by Ward, Vivian
“All of you convicts group together over here!” One of the Marines shouts at us.
Now that all of the women are off the ship, it’s time for the men to have their turn. As soon as they see all of us, they begin hooting and hollering.
“Women!” A few of them cry out.
“I’ve got my eye on that one,” one of them sneers; though, it’s too hard to tell who he’s referring to since we’re all standing in a chained cluster.
“Raise your skirts!” Another one shouts.
The Marines try to regain order but the men don’t heed their warnings. I instantly fear for our safety as I quickly realize how this is going to spiral out of control. They can’t leave us chained forever and when they take the chains off, it’s going to be complete chaos. The hungry looks in the eyes of the men tell me all that I need to know. They’ve just got one thing on their minds: sex.
After a long couple of hours standing in the scorching heat, the officers begin to remove our chains, starting with the women first. As they do this, they start assigning us chores and various tasks to carry out. It doesn’t take long to see that we’re going to have to work hard to build everything from scratch, including collecting and gathering all of the materials.
When they approach me to remove my chains, I’m surprised that they have a job for me to do. “You, the one with the belly,” the Officer says, gaining my attention. “You’re to take your little one and look for fruits that we can eat.”
“Fruits that we can eat?” I question. “Aren’t we bringing food from the ship?”
His yellow teeth and stale breath assault my senses as he laughs in my face. “If you want to keep eating rotten food, be my guest, but there’s almost nothing left.”
“Where is the ship with the supplies? Aren’t they bringing us more food?” I ask.
“If they’ve got them, but it won’t arrive for a couple of more days. That storm slowed all of us down but they had it the worst because of the weight of the boat, so they hung back.”
Great. This is exactly what a pregnant woman wants to do in the heat. Why, yes, I’d love to go forage for nuts and berries. Rolling my eyes, I take Lizzy by the hand and turn my skirt into a makeshift basket to collect anything we might find.
“A little higher!” One of the men shouts as he notices my skirt being raised. “Show us your goods!”
I quickly drop my skirt and listen to one of the Marines scold him for speaking that way. “You kiss your mum with that mouth? She’s pregnant for God’s sake!” He says to the pervert.
“She might be pregnant but do her holes still work?” He laughs.
My stomach turns as I realize that I’m definitely not safe—not even while pregnant. I had hoped that my condition would deter them from me, hoping that they wouldn’t rape a pregnant woman, but I see that’s not going to be the case. These horny men don’t care about anyone or anything but themselves. It’s been months since any of them had sex, maybe longer, depending on how long they were in jail before we started our voyage to Botany Bay.
During our journey hunting for food, I become startled when I notice the natives wandering naked around the island. I had no clue that other people already existed here and not only are they naked, but they are also black. They don’t look anything like us and I’ve never seen a person of color before.
Clutching Lizzy to my chest, I cover her eyes and try to make it back to our settlement to tell the Marines. I’m excited to learn about the natives and while their skin color intrigues me, their lack of clothing alarms me.
By the time I make it back, I learn that the Officers are already aware of the natives from the others who’ve spotted them, and it seems that they’re just as curious about us as we are them.
There’s one problem: a huge language barrier. One of the Marines has been trying to communicate with a local native about food but they’re having trouble understanding each other.
Great, we’re probably going to starve to death. Well, they will. I’m going to try to venture out a little each day, as much as my pregnancy will allow in this heat, to watch them. Surely, they’ve got to collect and catch their own food. It’s not like they have a supply ship that’ll be coming to bring them anything.
I’m going to learn from them, and, hopefully, become friends with some of them. They must be resourceful to survive here by themselves. There aren’t stores or shops like we had back home, so they’ve got to do everything for themselves. My goal is to become as resourceful as they are so that I can provide for myself and children.
With the supply ship being so far behind, and no telling what they may or may not have, I’ve got to depend on myself. Just like on the journey here, it’s survival of the fittest and I didn’t make it this far to end up stranded on an island, hoping someone else will bring me food. I refuse to allow myself to become weak just because I’m a widow. I’ll be stronger than ever!
But I must be smart with any information that I gather from them and make sure that I only collect the things that they eat. There’s not a lot of fresh water here, so I’m curious as to what they drink, and I’m sure that not all the plants are safe to consume. I can’t put myself or Lizzy at risk by eating or drinking the wrong things.
By nightfall, the men have managed to catch a small net of fish for all of us to share and after we unloaded the food supplies from the ship, there’s barely enough to go around at supper. After everyone eats, we all nearly pass out in small groups until daybreak.
Things are only going to get harder by the day as our resources continue to dwindle. I’m just glad that the men were too tired to start any mayhem.
* * *
The supply ship still hasn’t come and we’ve been here for four days. Four long, hard days with almost nothing to eat or drink in extreme temperatures. If we were thin before, we’re almost nothing now. With the sweltering heat and all of the foraging for food that we’ve done, we’ve already lost three more convicts. It’s hard to say whether it was from malnutrition, dehydration, or heat stroke; it might’ve been a combination of any or all of them.
