Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/51

1832.] sent to V. D. Land. In this situation they appeared to have corrupted each other greatly. There is much ground to apprehend that the juvenile hulks are nurseries of vice and crime.

22nd. I had some conversation with a person who was brought to the Colony in 1804, at the time that Lieut. Governor Collins first formed a settlement in V. D. Land. At that period she was but a child; and on landing was lodged with some others under a blanket supported by sticks, near the place where the Commissariat-office now stands in Hobart Town, which at that time was covered with wood. After spending a night there, they were removed to the spot where the village of New Town now stands, and lodged in a hollow tree. Here they were first visited by the Aborigines, with whom the children were often left, and who treated them kindly. Provisions becoming scarce, the people often cooked maritime plants collected on the sea shore, which bear to this day, the name of Botany Bay Greens. Sometimes they collected for food the crap or refuse of the blubber of whales, out of which the oil had been taken by whaling vessels, and which was washed up on the shores. At length the pressure of hunger was so great, as to oblige the Governor to give leave to some of the convicts, to go into the country and shift for themselves. Many of these committed outrages upon the natives, whose animosity toward the white people thus became excited at an early period, notwithstanding many years elapsed before they were in open hostiltyhostility [sic].

23rd. We visited the House of Correction for females, termed the Factory, a considerable building of several wards, with apartments for the Superintendent, and a chapel. It contains about 230 prisoners, who are employed in picking and spinning wool, and in washing for the Hospital, Orphan-school, &c. Most of the inmates sleep in hammocks, and every thing about the place is very clean. On being sent hither for misconduct, the women are dressed in a prison garb and have their hair cut off, which they esteem a great punishment; and in some cases they are subjected to solitary confinement.

25th. We occupied a little leisure by a walk to one of the