had been so ill ; curse on them ; they have gone near to murder
me. Yet I do not believe that the voyage will be hurtful to me,
or that I am now in danger of death. The danger was in being
kept in solitary confinement here. Indeed, weak as I am in body,
I feel stronger in soul than ever I was ; for which I sincerely
thank Almighty God. Many foul shadows that seemed threaten-
ing to rise up between me and the sun have scattered themselves
and sunk. I have risen into a clearer atmosphere, and feel myself
more in accord with whatsoever is good in this world. Let some
philosopher account to me, upon either physiological or psycho-
logical principles, which he pleases, for this phenomenon the
mind growing strong as the frame grows weak growing hopeful,
contented, indomitable, the nearer a man looks upon the face of
death ; death in a dungeon ; death among his enemies. For my
own part, I bethink me, that if there be work for me to do on
the earth, the Almighty will keep me alive to do it, and draw me
out of this pit in His own time that if not, He knows what is
best for every one of us ; can raise up friends and guides for my
children, better friends and guides than I could ever'be ; can find
means and instruments that I never dream of, to elevate our poor
country out of the dust, and set her high among the nations,
and give her peace and prosperity within her cottages. In short,
everybody can do without me ; and if I am to perish in this exile,
JAIL JOURNAL 131
I shall take it as a certain sign that all things will go on belter
without me. Yet I do ardently desire to live and to act : to
rear my own children, to do my own duties, to act and speak
amongst men that which I know to be just and true. And all
this will I do if it be God's will ; if otherwise, then God's wi)'
be done.
Dr. Hall is veiy kind and attentive to me ; seems determined to
give me as much health as I can take in for the time I remain here.
The weather, too, has decidedly turned to summer again, and that
very suddenly, so that all chances are in my favour. The islands
around this bay, where the Tenedos is moored, with their green
fruit gardens and dark cedar groves, and narrow beach of white
sand, are like opening paradise to me, after the dockyard and its
loathsome hulks.
April i^th. I have just been gratified (no matter how or by
whom) with a sight of some newspapers, which announce, among
other things, a signal defeat of the enemy in the Punjab, at the
hands of the gallant Sikhs. The Governor-General of India is
hastening to support Lord Gough with large forces, and there will
probably be a sharp campaign there. The British will un-
doubtedly make desperate efforts to retrieve their fortune, even
though they should immediately after evacuate the country
altogether having first robbed and desolated it as they did in
the case of Cabool. The expenses of all this, however, will be
vast ; it is not the plunder of a few cities that will cover it ;
and so will the good work speed. " Great is bankruptcy."
Meantime, Europe is arranging itself into very singular com-
binations. England, after fostering Lombard liberalism, is now
courting and flattering Austria feeling that a day may shortly
come when she cannot do without Austria ; then Austria, for her
part, cannot do at all without Russia, which brings England and
Russia en rapport, as they ought to be, for they are natural allies.
And then Hungary is not subdued yet, as the murderous English
newspapers boasted she was : on the contrary, with Poland (or
rather Poles) to aid, she seems far more likely to subdue Austria,
And then you may be sure Russia cannot bear that Hungary and
the Poles should become friends ; and begin defying emperors
so she will thrust in her weighty sword. And then the tricolor of
France flies out, and Lombardy, Italy, North Germany are
132 JAIL JOURNAL
up : and then slowly and reluctantly the British leopard (or
" lion," as the brute calls himself) must come up to the scratch-
slowly and reluctantly, for he had much rather roar in India, or
New Zealand, or (after carefully disarming the people) in Ireland.
And Ireland, one is alarmed to hear, has a " spirit of disaffection,"
and will, ere long, have an opportunity of showing whether
she can do anything but keep eternally moaning her
" grievances."
