The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1889-03-27

somber and tragic and nowhere more
SO than at tasmania Port Arthur, the
famous convict station. now tumbling
into ruin, is some thirty miles below
Hobart, on what is known as .sTas-
mans Peninsula" and is connected with
the main land by a narrow spit, which
was guarded in convict times by con-
stables and soldiers, and by savage
dogs whose chains allowed them to
range over every inch of ground by
which prisoners might try to escape.
10 prevent them from attempting to
swim from the shore the sharks which
lnfest these seas were kept lowering
about the place by daily rations of
meat that were thrown to them Es-
capes, under these circumstances, were
naturally rare, yet they occurred occa-
sionally, nevertheless.
The chief employment of the con-
vlcts was Telling the huge forest trees,
in which work many lives were lost.
After breakfast of -four and water
they started from their prison on Sarah
Island to the mainland, worked all day
without other food, returned to their
chief meal, and went to rest. Those
who We're separated from the others
for punishment more severe were
lodged on rock, to which, often in
chains, they passed, waist deep, through
the surf and lay down without bedding
or fire in their wet clothes to catch
such sleep as they could. Lashes and
chains, abuse of inhuman jailers,
starvation and illness, and abandon
ment of hope drove them to tho most
desperate efforts to escape-and here
nature joined the cruelty of man,
and caught and exhausted them and
choked out their life in the horrible
"scrub" which is characteristic of Tas-
mania.
1.-The horizontal and "banera''
shrubs are the chief terror of explor-
ers. The horizontal is tall shrub,
which sometimes attains length of
sixty feet. Its peculiar habit-to which
it owes its name-is for the main stem to
assume horizontal position after
reaching the height of few feet, from
which ascend secondary, and from
these tertiary, branches, which as
sumo the same horizontal direction.
All of these interlock and form with
other shrubs-an occasional erect gum
tree furnishing pillar to strengthen
the whole-an absolutely impervious
barrier. The lower labyrinth is thick
ly incased with moss. dripping with
moisture, concealing deep holes, into
which VIXEN a man drops he is lost en-
tirely to sight and often can not extri-
cate himself without assistance. Many
missing mineral prospectors are
thought to have lost their lives in
these traps. The banera scrub forms
a thick and springy mass of wiry
branches, which are too tough and too
much moss-grown to cut, so that the
only way to pass them IS to throw ones
self upon the soft, branching mass and
roll over upon the other side. Such
progression is exhausting. and is made
additionally interesting by the usual
presence in these localities of venomous
snakes. Under these circumstances
it is not strange that hardly a con-
vict who attempted to make his way
to the settlement was ever seen alive
again.
The only man who made his way
through the scrub was convict
named Pearce, who set out with seven
companions. They endured the most
frightful sufferings, lived on berries
and roots, and finally the stronger
murdered the weaker for food, until
only Pearce and a man named Green
hill remained. These continued on
with growing weakness until they
could go no further. Then they
stopped, and for two days and nights
they watched each other! Greenhill
had the axe with which the way had
been cut through the brush and the
others of the party had been killed.
Finally exhausted nature could endure
no more, and Greenhill, putting the
axe under his head to guard against
surprise, decided the fearful lottery by
being the first to sleep. When Pearce,
two days later, came out among q
group of sheep herders, they fled from
him at sight of the horrible provision
he carried in his hands. Pearce was
taken out and executed, and his con-
fession. describing that terrible ex-
perience in the bush, was read from
the scaffold, and forms one of the most
hideous recitals to which human ears
ever listened. This episode, as we'll
as others, has been utilized in that
strikingly realistic story of colonial
and convict experience. 'For the
Term of his Natural Life"-a work
which | have hitherto believed to be
overdrawn, but which seems even mild
in view of the facts that are recorded
in the official records of Hobart
Another matter of interest to the
visitor in Tasmania is the melancholy
history of the native population. When
the country was first settled, in 1903,
IL Is estimated that there were some
seven thousand aborigines in Tasmania.
ihey were an amiable race and treated
the settlers well and lived with them
on terms OF friendliness. The estah.