'PR C60d.a.. •CS�� lq81t- � '"' �r,;,�{ cJ c::_,.:;;J ; �· .;:,'t\� -- -- - - -- -2-fT7UU \�1\\�l\1�\\�1\l�l\\\\\ I 930171 3\ �.\ 3 4067 00 4 ' PR8022. C5B3198 D e CENG __ - Qv1.1T'n on Pn-oU.t::t!. C 5831984 MAIN GEN 04/04/85 THE UNIVERSI'IY OF QUEENSlAND LIBRARIES Death Is A Good Solution THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS SCHOLARS' LIBRARY Death Is A Good Solution The Convict Experience in Early Australia A.W. Baker University of Queensland Press First published 1984 by University of Queensland Press Box 42, St Lucia, Queensland, AustraW. ©A.W.Bakerl984 This book is copyright. Aput &om my fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. Typeset by University of Queensland Press Printed in Hong Kong by Silex Enterprise & Printing Co. Distributed in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbe1n by Prentice Hall International, International Book DistnOutors Ltd, 66 Wood Lane End, Heme! Hempstead, Herts., England Distributed in the USA and Canada by Technical lmpex Corporation, 5 South Union Street, Lawrence, Mass. 01843 USA Cataloauing ia Publication Data Nt�tiorralLibraryoJAustrtJ!ia Baker, A.W. (Anthony William), 1936- Death is a good solution. Bibliography. .. ---· ---- ��· -�No -L' oRAR'V Includes index. � OF C\ :��,t;�,�k'f· I. Aumalim litera�- History mdl>AAI�. � �· 2. Convicts in literature. I. Title (Series: University of Queensland Press scholars' library). A820.9'3520692 LibrtJryofCortgrtss Baker, A.W.(Anthony William), 1936- Death is a good solution. (Tbe University of Queensland Pren scholars' library) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Australian literature - History and criticism. 2. Prisoners in literature. 3. Penal colonies in literature.4. Australia- History- 1788-1900 I. Title.II. Series. PR9605.6.P75B3 1984 820'.9'994 83-23556 ISBN 0 7022 1685 2 II est utile que je m'en aille; Ia mort est un bon arrangement. Victor Hugo, Les Misirables Contents Publisher's Note ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Abbreviations xvii The Background 1788-1829: The Beginnings of Convict Literature in Australia 31 1830--68: The End of Transportation; The Beginning of Fiction 78 4 After 1868: Transportation in Retrospect 124 Appendixes I Factual British Criminal Biographies 148 II Fictional British Criminal Biographies 150 III Factual Convict Accounts and Biographies (1792-1830) 152 IV Factual Convict Accounts and Biographies (1830-68) 156 V Fictional Convict Accounts and Biographies (1830 to the Present) 160 Notes 164 Bibliography 183 Index 215 Publisher's Note This bookis in a series designed by tbe University of Queensland Press to make available reference and specialist works. Titles in tbe series normally will not be stocked by booksellers and may be obtained by writing directly to tbe publisher. Preface "Truth of fact", Virginia Woolf is said to have written, "and truth of fiction are incompatible." This work examines aspects of a body of literature where there does appear to be a variation between the truth of fact and the truth of fiction, for the book deals with "convict literature": writings by or about the convicts of the trans­ portation era in Australia. For a considerable period of our short history. convicts were the focus of life here. Their concerns and the concerns of those set over them formed the substance of what was written. In the nation's formative years the ambit of life and the ambit of writing were virtually identical. Faithful records were kept of the truth of facts: durations of tours of duties; lengths of sentences; pounds of flour; heads of sheep. Other details were also se� down: the conduct of the convicts; the nature of the native-born; convict reformation. These latter "facts" were obviously less amenable to objectivity. Objectivity was even more at risk because an accepted code was being used to describe phenomena incompatible with it. The official frame of reference, with components like industry and reformation, did not match the reality of the convicts' outlook and activities. Official versions of convict life formed a species of fiction. There was another level of fiction of which the convicts were conscious, and this was the long-standing popular xii Preface method of describing a criminal's life. This provided a fo rmula the convicts could use to describe their life before transportation. It also provided a tone �nd perspective which would eventually impose a pattern on popular accounts of the life of a convict in the colonies. Frequently, the resulting tale was more fiction than fact. It is not surprising that witnesses of transportation dis­ agreed about the nature of the reality they perceived. In the 1830s, for example, Archbishop Richard Whately believed that transportation was, in effect, a free passage "to a country whose climate is delightful".' Father (later, Bishop) William Ullathorne bemoaned the pouring of "scum upon scum, dregs upon dregs building up with them a nation of crime" 2 Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur, on the other hand, having presided over Van Diemen's Land, was content to believe that transportation relieved "England of the depraved individual and, in a majority of cases [it would] effect a reformation of his character" Captain Alexander Maconochie, penal reformer and one-time commandant of Norfolk Island, admitted that the administration of convicts was "able" but believed that the principle of the system was ''vicious'' It is not surprising, either, that attempts to represent trans­ portation in literature caused disagreements. Henry Parkes, who spent much energy over a long period in debates about transportation, objected to William Astley (Price Warung) that a "healthy spirit would scarcely seek enjoyment" in Astley's stories. The latter explained that the Convict System was an historical episode and if it is to be dealt with in the guise of fiction, the spirit of that episode must be presented with vraisemblance I did not make my subject. All I sought to do was interpret it. 3 In life, many surviving convicts became an embarrassment, best eliminated by death. As late as 19 39, Miles Franklin and Dymphna Cusack in their Pioneers on Parade found a subject for satire in some people's efforts to hide their convict "connections" Indeed today, while many Australians would Preface xiii agree with R.D. FitzGerald when he wrote of convict Maurice FitzGerald "could I announce that Maurice was my kin I say aloud I I'd take his irons for heraldry and be proud" ,4 others would be moved to litigation were such ancestry to be imputed to them. This work, then, seeks to make a contribution to an under­ standing of interpretations of our origins. In general, it seeks to trace the sources of these interpretations, and their mutations. Appendixes at the end of the book set out summaries of tales about criminals at various stages of this development. While the study concentrates on the period 1788-1868 (the years during which convicts were transport­ ed to Australia), the bibliography contains a representative range of texts from the beginnings of transportation until 1970. In the body of the text there is an attempt to convey the substance of the convict experience. Some accounts of it are summarized. The summaries should be used in conjunction with the appendixes. In seeking to describe the substance of the convicts' lives, I have drawn heavily upon the work of historians, much of whose work is "convict literature" I gratefully acknowledge my debt to the historians. I hope that I have not trespassed upon their domain; I trust that they do not begrudge this view through the lattices. Australians have formulated an experience for themselves in a variety of ways, so that the truth of fact does not always coincide with the truth of interpretation or fiction. Perhaps this is how all nations account for their beginnings. Many people have helped me during the writing of this book. I trust that I have sufficiently thanked them all. I am particularly grateful to my family, who have endured a form of captivity with the convicts for so long. Notes 1. Richard 'Whately, "Tran!portation" in Select Documentsin Au.stTalian History xiv Preface 1788-1850, ed. C.H.M. Clark (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1958), p.157. 2. William Ullathorne, The CAtholic Mission in AustralUz (Liverpool: Rackliffe and Duckworth, 1837), p.12. 3. William Asdey to Sir Henry Parkes, 2 November 1892, in Parkes Papers ML. 4. R. D. FitzGerald and Alexandra Hasluck, Unwilling Emlgr•nts: A Stl<dy of the Convict Period in Western Australia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 43. Acknowledgments The author gratefully acknowledges the helpfulness of the following authors, owners of copyrights, and publishers who have given permission for quotations to appear in this book: Australian National University Press for quotations from Hobart Town by Peter Bolger; Cat and Fiddle Press for a quotation from The Tasmanian Gallows by Richard P. Davis; Curtis Brown (Aust.) Pty Ltd, Penguin Books, Eyre & Spottiswoode and Jonathon Cape for quotations from Voss and from A Fringe of Leaves by Patrick White ; Faber and Faber Ltd for quotations from Convicts and the Colonies by A. G. L. Shaw; The Grolier Society for a quotation from "Convicts and Transportation" by A. G. L. Shaw in the Australian Encyclopedia; Melbourne University Press for a quotation from The Convict Settlers of Australia by Dr Lloyd Robson, and for a quotation from Quest for Authority in Eastern Australia by Dr Michael Roe; Oxford University Press, Australia for quotations from Australian Painting 1788-1960 by Bernard Smith; Reed Books Pty Ltd and the estate of Charles Bateson for quotations from The Convict Ships by Charles Bateson; Review Publications Pty Ltd for quotations from Notes d'un Condamne Politique by Fran.yois­ Xavier Prieur, translated by George Mackaness; Sydney University Press for quotations from Pressmen and Governors by E.