My intention was to run the sloop up the North River, and then fire her, but I came near running her on the Dog Beacon, abreast of Coney Island and Staten Island lighthouse, after which I fouled with a schooner, and carried away the bowsprit, so I put the money and such other articles of value as I could pick up, into the yawl, and then sculled ashore three miles, landing just below the fort on Staten Island.
My movements after landing are well known; and when I look back upon the fatality which seemed to dog my steps, it seems as though the fiend, who so long had stood by me in every emergency, had deserted me at last, and had left me to my own weakness.
But I never thought of this until after my arrest. I had no shadow of a presentiment that I should be checked so suddenly and brought to justice, and on my return to New York, made arrangements to go away with my family as coolly as if nothing had occurred which should counsel me to use caution.
But on that fatal night when I awoke from a deep sleep to find the officers of the law standing by my bed, for the first time fear overcame me, and I grew faint and weak as a baby. Great drops of sweat started out on my forehead and all over my body, and then I realized that at last the master whom I had served so long had really deserted me and abandoned me to my fate.
But to all outward appearance I choked these feelings down, and none who saw me dreamed of what was passing within.
My task is done. I have related all the awful details of my life with as much minuteness as I can, and now nothing is left me but to prepare to die.
I ask no sympathy, and expect none. I shall go to the gallows cursed by all who know the causes which will bring me there, and my only hope is that God will, in his infinite mercy, grant me that spirit of true repentance which may lead to pardon and forgiveness in the world to come.
PHRENOLOGICAL CHARACTER
OF
ALBERT W. HICKS,
GIVEN AT
FOWLER AND WELLS’ PHRENOLOGICAL CABINET,
308 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
BY L. N. FOWLER, Professor of Phrenology.
June 29th, 1860
He has a remarkably strong muscular organization, and bony system, which has a powerful influence on the tone, quality and direction of his mind. His mental temperament is fairly developed, but not to such an extent as to give the finer qualities to the mind and character. He is excitable, and susceptible of intense feeling, yet it is rather a heated impulse of passion, than a delicate and refined sensibility.
He has a large brain, which gives a great amount of general mental power, and with a good education and proper direction, he would be able to exert a leading and extensive influence over others.