Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux/Volume 1/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV.
MR. baker received me with kindness, and great pleasure, as, my predecessor having quitted him some weeks before, he was at a loss for a proper assistant. In a few days I had a comfortable residence assigned me by the commanding officer of the settlement, and my duty being exempted from all hard labour, and of such a nature as I found pleasure in performing, I soon felt myself comparatively happy.—With retrospective satisfaction, I can truly say, that I behaved in this situation with so much propriety as to obtain the favour of my principal, and the good opinion of the resident magisstrate, Dr. Arndell, whose four children I attended at my leisure hours, in the quality of preceptor. Both the gentleman and Mr. Baker vied with each other, in shewing me every mark of kindness in their power.—Mr. Baker informed me that Governor King made frequent and particular inquiries of him respecting my conduct, and I felt the highest gratification from the reflection that I had happily falsified his Excellency's uncharitable prediction as to my real character. Mr. Palmer also, who had been the first kind promoter of my good fortune, made similar inquiries of Mr. Baker, and from the report he received of my talents, expressed a desire to transfer me from Hawkesbury to the Commissary's Office at Sydney, in which department there was then a great press of business, and expert clerks were not, at that period, so numerous as at present. Mr. Baker, however, being unwilling to part with me, paid no attention to the wish of Mr. Palmer, until the latter gentleman at length ordered in direct terms, by an official letter, that I should be immediately sent to Sydney. The Governor coming up to Hawkesbury a day or two afterwards, Mr. Baker represented to his Excellency, the inconvenience he should suffer, if he was deprived of my assistance, and obtained an order from him to retain me in his service. This arrangement was not at all satisfactory to me, for I had long felt an earnest desire to be employed in the commissariat, as the public accompts therein kept, were of such a description as I always took delight in, and I still flatter myself that from my quickness in figures, I should be perfectly at home in such a situation. However I was not to be gratified on that occasion, and I continued in the service of Mr. Baker about three years. I had, in fact, reconciled myself to the idea of serving out my full term of banishment with this worthy man; but on a sudden, a letter was received by Mr. Arndell from Governor King, ordering my instant removal to Sydney, for the purpose of assisting ms a clerk in the Secretary's Office, which, as it was then established might be, and was generally, called the Governor's Office, being attached to Government House, and under the immediate personal direction of the Governor himself. Though this preferment seemed to hold out a prospect of future advantage, and to confer increased respectability, it was with some regret I quitted my comfortable little house and garden at "The Green Hills[1]," where I had led a life of innocence and peaceful retirement; whereas I was now about to enter a vortex of dissipation, folly and wickedness, for such was Sydney compared to my late place of abode.
The Governor received me very graciously, allotted me a neat brick-house in the vicinity of the office, and a government-man, victualled from the King's-stores, as a servant. For two or three months I continued very steady, and formed but few acquaintances. The Governor behaved to me with great liberality, and refused me no reasonable request. By degrees, however, I began to degenerate. I increased my acquaintance among the Commissary's and some other clerks, most of whom lived an expensive and dissipated life. All I can say in my own favour, is that I continued to be regular in my attendance at the office, and was never found defective, or incapable of my duty; but no sooner was I at my own disposal than I eagerly sought my dissipated companions, and spent the rest of the day in drinking, and other irregularities, sometimes at public or disorderly houses, and frequently at my own, where I had often the expensive pleasure of entertaining a large party of my fellow-scribes at my own cost. This course of life unavoidably drew me into great expenses, and I contracted several debts. Governor King, whose vigilant observation nothing of this sort could escape, gave me frequent and serious admonitions for my good; but I was so infatuated as to disregard all advice, and only thought of devising pecuniary means to continue my licentious career. This was no easy task, as the nature of business in the Secretary's Office afforded few opportunities of realising money by fraud, at least without the, assistance of one or more confederates in a neighbouring department. The expensive rate at which the Commissary's clerks constantly lived, had become matter of surprise to the Governor as well as the magistrates, and was the theme of much conjecture among the inhabitants of Sydney. Still, though it was palpable they had recourse to fraud, they managed matters so adroitly that no irregularity could be detected; and the efforts of the executive authority, to develope their system, continued unavailing.
It was the custom of Governor King, as I have before observed, to use only his initials as a signature on common occasions, and by application and practice I acquired a knack of imitating this sign-manual with sufficient accuracy to impose upon the parties to whom the superscription was addressed. Finding these three letters to have the magical effect of procuring for me whatever articles I required, from the King's-stores, I availed myself of their talismanic power, and converting the goods so obtained into money, I discharged my debts, and figured away with increased eclat, among my fellow-clerks. As it was, however, both impolitic and dangerous to carry this branch, of fraud too far, or practice it too frequently, I at length found means to form a connexion with two or three of my most experienced friends, and we concerted such a system of ways and means as promised liberally to supply our wants, and, while we continued true to each other, seemed to preclude a possibility of detection.
