mast head denoting that she carries an admiral. A small govern-
ment steamer is moving about in the bay ; the dock, or camber,
sheltered by its breakwater, has several ships lying in it, and
scores of boats, of a peculiar and most graceful rig, are flying in
ill directions so that the scene is a very lively one to those who
have been three weeks in the solitudes of the ocean.
This admiral, whose station includes the West Indies and North
America, I find to be no other than the old Lord Cochrane or
Lord Dundonald, as they call him now the very man who cut
out the Esmeralda from the roads of Callao the Chilian admiral
under O'Higgins the Greek navarch under the Congress of
JAIL JOURNAL 35
Epidaurus who has sworn more oaths of allegiance to revolu-
tionary provisional governments than any living man who has
been fighting the aquatic half of wars of independence all over
the terraqueous globe, from his youth up. I have no doubt,
however, that he regards Irish revolutionists as highly immoral
characters.
The evening has been delicious, and I have spent it, until sun-
set, chatting on deck with the officers, and surveying the islands
around through a glass. Ireland island seems a strong fortress.
A handsome range of buildings crowns the hill in the middle of
the island ; this is a barrack, with government storehouses ad-
joining, all having arched and bomb-proof roofs. In front of this
the hill is deeply scarped down to the level of the dockyard ; and
in rear the slope is cut into terraces, mounted with cannon. The
barrack hill communicates, by a long, sweeping line of fortifica-
tions, with another hill on the extreme north of the island, which
is occupied with other government buildings, and surrounded by
powerful batteries. In the crescent formed by all these works,
to the eastward, is the naval dockyard, with its stores, offices,
and wet dock. Some of these are vast and sumptuous buildings.
There is no such naval establishment as this in Ireland I
mean the other Ireland. The Carthaginians have always taken
good care of that.
Inside the camber I see moored three great clumsy hulks,
roofed over, and peopled by men in white linen blouses and straw
hats and on the back of every man's blouse, certain characters
and figures, and the queen's broad arrow. They seem to be drilled
and marched like troops. Now, am I to be enlisted in these
rueful squadrons, and marked for the queen's own these fourteen
years to come ? I trust not. But if it be so, be it so.
The sun has gone down, " like battle target red," behind the
cedars. The skimming Bermudian boats, with their black crews
of marketmen and washerwomen, have vanished under the dusky
shores. The flag-ship has fired her evening gun ; and I have
retired, for the last time, to my cabin on board the Scourge.
The captain has reported himself and his errand to the admiral ;
the admiral has communicated with the Governor : to-morrow,
I will know my appointed home.
CHAPTER III
June 2ist, 1848. Still on board the Scourge, Bermuda.
Another steamer appeared to-day in the north-eastern channel
another of the great West India packets, two of which rendezvous
here at Bermuda once a fortnight. Her deck was swarming with
passengers, male and female, as she came to her moorings beside
us. She left Southampton on the 2nd of June, and brings London
papers up to that date. Our second lieutenant instantly boarded
her as officer on guard, and brought back two or three papers ; and
as I had seen none later than the 26th May, I was glad to get a
glance even at the Morning Post. The leading article is about
" the convict Mitchel," who is pronounced by that authority to
be not only a convict but a scoundrel. What was more interest-
ing to me, I found Sir George Grey's reply to a question in
Parliament, as to whether my sentence would be executed.
" Her Majesty's Government had sent instructions to Ireland,
that the convict Mitchel' s sentence should be fully carried
out." Infinite and inscrutable is the stupidity of mortal man !
the question was put by Edmund Burke Roche, and was to this
effect : Whether the Government would really carry out to the
full extent " the unjust and disproportionate sentence " pro-
nounced in my case ? Blockhead ! the sentence was neither
unjust nor disproportionate, if I had been tried and found guilty
the nature of the trial, not the severity of the sentence, is the
thing calling for explanation and inquiry, and to that Edmund
Burke made no allusion. Of course the Minister in his reply
takes care to rebuke the questioner, and properly, too, for calling
a sentence " regularly pronounced in due course of law " unjust
and disproportionate. Can legislatorial helplessness sink any
lower than this ?