All this while Germany is bringing herself to bed of something
she calls a Constitution, with much travail, at Frankfort ; which
Constitution the King of Prussia, and even the old hyena of
Hanover, will be sure to reject and set at naught. The Con.
stitution, I can foresee, will be still-born ; and North Germany
Prussia, Hanover, and all, will become perforce republican. Kings
and Grand Dukes will not suffer them to stop short of that men
will waken some morning in Cologne and Cassel, and Carlsruhe
and Baden, and Berlin, and find themselves in battle with kings
and kingships they will awaken to the fact that kings are not to
be trusted, not to be bound by any treaty, character, or pact with
their subjects, nor, in short, to be otherwise dealt with once
their office becomes useless than by the old and well-known
method, war to the knife, and amputation of the crown, with the
head in it. Thus Germany is preparing her part for the great
European melee. As for France, she seems wholly occupied just
now in settling her internal affairs ; and, indeed, before she settles
into her normal state, she may fall into strange confusions and do
the wildest things ; for our worthy France is somewhat eccentric ;
but in the coming journee once European affairs are brought so
far there is no doubt or uncertainty as to where gallant France
will be found. Let the trumpet sound, and France will be in her
place with sword on thigh. Such is the programme, I imagine
to myself : but the thing may arrange itself otherwise.
In the meantime, one is truly concerned to learn, by her
Britannic Majesty's gracious speech, that Ireland cherishes a
spirit of disaffection.
There is a gallant game toward. And am I to lie groaning in
a wooden gaol here in the Atlantic, or pruning vines in African
captivity, under southern constellations, while kingships and
nationhoods are lost and won ? I trow not.
JAIL JOURNAL 133
April 2oth. The spring weather here has become most genial,
and sky, sea, and land are altogether lovely to see. This ship is
not mooied fore-and-aft, but swings by the head ; and from my
cabin window, by night and by day, I can see the whole amphi-
theatre of isles circling panoramically round, as the wind shifts.
Sometimes the rising sun will stream bright into my window, and
the same evening, through the same window, the setting sun will
blaze redly in ; and perhaps by the next morning, as I open my
eyes (for I have begun to sleep again), I can see from my pillow
once more the dawn blushing, and the eastern side of St. George's
a perfect amethyst. Here is the advantage of living, not on the
dull, tame shore, but in a heliotrope hulk. About two miles off
lies the great flagship, and astern of her the Neptune, a stately
ship enough, with the man-of-war pennant flying from her main
top, which it seems, she is entitled to carry, as having a naval
officer on board the surgeon -superintendent, namely, who is to
have command of the prisoners.
The Neptune is to sail the day after to-morrow. I am told
there is a separate little cabin fitted up for me, opening upon the
quarter-deck, so that I shall enjoy otium cum dignitate during the
voyage, as befits a gentleman. Voyage ! voyage to Africa.
Sometimes I open my eyes vigorously, and rub my ears, and
take my personal identity to task. Can this be the very Ego,
late John Mitchel, sometime of Upper Leeson Street, who is
going to sail in that tall ship to the land of the Caffirs and
Bosjesmans, Dutch boers, and springboks ? It seems indubitable
hoc est corpus meum yea, verily
" Me vel extremes Numidarum in agros
Classe releget."
Yes, indeed, you John Mitchel, now resident in Bermudian
hulks, and numbered 2014, are about to cross the line, and
navigate southern oceans, in the track of Bartolomeo Diaz.
'H^4S K/\OUVOV </>uAot' 01 TTpOS f)XlOV
Xcuowrt Tjycus ; fvda. TTOTCI/IOS
How these lines and syllables of poetry, in divers tongues,
throng upon my memory in this solitude. The less one has to
134 JAIL JOURNAL
observe, to do, to be, and to suffer, the less present life he has
the more, perhaps, he remembers of the past. If not by way of
outward eye or ear, then, by memory and imagination, will come
in grist for the spiritual mill : this is like the ears of a blinded
man growing keener, to give his darkened mind what help they
can one faculty of soul or sense sharpening itself as another
dulls the impressions of the past growing vivid as the soul
shuts itself from the present. To me, in these long, lonely months,
with about as high development of present life as a zoophyte,
working at less than oyster-power, many scenes of my hot youth,
scenes long forgotten have arisen fresh and clear, almost with
the glow of present action and passion : and I now recall, without
effort, lines and passages from books, read twenty golden years
ago, that I could not have repeated two years ago, no, not to save
my neck from the Barons of the Exchequer. In what limbo did
those memories sleep all that while?
But not to go further towards the brink of the abyss pro-
found, it is very certain my memory has improved at Bermuda.
