Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/208

 104 PHILLIP Short commons. Exile. 1788-93 but that intention was never carried out, probably because, having no means of sending them there, he sent them to Nor- folk Island instead ; or perhaps to the ^^ small rocky island near the entrance of the cove," officially called Rock Island, but known among the convicts as Pinchgut — from the bread and water which formed their rations when sent there. Speaking in his memo, of the relations which might arise between the convicts and the native women, he said : — I should think it necessary to punish with severity the man who used the women ill ; and I know of no punisliment likely to answer the purpose of deterring others so well as exiling them to a distant spot, or to an island. That was clearly his idea of a really effective punish- ment. But it was no part of his functions as a Governor to prescribe pains and penalties for offences within the juris- diction of the Criminal Court. That was a matter in which he could not interfere, otherwise than by exercising the prerogative of mercy. Nor is there much reason to believe that Phillip had any more faith in the lash as a means of correction than he had in the gallows. His experience in the navy must have made him only too familiar with the custom of flogging, seamen in his days being ruthlessly FioKginpin flogged for petty breaches of naval discipline. The same and nTJy. practico prevailed in the army. Under any circumstances it was, perhaps, inevitable that a Court composed of military and naval men should use the lash as a convenient means of punishment. Any other form of correction for minor offences was hardly known to men of that time. There was no gaol or place of detention for prisoners in the colony ; led to the place of execution, and jast as they were on the point of ascend- ing the ladder, the Judge-Advocate arrived with the Governor's pardon, on condition of their being banished to some uninhabited place. On the 29th, two men were convicted of stealing wine, and sentenced to death ; but one being " an ignorant black youth " was pardoned by the Governor, and the other, anouier black, **had his sentence of death, while at the gallows, changed to banishment." At a later period Norfolk Island was utilised for this purpose. A soldier condemned to death in September, 1789, for a rape on a child of eight years of age, having been recommended to mercy, was pardoned " on condition of his residing, during the term of his natural life, at Norfolk Island.*' — Collins, p. 80. Digitized by Google