e youths asked how the convicts were employed after they came
to Australia.

"At first," said the doctor, "they were employed almost entirely on
government works. A city was laid out, and of course it was necessary to
grade the streets, build bridges, and do other things in connection with
putting the place into shape. There were prisons, warehouses, wharves,
and other buildings necessary to a convict establishment to be erected.
Gardens and fields were to be laid out and planted, and altogether there
was no lack of work to be performed. The prisoners were required to work
under guard, and the worst of them were ornamented with ball and chain,
like the occupants of many a prison in different parts of the world.
They were treated just as rigorously as they had been on board the ships
that brought them out. Their lodgings were somewhat more spacious, but
by no stretch of fancy could they be called luxurious. The supply of
food in the colony was not large, and the fare of the prisoners was
scanty.

"Free emigration to Australia began a few years after the convict
emigration, and most of the free emigrants came here with the view to
employ the convicts under contracts with the government. They were
principally men of capital, and the most of them established farms or
factories near Sydney and entered into agreements with the government
to supply them with labor. Where they were close to the city, the
convicts were sent out to their work in the morning and returned to
prison at night; but where the distance from the city was considerable,
other plans had to be followed. Sometimes soldiers were detailed to
guard the convicts at their working places, and in others the employer
himself supplied the guard. The convicts were also made to understand
very clearly that if they ran away they would be caught and severely
punished.

"I should think they would run away in spite of all these threats,
especially where their sentences were for long terms," Harry remarked.

"It was not so easy as it may seem for anybody to escape," said the
doctor. "A man could not stay around the colony more than a day or two,
or a few days at the farthest, without being discovered, and when found
he was sure to be severely flogged, put on bread and water, and shut up
in a dark cell. If he escaped into the bush, he was pretty certain to
starve to death unless found by the natives, in which case he was
generally murdered. Many a convict ran away to the