The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1906-05-25
for The Term Of Ills Natural Life
>~~>~~~-~~~~~~~--~~-r~> ~>r~~~~~>UcAr~~l
BY MARCUS CLARKE

4 which burned between two followed
rocks, small log Of pine wood; and
then, returning to his cave, and bring
Ing from 1t an iron pot which contained
water, he scooped with his toll hardened
hands resting place for II in the ashes,
and placed It on the embers. 1t was
evident that the cave was at once his
storehouse and larder, and that the two
followed rocks formed his kitchen.
| Having thus made preparations for
| supper, he assembled a pathway which
led to the highest point of the rock. His
| letters compelled him to take short steps.
| and, as he walked, he WINGED as though
the iron bit him. A handkerchief OF
strip Of cloth was twisted round his left
ankle, on which the circlet had chafed
sore. Painfully and slowly he gained
his destination, and, finging himself on
| the ground, gazed around him. A brig
was being lowed up the harbor by two
convict-manned boats.
The sight of this brig seemed to rouse
| in the mind Of the solitary of the rock
strain Of reflection, for, sinking his
chin upon his hand he fixed his eyes on
the incoming vessel, and immersed him
self In moody thought. The ship an
chored, the boats detached themselves
| from her sides, the sun sunk and the bay
was plunged in gloom. Lights began to
twinkle along the shore of the settle
ment. The little fire died, and the water
| In the iron pot grew cold; yet the watch
er On the rock did not stir. With his
eyes staring into the gloom, and fixed
steadily on the vessel, he lay along the
barren cliff of his lonely prison as mo-
tionless as the rock on which he had
stretched himself.
This solitary man was Rufus Dawes
In the house of Major vickers, com
mandant of Macquarie Harbor, there
was, on this evening of December, I'M
usual gayety. Lieut.. Maurice Frere,
late in command at Maria Island, had
unexpectedly come down with news
from headquarters The Ladybird. gov
eminent schooner, visited the settlement
on ordinary occasions twice a year. To
| the ebnvicts the arrival of the Ladybird
meant arrival of new faces, intelligence
of old comrades, news of how the world
| from which they were exiled, was pro-
| crossing. When the Ladybird arrived,
the chained and toil-worn feIons felt
that they were yet human. that the uni
verse was not bounded by the gloomy
forests which surrounded their prison,
but that there was a world beyond. To
the convicts the Ladybird was town
talk, theater, stock quotations and latest
| kilograms. She was their newspaper,
postoflce, the one excitement of their
dreary existence, the one link between
their own misery and the happiness of
/ their fellow creatures To the COM
mandant and the "freemen" this mes
senger from the outer life was scarcely
less welcome. There was not man on
| the island who did not feel his heart
| grow heavier when her white sails dis
| appeared behind the shoulder of the
hill.
On the present occasion business of
more than ordinary Importance had pro-
cured for Major Vickers this pleasurable
| excitement 1t had been resolved by
Gov. Arthur that the convict establish
ment should be broken up. A succession
of murders and attempted escapes had
| called public attention to the place, and
| its distance from Hobart Town render
ed 1t inconvenient and expensive. Ar
| thur had fixed upon Tasman's penin-
sula as d future convict depot, and nam
| ing 1t Port Arthur in honor of himself,
| had sent down Lieut.. Maurice Frere
| with instructions for Vickers to convey
the prisoners of Macquarie Harbor
| thither.
| Seven classes of criminals were es-
tablished, when the new barracks for
| prisoners at Hobart Town were finished.
The first class were allowed to sleep
| out of barracks, and to work for them
selves on Saturday; the second had only
the last-named indulgence; the third
were only allowed Saturday afternoon;
the fourth and fifth were refractory
and disorderly characteristic work in
irons;" the sixth were ''men Of the most
degraded and incorrigible character-te
be worked In irons and kept entirely
separate from the other prisoners -
while the seventh were the refuse of
this refuse-the murderers, bandits and
villains, whom nither chain nor lash
could tame. They were regarded as So
cially dead, and shipped to HelPs Gates
or Maria Island. Hell's Gates was the
most dreaded Of all these houses of
bondage. The discipline at the place
was so severe, and the life so terrible,
that prisoners would risk all to escape
from 1t. In one year, of eighty-five
deaths there only thirty were from nat
ural causes; of the remaining dead,
twenty-seven were drowned, eight killed
accidentally, three shot by the soldiers,
and twelve murdered by their comrades.
In another year one hundred and sixty
nine men out of one hundred and eighty
two were punished to the extent of two
thousand lashes During the ten years
of its existence one hundred and twelve
men escaped, out of whom sixty-two only
were found--dead. The prisoners killed
themselves TO avoid living any longer,
and. If so fortunate as to penetrate the
desert of scrub, heath and swamp which
lay between their prison and the settled
districts, preferred death to recapture
Successfully to transport the remnant OF
this desperate band of doubly convicted
felons TO Arthur's new prison was the
mission of Maurice Frere.
"Well, Mrs Vickers," he said, as he
took a cup of tea from the hands of that
lady, II suppose you won't be sorry to
get away from this place. eh?"
mo, indeed" says poor Mrs. Wick
ers, with the old girlishness Swallowed
by six years; II shall be only too glad.
A dreadful place! Johns duties, how
ever, are imperative. But the wind, My
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