There continued to be a small trickle of African convicts from England, but after 1820 the penal colonies began to receive enslaved workers transported directly from Mauritius and the slave colonies of the British Caribbean. Their status as chattels was rarely stated on the official documentation, reflecting official squeamishness about complicity in the slaving business. An exception was a man sentenced to life in St. Vincent, known simply as Bruce. His owner had not managed to get his property returned and the British Government had to compensate the owner for the loss, so Bruce's offence was probably some act of rebellion. He was transported at some considerable cost to the British Government. ${ }^{17}$ The same could be said for Sophie, an enslaved Malagasy woman who was transported after she set fire to her owner's barn in Mauritius. Likewise, Theresa, another enslaved woman from Madagascar transported from Mauritius  
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[^0]:    14 Petition of William Blue, CS R2052. 4/1764, Nov.1923, State Records of New South Wales.
15 Deposition of William Blue, 29 September 1786, Q/SB 225, Kent County Archives.
16 Indictment of William Blue, Q/SIW 422, Kent County Archives
17 Index to convict indents, 1788-1842, Fiche 5969-5979, Research Office of New South Wales.  
in the same year, was found guilty of assault after she tried to hit her master's daughter with a hoe as retaliation for the brutal treatment she had received (Anderson, 1998, pp. 116-133). Two enslaved children in Mauritius, Constance, aged eight, and Elizabeth, aged twelve, were found guilty of trying to poison their mistress, and were transported for life (Pybus and Bradley, 2007, pp. 29-50).