I’ve been quite lightheaded myself but I have to stay strong for Lizzy and the baby. Every now and then, I’ll have a sharp pain in my belly but I can’t tell whether it’s from hunger or if I might be going into early labor. Lying in the shade on top of the rough soil, I let Lizzy play in the dirt and hope to God that she doesn’t contract anything from it. Initially, I was against it but there’s nothing else for her to do and she’s so bored. It’s not like she has toys—except for the stuffed animal that Matthew gave her—and her sibling isn’t here yet.
I have no doubt she’ll be an amazing big sister when the time comes. She’s been practicing with that stuffed animal. Just last night, I was teaching her how to hold the baby’s head with it, and how to wrap it in a blanket—not that we’ll need blankets for a good while, if ever! Lizzy loved learning how to care for her baby brother or sister. She was eager to learn more but I was too tired to go on the rest of the evening so I put us to bed early, which was a very good thing.
A few of the men were riled up last night, flirting with almost any girl who was awake and breathing. I know they’re horny and the Officers have done a good job at keeping them in check but I know it’s not going to last long. The women and Officers are grossly outnumbered by the male convicts. All it would take is one time for them to overrun things.
I watched a group of men approach a small lot of women and, to my surprise, the women were flirting back with the men! One woman asked one of the men, “See anything you like?” As she struck a pose! If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I never would’ve believed it. And, of course, half of the women are walking around with their dresses hiked up and have their cleavage on full display.
With some of the women acting like this, it worries me that it’ll encourage the men’s bad behavior. Some of them might think that we all want it—and I want none of it. I’d just assume they leave me alone and I’m sure a few othe
rs feel the same way. I bet the only one who’s safe from them is that crazy woman who’s now roaming the island, claiming that she’s searching for weapons. We’d all better watch out for her. Now that we have a bit more freedom, I can see her killing most of us in our sleep.
The next fleet of prisoners was due yesterday but it hasn’t arrived yet and I’m somewhat relieved. The last thing we need is more mouths to feed and more men to fend off. So far, we’ve been fortunate enough that the men have somewhat settled down since we arrived here but it won’t take much for complete anarchy to break out.
“Are you okay?” Charlotte asks, sitting beside me as I watch Lizzy play. “You don’t look so good.”
I nod. “I’m fine, just letting Lizzy play while I rest a bit.”
She frowns at me. “You’re a horrible liar, Victoria.”
“I know,” I shrug. “I’ve not wanted to bother or worry anyone.”
“Worry? About what?” She moves in closer to me.
I look around to make sure that no one is within earshot. “I’ve been having stomach pains but I can’t tell if it’s labor or hunger.”
“You’ve got to tell the doc,” she insists. “Let him check you over. You can’t be out here foraging for food with the rest of us in your condition, especially if you’re having pains.”
“No, I don’t want to bring attention to myself.”
“For bloody sake, Victoria, I’m taking you to the doctor right now!” She leaves me no choice as she grabs my arm and pulls me from the ground.
“I’d say you’re severely dehydrated,” the doc says. “That could be a cause of your abdominal cramping but even if it is, it still puts your pregnancy at immediate risk. Try to drink plenty of fluids over the next few days—I’ll see to it that you are given more than enough fresh water due to your condition—and if things don’t improve, I may have to keep a close watch on you.”
“And food, too,” Charlotte chimes in. “She’s not eating enough, doc.”
He nods, “Yes, we’ll take good care of you. I want you to report back to me if things worsen and, in the meantime, I’ll talk to the Captain and the Marines to ensure you’re properly hydrated and nourished.” He turns his back as he heads for the door. “We can’t let anything happen to you in your condition because too many things could go wrong and we aren’t equipped to handle much. Plus,” he turns to smile at me before leaving, “you’ll birth the first Botany Bay convict child. That’ll go down in history!”
I offer a weak smile and nod but, secretly, my heart drops. It’ll be the first bastard child of Botany Bay, I think to myself as I picture Matthew’s eyes before he hit the water. Neither of my children will have a father.
The closer we get to nightfall, the more barbaric the men begin to act. A few of them have already grabbed a couple of the women in an attempt to drag them off and rape them but the Officers were able to put a stop to it before anything could happen.
Charlotte, Lizzy, and I have taken refuge inside a tiny hut that was built to help keep me in the cool shade during the day. It’s not much, and it’s not very big but I suppose it does the job. I hate being confined to it because I’d like to learn more about the dark-skinned natives and I certainly can’t do that from inside here. I’ll have to wait until the doctor gives me clearance to go out to forage for food with the others to observe them a bit more.
With Lizzy finally fast asleep, I’m about to nod off but yelling and shouting from outside the hut forces my eyes open. Crawling to the doorway, I peek outside to see what’s going on and find that another ship is arriving. Does it contain the supplies or more convicts? I hope to God that it has the supplies. We don’t need any more convicts; though, I know it’s inevitable that they’ll all dock over the next week or so.
“What’s going on?” Charlotte asks in a groggy voice, rubbing her eyes. “Why are they all yelling?”
“There’s another ship coming in,” I tell her, trying to keep my voice down so I don’t wake Lizzy but my efforts are fruitless because the scoundrels outside won’t stop yelling.