And monuar ! monuar! I wish no darker memories crowded upon
me than lines of ^Eschylus or Horace : but my whole life lies
mirrored before me ; and it is not bright nor fair to see. I would
that I could find in it one single good action (besides the action
for which I was convicted as a felon). I wish the mild shade of
my father wore a less reproachful aspect and I wish he had
less reason *
Surely, it is in youth man is most thoroughly depraved. Hell
lies about us in our infancy. The youthful innocency sung by aged
poets (who forget their first childhood) is nothing but ignorance of
evil. As the child comes to know evil, he loves it ; and by the
time he is entering on manhood, in the very pride and flush of
life, then his heart is often hard as adamnant, and so trans-
cendental is his selfishness, that he has become a god unto him-
self, and owns none other ; if he tells the truth, and is hones t
towards his fellows, it is out of pride and scorn he does it. Your
fine, ingenuous young man is commonly the wickedest creature
on this side Gehenna. I do solemnly believe this. Whatsoever
* This passage is liable to be misunderstood. Mitchel was fue irom
what are euphemistically termed the indiscretions of youth. He refers
to his having frequently taken his own course when a youth without
consulting, and sometimes in opposition to, his father's wishes.
JAIL JOURNAL 135
of good is ever found in man's nature is won by sore conflict with
the devil that is, with himself. The foul heart is purified by
suffering alone : the hard heart is softened only by passing
through the " flint mill." And what now if this same hulking
has been awarded me by Almighty God in mercy as a lesson I
stood in need of seeing that nothing less would do ? Of ordinary
troubles that befall men, indeed I had a good share before ; but
this peculiar sort, ignominious personal restraint, was a part of my
education heretofore neglected. No human being ever enjoyed,
prized, and exercised an unbounded personal freedom of action
more recklessly, more haughtily than I ; and there, where I had
pampered my own pride most, even there it may have been need-
ful for me to be made to feel my own helplessness to feel that I
am not, after all, stronger than the wonderful and terrible God.
And so a gang of ruffians, in coronets and in ermine, were com-
missioned to conspire against me, and carry me off to a lonely
cell, where a turnkey locks me up, and leaves me to learn and
digest my hard lesson, and " ponder the path of life " at leisure.
Perhaps it is good for me to be here ; but no thanks to the
coroneted and ermined ruffians.
How I do ramble and rave, giving carte blanche to the pen
of rigmarole ! I have been talking like a member of the Tract So-
ciety and what matter ? Why should I not talk so, if I say but
the truth ? One must not be afraid of anything not even of be-
coming worthy to be admitted into the Tract Society. But I grow
too discursive, and am ashamed, besides, on looking back over all
the paper I have blotted, to find it such a monstrous mass of
egotism. Even in a solitary dungeon a man ought not to pay him-
self so much attention, nor confide his egoisms even to his faithful
private tablets. What am /, that I should listen to myself with
such respect, and even take down my own remarks on paper ?
What am / ? Why, am not I THE EGO the very Ego meant and
insisted upon by Fichte ? And is not that an important personage
rather indeed the only personage ? I begin to doubt whether
there is, or ever was, any Non-Ego at all even Fichte himself
even the turnkey. I am the All. But my pretty little daughter !
You, also, I think, are extant, somewhere in infinite space.
April 2ist Saturday. We are absolutely to sail to-morrow ;
and the mail from England, due two days ago, has not arrived. I
136 JAIL JOURNAL
may now have to set sail for the Cape, without having received
my monthly bulletin from Newry ; and then who knows how
many months will pass before I hear how my darlings are faring.
Besides, I have no money : I never would allow any to be sent to
me here, but in my last letter I wrote for a few pounds, that I
might not be put ashore on the continent of Africa in a state of
utter destitution. I have but a few small silver coins between
me and a state of nature and may have to turn Bosjesman.
Here is a pretty state of things for a " gentleman of education."
The Scourge steamer, in which I was originally kidnapped,
arrived here some days ago, after making the tour of the West
Indies ; and has now just sailed for England, to be paid off. She
has been lying at Bermuda three several times since she brought
me here ; and I have often wondered that, after the first visit
I had from two of her officers, I never saw any of them again. The
first lieutenant, indeed, had distinctly promised that he would
come sometimes to see me, and he never came at all. I have now
got some newspapers which fully explain all that. It sterns the
admiral on the station, when he found that I had not been treated
like a common convict during my voyage, severely censured Capt.