But what I find most interesting of all in this paper is in the
column headed " Ireland " to wit, the prospectus of the Irish
Felon weekly newspaper, signed by Reilly and Martin, estab-
lished to preach the doctrine of " Convict Mitchel," and to
16
JAIL JOURNAL 37
extend and promote the sacred principle of Irish Felony. This is
very good, and cannot end badly. It will force the Carthaginians
upon more and more decided efforts of vigour that is to say,
more and more outrageous atrocities of lawless tyranny ; it will
compel all Lamartinesque politicians to become " felons," or else
say at once they meant no revolution ; it will rouse attention to
the struggle, and to the true meaning of the struggle ; it will
induce more and more of the people to get arms ; it will strip
British Whiggery bare of his treacherous, conciliatory, liberal
lambs- wool, and show him gnashing his teeth like a ravening
beast for no brute is so ferocious as your frightened capitalist ;
it will silence all talk of " law," and shiver to atoms the " last
plank of the Constitution " leaving Ireland as naked of all law
and government (save the bayonet) as on the day when she first
rose from the sea as plainly and notoriously naked of law and
government (save the bayonet) as she has been really and
effectually these fifty years. At last she cannot but know that
she is naked pray God she be ashamed ! Then, if the Irish
people will obey British bayonets, I say again, from my heart,
let them obey and be hanged !
To be sure, Reilly and Martin will be seized without delay, their
paper stopped, themselves " tried," as the phrase is, and probably
transported ; for an insulted government cannot stand this. And
Meagher, Duffy, O'Gorman, O'Brien, Dillon, some or all of them,
may follow. No matter ; better men have been starved to
death by hundreds and thousands.
I know very well that this whole idea and scheme of mine wears
a wonderfully feeble and silly aspect in the eyes of statesmanlike
revolutionists ; they can see nothing more in it than a number of
gentlemen agreeing to dash out their own brains, one after another,
against a granite fortress, with the notion that they are laying
desperate siege to it. These statesmanlike politicians say to us
that we should wait till we are stronger ; that we should conspire
and organise in secret, keeping under the shelter of the law for
the present ; that when plainly advising men to arm is made a
" transportable offence," we should no longer plainly advise, but
exhort and influence them privately, until, etc., etc. Wait till
your principles take root before you disseminate them, said a prudent
adviser to me. But he who talks thus knows nothing of Ireland.
3 8 JAIL JOURNAL
In Ireland there can be no secrecy, so thick is it planted with
Castle-spies. In Ireland you can never organise to any useful
purpose so long as they are so miserably cowed by " law," and see
nobody willing to deny and defy this law. In Ireland no private
influence can make men procure arms, because they have been
taught for forty years to account arms not honourable and need-
ful, but criminal and illegal ; and if you spoke to them about
arms in their own houses or fields, they would, perhaps, give you
up at the nearest police-barrack as a " Ribbonman " so they
have been instructed, poor fellows, by priest and agitator. How,
then, are we to get stronger by waiting ? Are we not getting
weaker, baser, more cowardly, more beggarly, the longer we wait ?
No ; we must try the virtue of plain, outspoken, desperate truth
for once. We must openly glorify arms, until young Irishmen
burn to handle them, and try their temper ; and this we must do
in defiance of " law," and the more diligently that London laws
are expressly made against it. We must, in short, make final
protest against this same " law " deny that it is law ; deny
that there is any power in the London Parliament to make laws for
us, and declare that as a just God ruleth in the earth we will
obey such laws no longer. I think there will be found some
virtue in this statesmanship of mine, if men still grow in Ireland ;
at any rate I know no better.
At four o'clock this evening as I was informed by means of a
note to Captain Wingrove from the admiral a boat was to come
off to the ship for me ; therefore I made ready my portmanteau.
Several of the officers, whose names I will not write here (but
shall not forget), judging correctly that wherever I should be
stowed away I should want books, and knowing that I had no
opportunity of providing such things before my kidnapping,
begged I would allow them to give me a few volumes out of
their store. This was genuine kindliness of heart ; and, as I have
no quarrel with these gentlemen personally, I took from four
of them, one book from each. I have never found it easy, on
a sudden, to haughtily repel any attention offered out of pure
goodwill. It is not in me. Yet I believe that if time for con-
sideration had been given me, I would have refused the courtesy
of these decent fellows ! What ! shall I I, John Mitchel, accept
presents, almost eleemosynary presents from officers of the Queer
JAIL JOURNAL 39
of England ? But I am glad that I had no time for exasperating
reflections. Four o'clock came, and two boats approached,
straight from the dockyard, and pulled by men in the white
blouses. The hulks, then ! No sea-side cottages or cedarn
valleys for me a I'outrance, then, Gaffer Bull !
