IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL book, Notes of a Convict of 1838, François Xavier Prieur recalled his harsh experiences on the sailing ship HMS Buffalo en route to Australia in 1839–40. “A wounded man preserves as a memento the bullet or piece of shrapnel that has been extracted from his lacerated flesh,” he wrote in his memoirs, published in 1869. “Well, I, too, would like to possess a little cross made from the wood from which this vessel was constructed, and within whose sides my heart and my body have been lacerated by my unworthy treatment.” It would take more than 183 years for his wish to be fulfilled.
As a 24-year-old merchant, Prieur and 57 shipmates were destined for Port Jackson in Sydney, New South Wales. By the time they reached the far-flung penal colony, they’d endured a voyage of almost six months from Quebec City. Although they were prisoners, Prieur and his companions were no common criminals. They were Patriots – Lower Canadian revolutionaries who, in
