Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/191

---

were to be had/* writes Collins (an eye-witness), ** those who did any extra labour refused to be paid iu money, or any other article than spirits, which were now (Dec. 1793), from then* aeareity sold at six shillings per bottle/* *'0n Christmas Day (1793) the Kev. Mr. Johnson preached to between thirty and forty persons only, though on a iirovisiou day some four or five hundred heads were seen waiting round the storehouse doors. The evening produced a watchhouse full of prisoners/* The soldiers did not escape degradation. Some of them plotted to abscond with a boat. Two were arrested, and two others (one a corporal) deserted immediately with their arms and ammunition, and commenced to rob the settlers. These men Nvere captured and tried, not for desertion, but for absenting themselves without leave ; a course imputed to the humanit}^ of Grose. An observant critic will see m the comment of Collins much matter for reflection : — " Thia desertion ami the iliaaffeLtion cjf those who me^-ut to take off a long boat was the more iinaceouiitahle aa the coiuiimiitiiug officer had iinifonnly treated them with every indulgence, putting it entirely out of their power to eonipkiiu on that heu,d. Spirits aud other comforts had been procured for them ; he had diatinguiahed them from convicta in the ration of provisions; he had allowed them to huild themselves comfortable huts, permitting them wdiile so employed the nse of the public boats. He had indulged them with women ; and, in a word, had never refused any of them a request which did not militate agaiuet the rules of the service, or of the discipline which he had laid down for the New South Wale^ Corps. At the same time, however, to prevent those inclnlgencies from falling into contempt J they were caiintorhakncetl by the certah^ty of being withdrawn when abused. That a corps so indulged should set an example of dehauchery was, humanly speaking, a certainty ; and the result was what might have been expected. Convict women were assigned to, and became open paramours of, the more reckless amongst oflicers anil others ; and the task of rearing a family imbued with moral feelings became dreary if not hopeless. Yet to the honour of our race it may be asserted that it was manfully undertaken and carried out with signal success in some cases. Notably John Macarthnr and his wife were patterns of a better life amidst the immoralities of the thne. The convicts who had been enhsted in the New South "Wales CoY>'dk ^i. Xis^i