CONVICT LIFE IN NORFOLK ISLAND: AUTHENTIC RECORDS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1813, 18 July 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONVICT LIFE IN NORFOLK ISLAND: AUTHENTIC RECORDS.

[ALL RIGHTS KESEKVED.J

No. 7.

I CONVICT HERO.

The following extract from the diary of a high official of Norfolk Island is worth repeating in its bare simplicity. •'Decbmbbb 3rd, 1846. " I had a chat with Dutton to-day. He was chained down to the floor of his cell by gaolor Whaley's orders, and had been gagged for three hours previous to my visit. I ordered the instrument to be removed from his mouth as he looked very ill. Asked him the reason for his present position. He said he has! received the punishnent for getting up to me window in the hospital cell to obtain some air, as the doctor had ordered him to have frssh air, but the attendants refused to allow him out. I pitied him a great deal, for I knew that he had been very ill at the general hospital for six or seven weeks. He has never been well einoe a fearful beaming he bad some time previously, when I was absent from the island. It seems that he was in one of the ohain gangs, and some pegs upon whioh ho hung his clothing and rations had been removed. He abused the gaoler for taking the pegs, when he was gagged and taken to the new gaol, where he was chained down and dreadfully beaten by six or seven constables. Ha lay all night in a puddle of blood, and next morning Constable Wiloox came in and jumped on him, severely hurting his chest. lie afterwards pierced his body with a sharp thin piece of iron or steel. This day he showed me a huge soar on his body which he had received on that occasion. The day after tha brutal assault, the Caurch 0! England clergyman came to soe Dutton, and, finding him in such a mutilated condition, asked a turnkey who was standing near when he reoeived the injury. The careless reply given was, 'Oh, he reoeived a portion yesterday and a portion to day.' If I were in this man's position , I really think I would commit suicide. Under suoh circumstances it almost seems justifiable." Thi3 quotation from the diary of an honorable gentleman who neither extenuates nor seta aught down in malice, bat plainly states what he saw with his own eyes, and heard with his own ears, forms a terrible indifcment in itself against the conviot system. The man here spoken of, Dutton, had been fairly well brought up in Leeds, England. He entered into business aa a draper, but in a few yeara ho not only lost his capital but was also plunged in debt. Driven almost to desperation at the thought of the dark future, which was throwing its shadows over himself and his family, he, in an evil hour, forged the name of a friend to a document in order to get an advance on it. The crime was discovered— and in those days it was a most heinous one. Datton, in trying to esoapa from the shadow of want, had raised up ih.6 spectre of the gallows He was not hanged, however, we'll for him if he had — but received a sentence of transportation, for fourteen year?, to Van Dieman's Land. After serving three years he was transferred to Norfolk Island, where he arrived six months before the date given in the diary. ThQ ex-draper was certainly not a brutal fellow. He was mild and inoffensive, and bore hi 3 crusbiog misfortunes with most commendable fortitude. He was civil and obedient to those over him, and did his hard labour with a willingness that put to Bhame stronger men. But there 13 such a thing as being "too good." At least there was on the Island, and he was frequently told so. It was most aggravating to the brutal conatablg or turn key after a volley of coarse imprecations at Datton to be answered only by a meek, reproachful look from hia mild eyes. 4: Con■found it," Wilcox said once, in referring to button's mild glance of reproach, "it isn't nat'rel. The feller is either oracked, or wants to make out he's a oherub." 1£ the poor L2eds merchant had any cherubio aspirations he was certainly going the right way to hav9 them gratified, for gradually the constables and turnkeys took a dislike to him, sad mads their hatred felt in a hundred w*ys. The faci waa they instinctively felt that the coaviot was infinitely superior to themselves, and that he was not of them. Unfortunately, the extreme licence that these petty tyrants had, made it absolutely impossible for a .prisoner to live quietly under them if they decreed otherwise. If the unhappy conviot would not commit any offance ia spite of the goading, ona would be trumpbd up against him, and he would be punished all the same. "Whatever am I being punished for? '' asked a peaceful convict of Dutton'a sort as ho was being led av?ay by Constable Barge to do fourteen days " solitary." "Why, for being alive," of course," answered that faoetious official. There is no doubt that there was more truth in the constable's answer than he perhaps thought himself, for on numerous occasions the only true oharga thai could be brought against .some prisoners was that they ware alive. Certainly Datton had not committed any offanca against the gaol regulations the day ha was almost beaten to death by the oonstables. Although he had fjbeen nagged at and goaded almost beyond J human enduranoe, he maintained the same >. unruffled spirit. [ On the day he was beaten, Constable Wilcox had done everything he oould to ag. gravaf c him, and at last he took the extra «lothing and scanty rations of the convict and {-hid them. When the hungry man came for >his famine allowance he Baw it was gone, ; and mildly asked Wiloox if he knew where ( it was." ■ That implied that Wilcox had taken it, and that was a gross insult, so he seized the opportunity, and, aided by hia companions, fell upon the unhappy man with their olubs find almost killed him. Although he was in the hospital for seven weeks he did not quite recover, and for obeying the doctor's orders to get fresh air the extract from the diary shows how he was treated. What the reader will be now curious to know is the subseqaeut fate of Dutiton. Through the interference of the R-v. Mr. Williams he was transferred from the cell wher6 he was obained down in so barbarous a_ manner, to the hospital, where, under kindly treatment, he recovered something of bis former strength. As labour was required at the lime quarries, the authorities did not wait for perfect convalescence, but on the 2md of December, 1846, sent him out of the hospital with a chain gang. He begged hard not to be placed with Wilcox, but biß request was not granted, and he was forced ; to work again under his worst enemy. From the first day the persecution started. He was made to find in numberless ways how muoh be waa at the mercy of the eooundrel who should have pitied rather than eoonrged his prisoner. Christmas rolled over — that time of peace and good- will in many places no doubt, but not in a oonvict flettiemeht. It brought no relief to Dutton. A morbid feeling was rapidly springing op in the unhappy man's brain. Hope bad abandoned him, and a demon that whispered of suioide was ever at bis side. In bis cell at night he reflected that it would be impossible that he oould ever live through his Bentenoe to rejoin his wife and family, and even if by a miracle he did, they might be dead, or scattered far and wide. He oould only hope to rejoin them in Heaven, and he shuddered ac be thought that except by accident how oould be orou

