Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/180

 shared the same fate, and four or five others were severely flogged. This was but one of many cases in which actual or suspected mutiny induced severity on the part of the guards, who knew that their own fate would be sealed if the convicts should gain the upper hand.

The reason alleged for the absence of proof of the terms of sentence of prisoners sent by the first fleet was the unsatisfactory one that the masters of the transport-ships had left the lists with the shipowners in England. The claimants of freedom were told to wait for accounts from England, but one of them was so indignant at the continuance of his term that he railed in presence of the Governor, was tried for disrespect, and sentenced to 600 lashes and to wear irons for six months. At a later date (July 1791) the convicts whose sentences had expired were collected and informed that those who wished to become settlers should be encouraged; those who declined to settle would have to labour for their provisions, while though no obstacle would be thrown in the way of those who wished to return to England, the Government would afford them no assistance. The wish to return to their friends was general, a few only wishing to become settlers, and none engaging to work. One man who had been most useful in the erection of various buildings was, in 1790, declared free, absolutely, two years before his sentence had expired; but the prudent Phillip made an agreement with him that he should work two years longer in the colony, food and clothing being supplied to him. To mark the contrast between good and bad conduct, this grace was conferred at a time when two other convicts were executed for repeated crimes.

In Jan. 1792 it was falsely rumoured that Phillip was about to seize the corn in private hands, whereupon he notified that the settlers who had maize or other grain for which they had no secure storage-room, might send it to the public store, and withdraw it as they required; and,