the theft of provisions, or of clothes from his neighbour, a case yet more common, and more natural to footpads, the convict depredator is shot. For inferior crimes, as riot or quarrels, a soldier is commanded to whip the offender with martial severity: the first stroke leaves a deep impression of the wire, the second causes the blood to trickle, the third draws a stream of gore: under several faintings, the debilitated and disordered convict receives two dozen of lashes. On the slightest appearance of a mutiny, the ring-leader is cast headlong into the sea, in his irons and his clothes. We commit this body to the deep, the chaplain repeals, but the words of Shakespeare, perhaps, would be more applicable:-- 'O mutineer! if thou hast any hope of heaven's bliss, Lift up thy hand; make signal of that hope. He sinks! and makes no sign.'" --_Account, by Captain Bertram_, in 1800: Longman.] [Footnote 68: New South Wales first fleet, 987 convicts; of which 25 died, or 1 in 35. Second fleet, 1763 convicts: died 327, or 1 in every 5-1/2. "I beg leave, however, to say, that the provisions were much superior to those usually supplied by contract: they were furnished by Messrs. Richards and Thorn, of Tower-street, London."--_Tench's Narrative._ These honest contractors deserve immortal renown.] [Footnote 69: _Table of Voyages, from_ 1810 _to_ 1820: --------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+ Voyages.| Course pursued. | Average. |Convicts.|Deaths.|Sick.| --------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+ 44 | Direct | 127 days | 7,657 | 71 | 94 | 38 | Touched at Rio de Janeiro | 156 days | 6,470 | 132 | 123 | 11 | Touched Cape of G. Hope | 146 days | 1,912 | 9 | 57 | --------+---------------------------+----------+---------+-------+-----+] [Footnote 70: _Bigge's Report._] [Footnote 71: The bloody _Chapman_.] [Footnote 72: This man, after an extraordinary career, closed his miserable life on the scaffold, for the murder of a female, to whom he was engaged. His relative conferred upon her surviving children a sum of money to ensure their education--an act of uncommon generosity which must obliterate the discredit of a relationship to one, who, however, perhaps blended insanity and deliberate crime.] [Footnote 73: Parliamentary Papers.]