the bcrdci 1 land between life and death with' out staining his soul with guilt. Murder he would not commit, and suicide repelled him. Yet every day the fatal shadow was gathering round him, and he actually began to form plans lor self -destruction. Hereoeived the brutalities of Wiloox in suoh a passive manner that the constable was quite astonished, and for a time almost ceased to trouble him. January passed away, and it was the middle of February when the Island was enlivened by the arrival of a high official and distinguished gentlemen from Sydney. Commission Moore had made suoh a blunder of his mission that the chief official himself decided to visit the settlement, for strange stories were reaching his ears of the doings on the island. The commissioner was accompanied by his wife, his daughter— a young girl about nine years 0! age— and a number of friends and leading residents of Sydney, who took advantage of the trip to visit the picturesque island. Men lika Doctor Everet, Father Murphy, and Mr. Williams were much gratified at the vitit, for from what they bad heard of the man they expected that he would have many abuses removed that sadly required it. They intended to bring the spring gag before him, the authority given the inferior gaolers, and other matters that pressed heavily on theoonvicts. Of course, the time honoured oustom of entertaining the visitors could not be forgotten, and more eapeoially on the present occasion, when there were so many influential people as guests, and some of them ladies. In aldition to the usual round of festivities for the gentlemen it was deoided to organise excursion trips to the various points of interest on the island. The Cascades were selected for the first picnio on the second day following the arrival of the visitors. The scenery in the vicinity of those email waterfalls was very pretty, and a tramway for getting building stone had been, laid down in the vioinity to the summit of a rather steep hill. On this tramway the gang under Wiloox were employed, and the evening before the proposed pionio orders were issued to the ohief gaoler by the Civil Commandant that No. 3 gang (Wilcox'b) must work at the quarries as usual, and that another chain gang should be sent to do the horse business and draw the excursionists np and down the tramway as required, I This was rather an unexpected order for Mr. Wiloox to receive, for he fully expected I that he would have the pleasure of driving I his human team next day, and ministering to the enjoyment of the distinguished visitors. The faot was that he had unconsoiously — for he would never knowingly do it— offended the Commandant, and he was reoeiving quiet punishment by being deprived of the post of oonviot honor. The Friday morning broke magnificently. True, the vegetation was wearing a sombre hue, for the vertical sun had done its work, and, like the ephemera, compressed a whole lifo time into a single season. From underneath the shade of the hardy pines many a green creeper and bright flower peeped out, and though the tender, swiftly-dying annuals had withered away under the fervent heat of old Sol, to rico again in renewed youth and beauty the next season, the island abounded in varied forms of splendid living vegetation. The balmy morning air, purified by the enoiroling Pacific, and just tempered by the glancing sunbeams, filled one with the eestatio glow of youthful health, and though the convicts went to the routine of their daily slavery with dull and hopeless faces, the viaitorß felt that their journey was not in vain when they could drink in the delights of such a morning. Wilcox and his gang were at the tramway some hours before the pleasure seekers, escorted by most of the officilas, civil and military, reached the cascades (not the cascade prison), and were shown the different points of interest in the vicinity. After an al fresco lunch, Doctor Everett proposed a visit to the tramway, whioh was at onoe