of a piece of heavily salted beef, so hard
that it was no easy matter to cut it into mouthfuls. Supper was the same
as breakfast, and this was kept up with hardly any variation.

"The slightest infraction of the rules was punished with the lash, but
this did not deter the criminals from making trouble. Constantly the
boatswain and his assistants were kept busy in performing the floggings
that were ordered, and sometimes the cat-o'-nine-tails was in steady use
from sunrise to sunset. The more severe his discipline, the more highly
an officer was regarded by his superiors, and if he occasionally hanged
a few men, it rather advanced than retarded his promotion. A good many
died on the voyage from England to Australia, partly in consequence of
their scanty fare and the great heat of the tropics; but, according to
tradition, a very large proportion of the mortality was the result of
brutal treatment and privations.

"The passengers on the convict ship," said Harry, "seem to have been
treated pretty much like those on slave ships."

"You are not far wrong there," the doctor replied; "the sufferings of
convicts on their way to Australia were not altogether unlike those of
the unhappy negroes that were formerly taken from the coast of Africa to
North and South America. The convicts were not crowded quite as densely
into the holds of the ships as the slaves were, and the mortality among
them was not as great; still they were packed very thickly together, and
were treated quite as cruelly as the slave dealers used to treat their
human property. Occasionally it happened that the convicts formed a
conspiracy and endeavored to take possession of the ship. In nearly
every instance they were betrayed by one of their number, and when the
time came for action they were so closely guarded that any resistance
was useless. Then the conspirators were seized, and after a brief trial
were condemned to be hung or shot, generally the former, as it saved
ammunition and did not soil the decks of the ship with blood. When there
was an actual mutiny the mutineers were shot down without mercy, and
those who escaped the bullets were speedily disposed of by hanging at
the yard-arms."

"Terrible times those must have been," remarked Ned; "the wonder is that
anybody survived."

"Yes, indeed," said Harry; "but man has a tough constitution and can
endure a great deal."

CHAPTER IV.

STRANGE ADVENTURES--AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS.

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