As I do not conceive myself justified in exposing either the parties who were my colleagues, or the particular nature of our artifices, let it suffice to inform the reader, that (as is indeed usually and deservedly the fate of all sinister practices) a mere and most unexpected accident, and for which none of us could attach blame to ourselves, discovered to the Governor a principal branch of that prolific tree of fraud and imposition, from whose productive fruitfulness we had so abundantly derived the means of gratifying our folly and intemperance, which we at that time miscalled a love of pleasure; but (to continue the metaphor) the root and body of this tree, still remained hidden from the strict and rigid search set on foot by the Governor, and after this transitory alarm had subsided, proved to its remaining adherents, a source of supply for a considerable time. It so happened that I was the ostensible party in the particular affair which led to this discovery; and Governor King immediately took the most active measures to effect a full developement of that system which he well knew to be the ground-work of mal-practices to a considerable extent.
With this view I underwent several private examinations before his Excellency and some of the principal officers, and great promises were held out to extract information from me, but without effect, as I was determined not to betray my friends, whose ruin could not at all palliate my guilty or, as I conceived, render me a whit more deserving of mercy. I therefore persisted in asserting my innocence of the present charge, and disclaimed all knowledge of fraud in any other person.
The Governor was so much exasperated at my obstinacy, that he at length had recourse (as a dernier resort,) to the expedient of flogging to extort confession. I must, however, (for justice sake,) acknowledge that such cruelty was rarely exercised by Governor King, who in his cooler moments was a most humane character. To the honour of our present governor (Macquarrie,) be it recorded, that not only this inhuman practice is exploded, but corporal punishment is seldom inflicted at all, and when rendered necessary, it is used with moderation.
To resume, the Governor finding me firm in my resolution to give him no satisfaction, ordered Dr. Harris, who was present, to take me to the jail-yard, send for the public executioner, and there to give me five-and-twenties, (this was his phrase,) till I confessed the whole truth. Pursuant to this order I accompanied Mr. Harris to the appointed spot, and while the finisher of the law was arranging matters for the approaching ceremony, the Doctor used all his art of persuasion to induce me for my own sake, to avoid the disgrace and pain of a correction, which he must, if I continued obstinate, inflict in its fullest extent.
There was certainly much justice in this gentleman's arguments, and, although I am confident I could have summoned up resolution to have continued silent under the threatened chastisement, yet, on mature reflection, I was convinced of the folly of such a conduct, as there was already sufficient and incontrovertible proof of guilt against me. I, therefore, determined to acknowledge my errors, and submit my fate to the Governor's pleasure. Of this intention I acquainted Mr. Harris, who immediately stayed the proceedings about to take place, and supplying me with pen and paper, desired me to write my declaration, which he would himself convey to the Governor. In the letter I hastily composed, I informed his Excellency, that feelings of remorse and regret for my ill conduct, rather than a fear of punishment, had induced me to confess to him that I was guilty of the charge brought against me on the present occasion, and with shame I acknowledged having repeatedly transgressed in a similar manner, in order to defray the expenses of the unbecoming course of life I had imprudently fallen into. But I positively declared that no other person whatever was privy to my numerous acts of fraud, as those counterfeit documents framed by me, had passed through the usual official channels as genuine; and, consequently, the parties who had admitted and sanctioned them, were utterly guiltless of connivance, and had done no more than their duty. I added, that I knew how justly I deserved to suffer for my faults; but I also knew that mercy was the predominant sentiment in His Excellency's bosom, and on that mercy I therefore most humbly threw myself.
Doctor Harris immediately proceeded to Government-house with my letter, and I was soon afterwards summoned to follow in person. His Excellency seemed not displeased at the course I had adopted, and he was now in a very mild and placid mood. After expatiating at some length, and in a serio-comic strain, with his usual eccentricity, on the ill return I had made for his favours, and so forth, he was pleased to order me back to the jail, but in a tone that indicated no severity of intention. It gave me much concern, however, that notwithstanding all I had before said, or could now protest on the subject, the Governor ordered a young man in a confidential situation under government, to be dismissed from his office, under an impression that he was privy to the fraud in question. It is true indeed, this person, by the injudicious defence he made, was the cause of his own misfortune, and had very nearly, from his statement being at variance with mine, contributed to ruin all my hopes of belief. But the Governor, who though shrewd at times, was not at all times a Solomon, thought proper to credit my assertion, and reject the evidence of the other party, as too improbable to be received.
The next morning early, an order came to the prison from his Excellency; that I was to be double-ironed, and put to the hardest labour, in common with those incorrigible characters composing what is called the jail-gang: I was in consequence set to work at mending the public-roads, &c. &c., and as I had never before used a heavier tool than a goose-quill, I found this penance to bear hard upon me, and repented me of the evil which had brought me to this woeful condition.
- ↑ The settlement or camp at Hawkesbury, now called, the town of Windsor.