This much we feel and know, but who can coldly describe the hurricane which thus o’erwhelms him? As well ask the drowned mariner to tell of the marvels of mid-sea when the great deeps swallowed him and the darkness of death encompassed him round about. These two human beings felt that they had done with life. Together thus, alone in the very midst and presence of death, the distinctions of the world they were about to leave disappeared. Then vision grew clear. They felt as beings whose bodies had already perished, and as they clasped hands their freed souls, recognizing each the loveliness of the other, rushed tremblingly together.
Borne before the returning whirlwind, an immense wave, which glimmered in the darkness, spouted up and towered above the wreck. The wretches who yet clung to the deck looked shuddering up into the bellying greenness, and knew that the end was come.
EPILOGUE
AT day-dawn the morning after the storm, the rays of the rising sun fell upon an object which floated on the surface of the water not far from where the schooner had foundered.
This object was a portion of the mainmast head of the Lady Franklin, and entangled in the rigging were two corpses—a man and a woman. The arms of the man were clasped round the body of the woman, and her head lay on his breast. The Prison Island appeared but as a long low line on the distant horizon. The tempest was over. As the sun rose higher the air grew balmy, the ocean placid; and, golden in the rays of the new risen morning, the wreck and its burden drifted out to sea.
APPENDIX
BOOK I: CHAPTERS I, I V, V, V II
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the state of the colony of New South Wales. Printed by order of the House of Commons, 1822.
“Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land”, by Thomas Reid (Surgeon on board the Neptune and Morley transport ships), Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and Surgeon in the Royal Navy. London: Longman and Co., 1822.
“Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies”, by James Backhouse. London: Hamilton, Adams and Co., 1843.
Report of a Select Committee on Transportation. Printed by order of the House of Commons, 1838. (Evidence of Colonel Henry Breton.—Q.2,431–2,436.)
BOOK II: CHAPTERS I, II, III
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1838. Evidence of John Barnes, Esq., pp.37–49. Also Appendix to above Report, I., No. 56, B.
“Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science”, etc., vol. ii. Account of Macquarie Harbour, by T. G. Lempriere, Esq., A.D.C.G., pp.17, 107, 200. Tasmania: Henry Dowling. London: John Murray, 1846.
“Van Diemen’s Land Anniversary and Hobart Town Almanac, 1831.” Account of Macquarie Harbour, by James Ross, p. 262. Hobart Town: James Ross, 1832.
“Meliora”, April, 1861—“Our Convict System”: case of Charles Anderson, chained to a rock for two years in irons. See also “Our Convicts”, p. 233, vol. i., Mary Carpenter. Longmans, 1864.
“Backhouse’s Narrative” (ut supra), chapters iii, iv.
Files of Hobart Town Courier, 1827–8, more especially October 23 and December 7, 1827, and February 2, 1828.
CHAPTERS IV, VIII
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1838, pp.353, 354, 355.
“Tasmanian Journal” (ut supra), vol. i.: Account of Macquarie Harbour, by T. G. Lempriere, Esq.(ut supra). The seizure of the Cypress (sic.), pp.366–7. Escape of Morgan and Popjoy, p. 369. The seizure of the Frederick, pp.371–375.
“Van Diemen’s Land Annual”, 1838: Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of certain of Ten Convicts, etc., pp. 1–11. Hobart Town: James Ross, 1838.
“Old Tales of a Young Country”, by Marcus Clarke: The Last of Macquarie Harbour, pp.141–146. The Seizure of the Cyprus, pp.133–140. Melbourne: George Robertson, 1871.
BOOK III: CH A PT ER II
Transportation: Copy of a communication upon the subject of Transportation addressed to Earl Grey by the Lord Bishop of Tasmania. Reprinted for private distribution to the heads of families only. Launceston: Henry Dowling, 1848.
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1837. Evidence of Ernest Augustus Slade, Esq.—Q.870. Ibidem, 1838: Evidence of James Mudie, Esq.—Q.804–813.
