I
then made him feel that if his own infamy did not touch him, he ought at
least to
Spare his children the disgrace of being pointed at as the
offspring of one who had been hanged; and that, if he had not been able
to leave them wealth, he should at least, by an act of generous devotion,
save them from that shame.
"These last reflections inflamed the Irishman with a fine courage. We
managed to procure a strong corrosive acid; I feigned to take some of it;
but he took it really, and died; when, disembarrassed from that silly
rascal, I avoided the gallows which assuredly awaited me had I been tried
with him. I was, instead, sentenced to transportation to this colony,
where I am condemned to pass the remainder of my days. But the period of
my servitude in prison is now finished; I follow with advantage two of my
early trades, those of goldsmith and clockmaker.* (* He was an
emancipist; that is, a convict liberated from prison confinement on
probation. His two "knaves" were also convicts. Transported men could
often earn their liberty by exemplary behaviour. When Flinders went north
in the Investigator, he was allowed to take nine convicts with him as
part of his crew, on the promise that a good report from him would earn
them their liberty; but that experiment was not a marked success. Morand,
as I understand it, escaped the death penalty because the suicide of his
companion prevented his being tried for conspiracy.
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