For the Term of His Natural Life
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"The "employment" at Port Arthur consisted chiefly of agriculture,ship-building, and tanning. Dawes, who was in the chain-gang, was put tochain-gang labour; that is to say, bringing down logs from the forest,or "lumbering" timber on the wharf. This work was not light. Aningenious calculator had discovered that the pressure of the log uponthe shoulder was wont to average 125 lbs. Members of the chain-gang weredressed in yellow, and--by way of encouraging the others--had the word"Felon" stamped upon conspicuous parts of their raiment.
This was the sort of life Rufus Dawes led. In the summer-time he roseat half-past five in the morning, and worked until six in the evening,getting three-quarters of an hour for breakfast, and one hour fordinner. Once a week he had a clean shirt, and once a fortnight cleansocks. If he felt sick, he was permitted to "report his case to themedical officer". If he wanted to write a letter he could ask permissionof the Commandant, and send the letter, open, through that AlmightyOfficer, who could stop it if he thought necessary. If he felt himselfaggrieved by any order, he was "to obey it instantly, but might complainafterwards, if he thought fit, to the Commandant. In making anycomplaint against an officer or constable it was strictly ordered thata prisoner "must be most respectful in his manner and language, whenspeaking of or to such officer or constable". He was held responsibleonly for the safety of his chains, and for the rest was at the mercy ofhis gaoler. These gaolers--owning right of search, entry into cells atall hours, and other droits of seigneury--were responsible only to theCommandant, who was responsible only to the Governor, that is to say,to nobody but God and his own conscience. The jurisdiction of theCommandant included the whole of Tasman's Peninsula, with the islandsand waters within three miles thereof; and save the making of certainreturns to head-quarters, his power was unlimited.
A word as to the position and appearance of this place of punishment.Tasman's Peninsula is, as we have said before, in the form of an earringwith a double drop. The lower drop is the larger, and is ornamented,so to speak, with bays. At its southern extremity is a deep indentationcalled Maingon Bay, bounded east and west by the organ-pipe rocks ofCape Raoul, and the giant form of Cape Pillar. From Maingon Bay an armof the ocean cleaves the rocky walls in a northerly direction. On thewestern coast of this sea-arm was the settlement; in front of it was alittle island where the dead were buried, called The Island of theDead. Ere the in-coming convict passed the purple beauty of this convictGolgotha, his eyes were attracted by a point of grey rock covered withwhite buildings, and swarming with life. This was Point Puer, theplace of confinement for boys from eight to twenty years of age. Itwas astonishing--many honest folks averred--how ungrateful were thesejuvenile convicts for the goods the Government had provided for them.From the extremity of Long Bay, as the extension of the sea-arm wasnamed, a convict-made tramroad ran due north, through the nearlyimpenetrable thicket to Norfolk Bay. In the mouth of Norfolk Bay wasWoody Island. This was used as a signal station, and an armed boat'screw was stationed there. To the north of Woody Island lay One-treePoint--the southernmost projection of the drop of the earring; and thesea that ran between narrowed to the eastward until it struck on thesandy bar of Eaglehawk Neck. Eaglehawk Neck was the link that connectedthe two drops of the earring. It was a strip of sand four hundred andfifty yards across. On its eastern side the blue waters of Pirates' Bay,that is to say, of the Southern Ocean, poured their unchecked force. Theisthmus emerged from a wild and terrible coast-line, into whose bowelsthe ravenous sea had bored strange caverns, resonant with perpetualroar of tortured billows. At one spot in this wilderness the ocean hadpenetrated the wall of rock for two hundred feet, and in stormy weatherthe salt spray rose through a perpendicular shaft more than five hundredfeet deep. This place was called the Devil's Blow-hole. The upper dropof the earring was named Forrestier's Peninsula, and was joined to themainland by another isthmus called East Bay Neck. Forrestier'sPeninsula was an almost impenetrable thicket, growing to the brink of aperpendicular cliff of basalt.
Eaglehawk Neck was the door to the prison, and it was kept bolted. Onthe narrow strip of land was built a guard-house, where soldiers fromthe barrack on the mainland relieved each other night and day; and onstages, set out in the water in either side, watch-dogs were chained.The station officer was charged "to pay special attention to the feedingand care" of these useful beasts, being ordered "to report to theCommandant whenever any one of them became useless". It may be addedthat the bay was not innocent of sharks. Westward from Eaglehawk Neckand Woody Island lay the dreaded Coal Mines. Sixty of the "marked men"were stationed here under a strong guard. At the Coal Mines was thenorthernmost of that ingenious series of semaphores which renderedescape almost impossible. The wild and mountainous character of thepeninsula offered peculiar advantages to the signalmen. On the summitof the hill which overlooked the guard-towers of the settlement was agigantic gum-tree stump, upon the top of which was placed a semaphore.This semaphore communicated with the two wings of the prison--EaglehawkNeck and the Coal Mines--by sending a line of signals right across thepeninsula. Thus, the settlement communicated with Mount Arthur, MountArthur with One-tree Hill, One-tree Hill with Mount Communication, andMount Communication with the Coal Mines. On the other side, the signalswould run thus--the settlement to Signal Hill, Signal Hill to WoodyIsland, Woody Island to Eaglehawk. Did a prisoner escape from the CoalMines, the guard at Eaglehawk Neck could be aroused, and the wholeisland informed of the "bolt" in less than twenty minutes. With theseadvantages of nature and art, the prison was held to be the most securein the world. Colonel Arthur reported to the Home Government thatthe spot which bore his name was a "natural penitentiary". The worthydisciplinarian probably took as a personal compliment the politeforethought of the Almighty in thus considerately providing for thecarrying out of the celebrated "Regulations for Convict Discipline".
CHAPTER XXI. A VISIT OF INSPECTION.