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He should not hesitate to prefer death, under any form that it could be presented to him, rather than such a state of endurance as that of the convict on Norfolk Island.

Sir Francis Forbes, first Chief Justice of New South Wales, testifying to the 1838 Select Committee on Transportation about the severity of punishment endured by convicts at the Norfolk Island penal settlement.

Sir Francis Forbes, Norfolk Island

Source: Select Committee on Transportation, Report (1838), cited in The National Archives (UK), "Norfolk Island: the ultra-penal colony"

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