A CONVICT SHIP.

Evening Post, Issue 255, 1 December 1865, Page 2

A CONVICT SHIP.

Mra I received a short note from Sir Astley, informing me that he had procured for me the appointment of surgeon on board a ship, whicli had been taken by Government for the purpose of transporting a number of female convicts to Australia, I cannot say 1 felt particularly delighted by the infbrmatio 1. In the first place I had fixed my hopes on receiving a permanent appointment, and this would ot course terminate when the voyage was ended \ and beyond that, it led to nothing. However, there was some occupation for me, which, if not very remunerative, was better than idling my time away, and I immediately wrote Sir A^tley a letter thanking him f.>r his kindness and promising to call on the authorities to whom he had referred withlout delay. I now began to make ! preparations for my voyage to Australia. I placed £ 170 of my little capital in thj

bank, and the rest I kept to purchase my case of instruments, outfit, and to provide for my current expenditure. My spirits were elated at the proapei t of my visit to the antipodes, and I promised myself much pleasure and satisfaction in my new employment. Never was man more thoroughly disappointed. My voyage was one of continued misery from the time the ship left England till she arrived in Sydney. At the present time it would hardly be thought credible were I to relute the method of life on board a convict ship five-and-thirty years before, At that time nothing was more common, on the caprice of a captain of a ship, or possibly on the complaint of a second or third mate, to lash an unfortunate creature up to the gangway, and flog her most severely, in exactly the same manner that sailors are flogged in the navy ; and so common and so little thought of were these occurrences, that it was not even thought worth while to enter them in the ship's log. Although in my own time, an improvement had taken place in the treatment of these wretched women, heaven knows it was even then bad enough. When they arrived at their destination, and were assigned to the different settlers, there was always one loud cry of horror at their degraded state. And yet there was little to be wondered at. If any good or modest feeling remained in them before the ship left England, it was almosfcer tain to be destroyed, before she reached her destination. After the treatment they had boen subjected to during the voyage, and the examples they had constantly before their eyes, it would have been far more surprising, when they landed, if they had preserved one commendable attribute of womanhood, than that they had lost every principle which makes woman honorable. It would be impossible for me to lay the details of the general demoralisation of the ship before the reader 5 suffice it to say that my life, when on board, was made wretched by it. I endeavoured to the best of my ability, to make things better ; but as in those days the relative positions of the surgeon and the captain of the ship were but ill-defined, my remonstrances had no weight, and my threats were laughed at.— "The Village Doctor," in St. James's Magazine.