Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/191

 were to be had," writes Collins (an eye-witness), "those who did any extra labour refused to be paid in money, or any other article than spirits, which were now (Dec. 1793), from their scarcity sold at six shillings per bottle." "On Christmas Day (1793) the Rev. Mr. Johnson preached to between thirty and forty persons only, though on a provision day some four or five hundred heads were seen waiting round the storehouse doors. The evening produced a watchhouse full of prisoners."

The soldiers did not escape degradation. Some of them plotted to abscond with a boat. Two were arrested, and two others (one a corporal) deserted immediately with their arms and ammunition, and commenced to rob the settlers. These men were captured and tried, not for desertion, but for absenting themselves without leave; a course imputed to the humanity of Grose.

An observant critic will see in the comment of Collins much matter for reflection:—

"This desertion and the disaffection of those who meant to take off a long boat was the more unaccountable as the commanding officer had uniformly treated them with every indulgence, putting it entirely out of their power to complain on that head. Spirits and other comforts had been procured for them; he had distinguished them from convicts in the ration of provisions; he had allowed them to build themselves comfortable huts, permitting them while so employed the use of the public boats. He had indulged them with women; and, in a word, had never refused any of them a request which did not militate against the rules of the service, or of the discipline which he had laid down for the New South Wales Corps. At the same time, however, to prevent these indulgencies from falling into contempt, they were counterbalanced by the certainty of being withdrawn when abused."

That a corps so indulged should set an example of debauchery was, humanly speaking, a certainty; and the result was what might have been expected. Convict women were assigned to, and became open paramours of, the more reckless amongst officers and others; and the task of rearing a family imbued with moral feelings became dreary if not hopeless. Yet to the honour of our race it may be asserted that it was manfully undertaken and carried out with signal success in some cases. Notably John Macarthur and his wife were patterns of a better life amidst the immoralities of the time. The convicts who had been enlisted in the New South Wales Corps did not