Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/416

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139

As parties of military, as well as the inhabitants, were detached in all directions, there is no doubt but the whole of these desperadoes have long since received the the reward of their villany. This account I read in a Sydney Gazette a few months ago, and among the names of the bush-rangers, (as they are termed,) who jointly committed the above outrage and murder, I was shocked, though not surprised, to see that of the young, but depraved, Edwards!

Having continued nearly two years at the coal-fiver, the commanding officer was induced, in consideration of my uniform good behaviour, to permit my return to Sydney, on my arrival at which place, I was once more disposed of in the town-gang. Being advised to solicit the Governor for an appointment to some less laborious employment, I waited on His Excellency with a petition, in which I urged my exemplary behaviour for the last two years at Newcastle; as a proof that whatever my former conduct might have been, I was now disposed to reform; and entreating His Excellency to divest himself of that prejudice which I feared had already operated against me too severely, humbly prayed that he would make trial of me in the only capacity in which I was capable of being useful, namely, that of a clerk in one of the public-offices. Unhappily for me, the cloud was not yet dispelled, but threatened to obscure, still longer, the prospect