Lizzy’s tiny eyes pop open too and she sits up, scared and confused. Clutching onto me, I hold her tightly as I continue watching.
“Should we go out there?” Charlotte asks.
“For what? So we can get trampled? You should see everyone!”
Climbing next to me, Charlotte peers outside and sees all of the commotion.
“What if it’s supplies? If we don’t get out there, you know it’ll all be gone by morning. Everyone will raid the boat and keep all of it for themselves, and then we’ll be left with nothing.”
She’s right. We’d better get out there.
“I think you’re right. Let’s go,” I say to her. “Come on, Lizzy.”
Picking her up, I tuck her under my arm as we begin to trek towards the shore. We line up with everyone else to see what awaits us on the ship. The large vessel finally comes to a halt several yards out in the water.
I overhear one of the Marines talking to a fellow officer. “Things are about to get interesting,” he says.
“Is it the supplies?”
“Hard to tell in the dark,” the Marine says. “We won’t know until they start unloading.”
By now, all of the convicts are pushing and shoving their way to the front of the group as we anticipate our fate: do we have more mouths to feed or are there supplies to feed the mouths that are already here? It feels like days pass by before we see a small rowboat lowering from the ship.
Two officers row their way to shore—well, as close as they can get before the boat starts dragging in the shallow water and they have to get out and walk through it just as we did.
“G’day, mate!” The Marine says to one of our Officers, finally reaching land. “Weren’t expecting us tonight, were you?”
The disappointment in the Marine’s faces was enough to tell me that they recognized their fellow counterpart and this was not the supply ship. I want to turn around and retreat to the safety of my hut but, for some reason, I don’t. I want to know more about the new convicts who’ve just arrived. How many are there? Are they mostly men or women? What are they like? Will they be unloading in the same fashion that we did? Do they have some supplies to share?
“G’ day,” our Marine replies to this new one. “You’re not the supply ship, are you?”
The new Marine laughs so hard that he almost spits. “No, bloke, we are not the supply ship but don’t fret, they’re right behind us. Should be here by morning.”
Bloody hell, you’d think they’d make sure that the supply ship went ahead first but I also understand that it went slower because of the weight, and the storms didn’t help at all either.
“We full on need supplies,” our Marine officer says. “The convicts have been hunting, fishing, and foraging for food and water since we got here. I’d imagine a riot will ensue once we have extra mouths to feed.”
“No worries, mate! We’ve got plenty of men on our fleet so we’ll have more than enough hands to help with that until the supply ship gets here.”
Plenty of men? That’s no bloody good! I can’t help myself and approach the two officers.
“Are there any women on your ship?” I ask the new Marine.
His eyes immediately drop to my pregnant belly before he finally looks me in the eye. “Pregnant, aye?” A sly, knowing grin spreads across his face. The look in his eyes disgusts me because I know he’s already judging me. “I reckon there are a few women on there but mostly men.”
My mind immediately begins to race as I think about what the new women will be like once they’re added to our small group. The women from my fleet aren’t very friendly; they’re quite catty. And what doesn’t make sense to me is that ever since we got here, many of them are flocking to the men; claiming them, so to speak. I suppose it’s for protection—which would be my motive—or to use them for whatever they can get out of them, whether it be food or shelter.
I choose to stick to myself. T
here’s no need to go hunting for a new man, plus my condition doesn’t help my case one bit. I’m sure most of the convicts who take one look at me just see an extra three mouths to feed. Charlotte is, and has been, my only friend. I know that I can always count on her, and I know it’s been hard for her to stay with me because it’s obvious that she’d rather be with Robert. I’m sort of jealous that he got to stay and she gets to have someone and I don’t, but I’m happy for her. She loves him and he’s good to her. He was stationed to be here after we arrived, so I’m sure they had plans long before Matthew and I started to make ours.
Shortly after the Officers finish their conversation, they begin rowing small groups of convicts to shore. Just as the Marine said, they’re mostly men and maybe it’s just me, but these guys look scarier than any of ours. Their eyes are filled with pure evil and, unlike our group, they’re thinner and dirtier. They look like wild beasts!
Within a few hours, all of the convicts are brought to shore and the Officers begin a formal count. Charlotte and I watch on as they call their names, unchaining them from one another after they’ve been accounted for. A few of the women have been called on but even after they’re free to join us, they turn their nose up at us and remain with the men from their fleet.
Stupid old cows! Why do they think they’re better than us?
Charlotte and I listen to the women chatter about the new girls who’ve arrived when I hear a name being called—MY name!
“Easton!” An officer shouts. “Henry Easton!”
My jaw drops as I turn to Charlotte. The look of shock on her face matches that of mine. My heart instantly drops to my stomach before leaping to my throat. I can hear my pulse pounding in my eardrums as I frantically search the crowd for my husband, Henry.
He appears through a small part of the crowd. He’s alive and well! Oh, my Henry! I think to myself. Tears of joy and relief wash over me as I watch my husband approach the officer. I thought I’d lost him; that he was gone, but he stands before me alive and well! He’s quite thin and dirty and his beard has grown so much, but he’s really here! I want to jump and scream and run to his arms.