Page:A lecture on the evils of emigration and transportation.djvu/16

12 their bed rooms were frequently broken in upon in the night time, until at last, in consequence of their determined opposition to the base intentions of the customers and their employers, they were turned out of doors, and I saw them return to Hobart Town, almost heart broken, and one of them without shoes,—having had to find their way through a wild and mountainous country for upwards of 100 miles. One of the girls, previous to my leaving the Colony, got married, and I believe she will ever have occasion to be thankful to Providence for protecting her from the snares of deception and vice.

Thus were the first ship load of these fair victims driven to infamy and distress. It is unnecessary for me to particularize every ship that has arrived since, and tell you how the poor creatures have been treated; I shall conclude this part of the subject by observing that on every fresh arrival, the settlers have evinced the same reckless and abandoned disposition, with this difference, they have been particularly desirous of obtaining their prey as young as possible, and in some instances they have been greatly favoured by the committee in London in finding large numbers under the age of 14 years. But even these have met with the same unfortunate fate as the Princess Royal's cargo. They were used as a child treats its new toy, with attention for a time, and then shared a similar fate. When the first gusts of the loathsome and infernal passion had subsided, they were driven to find a subsistence in the lowest sinks of iniquity and disease. Yes, there is not one out of every twenty of the immense number that have been sent out to the Australian Colonies of these frail and deluded beings, but were, on my departure in December last, compelled to obtain their living in open prostitution. Surely, mothers, fathers, and friends, will pause ere they intrust any more of their poor and innocent daughters to the tender mercies of these unfeeling monsters.

Having demonstrated how emigration has proved an evil to the emigrant, by showing the treatment the deluded pensioners received on account of their age and consequent uselessness, and having shown the unfortunate result to the female emigrant in consequence of the disgusting purposes they were wanted for, and having given a slight sketch of Colonial Laws, it only remains for me to observe—(as I cannot in one night's discussion of the various subjects enter into