Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/379

 The " stowaways,'' as counts concealed in ships were called, had in 1799 caused a remonstrance from India to Governor Hunter, against the system which permitted them to escape to India- Not only was it desired to exclude convicts under sentence, but ** those of every description, whether the period of their transportation should have expired or otherwise." King made stringent orders to meet the Marquis of Wellesley's views, and transmitted copies to each presidency. Early in 1805 he made them more stringent* The master of every ship was compelled, *' before entering into any communication with the settlement, to give security, himself in £500, f and two sufficient freeholders m* well- known liierchunts or rlealers in the iiiDi of £50 each» not to carry oH iitiy person whatevt^r without the overnor'a eeititicate of a convict having served his or her term of trans- [>rta,tion, and li free tnati or wonjaii having no detainer lodged. Nor i« le to depart himself without tlit' <iOvernor'a leave, under an additional malty of £50,'' The ill-usage to w4iich the convicts were sometimes subjected deserves expositro. An inhuman master of a ship with a cargo of convicts exercised powers of which it was hard to prevent the abuse, A vessel, the Itofptf Admmd, arrived (Nov. 1800) with convicts who had suffered much on the voyage. Writhig (30th Oct. 1802) King said he did not apprehend they would ever recover strength. It was his custom to isit newl^^-arrived vessels and inquire how the prisoners had hehaved, and whether they themselves desired to prefer complaints. He wrote (Oct. 1802) that in June and July 1802 the Hercuh's and Atlas arrived w^ith Irish convicts, ** after a passage of nearly seven months, with nearly the whole of the convicts in a dead or in a dying state.*' Sixty-three out of 151 male convicts in the Athfs died on the voyage. By the log- book, &C.J your Lordship *' w'ill observe the dreadful » diseases that raged on board those ships, and the con- sequent great mortality, exclusive of the numbers killed on board the Hercules in a mutiny." The miserable state of the survivors, their filthy contlition on arrival, and the fact that a quantity of merchandise had deprived the convicts of air and means of cleanliness, had demanded an investigation. The case was rendered moi:^ gl^"tiv%i^ NJoj^