Excursion to Port Arthur . 
273 
learned his place, and seems to be in full health and 
vigour. When not employed on trifling repairs in his 
own trade, he works in the nailer’s shop. Williams is 
likewise at Port Arthur. In the first instance, having 
assumed a specious character, and being in some degree 
conversant with mining, he was sent to the Coal Mines. 
There he inveigled some of his companions, built a boat, 
and effected a temporary escape : being re-captured, he 
was forwarded to Port Arthur, where he at present 
works in one of the chain-gangs. I did not see Williams; 
who is represented as a bad designing man. Some of his 
associates in flight were a short while at large : during 
that period they committed a murder, for which they 
were executed; a penalty they might never perhaps have 
incurred but for the temptation of Williams. From 
the penitentiary barracks we proceeded to the silent 
cells, the rations of whose inmates are only bread and 
water. In one we found a juvenile murderer, of 
whom more anon. In another was a man confined for 
habitual absconding : a short period only had elapsed 
since he had been rescued from death by exhaustion. 
He was discovered at the last extremity, conveyed to the 
hospital, recovered with difficulty, and no sooner re¬ 
covered than he again attempted a similarly rash and 
fruitless hazard. ‘ 
From the cells we went to the hospital, where we had 
a signal opportunity of drawing a wholesome moral 
from the sad—the miserable consequences of crime. 
There, upon a stretcher, lay Henry bavary, the once 
celebrated Bristol sugar-baker—a man upon whose birth 
Fortune smiled propitious, whose family and kindred 
moved in the very first circles, and who himself occupied 
no inconsiderable place in his fellow-citizens’ esteem. 
The forgery (in 1825) and miraculous escape from 
execution of this unhappy man cannot have escaped 
VOL. i. no. IV. 
T 
