ship Calcutta. I take this opportunity of publicly acknowledging the great kindness shewn me by Mr. Wedge, in thus procuring me my freedom, so immediately after my becoming known to him in such an extraordinary manner; and also my gratitude to Sir George, then Colonel Arthur, for his having so readily responded to the appeal made on my behalf. It was more than I had reason to expect from any Governor, without a previous reference to the Home Authorities; and the confidence thus placed in my future exertions to benefit the first settlers, gratified me exceedingly.
Allow me, generous reader, to throw my mind back upon the hour when I thus received deliverance from the past and present, and my long hoped for freedom for the future. Thus, in effect, I expressed myself:—"I can now, once more, raise my thoughts—my unshackled mind and hands—to Heaven, as a free man. I can now offer up my prayers of praise and thankfulness to God, for my extraordinary deliverance, and for His wonderful preservation of me during so long a period.—My heart beats high with joy, almost to its bursting,—and, I ask, whose heart, bounding from so many long years of solitude and captivity into freedom, could, or can, beat like mine?"
Who, after reading this brief history of my early life, and of my thirty-two years' perils and wanderings in the wilderness, whatever may be his position, will not—
