Explore "Broad Arrow" by Caroline Leakey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
HIS Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having duly and formally signified his approval of the admission of the Reverend Herbert Evelyn and family into the sacred regions of Port Arthur, and the Comptroller-General having promised to apprise the Superintendent of the settlement of their visit, in order that the waggons might be in waiting for them on their arrival, one bright morning in the month of February, Emmeline, accompanied by her father and cousin, took her place on board the Kangaroo, the Government steam-boat plying between Hobart Town and the Peninsula; and shortly after, a second cab set down Mrs. Evelyn and her children on the jetty, when Charlie speedily found his way to his uncle, and became vociferously jubilant at the prospect of a trip down the river, as the water route to Tasman's Peninsula is denominated. The free passengers were ready to start. A young lieutenant just bearing away his still more youthful bride to the ungainly solitude of Eagle Hawk Neck, was fast increasing his impatience with the increasing moments, when tramp-a-tramp, chink-a- chink along the road, and chained two together a gang of second- sentence men drew near. Ere they could reach the wharf a band of armed soldiers drew up on each side of the jetty, and at word of command, as the gang approached, they pointed their muskets, forming a guarded pathway for the convicts, who two by two passed through it and hobbled on board the steamer, where crowded together they had to stand out the passage. Quickly followed a band of probationers, bound for the Cascades--and then the soldiers divided--part marching into the boat after the men, the others returning to Hobart. It was now half-past seven the captain mounted the paddle-wheel, gave the signal, and in another moment the Kangaroo was off.
Not having been told that the vessel was a prison-transport, Bridget had looked forward with much delight to the scenery which makes a sail down the Derwent a sine qua non to the beauty-seekers of our shores. With the sight of the felons vanished all her dreams of pleasure, for she could not with one eye view the misery of her fellow-creatures, and with the other dwell admiringly on the landscape; she must feel all, pity all, or admire all, or else shut her eyes altogether.