Three men came on board the Scourge. One, a tall elderly
gentleman, in a blue naval coat, announced himself as superin-
tendent of convicts ; another was commander of one of the hulks ;
the third, a medical officer. Few words passed. Captain Wingrove
took a receipt for my body (on which it became the property of
the man in blue) , and bade me farewell with good wishes. Two
of the officers stood at the gangway ; and, as I stepped forward to
descend the ladder, shook me warmly by the hand. We were
pulled straight for the innermost of the three hulks, and in a few
minutes I found myself on the quarter-deck. The superintendent
then informed me that I was, for the present, to wear my own
attire, and not to be sent out upon the works. I nodded. He
then asked, " Have you any money ?" " A few shillings," "Any
credit in the colony ? " " None." He called the chief mate of the
ship to him, and said : " Take Mitchel's money, and place it to his
credit." The mate, a tall old man with grey hair, looked at me
dubiously, as if he thought me a novel species of convict, and did
not exactly know how to proceed. So I took out my tricolor purse
" Here, friend," I said, and emptied all I had into his hand.
" Now," said the superintendent, " you will find that nobody here
has any disposition to add to the annoyances you must suffer no
severity of any kind will be used towards you, provided you are
amenable to the rules of the place." I nodded. " Especially," he
added, " it is my duty to tell you that you are to have no connec-
tion with public affairs, or politics, and are not to attempt to
tamper with any of the prisoners on board." I answered that I
could hardly expect to be permitted here to take part in public
affairs ; and that I desired to have as little intercourse with the
prisoners on board as possible.
The mate then said he would show me where I was to be lodged ;
I followed him down a ladder to the half-deck, and there, in the
very centre of the ship, opening from a dark passage, appeared a
sort of cavern, just a little higher and a little wider than a dog-
house ; it is, in fact, the very hole through which the main-mast
40 JAIL JOURNAL
formerly ran down into the ship, and would be quite dark but for
two very small and dim bulls'-eyes that are set into the deck
above. I cannot stand quite erect under the great beams that
used to hold the main-mast in its place ; but half of my floor is
raised nine inches, and on that part I cannot stand at all. Tin-
whole area is about six feet square ; and on the lower part I have
a promenade of two steps (gradus), making one step (passus).
When I entered, the cavern had, for furniture, one wooden stool.
" Here's your place," said the mate. " Very well," quoth I, sitting
down upon the stool and, stretching out my feet to the corners of
my apartment. So the mate and I looked at one another for a
minute. " I suppose," suggested I, " that I can have my portman-
teau here ? " He did not know yet, but would ask. He went
away, and presently my portmanteau was sent to me, and a
message with it, that if I wished to walk on deck or on the break-
water alongside, I might do so. Very glad to avail myself of the
offer, as my dog house was intolerably close, I went up, and had
a walk on the pier. Soon the " gangs " of prisoners began to
come in from the works, and it was intimated to me that I had
better retire. A hammock was then brought into my dog-hutch ;
and in order to make room for it, they had to swing it diagonally.
A. cup of milkless tea and a lump of bread were then brought me ;
and when I had despatched these, a piece of candle was left upon
a narrow board or shelf projecting from the wall, and my dooi
was locked. The light of the candle showed me a great many
big brown cockroaches, nearly two inches long, running with
incredible speed over the walls and floor, the sight of which
almost turned me sick. I sat down upon my bench, and deliber-
ately reviewed my position. They had not taken my books from
me, nor my portmanteau. They had not even searched it, or
me ; nor taken this scribbling-book away, nor put me in com-
pany with the convicts. This is all good ; but to-morrow may
show me more. And what is the worst it can show me ? Why, to
be arrayed in a linen blouse and trousers, with my name and
number, and the queen's arrow stamped thereon, and to be
marched to the quarries with pick-axe or crow-bar in my hand.
Very well ; my health now, I thank God, is good ; I have hands,
like other men. I am covered with my own skin, and stand upon
my own feet, being a plantigrade mammal, and also, happily.
