My home town is on the Coal River, Tasmania and you would be hard pushed to find a nicer place on earth. A far cry from its ealry history. Lindy Dunster Tasmania "Alison Kilpatrick" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > Transcribed from the 4 June 1822 edition of The Strabane Morning > Post, by permission of The British Library: > > Transportation.--Before the restoration of Charles II. > transportation, as a punishment, was unknown in England; but after that > time, persons found guilty of offences entitled to the benefit of the > clergy, and sentenced to be imprisoned, were transported to the British > settlements in North America. They were not, however, sent away as > perpetual slaves, but bound by indentures for seven years; and for the > last three year they received wages, in order that a fund might be > provided to give them a fair chance of future success in life. When the > American revolution prevented the further transportation of convicts to > that country, in 1775, the system of confining prisoners to hard labour > on board the hulks, and houses of correction were adopted, until the > discovery of New South Wales by Capt. Cook, in 1776 and 1777, opened a > new field for transportation; the coast of Africa having been previously > explored in vain for a fit situation for a colony of criminals. The > first embarkation to this new colony, was made in Feb. 1787, and > consisted of 264 convicts: the first settlement was made at Sidney; and > another has since been formed in the adjacent island Van Diamen's land. > So prolific has this country been in crime, that in a period of less > than thirty years, the colony at Botany Bay, amounts to upwards of > twenty thousand persons, one half of whom are convicts. So large an > assemblage of men and women, many of whom are the most desperate > characters, are with difficulty kept in order; but in order to restrain > their irregularities, 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 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 compelled to work in chains from > sun-rise to sun-set, and are subject also to other restrictions of a > highly penal description. The rigour of this sentence is, however > frequently relaxed in some degree, as the criminal shews signs of > amendment; and in very few cases is it found necessary to subject any of > the convicts to a repetition of the sentence. > > ========================= >