4H A JOURNEY IN 
this desperate gang of robbers had recently been added a 
person of so extraordinary a character, that a sketch of his 
history may not be uninteresting. The name of this man was 
Stephanos, by birth a Pole, but of Greek extraction. From 
the ranks in some of the German hired regiments, in which 
he completed the time of his enlistment, he had procured a 
situation in the Cape as an assistant to a shopkeeper, where 
he was tempted to exercise his ingenuity in forging the paper 
currenc}" of the government, the accomplishing of which required 
no moderate share of skill. The card, in the first instance, is 
stamped in Holland, is there covered with painted paper of 
a particular pattern, the numbers and value are filled in by 
a public oflficer at the Cape, and each card is signed by three 
members of the Court of Justice, every one of whom has a 
particular flourish at the end of his name which is well known 
throughout the colony ; yet all this was so closely imitated by 
Stephanos as to pass current for a length of time. At last, 
however, the forgery was detected. Stephanos was tried for 
his life, condemned, and cast into solitary imprisonment till 
the day of his execution should arrive. In this deplorable 
situation his genius, however, did not forsake him. By the 
help of a rusty nail which he found in the wall, and a little 
s deal table on which he mounted, he worked out gradually a 
square hole through a three-inch plank of teak wood, which 
with a little plaster was the only cover to the room ; and 
through this hole he effected his escape. In order to elude 
the suspicion of his keeper, it was supposed that he swal- 
lowed every morning the dust of the wood which he had 
worked out in the course of the night, and filled up the holes 