JAIL jOUZNST. 41
rather pachydermatous. Let to-moito<; come, then. As for my
dog-hutch, the mate muttered something, before he left me, about
another and better place being made ready for me in a few days.
And for these huge brown beasts crawling here, I presume they
don't bite ; other people sleep amongst them, and why not I ?
A bath in the morning, off the pier, will wash the sordes of the
dog-hutch from about me.
Here goes, then, for my first swing in a hammock and I feel
myself a freer man to-night than any Irishman living at large,
tranquilly in his native land, making believe that he fancies
himself a respectable member of society.
2.2nd. Bathed luxuriously in the sea ; though I had to rise at
half-past four that my bath might be over before the gangs turned
out to work. Walked about a good deal on deck, which is
pleasanter than the breakwater, as it is sheltered from the sun,
though open to the air on both sides. It commands a view of the
dock, the shipping, barracks, and batteries at one side, and at the
other the wide anchorage and, " Grassy Bay," with a great
number of the islands beyond. They are all of the same height,
garniture, and aspect, as far as the eye can reach. I think Ber-
muda is but young ; it has pushed its hillocks up so high, and
will undoubtedly grow bigger and better as it grows older. Plainly
these rocks were part of the sea-bed not long ago ; and they seem
to me exactly like the land that is forming itself, saith Lyell,
round the head of the Adriatic the river sands, in short, and
sea-sands, so soon as they are deposited, glued together, along
with shells, pebbles, and the like, by a hard lime-cement and
so, gradually, by the help of nether fires, rising and becoming
dry land. Bermuda, I see, is all made of the very same shelly
concrete ; and, without doubt, was heaved up to its present
height in some volcanic paroxysm of the uneasy West Indian
regions. And some future game of the playful earthquakes may
give these islands a fresh impulse, and raise a peak or two into
the clouds, to win some drops of gracious moisture there, and
send them down in rills of living water. Then will Bermudians
hear, for the first time, the murmur of a running brook, and see
a miraculous " fountain of black water " gushing from the heart
of their arid hills : their tiny valleys will clothe themselves in a
robe of daintier green, and the development of the country will
42 JAIL JOURNAL
be as good as perfect. So, for aught I know to the contrary,
your islands and continents are born and bred.
I observe to-day that great care is taken to keep me from all
communication with the prisoners, to my very great contentment.
The half-deck, where my dog-house is, seems to be reserved for the
cabins and pantries of the mates, the surgeon and steward, and
has no communication below with the fore part of the ship.
Several prisoners are kept here in the capacity of servants, and
one of them is assigned to attend upon me. For so far I have
not been interfered with in any way as to my disposal of my time,
and read or walk, just as it suits me ; only when the prisoners are
coming in for their meals, and while they are on board, I am
expected to seclude myself. I do whatever I am bidden, at once
and without remark, which seems to surprise my keepers a little.
They did not expect me to be so quiet ; and ascribing my con duct
in Ireland, of course, to mere turbulence of disposition, and
general insubordination of character, the commander has evi-
dently some distrust of my extreme passiveness and submissive-
ness he thinks it is all my deepness.
2.$rd. As I sauntered to-day on the quarter-deck, with a book
in my hand, two officers of the Scourge came to visit me. They
had to deliver in their names and quality first, to be written down
in a book ; for I am given to understand that none but officers of
the navy or army are to be allowed the privilege of visiting me.
In that case, I shall have but little company, as my acquaintances
in the United Service are few.
I was well pleased to see, even for a short time, the faces of
unhulked people.
251/1. Sunday. Service on deck : the prisoners, all in clean
frocks and trousers, arranged on forms over the deck forward ; the
guards and mates on the quarter-deck, amongst whom I had a seat
apart. I attended service for a little variety ; also to see what
kind of chaplain we have. After service the chaplain came to me :
he politely offered to lend me books, and even to procure me books
from others. I rather like the man : he did not cant, as so many
of those persons do, but seemed really desirous of serving me, so
far as the rules would allow him. He is a Scotchman.
