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<h2> CHAPTER XX. "A NATURAL PENITENTIARY." </h2>
<p>"The "employment" at Port Arthur consisted chiefly of agriculture,
ship-building, and tanning. Dawes, who was in the chain-gang, was put to
chain-gang labour; that is to say, bringing down logs from the forest, or
"lumbering" timber on the wharf. This work was not light. An ingenious
calculator had discovered that the pressure of the log upon the shoulder
was wont to average 125 lbs. Members of the chain-gang were dressed in
yellow, and—by way of encouraging the others—had the word
"Felon" stamped upon conspicuous parts of their raiment.</p>
<p>This was the sort of life Rufus Dawes led. In the summer-time he rose at
half-past five in the morning, and worked until six in the evening,
getting three-quarters of an hour for breakfast, and one hour for dinner.
Once a week he had a clean shirt, and once a fortnight clean socks. If he
felt sick, he was permitted to "report his case to the medical officer".
If he wanted to write a letter he could ask permission of the Commandant,
and send the letter, open, through that Almighty Officer, who could stop
it if he thought necessary. If he felt himself aggrieved by any order, he
was "to obey it instantly, but might complain afterwards, if he thought
fit, to the Commandant. In making any complaint against an officer or
constable it was strictly ordered that a prisoner "must be most respectful
in his manner and language, when speaking of or to such officer or
constable". He was held responsible only for the safety of his chains, and
for the rest was at the mercy of his gaoler. These gaolers—owning
right of search, entry into cells at all hours, and other droits of
seigneury—were responsible only to the Commandant, who was
responsible only to the Governor, that is to say, to nobody but God and
his own conscience. The jurisdiction of the Commandant included the whole
of Tasman's Peninsula, with the islands and waters within three miles
thereof; and save the making of certain returns to head-quarters, his
power was unlimited.</p>
<p>A word as to the position and appearance of this place of punishment.
Tasman's Peninsula is, as we have said before, in the form of an earring
with a double drop. The lower drop is the larger, and is ornamented, so to
speak, with bays. At its southern extremity is a deep indentation called
Maingon Bay, bounded east and west by the organ-pipe rocks of Cape Raoul,
and the giant form of Cape Pillar. From Maingon Bay an arm of the ocean
cleaves the rocky walls in a northerly direction. On the western coast of
this sea-arm was the settlement; in front of it was a little island where
the dead were buried, called The Island of the Dead. Ere the in-coming
convict passed the purple beauty of this convict Golgotha, his eyes were
attracted by a point of grey rock covered with white buildings, and
swarming with life. This was Point Puer, the place of confinement for boys
from eight to twenty years of age. It was astonishing—many honest
folks averred—how ungrateful were these juvenile convicts for the
goods the Government had provided for them. From the extremity of Long
Bay, as the extension of the sea-arm was named, a convict-made tramroad
ran due north, through the nearly impenetrable thicket to Norfolk Bay. In
the mouth of Norfolk Bay was Woody Island. This was used as a signal
station, and an armed boat's crew was stationed there. To the north of
Woody Island lay One-tree Point—the southernmost projection of the
drop of the earring; and the sea that ran between narrowed to the eastward
until it struck on the sandy bar of Eaglehawk Neck. Eaglehawk Neck was the
link that connected the two drops of the earring. It was a strip of sand
four hundred and fifty yards across. On its eastern side the blue waters
of Pirates' Bay, that is to say, of the Southern Ocean, poured their
unchecked force. The isthmus emerged from a wild and terrible coast-line,
into whose bowels the ravenous sea had bored strange caverns, resonant
with perpetual roar of tortured billows. At one spot in this wilderness
the ocean had penetrated the wall of rock for two hundred feet, and in
stormy weather the salt spray rose through a perpendicular shaft more than
five hundred feet deep. This place was called the Devil's Blow-hole. The
upper drop of the earring was named Forrestier's Peninsula, and was joined
to the mainland by another isthmus called East Bay Neck. Forrestier's
Peninsula was an almost impenetrable thicket, growing to the brink of a
perpendicular cliff of basalt.</p>
<p>Eaglehawk Neck was the door to the prison, and it was kept bolted. On the
narrow strip of land was built a guard-house, where soldiers from the
barrack on the mainland relieved each other night and day; and on stages,
set out in the water in either side, watch-dogs were chained. The station
officer was charged "to pay special attention to the feeding and care" of
these useful beasts, being ordered "to report to the Commandant whenever
any one of them became useless". It may be added that the bay was not
innocent of sharks. Westward from Eaglehawk Neck and Woody Island lay the
dreaded Coal Mines. Sixty of the "marked men" were stationed here under a
strong guard. At the Coal Mines was the northernmost of that ingenious
series of semaphores which rendered escape almost impossible. The wild and
mountainous character of the peninsula offered peculiar advantages to the
signalmen. On the summit of the hill which overlooked the guard-towers of
the settlement was a gigantic gum-tree stump, upon the top of which was
placed a semaphore. This semaphore communicated with the two wings of the
prison—Eaglehawk Neck and the Coal Mines—by sending a line of
signals right across the peninsula. Thus, the settlement communicated with
Mount Arthur, Mount Arthur with One-tree Hill, One-tree Hill with Mount
Communication, and Mount Communication with the Coal Mines. On the other
side, the signals would run thus—the settlement to Signal Hill,
Signal Hill to Woody Island, Woody Island to Eaglehawk. Did a prisoner
escape from the Coal Mines, the guard at Eaglehawk Neck could be aroused,
and the whole island informed of the "bolt" in less than twenty minutes.
With these advantages of nature and art, the prison was held to be the
most secure in the world. Colonel Arthur reported to the Home Government
that the spot which bore his name was a "natural penitentiary". The worthy
disciplinarian probably took as a personal compliment the polite
forethought of the Almighty in thus considerately providing for the
carrying out of the celebrated "Regulations for Convict Discipline".</p>
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