agreed to. The ladies were particularly anxious to have so norel a ride in the carts, as being dragged along by "a ging of men instead of a team of horses. Commissioner Hobson, with his wife and daughter, were in the party. The young girl, who had a sweet and sensitive nature, altogether at variance with the surroundings of a oonvict settlement, more than onoe expressed to her mother the pity aha felt for the wretched slaves she saw around. The party were standing near the foot of the tramway, where Wiloox'sg&ng were at work, and very cloee to the convicts, and as Dutton went near to Mrs. and Miss Hobson, to get a large stone, he distinctly heard the girl say, " Poor fellow ; how ill he looks. They were the first kind words he had heard for month?, and they almost brought the tears to his eyes. The new gang who had been sent by the Commandant to take the excursionists up and down the tramway was one 0! the worst in tb.3 island, and why they had been picked on was a mystery to everyone except the chief officer himself. Father Murphy looked at them with something like suspioion in his face, and as he I was speaking to Ml 3. Hobson ne advised her not td go in the first trip but to wait and see how everything worked • She took his advice, although pressed by several of the others to accompany them. At best, the tramway track was not a very safe one. It waa roughly laid down with wood, and frequently the wheels left the rails, but as the oarts were taken at a walking paoe no danger ensued. The party who made up the first load of passengers included the } Civil Commandant and Commissioner Hobson, with two ladieß and three gentlemen visitors from Sydney. The remainder of the party amused themselves in various ways— : watching the ohain gang at work, or hunting for mementoeß of the visit in the adjaoent woods. Five minut6B after the tram waggon had left, the pleasure seekers at the bottom of the inoline were suddenly startled by a wild cry from above: Inßtinotively they rushed to the tram line, and not two hundred yards away they saw the waggon rushing baok at a fearful pace, and moßt of the occupants in it: To jump out at that rate of speed would have been certain death. The young girl, Amy Hobson, who had been in the woods gathering mosses, heard the cry, when, startedly an excitedly, she ran forwards towards the party. The tram rails were partly concealed with the long grass, and as she ran swiftly her foot struok one of them and she fell stunned across the other. A wild shriek hurst from her mother's lips, and the bystanderß were powerless, with horror, to move, when Buddenly the olank of chains waß heard, and a man, who seemed rather to fly than to run, darted to the tram, and flung the girl clear of the track. The next instant there was a dull sound, and then a hoarse roar rose from the party as they saw that the waggon had left the rails and stopped without injuring the occupants. But the convict? The chained and mar acled oonvict, where was he ? Alas t a mangled body, crushed almost out of recognition, lay beside the tram rails. Poor Edward Dntton had saorifioed himself to save the life ot the little girl who had > spoken kindly of him, and was beyond the ' power oE the brutal wretches who had hitherto tortured him. No olank of the ohain or swiah of the lash shall evermore be heard by him, but if there be even-handed juatioe in the " to come," be will wear the martyr's and hero's crown for his noble and heroic aotion. He had given up his life to save the little girl, and Edward Dutton had met the noble death be coveted. Seeing the people who were in the waggon, however, it seems almost a pity that it was not allowed to career on to its own and many of its oooupant's destruotion.

Authentic Records of Oonviot Life in Norfolk Island will be continued next week under the title oi " The Chain Gang's Plot." This would enlighten the reader as to how the train waggon waa allowed to rush down the incline.