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with a Gaol mark on his neck which
cannot be concealed and when removed
without mutilation, it prevents
him from getting an honest livelihood in
his own country,
or being taken as an Emigrant, so that such a man is
tempted to become a robber or a
pirate near the shores of this Colony to which he is thus driven back.
4. Those returns I trust even
to be able to lay before Your Lordships. Meanwhile I enclose a list of thirty-six prisoners branded and deported on the 22nd & 23rd of January
this year.
5. The expediency of branding and deporting prisoners, merely to
reduce the numbers in Gaol, would seem from
an examination of this return to be somewhat doubtful.
Long sentenced prisoners, short sentenced prisoners, prisoners whose character in Gaol is described as "very bad" and
those whose character is described as
"very good" are all treated in the same
way, and sent in a batch to the Mainland of China when one third of their sentences has been worked out. This practice, which seems to have prevailed here for many years, throws some light on the defective discipline of the Gaol.
6. With reference to such cases as the last on the list, where
a man