CHAPTER IX
Backhouse’s Narrative (ut supra): Appendix, lxxvi.
CHAPTER X
“Van Diemen’s Land Annual”, 1838 (ut supra), pp.12–33. Old Tales, etc, (ut supra), The Last of Macquarie Harbour, pp.147–156.
CHAPTER XV
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1838: Evidence of E. A. Slade, Esq.—Q.1882–1892. Ibidem: Appendix No. ii., E.
CHAPTER XX
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1837: Evidence of John Russell, Esq., Assist.-Surgeon 63rd Regiment.—Q.426–615. Ibidem: Evidence of Colonel Geo. Arthur—Q.4,510, 4,548.
“The Adventures of Martin Cash, the Bushranger.” Hobart Town: J. L. Burke, 1870. pp.64–70.
“Van Dieman’s Land Annual” (ut supra), 1829: Visit to Port Arthur. Account of the Devil’s Blow-Hole.
CHAPTER XXVII
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1832, Appendix I., No. 56 C. and D. Deposition of Alexander Pierce and official statements of trial and execution of Pierce and Cox for murder and cannibalism.
“The Bushrangers”, by James Bonwick, Esq. Article—“Port Arthur.”
BOOK IV: CHAPTERS III, I V
Sessional Papers printed by order of the House of Lords, 1847. Enclosure to No. XI. Extract of a paper by the Rev. T. B. Naylor. Enclosure 3 in No. XIV. Copy of Report (dated Hobart Town, 20th June, 1846) from Robert Pringle Stewart, Esq.: (officer appointed by the Lieut.Governor of Van Dieman’s Land, to inspect the penal settlement of Norfolk Island) to the Comptroller-General.
House of Lords Report of a Commission on the execution of Criminal Law, 1847, Evidence of the Lord Bishop of Tasmania—Q.4,795–4,904 and 5,085–5,130.
Despatch of His Excellency Sir William Denison to Secretary of State, 10th July, 1847.
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1838: Evidence of the Very Rev. Wm. Ullathorne, D.D.—Q.150–318.
Report of House of Lords (ut supra), 1847: Evidence of Albert Charles Stonor, Esq., Crown Solicitor of New South Wales—Q.5,174–5,197. Also evidence of Rev. Wm. Wilson, D.D.—Q.5,545–5,568.
Correspondence relating to the dismissal of the Rev. T. Rogers from his chaplaincy at Norfolk Island; for private circulation. Launceston: Henry Dowling, 1846.
“Backhouse’s Voyages” (ut supra).
CHAPTERS V II, V III, I X, X II
Adventures of Martin Cash (ut supra), pp.133–141; Cases of George Armstrong, “Pine Tree Jack”, and Alexander Campbell.
Punishment of the “gag” and “bridle”. Correspondence relating to the Rev. T. Rogers (ut supra), pp.41–43.
Report of a Select Committee (ut supra), 1838: Evidence of the Very Rev. Wm. Ullathorne, D. D.—Q.267:—“As I mentioned the names of those men who were to die, they one after another, as their names were pronounced, dropped on their knees and thanked God that they were to be delivered from that horrible place, whilst the others remained standing mute, weeping. It was the most horrible scene I have ever witnessed.”
Ibidem: Evidence of Colonel George Arthur.—Q.4,548.
Ibidem: Evidence of Sir Francis Forbes.—Q.1,119.
Ibidem: Q.1,335–1,343:—“…Two or three men murdered their fellow-prisoners, with the certainty of being detected and executed, apparently without malice and with very little excitement, stating that they knew that they should be hanged, but it was better than being where they were.”
NOTES
1. crow—the “look-out man” of a burglar’s gang.
11. ovalled—“to oval” is a term in use among convicts, and means to so bend the round ring of the ankle fetter that the heel can be drawn up through it.
111. beshdellamare—Bêche-de-la-mer.
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