The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-31 00:00:00

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spoke, he bade his brother-convict, if ever he shoula reach
England, to tell her that, the last time he saw him, he was
well and prospering, and would, some time or other, come and
see her, " and that," said he, "will add many years to my
poor, dear mother's life." The prisoner said, he then wetted
a pair of drawers, and swathed them round his comrade's
head. He himself got into the tank of water, when he, some
hours after, heard the order to put up the topsails, which
gave him some satisfaction, as he knew, by that, that the
vessel was going to sea. He knew not where she was bound
to, nor did he care, so that they got away from the miserable
place which he had quitted. He remained in the tank.
amongst the water, twelve or fourteen days, suffering extreme
torture, and had still, and should have to the end of his days,
a recurrence of the pains which be then endured. During
the whole time, his only food was seven biscuits. The
prisoner proceeded to state, that they were discovered,
and described with what horror he heard the captain, who,
he supposed, suspected what they were, give
,the order to
put the ship about, and how he and his companion, being
resolved to brave any fate rather than be taken back, jumped
overboard when the ship was about six or seven miles from the
Feejee Islands. His comrade was on the point of sinking when
they perceived an old canoe, bottom upwards, into which they,
after many attempts; managed to get. The canoe swamped
with them once or twice, but at length they reachedlhe land in
safety. The natives soon saw them ; and, as they were known
to be cannibals, they had great dread of them. They took hold
of Carney, who foolishly resisted, upon which they forced him
away, but not before one of them inflicted a wound upon his
(Dolphin's) shoulder, which brought him to the ground. He
suffered great torture for several days, being without food or
water, and unable to help himself. He tried to eat the grass
which was within his reach, and, at length, worn out with
suffering, he became insensible. When he recovered, he
found himself lying with his bead resting against a native
woman, who was applying antidotes to the wound, which
had been inflicted by a poisoned spear. On his recovery,
the yoring woman indicated to him that there was a white
man in the bush. He went to the spot which she pointed
out, and there found the dead body of Carney, the flesh
nearly all taken from his bones either by the natives or the
hogs. He interred him in some soft ground, an operation
which he described as having given him great satisfaction.
It turned out, however, that he had infringed upon what the
natives deemed privileged ground, and he would have been
sacrificed but for the interference of the young native woman,
who was a chieftain's sister. At length, one day, the girl
ran to him exclaiming, " Kibooker,, ' which meant a large
man-of-war canoe. This turned out to be a French ship,
the Angelica, of Havre de Grace, which was on a whaling
cruise. When the boat took him away, he said, the affec-
tionate young native girl swam after him, and he was com-
pelled to take her with him. A short time afterwards he
had an opportunity of consigning her to the care of a bene-
volent missionary, who took her back to the island which
she had left, where he wished to establish a missionary sta-
tion, and in which design her influence would be useful.
The prisoner detailed many other hardships, sufferings. and
adventures which be had undergone before he reached Eng-
land. His intention was to have entered on board one of
her Majesty's ships, where, after some years of good service,
he was in hopes he might have obtained his pardon. He
concluded by imploring his lordship to be merciful to him,
and not to send him back to exile. He sobbed, in his earn-
estness, as he begsed that any punishment might be awarded
to him rather than this. If again transported, he should be
sent to Norfolk Island, or Goat Island, places which he
would not pollute his lordship's ears by pretending to de-
scribe. Even on board the hulks he would be chained to
crosstrees all the day, and would not be allowed the privi-
lege of another convict • and it would be the same on board
the ship. He would be thankful for even the scaffold in
preference.
His LORDSHIr interrupted the prisoner. If he were ad-
dressing him in the hope that he should prevent him from
passing sentence of transportation, he was sorry to say, he
had no option. .
Prisoner (with great emotion.)—Then, God help me ! I'll
not describe what I shall suffer. I would not wish to offend
your lordship's ears by telling you about Norfolk Island.
Oh ! if you would but pass sentence of death upon me, I
would summon courage to die; for then I should die like a
man ; but, if you send me back, I shall spend a few miserable
years in chains ; and, after all, I shall not die like a man, no,
not even like a dog. I beg, my lord, from my heart, that
you will rather consign me to death than again to transporta-
tion. If it be in your power to show kindness to a miserable
man like me, do my lord. I never knew what it was to re-
ceive parental instruction—indeed, my lord, I did not ; and
I have been fearfully punished for my crime. I never was
taught what was right till I learned it from experience : I
shame to say it, but I never had any instruction but what I
received from the schoolmaster of the gaol. Do be as mer-
ciful as you can, my lord. [His lordship shook his head, as
if intimating that he had no will in the matter.] I have done
my lord. You may consign me to misery, but it shan't be
for long. Do doom me to death, my lord, if you have the
power : all I want is a few hours preparation. I have done
my lord.
His LORDSHIP, addressing the prisoner, said, that the
statement which Ire had made, in the hope of obtaining a
mitigation of punishment, was 'one which every person in
court must have heard with a great degree of pain. If it
were true, and he had no reason for supposing that the pri-
soner had been stating what was not true, the narrative might
serve one very useful purpose, for it was commonly supposed
by persons who had committed crimes in this country, that.
when they were sentenced to be transported, they were about
to be sent to a land where they would not suffer, but would
improve their condition in life. Many a person had been
drawn into the commission of crime under the supposition,
that the punishment was one in name, and not in circurn.-
stance. if what the prisoner had stated were true, a great
impression ought to be made on the minds of those persons.
They ought to know what was really the fact, that, on pas-
sing from this country to that to which they were to be trans-
ported, a country which had been described as not a land for
honest men, they went to a place where they must suffer dis-
grace and hardship, and where they must lose that which it
was the most painful to human being to lose,---all hope of
liberty. He (the prisoner) had pleaded guilty to a charge of
having committed the offence of returning from transporta-
tion. Ile had been transported for a crime which, at the
time, *as a' capital'offence' and for which he might have suf-
fered on the gallows ; but he was sentenced to fourteen years
transportation ; and, bad as that sentence was, it was one to
which' he ought to have submitted ; and his own statement
showed, that, if he had persevered in the line of conduct
which he had observed when he became the servant of a kind
master, he might have had the same good fortune. But he
had thought proper not to submit to his lot ; and he had that
day given an account of the hardships which he had in con-
sequence suffered. He (the prisoner) was about to receive
sentence for returning before the term of his sentence for
transportation had expired. He had appealed to him (the
Judge) in mitigation of punishment; but it was fit that he
should tell him, that he had no discretion in the matter. He
(the prisoner) must he transported for life ; and, previous to
his transportation; he must suffer some term of imprison-
ment. The sentence of the Court was, that he be imprisoned
and kept to hard labour in the House of Correction, at Kirk-
dale, for three months ; and that, at the expiration of his
sentence, he be transported for the term of his natural life.
Prisoner.—That shall be a short one. God bless your lord-
ship—you have been as merciful as you could, I know.
The JUDGE.—Don't say that the term shall be short. You
speak as if there were nothing beyond this life, and you speak
of it as a matter of indifference. If you were, by any act of
your own, to shorten your term of existence, and thus put off
your day of repentance, the sufferings which you have endured
in this life will be nothing to the punishment which you will
suffer in the life that is' to come.
William Edmonds, a tall, very well built man, was charged
with being an escaped convict from transportation. He
pleaded guilty. His sentence was similar to that of the last
prisoner.