and paid the wages of the convicts who were assigned to them with the
liquor; not only this, but they hired extra convict labour, paying for it
the same way, and strong drink became the medium of exchange.

All this has been an apparent digression from the history of the New South
Wales Corps, but, as will be seen, the subjects are intimately connected.
A later governor, who found the colony not so bad as it was at this time,
said its population consisted of people who had been, and people who ought
to have been, transported. Little wonder then that the New South Wales
Corps, enlisted from the lowest classes of the English population, became
demoralized. Most of the recruits came from that famous "clink" the Savoy
Military Prison. They had little drill or discipline when they were
embarked for the colony, and the character of the service they were
employed in was the very worst to make good soldiers of them.

In consequence they became a dangerous element in the early life of the
colony; there were frequently breaches of discipline, there were cases of
downright mutiny, and their career in New South Wales ended in a
rebellion. The responsibility for the last crime, however, is with the
officers, and not the men. One mutiny was that of the detachment on the
_Lady Shore_ in 1798.

This ship was on her way out with female prisoners and a few of the better
sort of male convicts. The soldiers joined with the seamen and seized the
ship, turning those who would not take side with them adrift in the boats.
Among these loyal people were some of the male convicts. The boats made
their way to Rio Janeiro, whence the people ultimately reached England.
Among the "respectable" convicts was one Major Semple, a notorious
swindler of the time, who on this occasion behaved well, risking his life
for the protection of the ship's officers--from the soldiers who had been