As this settlement is part of a penal colony to which Great Britain consigns her malefactors, for from five years to the duration of their lives, to atone for offences against the laws of their country, the society is not, consequently, what we at home would call select; but, such as it is, it has its aristocracy. Although the majority of the inhabitants are convicts, some of whom have served out their term of punishment, the word convict amongst themselves is never used--it being apparently banished, by common consent, from their conversation. The convicts here form three grades--the members of the first, comprising those whose sentences have not been ameliorated, are under the strict surveillance of the government, and employed on government work. The second class are known as “ticket of relief holders;” these, for uniform good conduct, receive this ticket, which entitles them to choose their own employers and place of residence; but at the same time they are expected to give information as to where they reside to the police, and to be within doors at 8 o’clock in the evening. If these ticket holders continue to conduct themselves in a praiseworthy manner, they then receive a conditional pardon, which entitles them to leave the country, but at the same time debars them from returning to Great Britain or Ireland; or, if condemned in the colonies, from returning to the place of conviction; permission is, however, accorded to them to take up their residence in any other part of this colony, or in any colony under the control of the English government--England, by this precaution, guarding against the return of her prison population to her own shore. Hence these men, knowing that the stigma of conviction will cling to their skirts as long as they remain in this country, anxiously desire to embark in whalers--the United States being, in their eyes, the land of promise--and in this way numbers of emigrants of very doubtful character land on our shores. It is customary for whale-ships to engage some of these men; occasionally discharging their entire original crew, and shipping these in their places. We had a number of them during the voyage, and in this port we shipped two. I cannot but deprecate the practice of introducing men of such vicious antecedents, into a forecastle in which are American youths, who, by intercourse with such people, begin quickly to have very crude ideas of morality; and, unless there is some strong-minded person, with a clear, cool head, to rebut their specious arguments, they exercise an injurious influence on the minds of the young.