FOOTNOTES
“Le bien, nous le faisons; le mal, c’est le sort;
“On a toujours raison, le destin toujours tort.”
La Fontaine.
[2] A genealogical account of race-horses.
[3] Two celebrated spots on Newmarket heath.
[4] Proprietor of the celebrated horse Eclipse.
[5] This was prior to the abolition of the Slave Trade.
[6] The small square white patches on each side the collar of a midshipman’s coat, having an anchor button in the middle of it are facetiously called Weekly Accompts, from their resemblance to a flag hoisted by the port admiral, requiring from the ships in harbour a weekly return of their state and condition. This flag is blue, with a white field in the middle.
[7] In line-of-battle ships the midshipman’s birth, or cabin, is in the cockpit.
[8] Candle.
[9] A dram of rum is here meant, to a bottle of which, it seems the youth was applying for consolation.
[10] Alluding to the uniform of a lieutenant, which is faced with white.
[11] The ship’s corporal, whose duty it is to see all lights extinguished at eight o’clock.
[12] His daily allowance of spirits.
[13] The lieutenant of the watch walks the weather-side; the midshipmen, the lee.
[14] Telescope and speaking-trumpet.
[15] It appears from this that Mr. Dalton had formerly resided in London, and been a member of that respectable corps.
[16] Receiver of stolen goods. (Cant.)
[17] The cant name for the House of Correction, in Cold-bath-fields.
[18] A public-house near the police-office, where prisoners are confined until their removal to prison by the officers, who seldom hurry a gentleman, if he behaves like one, as their phrase is.
[19] Thieving.
[20] Highwaymen.
[21] Pickpockets.
[22] Housebreakers.
[23] Persons living by fraud and depredation.
[24] Pocket-books.
[25] To stand or walk in such a situation, close to the person robbed, as to prevent passengers from noticing the depredation.
[26] Sell.
[27] To go a thieving.
[28] Thieves.
[29] Picking pockets in general.
[30] Robbing carts, or carriages, of bales, trunks, &c.
[31] Entering a house or shop, unobserved, and stealing whatever is most come-at-able.
[32] Shop-lifting.
[33] Secreting small trinkets of value in a shop, while pretending to select and purchase something.
[34] Uttering counterfeit money, or forged bank-notes.
[35] Getting in at the lower windows of private houses, and robbing the apartments of plate or other portable goods.
[36] Breaking a shop-window at night, having first tied the door to prevent a pursuit, then snatching at any articles of value within reach.
[37] Cutting a hole in a pane of glass, without noise, in order to rob the window of something before determined on.
[38] Defrauding errand boys, or porters, of their load, by false pretences of various kinds.
[39] Obtaining money from charitable persons, by some fictitious statement of distress.
[40] Obtaining goods from a tradesman by false pretences, or by a forged order in writing.
[41] Throwing snuff in the eyes of a shopkeeper, and then running off with such money or valuable property as may lay within reach.
[42] See the evidence of William Alderman.
[43] A short confinement is here meant.
[44] The settlement or camp at Hawkesbury, now called, the town of Windsor.
[45] Governor King was a post-captain in the navy, and principal commander of the Buffalo, having a second (acting) captain under him. The Buffalo had been stationed in N.S.W. ever since the year 1802, and was now relieved by the Porpoise, in which ship Governor Bligh arrived.
[46] Now Surveyor-General of New South Wales.
MEMOIRS OF JAMES HARDY VAUX.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME II.
MEMOIRS
OF
JAMES HARDY VAUX.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY W. CLOWES, NORTHUMBERLAND-COURT, STRAND.
AND SOLD BY
ALL RESPECTABLE BOOKSELLERS.
1819.
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
| CHAPTER I. |
| I arrive in London—A sudden alarm—Visit my mother and sisters—Set out for S⸺shire—Interview with my grandfather—Return to town—A lucky hit on the road—Obtain a situation in the Crown-Office, [page 1]. |
| CHAP. II. |
| Quit the Crown-Office, and engage as reader in a printing-office—Determine to live a strictly honest life—Meet with an old acquaintance who laughs me out of my resolution—Give up all thoughts of servitude, and become a professed thief, [page 13]. |
| CHAP. III. |
| Various modes of obtaining money—My regular course of life, when disengaged from my vicious companions—Meet with an amiable girl, like myself the child of misfortune—We cohabit together—Our mutual happiness, [page 20]. |
| CHAP. IV. |
| Adventures in the course of my profligate career—Motives which induce me to marry my companion—Her exemplary behaviour—A family misfortune, [page 29]. |
| CHAP. V. |
| Adventure of the silver snuff-box—Its consequences.—My narrow escape from transportation, which I have since had reason to regret, [page 35]. |
| CHAP. VI. |
| Visit Mr. Bilger, an eminent jeweller—His politeness, and the return I made for it—Perfidy of a pawnbroker—Obliged to decamp with precipitation, [page 52]. |
| CHAP. VII. |
| Take a house in St. George’s Fields—Stay at home for several weeks—At length I venture out in quest of money—My imprudent obstinacy in entering a house of ill repute, against the advice and entreaties of my wife—I am taken in custody and carried to the watch-house.—Distress of my wife on the occasion, [page 71]. |
| CHAP. VIII. |
| Discover that I have been betrayed—Examined at Bow-street, and committed for trial—Sent to Newgate—Prepare for my defence—My trial and conviction, [page 83]. |
| CHAP. IX. |
| Account of my companion and fellow-sufferer in the condemned cells—His unhappy fate—I receive sentence of death—Am reprieved, and soon afterwards sent on board the hulks—Some account of those receptacles of human misery, [page 97]. |
| CHAP. X. |
| I embark a second time for New South Wales—Indulgently treated by the Captain—My employment during the voyage—Arrive at Port Jackson, after an absence of four years—My reception from Governor Macquarrie—Assigned by lot to a settler—His brutal treatment of me—I find means to quit his service, and return to Sydney, [page 113]. |
| CHAP. XI. |
| Appointed an overseer—Determine to reform my life, and become a new man—All my good intentions rendered unavailing by an unforeseen and unavoidable misfortune—I become a victim to prejudice, and the depravity of a youth in years, but a veteran in iniquity—I am banished to the coal-river, [page 122]. |
| CHAP. XII. |
| Return to head-quarters, after an exile of two years—Renew my vows of rectitude, to which I strictly adhere—Proposal made me to obtain my liberty—I make the attempt—Its failure, and the consequent punishment inflicted on me—Conclusion, [page 137]. |