stories, or plot future evil. True, there was some attempt at order and
classification, for they were divided into messes of six each, and Mrs.
Fry eagerly seized upon this arrangement to form a basis of control. She
proposed to the convicts that they should be arranged in classes of
twelve, according to ages and criminality; to this they assented. A
class thus furnished two messes, while over each class was placed one of
the most steady convicts, in order to enforce the rules as much as
possible. She provided in this way for superintendence.

The next arrangement concerned work for the women, and instruction for
the children. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do;"
accordingly the ladies looked about for plans and methods whereby the
enforced weariness of a long voyage should be counteracted. They had
heard that patch-work and fancy-work found a ready sale in New South
Wales, so they hit upon a scheme which should ensure success in more
ways than one. Having made known their dilemma, and their desires, they
were cheered by receiving from some wholesale houses in London
sufficient remnants of cotton print and materials for knitting to
furnish all the convicts with work. There was ample time to perfect all
arrangements, seeing that the ship lay at Deptford about five weeks; as
the result of Mrs. Fry's journeys to and fro, every woman had given to
her the chance of benefiting herself. In this way they were informed
that if they chose to devote the leisure of the voyage to making up the
materials thus placed in their hands, they would be allowed upon arrival
at the colony to dispose of the articles for their own profit.

There was thus a new stimulus to exertion as well as a collateral good.
Hitherto, no refuge, home, or building of any description had existed
for the housing of the women when landed at the port of disembarkation.
There was "not so much as a hut in which they could take refuge, so that
they were literally driven to vice, or left to lie in the streets." The
system of convict-management at that date was one of compulsory labor,
or mostly so. This plan tended to produce tyranny, insubordination,
deception, vice, and "the social evil." In the case of men, Captain
Mackonochie testified that they were sullen, lazy, insubordinate and
vicious; the women, if not engaged quickly in respectable domestic
service, and desirous of being kept respectable, become curses to the
colony. But by the means ad