hip.

Some masters treated their men well according to their deserts; but
with regard to others, the exercise of despotic authority drew forth
all the evil passions of their souls, and made them callous to the
sufferings of their servants.

The daily fear of the lash produced in the prisoners a peculiar
expression of countenance, and a cowed and slinking gait, which I
have never seen in any other men, white or black. And that gait and
expression, like that of a dog crouching at the heels of a cruel
master in fear of the whip, remained still after the prisoners had
served the time of their sentences, and had recovered their freedom.
They never smiled, and could never regain the feelings and bearing of
free men; they appeared to feel on their faces the brand of Cain, by
which they were known to all men, and the scars left on their backs
by the cruel lash could never be smoothed away. Whenever they met,
even on a lonely bush track, a man who, by his appearance might be a
magistrate or a Government officer, they raised a hand to the
forehead in a humble salute by mere force of habit. There were some,
it is true, whose spirits were never completely broken--who fought
against fate to the last, and became bushrangers or murderers; but
sooner or later they were shot, or they were arrested and hanged.
The gallows-tree on the virgin soil of Australia flourished and bore
fruit in abundance.

The trial of a convict charged with disobedience or insubordination
was of summary jurisdiction. Joe Kermode, a teamster, chanced to be
present at one of these trials. It was about ten o'clock in the
morning when he saw near a house on the roadside a little knot of men
at an open window. He halted his team to see what was the matter,
and found that a police magistrate, sitting inside a room, was
holding a Court of Petty Sessions at the window. It was an open
court, to which the public were admitted according to law; a very
open court, the roof of which was blue--the blue sky of a summer's
morning. A witness was giving evidence against an assigned servant,
charged with some offence against his master. His majesty, the
magistrate, yawned--this kind of thing was tiresome. Presently a
lady came into the room, walked to the open window, clasped her hands
together, and laid them affectionately on the shoulder of the court.
After listening for a few moments to the evidence she became
impatient, and said, "Oh, William, give him three doz