=Source.=--_The London Magazine_, 1827. Vol. VIII. p. 518.
_Extract from "Two Years in New South Wales," by P. Cunningham,
Surgeon, R.N._
"The convict-servants are accommodated upon the farms in huts
walled round and roofed with bark, or built of split wood and
plaster, with thatched roofs. About four of them generally sleep
and mess in each hut, drawing their provisions every Saturday, and
being generally allowed the afternoon of that day, whereupon to
wash their clothes and grind their wheat. Their usual allowance I
have already stated to be a peck of wheat; seven pounds of beef,
or four and a half of pork; two ounces of tea, two ounces of
tobacco, and a pound of sugar, weekly; the majority of settlers
permitting them to raise vegetables in little gardens allotted for
their use, or supplying them occasionally from their own gardens.
Wages are only allowed at the option of the master; but you are
obliged to supply them with two full suits of clothes annually;
and you also furnish a bed-tick (to be stuffed with grass), and a
blanket, to each person, besides a tin-pot and knife; as also an
iron-pot and frying-pan to each mess. The tea, sugar, and tobacco,
are considered _bonuses_ for good conduct, and withheld in default
thereof.
"To get work done, you must feed well; and when the rations are
ultimately raised upon your own farm, you never give their expense
a moment's consideration. The farm-men usually bake their flour
into flat cakes, which they call _dampers_, and cook these in the
ashes, cutting their salted meats into thin slices, and boiling
them in the iron-pot or frying-pan, by which means the salt is, in
a great measure, extracted. If tea and sugar are not supplied, milk
is allowed as a substitute, tea _or_ milk forming the beverage to
every meal. Though not living so comfortably as when everything
is cooked and put down before them, yet it is more after their
own mind, while the operations of preparing their meals amuse
their leisure hours and give a greater zest to the enjoyment of
those repasts. When the labour of the day is over, with enlivening
chit-chat, singing, and smoking, they chase away _ennui_, and make
the evening hours jog merrily by. Indeed, without the aid of that
magic care-killer, the pipe, I believe the greater portion of our
'pressed men' would 'take the bush' in a week after their arrival
in our solitudes, before time had attuned their minds to rural
prospects and industrious pursuits.
"Convicts, when first assigned, if long habituated to a life
of idleness and dissipation, commonly soon become restless and
dissatisfied; and if failing to provoke you to return them into the
government employ, wherein they may again be enabled to idle away
their time in the joyous companionship of their old associates,
will run off for head-quarters, regardless of the flogging that
awaits them on being taken or on giving themselves up--the idle
ramble they have had fully compensating them for the twenty-five or
fifty lashes they may receive, in case they should not be admitted
among the list at head-quarters. Many, too, start off for want of
something for their fingers to pick at,--the leader of one batch
of runaways from a friend of mine, exclaiming to those he left
behind, on bidding them adieu, 'Why, I may as well be dead and
buried in earnest, as buried alive in this here place, where a
fellow has not even a _chance_!' The chance here wished for, not
being the _chance_ of bettering his condition by good conduct,
but by emptying the full pocket of some luckless wight! If they
can be coaxed or compelled to stop, however, for a _twelvemonth_
or so, the greater portion, even of the worst, generally turn
out very fair and often very good servants; cockneys becoming
able ploughmen, and weavers, barbers, and such like soft-fingered
gentry, being metamorphosed into good fencers, herdsmen and
shepherds; a little urging and encouragement on the part of the
master, and perseverance in enforcing his authority, generally
sufficing.
"The convict-servants commence labour at sunrise, and leave off
at sunset, being allowed an hour for breakfast, and an hour or
more for dinner. It is long before you can accustom the greater
portion to steady labour, the best of them usually working by fits
and starts, then lying down for an hour or two, and up and at it
again. To get your work readily and quietly done, the best method
is certainly to task them, and allow them to get through it as
they please; but as it is an object to accustom them to _regular_
industry, it will eventually serve your purpose better, and benefit
them more, to keep them at constant work. Even some of the free-men
who have served their time are perpetually skipping about, seldom
remaining long in one situation."