Various means have been adopted to restrain the irregularities of convicts thus at large, and punishments of a summary kind are frequently inflicted. Of these, the most severe next to that of death is _transportation to the Coal River_, which is ordered usually by His Honour the Judge Advocate, or a Bench of Magistrates, for a term of years, or for life, as the enormity of the offence may require. Convicts dread this mode of punishment very much, because they are there compelled to work in chains from sun-rise till sun-set, and are subject also to other restrictions of a highly penal description. The rigour of this sentence is, however, frequently relaxed in degree, as the criminal shows signs of amendment; and in very few cases is it found necessary to subject any of the convicts to a repetition of that sentence. Punishment by _flogging_ is sometimes resorted to, and the infliction, which may be ordered by any Magistrate on conviction, seldom exceeds twenty-five lashes. For females, it is considered sufficiently severe to confine them for a limited time to constant labour in the _Factory_ at Parramatta; but enough has been said on that subject to satisfy that they can benefit but very little from such a discipline. The restraint produced by those punishments generally has some effect in preventing crime; but that of sending offenders to the _Coal River_, to which punishment females as well as males are liable, appears the most dreaded, and crimes are evidently less frequent than might be expected in a population composed of such mischievous materials. CHAPTER V. SITUATION AND DUTIES OF THE SURGEON SUPERINTENDENT. As the welfare of the convicts, and their advancement or retrocession in moral reformation, depend materially upon the exertion, apathy, or capability of the Surgeon Superintendent, it may not be out of place, or destitute of interest, to say something regarding the duties attached to that appointment. The transportation of convicts to the colony seems entirely a mercantile concern, in which the Government contracts, as a private individual would, with the ship-owner for the conveyance of a certain number of tons, at a fixed rate, and the tonnage is estimated according to the ship’s register. In this case, Government supplies provisions for the prisoners, besides other necessary stores, which are placed under the charge of the Master, to be afterwards issued on proper occasions.