SUFFERINGS OF CONVICTS
Captain William Hill, commanding guard in a Second Fleet ship.
The slave trade is merciful compared with what I have seen in this fleet; in that it is in the interests of the masters to preserve the health and lives of their captives, they having a joint benefit with the owners; in this, the more they can withhold from the unhappy wretches the more provisions they have to dispose of at a foreign market, and the earlier in the voyage they die the longer they can draw the deceased’s allowance to themselves; for I fear few of them are honest enough to make a just return of the dates of their deaths to their employers. My feelings never have been so wounded as m this voyage, so much so, that I shall never recover my accustomed vivacity and spirits; and had I been em-powered, it would have been the most grateful task of my life to have prevented so many of my fellow creatures so much misery and death.
SUFFERINGS OF A FEMALE TRANSPORT
Broadside Sutton. nd circa 1852.
I was born in the year 1832, on the 17th day of June, and I am the eldest daughter of John Collins. My parents reared me in a proper and upright manner until I was 12 years of age, when they then sent me to a cotton factory to learn steam loom weaving.
I was jilted in love, forced to the streets and eventually found guilty of theft. I received the sentence of 10 years transportation to New South Wales, where I have been for about 4 years.
After we landed we were conveyed to the factory for female convicts. I was taken by a respectable family as a servant, and remained in their service until 1851. During that time they very kind to me and I only left through the death of the master. I was then turned over to another master, a very cruel man, indeed I cannot describe the hardships I endured under him. I being fed on the coarsest provisions, and compelled to work more like a horse that a human being.
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