I Resolved,
Therefore, As A Good Patriot, To Undertake That Ruin, And To Accomplish
It In The Very Heart Of London.
If I had succeeded," he cried with
enthusiasm, "France would have held me in the greatest honour; and
instead of being branded as a brigand, I should have been proclaimed the
avenger of my country.
Scarcely had I arrived in England when I commenced
my operations; and at first they succeeded beyond all my hopes. Assisted
by an Irishman not less skilful than myself, and who, like me, was
actuated by a noble patriotism, desiring even more fervently than I did
the downfall of England, I was soon enabled to counterfeit the notes of
the Bank with such perfection that it was even difficult for us to
distinguish those which came from our own press from the genuine paper. I
was at the very point of a triumph; all my preparations were made for
inundating England with our manufactured notes; nothing was wanting
except some information in regard to numbering them - when my companion,
whom up till then I had regarded as AN HONEST MAN,* (* The italics are
Peron's.) took it into his head to steal some of the notes, which were as
yet defective, inasmuch as they lacked a few trifling but indispensable
formalities. He was arrested almost immediately; and as he had behaved
dishonourably towards me, he did not hesitate to relapse into sin in
another aspect. He revealed everything to the authorities; I was arrested
and plunged into prison with him; all my instruments, all our bank notes,
were seized - and Great Britain was saved from the ruin which I had
prepared for her!
"Evident as were the proofs of our project, I did not despair, thanks to
the nature of the criminal laws of England, of escaping death; but such
were the feebleness and fright of my wretched partner, that I had no
doubt of our common downfall if I were compelled to appear before the
tribunals in association with that cowardly wretch. To obviate the
aggravation of my own misfortunes, which could not have prevented his, I
determined to endeavour to get rid of him; and, as the author of both our
disasters, it was quite right that he should suffer. In a speech to him
that was very pathetic, therefore, I tried to prove to him, that, our
death being inevitable, we had nothing better to think about than how
best to sustain the sadness and ignominy that had come upon us; and that,
death for death, it was better to fall like men of honour than under the
hand of the executioner. The Irishman was moved, but not yet resolved. 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. The punishment for
forgery was transportation.) The two knaves who work for me increase my
profits threefold. In a few years I shall be one of the wealthiest
proprietors in the colony; and I should be one of the happiest if I were
not constantly tormented with regret at having so unfortunately failed in
an honourable enterprise, and at being regarded on that account as a vile
criminal, even by those among you, my compatriots, who cannot know the
noble principles [sic "nobles principes"!] which actuated my conduct, or
who cannot appreciate them."
As the good Peron does not mention discovering that his pockets had been
picked after his interview with this choice and humorous rogue, it will
be agreed that he escaped from the interview with singular good fortune.
The naturalist presented a lively picture of the port of Sydney, which
even in those very early days was becoming a place of consequence. There
were ships from the Thames and the Shannon, brought out to engage in
whaling, which was an important industry then and for many years after;
ships from China; ships laden with coal bound for India and the Cape;
ships engaged in the Bass Strait sealing trade; ships which pursued a
profitable but risky business in contraband with the Spanish South
American colonies; ships fitting out for the North American fur trade;
ships destined for enterprises among the South Sea Islands; and, lastly,
there was the ship of "the intrepid M. Flinders" getting ready to
continue the navigations of that explorer in northern and north-western
Australia. "All this ensemble of great operations, all these movements of
vessels, give to these shores a character of importance and activity that
we did not expect to meet with in regions so little known in Europe, and
our interest redoubled with our admiration." Above all, one is glad to
notice, Peron was interested in the boat in which George Bass had
accomplished that "audacieuse navigation," the discovery of Bass Strait,
in 1797 and 1798.
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