would have entailed a serious expense upon the colony to have had to
maintain these prisoners in a gaol in the capital, his Excellency
determined to establish a penal settlement at Rottnest; and this he
accordingly accomplished, with very good effect.

At the time we visited the island, there were about twenty native
prisoners in charge of a superintendent and a few soldiers.

The prisoners were employed in cultivating a sufficient quantity of
ground to produce their own food. It was they also who had built the
superintendent's residence; and whenever there was nothing else to
do, they were exercised in carrying stone to the top of a high hill,
on which a lighthouse was proposed to be built.

The Governor has certainly shown very good judgment in the formation
of this penal establishment. It is the dread of the natives
throughout the colony; and those prisoners who are released inspire
among their fellows the greatest horror and dismay by their tales of
the hardships they have suffered. No punishment can be more dreadful
to these savages -- the most indolent race in the world -- than being
compelled to work; and as their idleness brings them occasionally in
contact with the superintendent's lash, their recollections and
accounts of Rottnest are of the most fearful description. Certain,
however, it is, that nothing has tended so much to keep the
Aborigines in good order as the establishment of this place of
punishment. It is maintained at very little expense to the colony,
as the prisoners grow their own vegetables, and might easily be made
to produce flour enough for their own consumption.

It was a clear, beautiful, sparkling day, and there was a sense of