Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/390

113

CHAPTER 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.

FROM the description I have briefly given of the hulks, the reader will easily believe I ardently longed for the moment which was to release me from so miserable an existence. That happy day at length arrived. On the 15th of June, 1810, I was removed from the Retribution, in company with fifty-four others, to Long-reach, a few miles below Woolwich, where we were put on board the Indian, which ship had recently been fitted at Deptford for the reception of two hundred prisoners. The next day we sailed for Gravesend, and at this place I anxiously hoped for a farewell visit from my wife, to whom I had written from Woolwich on the morning of my embarkation, acquainting her with my approaching departure. She had attended me at least once a month, during my stay at Woolwich, and supported me as well as her circumstances