at the tameness with which I had endured it.
I remember once endeavouring to trace those
ideas of the duty of bearing injustice with
patience, to their origin; and, it seemed to me,
that I had been cheating myself all along with
the maxims of those who had never suffered
as I had, or had even imagined such a case as
mine. These gloomy thoughts visited me
mostly at night-time; and, although the morning
generally brought with it a calmer feeling
and a more reasonable consideration of the
uselessness of anything I might say or do to
ameliorate my condition, I could not help,
while the mood lasted, feeling impatient and
discontented with myself, as if I had "lacked
gall to make oppression bitter."

My dreams since my conviction had been
almost invariably of a painful nature. The
bustle of the day, and the routine of duties to
which I had now become accustomed, served
to occupy my mind; but, on finding myself
alone, the feeling of my misfortunes weighed
heavily upon me, and in my sleep this sense
seemed to give birth to every possible variety
of fearful and distressing imagination. Once,
and once only, do I distinctly remember
dreaming of my former condition. It was on
the night after we had been promised the
increased allowance of wine. This trifling
piece of good fortune, and the satisfaction
I felt in having removed a cause of
discontent breaking the dreary monotony of
convict life, were sufficient to beget in me
better spirits. My hopes for the future grew
brighter that night, and the miseries of the
past seemed to me soon about to be forgotten
in happier times. Thus, in spite of the
intense cold, and our scanty bed clothing,
I fell asleep. Then it was, that with no fear
of the gun of the sentry, or the hard life-
struggle with the waves which had probably
overcome my unhappy comrade, I slipped
away from that dungeon floating on the wide
ocean; and, in an instant, retracing all our long
and wearisome voyage, was again in England,
in my old home. There was little remarkable
in the dream itself. I was merely living again
one of the ordinary days of my previous life.
But how strange that there was no presentiment
of coming evil, no wonderment at my
own intense delight in the commonest things
of life! How strange to have been shown the
time to come, with all its terrible experiences;
and then to drink a Lethe draught, and
slipping back again, to have no memory of it --
every thought and recollection of what I had
suffered shuffled off with my degrading
garments, and left behind in that gloomy
ship's hold; where, but a moment before, I
had lain down to sleep with my miserable
companions. I was at home. Faces of old
friends were there. The same furniture was
about the room, the same pictures upon
the walls; but the table was strewn with
strange books in rich and curious binding,
which I was examining and wondering how
they came there. Blessed dream! not a whit
less sweet or real while it lasted than if its
magic flight and freedom had been true.

I do not know how long this fancy lasted,
but I think I had been dreaming all the
time I had been asleep. At all events I
was still amid the same scene, when I felt
some one shake me, and heard a voice calling
me by name. No wonder that the spell
was broken at the well-known sound of that
voice. It was the man whom I loathed as
the author of all my misfortunes, and with
whom I had been supposed to have been
associated in guilt. I had not known that it
was his turn to watch that night, for I had
studiously avoided all intercourse with him
from the day of my sentence. It was the duty
of the watchman to awaken me to relieve him,
and thus, by a strange fatality, it fell to him
to arouse me from the only dream of happiness
vouchsafed to me during the voyage.

It may be of interest to the reader to
know something of the routine of management
of the convicts on the voyage. The
medical superintendent, as I have mentioned,
is invested with absolute control over the
prisoners, and is responsible for their safety.
He was assisted in our vessel by two overseers
who had been non-commissioned officers
in the army, and were to be overseers in
Norfolk Island: one of them was, by his own
account, as profligate and unprincipled a
vagabond as ever I met with. The most
recent piece of scoundrelism which this
officer -- selected for carrying out the great
probation system -- frequently related and
chuckled over to the prisoners, was a promise
of marriage he had made to a servant, who
was to accompany him to enjoy his " colonial
appointment," and by which he had got her
watch and several years' savings. The latter
fact was considered highly amusing, and
contributed not a little to his popularity. He
had promised to marry her on a day when
he knew that the ship would have been at
least a week at sea. As it eventually turned
out, the maiden was not so easily disposed of;
for she took a passage shortly after in another
ship; and, on her arrival in the colony
demanded the fulfilment of his promise,
under pain of an exposure; which it seems
the wretch had not the courage to brave.
Whether matrimony, under the circumstances,
made either of the parties happy, is more than
I can say.

At six o'clock every morning, the prison
door was unlocked by one of these overseers,
who called out " Beds up! " whereupon every
man arose from his berth, rolled up his
bedding -- consisting of a thin mattrass and one
blanket, and took them on deck, where they
remained all day to be aired. Then the floor
of the prison was scraped and swept in turns
by the prisoners who did not fulfil any
special office -- such as schoolmaster, clerk,
captain of the mess. The captains received the
day's rations for their respective messes.
Those who liked it got something of a wash