rst man that has ever overcome me, for you spoke to
me of my 'mother'; and now, sir, you can do anything you like with me,
and I'll carry out my sentence properly, and go back aboard my ship and
do my duty as a British sailor ought to do."

And he did; and after his release went in the ship on to Bombay, from
whence the Superintendent heard from Sir Robert McClure that John ----
was as well behaved a man as he had on board, and that the treatment
he had received in the Singapore jail had quite altered his nature, and
he would like to know the prescription for it.

Very often, when a long course of positive punishment has ceased to have
its effect, a contrary treatment may lead to quite a change in the
character, and if anything will touch the heart of a vicious Briton, it
is to bring him to think upon the early counsels of a godly mother.

Chapter XI

ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS

On the separation of the Straits Settlements from British India in 1867,
it was arranged that the Indian life convicts at Singapore should be
transferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. In the course of
correspondence which took place on the subject, His Excellency the
Governor of the Straits Settlements proposed, in respect of those
convicts who were to continue in the Straits, that a liberal use of the
power of pardon should be made in the case of such convicts, the nature
of whose crimes and whose subsequent character warranted it.

The Government of India agreed to this proposal, with the proviso that
pardon should be conditional on convicts not returning to India, or in
the case of Burmese to Burmah, without the special sanction in each case
of the Government of India; and that this sanction would not be given in
any cases in which the crime was "Thuggee" or "Dacoity," or robbery by
administering poisonous drugs, or other form of organized crime, or in
the case of mutiny or rebellion accompanied with murder.

Accordingly, the Straits Government authorities submitted lists of
convicts whom they recommended for pardon. After consulting the local
governments concerned, the Government of India issued orders in each
case, authorizing the release and return to India of some of the
convicts, granting conditional pardon to others, and refusing release on
any account to the remainder.

This decision did not commend itself to the Straits Government, and His
Excellency the Governor suggested