2,6th. I have been installed in my new cabin, or cell ; it is five
feet wide, six feet high, and fourteen feet long has a table, a
JAIL JOURNAL 43
chair, a basin stand, but, above all, has a window, that is, a
port-hole, two feet and a half square, which, though heavily
barred and cross-barred, gives plenty of light and air, as there is
a glass lattice which opens and shuts. There are also two
shelves for books, and the place is perfectly clean. This is a
gieat improvement upon the dog-house.
I have observed that all the guards and officers of the ship, all
the servants, and all the persons who remain about the place by
day, employed as boatmen and otherwise, are every man of them
English. Was told by [must write no names here] that before I
left the Scourge, all the Irish in this hulk, to the number of 80 or
go, had been removed to another, and their places filled up with
Englishmen and Scotchmen.
The fools are actually afraid that I will stir patriotic mutinies
here.
29/7?. The commander came to me to-day, to inform me that
I am to be removed to the hospital-ship. " Hospital-ship ! why, I
I am quite well." " An order," said he, " has come from the
Governor : you are to be removed in a boat this afternoon."
Shortly after, the medical officer, Dr. Warner, came, in. " What's
the meaning," I asked, " of sending me to an hospital I am not
an invalid ? " No matter, he said, it would be a change greatly
for the better, as regarded my comfort. He added that he under-
stood the reason of the order to be a report made by the surgeon
of the Scourge (I forgot to record in its proper place, that I had
on the voyage a rather severe fit of asthma, which the surgeon
thought it his duty to certify to the medical superintendent
here). Accordingly, I have been removed ; and but that I
dislike being treated as an hospital patient, the change is certainly
for the better. The Tenedos, which is used as an hospital, is a
larger, newer, and cleaner ship than the Dromedary, my first
abode : and she is moored about a quarter of a mile from land,
in a most beautiful bay, or basin, formed by well-wooded islands,
and far out of sight of the prison-hulks and the batteries. My cabin
is a neat room, with two windows, and without any bars at all.
The commander of this ship is Dr. Hall, a kindly old gentleman,
who has been a good deal in Ireland, and knows several persons
that I also know. He seems to imagine that I am very " un-
happy," and am always making vigorous efforts to conceal the
44 JAIL JOURNAL
circumstance ; he never was more mistaken in his life however,
he is well-disposed to make me as happy as he can. If an English-
man wishes to be kind to any individual, his first thought is to
feed him well : the foundation of all British happiness is victual ;
therefore, the steward has had special orders about my table.
In truth, I do begin to set more store by that matter of dining
than I ever thought I should. Tender Naso, in his captivity,
hated the hour of dinner ; or foetid pretends he did. I do not
believe him ; when one is cut off from all his ordinary occupation
and environment, dinner is the great event of his day. If they
keep me here many months, living all alone, and supply me with
sapid viands, I shudder to think what an overwhelming moment
dinner-time may become to me : how I will tear my victuals
like a wild beast, gorge them in my solitary cavern, and then lie
down to doze until next feeding-time. Infandum !
Sometimes I put myself to the question about it How can I
eat thus heartily of British convict rations ? sleep thus calmly
on a felon's iron bed ? receive in gracious-wise the courtesies of
Carthaginian gaolers, looking my black destiny so placidly in the
face ? By heaven ! it cannot be but I am pigeon-livered, and lack
gall to make oppression bitter. Go to I will lash myself into
suitable rage. But it will not do. The next time old Dr. Hall
comes in, with his grey hairs and good old weather-beaten counte-
nance, and begins to talk, my armour of sullen pride will fall to
pieces : the human heart that, I suppose, is in me will know its
brother, and I will find myself quietly conversing with that old
man, as friend with friend.
July ^th. The mail steamer from the West Indies has just
arrived, on her way to England ; so I have written to my wife,
giving a long account of my voyage, and my way of life here.
Cannot have her answer, at soonest, before the igth of August.
gth Sunday. Service on deck as usual. The chaplain, who
came down to my cabin after service, tells me he performs service
at all the hulks and the hospital too. He darts about in a fast-
sailing boat ; rattles over our beautiful liturgy four times, preaches
either twice or three times, giving himself about half an hour to
take breath and dinner, and steers his bark homeward in the even-
ing. The chaplain had left me about half an hour, and I was
sitting at an open window reading Livy and drinking grog,
JAIL JOURNAL 45
beginning, indeed, to feel myself at home in the Tenedos for I
have been ten days on board when Dr. Hall entered my cabin