Wingrove ; and there was a good deal of language about this both
in- Bermuda and in England gentlemen in Parliament asked
sharp questions of Ministers about their instructions for the usage
of " convict Mitchel," to wit where the said convict dined, and
who drank wine with the said convict ; and British " public
opinion," so agitated and indignant, that there was even danger
of the worthy commander being dismissed the service. Now, it
is to be observed here that British public opinion was altogether
right ; either I was bona fide a convict, or else not a convict ; if
not a convict, I ought not to have been carried off at all ; if a
convict, I ought to have been treated exactly like other convicts.
But it appears further, that the aforesaid opinion grew still more
inflamed when it was discovered that, on my short voyage from
Dublin to Cork, I had actually breakfasted with the surgeon and
other officers of that steamer, also. No wonder British opinion
felt itself insulted : had it not pronounced this man a felon with
all the bellowing of its manifold lungs in Parliament, in the press,
not to speak of its particular " jury " ? and would nobody con-
sent to look upon him as a felon, or treat him as a convict after
JAIL JOURNAL 137
all ? So the poor Shearwater surgeon (on whom, I know not why,
the blame chiefly fell) was pounced upon by the Admiralty with
much apparent fury ; and some lying excuse or other had to be
invented for him. That lying excuse I have not seen, but have
just been reading the lying excuse made in Parliament for Com-
mander Wingrove, on the last occasion of this matter being
opened in the legislature ; for I now perceive that it has been a
standing subject for months ; and a Mr. Robinson, a Mr. Lock-
hart, and Colonel Verner, member for county Armagh, whenever
they wanted to embarrass Ministers, would start up from time to
time and desire to be informed how convict Mitchel fared on his
way to Bermuda ? who conversed with him ? whether his hair
was dressed according to the convict cut ? and whether he was
kept properly at his work in the quarries there ? Well, on the
last of thess occasions, as I find it reported in the Times, a certain
Admiral Dundas (one of the lords of Admiralty, I believe) assured
the House that the instructions in the case of the convict Mitchel
were, that the commander of the ship should treat him as a con-
vict on his passage, and keep him in a separate place, so as not
to permit him to mingle with the officers of the ship ; but that, as
there was no second cabin in the Scourge, Captain Wingrove had
been obliged to keep him in his own cabin, and entertain him at
his own table ; but that he had been kept most strictly apart
from the other officers. How very gravely these rascals lie.
In the first place, the Scourge has a separate cabin, as this lord
of the Admiralty must know ; and that second cabin was my
room ; I slept there, had exclusive use of the room, and as there
were couches, chairs, and a table in it, there was nothing to hinder
my being served with meals there, if such had been the instruc-
tions. But, in the second place, such were not the instructions ;
instead of being ordered to treat me as a convict, Captain Win-
grove was specially ordered to treat me not as a convict, but as
a " gentleman."
And, in the third place, it is untrue that I was kept apart from
the officers ; I spent most of my time on deck, in company with
the officers.
So the statement of this admiral is a falsehood on the whole
and in each of its parts ; from the beginning to the end, Dundas
lied.
138 JAIL JOURNAL
Commander Wingrove, I am very sure, was no party to the
falsehood.
But I find further, that while Admiral Dundas lied in the Com-
mons, Lord Landsowne lied in the Lords ; for he told their lord-
ships, in reply to a similar inquiry in that House, that it was true
the instructions given to the commander of the Scourge permitted
him to use his discretion as to his treatment of the prisoner, on
the ground of Mr. Mitchel's delicate slate of health. This also is i
mere falsehood. Captain Wingrove had no discretion allowed
him in the matter ; Captain Wingrove had never heard of my
delicate health ; and neither had Ministers ; nor had I then made
any complaint of ill-health at all. Thus did these two liars of
State lie inartistically for want of concert. May God help
us, and forgive us all our sins.
So much I set down here upon a subject immeasurably small,
because I may have occasion to call it to mind, small as it is,
hereafter. It was extremely immaterial to me where a cover was
laid that I should dine, or in whose company I sat down to table.
My practice has been, ever since I fell into the hands of my
enemies, to sit, stand or walk, wheresoever I am desired, as be-
comes a true prisoner, and to eat such things as are set before me
without remark. Neither did I feel at all honoured by being in-
vited to Capt. Wingrove' s table : nor should I have felt degraded
if he had thrust me into the lowest dungeon in his ship in chains.
