Australia was not given to us either by the Pope or by the Lord.  We took this land, as we have taken many other lands, for our own benefit, without asking leave of either heaven or earth.  A continent, with its adjacent islands, was practically vacant, inhabited only by that unearthly animal the kangaroo, and by black savages, who had not even invented the bow and arrow, never built a hut or cultivated a yard of land.  Such people could show no valid claim to land or life, so we confiscated both.  The British Islands were infested with criminals from the earliest times.  Our ancestors were all pirates, and we have inherited from them a lurking taint in our blood, which is continually impelling us to steal something or kill somebody.  How to get rid of this taint was a problem which our statesmen found it difficult to solve.  In times of war they mitigated the evil by filling the ranks of our armies from the gaols, and manning our navies by the help of the press-gang, but in times of peace the scum of society was always increasing.

At last a great idea arose in the mind of England.  Little was known of New Holland, except that it was large enough to harbour all the criminals of Great Britain and the rest of the population if necessary.  Why not transport all convicts, separate the chaff from the wheat, and purge out the old leaven?  By expelling all the wicked, England would become the model of virtue to all nations.

So the system was established.  Old ships were chartered and filled with the contents of the gaols.  If the ships were not quite seaworthy it did not matter much.  The voyage was sure to be a success; the passengers might never reach land, but in any case they would never return.  On the vessels conveying male convicts, some soldiers and officers were embarked to keep order and put down mutiny.  Order was kept with the lash, and mutiny was put down with the musket.  On the ships conveying women there were no soldiers, but an extra half-crew was engaged.  These men were called “Shilling-a-month” men, because they had agreed to work for one shilling a month for the privilege of being allowed to remain in Sydney.  If the voyage lasted twelve months they would thus have the sum of twelve shillings with which to commence making their fortunes in the Southern Hemisphere.  But the “Shilling-a-month” man, as a matter of fact, was not worth one cent the day after he landed, and he had to begin life once more barefoot, like a new-born babe.

The seamen’s food on board these transports was bad and scanty, consisting of live biscuit, salt horse, Yankee pork, and Scotch coffee.  The Scotch coffee was made by steeping burnt biscuit in boiling water to make it strong.  The convicts’ breakfast consisted of oatmeal porridge, and the hungry seamen used to crowd round the galley every morning to steal some of it.  It would be impossible for a nation ever to become virtuous and rich if its seamen and convicts were reared in luxury and encouraged in habits of extravagance.