has but one thought--to keep
the prisoners in subjection. So long as the island is quiet, he cares
not whether the men live or die. "I was sent down here to keep order,"
said he to me, a few days after his arrival, "and by God, sir, I'll do
it!"

He has done it, I must admit; but at a cost of a legacy of hatred to
himself that he may some day regret to have earned. He has organized
three parties of police. One patrols the fields, one is on guard at
stores and public buildings, and the third is employed as a detective
force. There are two hundred soldiers on the island. And the officer
in charge, Captain McNab, has been induced by Frere to increase their
duties in many ways. The cords of discipline are suddenly drawn tight.
For the disorder which prevailed when I landed, Frere has substituted a
sudden and excessive rigour. Any officer found giving the smallest
piece of tobacco to a prisoner is liable to removal from the island..The
tobacco which grows wild has been rooted up and destroyed lest the men
should obtain a leaf of it. The privilege of having a pannikin of hot
water when the gangs came in from field labour in the evening has been
withdrawn. The shepherds, hut-keepers, and all other prisoners, whether
at the stations of Longridge or the Cascades (where the English convicts
are stationed) are forbidden to keep a parrot or any other bird. The
plaiting of straw hats during the prisoners' leisure hours is also
prohibited. At the settlement where the "old hands" are located railed
boundaries have been erected, beyond which no prisoner must pass unless
to work. Two days ago Job Dodd, a negro, let his jacket fall over the
boundary rails, crossed them to recover it, and was severely flogged.
The floggings are hideously frequent. On flogging mornings I have seen
the ground where the men stood at the triangles saturated with blood, as
if a bucket of blood had been spilled on it, covering a space three feet
in diameter, and running out in various directions, in little streams
two or three feet long. At the same time, let me say, with that strict
justice I force myself to mete out to those whom I dislike, that the
island is in a condition of abject submission. There is not much chance
of mutiny. The men go to their work without a murmur, and slink to their
dormitories like whipped hounds to kennel. The gaols and solitary (!)
cells are crowded with prisoners, and each day sees fresh sentences for
fresh crimes. It is crime h