When the British Government got me nicknamed " Felon," and
sent me away from my own country, as a convict they did their
worst : it is impossible for them or their servants, by any severities
or by any " indulgences," either to aggravate or to mitigate that
atrocity.
On the whole, I sympathise with the outraged public opinion
of the British nation generous, chivalrous, magnanimous
British nation.
April 22nd Sunday. My last day in Bermuda ; it is a bright
spring morning, and the first thing I saw, as my eyes opened, was
the mail steamer shooting across the smooth bay towards the
dockyard. So I shall have my bulletin from Newry.
A boat is to come for me after breakfast. I am not sure that I
shall be allowed to go without being questioned, or possibly
searched for papers : this memorandum book may be taken from
JAIL JOURNAL 139
me ; and if anybody should chance to take the trouble of reading
it, I fear a seditious expression may be found in it here and there.
It is true, I have never been questioned in this way yet : even my
portmanteau has not been searched ; and how the authorities here
reconcile this with their duty, I know not. For aught they know,
I may have in that portmanteau, picklocks, files, and a brace of
pistols, or even an infernal machine. For aught they know, I have
been employing my literary leisure to indite seditious and dis-
affected writings, quce mox depromere possim. But all this is their
affair, not mine. In the meantime I keep my book in my pcoket,
and my window open, until I get fairly off intending, if any
search be instituted, to throw my valuable remarks overboard,
using means to load the little book so that it must go to the
bottom.
Four o'clock. At sea. The cedar-groves of Bermuda are
sinking below the hazy horizon. So ends my " Dream of the
Summer Islands."
******
Received my letter from home. Through the kind courtesy of
the governor, it was sent to me after I was on board, and arrived
just as the Neptune was weighing anchor. All well at home.
I have written a very long and cheerful letter to my wife ; for in-
deed matters begin to look somewhat brighter for us : I begin to
see day-light : my health has been improving rapidly ; will pro-
bably continue to improve at sea : and why may it not be com-
pletely re-established in the climate of Africa ? Then it does not
seem clear that the " Government," intend to keep me confined
to the Cape : Lord Grey, I see, talks of something that he calls a
" conditional pardon," to be obtainable by the prisoners who go
to the Cape, on payment of fifteen pounds and the effect of
which will be to make them " free exiles," free, namely, to go
anywhere they please, except to Ireland, England, or Scotland.
If I can get this document (whatever its name is) for 15, I will
certainly buy it, and think it very cheap at the money. What is
it to me that they choose to call it a " pardon " ? If they even
call it a plenary indulgence, or a charm against the bite of a mad
dog, still I will gladly become the purchaser of an article that
enables me to withdraw myself from under the poisonous shadow
of the Carthaginian flag. Then if this " pardon " be not for me,
140 JAIL JOURNAL
at the worst it is but living a few years in some quiet nook in
Stellenbosch or Swellendam, amongst my own people, surrounded
by the worthy Dutch folk, and patriarchally tilling the ground,
and pastorally keeping sheep, until my deliverance come.
Some doubt indeed still seems to me to hang over the disem-
barkation at the Cape : the last intelligence from thence shows
that the spirit of opposition to such a measure is increasing ; yet
Dr. Dees, the surgeon-superintendent, who has charge of the
Neptune, tells me his instructions are positive, and that he carries
out instructions, equally positive, to Sir Harry Smith, the
governor, for instant disembarkation ot the whole crew. Still, if
the colonists make it manifest that they are nearly unanimous in
opposition, or even that a large minority of them feel strongly
opposed to the introduction of convicts into their country, it
would surely be very tyrannical and insolent in the English govern-
ment to force the matter with a high hand. To have one's
country and the home of one's children turned into a sink of
felony, where the colluvies of a vast empire is to settle and fester,
is no light matter. I shall certainly feel no surprise if we find
on our arrival at the Cape that Sir Harry Smith has received
orders to pass us on to Australia.
For my own particular, I might perhaps not choose to sail in
this ship, with the chance of being carried all round the habitable
globe with such a ship's company, knocking at the door of all the
continents and isles, to see if they will give shelter to 300 ih-
omened strangers : but I am flying for my life. On the whole, I
am content, even to go to Australia, even in such company, rather
than await another winter in these summer isles : and am ab-
solutely setting forth on my voyage with a heart nearly as light