instruction were unknown. The commandant
was found, by the earliest clerical visitor, living in profligacy, and
he returned at once, despairing.[149] Women were, at first, sent there,
and four were dispatched to gather shells, under the charge of one man,
in whose hut they lodged. The forms of devotion depended on the surgeon,
and were detested by the prisoners. They were, mostly, desperate men,
and required a strong restraint; some were there, however, for offences
of no deep die, who, while the least spark of humanity remained, felt
the association more horrible than the place. To escape this dread
abode, they gambled for life; and, with the deliberation of actors,
divided the parts of a meditated murder, and sinister testimony. They
loathed existence, and were willing to shorten its duration, if the
excitement of a voyage and a trial might precede the execution. It was
their proverb, that all who entered there, gave up for ever the hope of
Heaven.[150] Death lost its terrors, and when some unhappy victims were
brought down to terrify the rest, they saw them die as many see friends
depart on a desirable but distant journey.[151] Some were detained for
years by a succession of punishments; perhaps, for the possession of a
fish-hook, of a potato, or an inch of tobacco. Some were flogged; until
this species of punishment lost, not only its terror, but its power: the
remnant of the understanding settled down into one single faculty--the
ability to endure. It will be our painful ta