Chapter I

I arrive in London—A sudden alarm—Visit my mother
and sisters—Set out for S⸺shire—Interview with my
grandfather—Return to town—A lucky hit on the road—Obtain a
situation in the Crown-Office, _page_ 1.

CHAP. II.

Quit the Crown-Office, and engage as reader in a
printing-office—Determine to live a strictly honest
life—Meet with an old acquaintance who laughs me out of my
resolution—Give up all thoughts of servitude, and become a
professed thief, _page_ 13.

CHAP. III.

Various modes of obtaining money—My regular course of life,
when disengaged from my vicious companions—Meet with an
amiable girl, like myself the child of misfortune—We cohabit
together—Our mutual happiness, _page_ 20.

CHAP. IV.

Adventures in the course of my profligate career—Motives which
induce me to marry my companion—Her exemplary behaviour—A
family misfortune, _page_ 29.

CHAP. V.

Adventure of the silver snuff-box—Its consequences.—My narrow
escape from transportation, which I have since had reason to
regret, _page_ 35.

CHAP. VI.

Visit Mr. Bilger, an eminent jeweller—His politeness, and the
return I made for it—Perfidy of a pawnbroker—Obliged to decamp
with precipitation, _page_ 52.

CHAP. VII.

Take a house in St. George’s Fields—Stay at home for several
weeks—At length I venture out in quest of money—My imprudent
obstinacy in entering a house of ill repute, against the advice
and entreaties of my wife—I am taken in custody and carried to
the watch-house.—Distress of my wife on the occasion, _page_ 71.

CHAP. VIII.

Discover that I have been betrayed—Examined at Bow-street, and
committed for trial—Sent to Newgate—Prepare for my defence—My
trial and conviction, _page_ 83.

CHAP. IX.

Account of my companion and fellow-sufferer in the condemned
cells—His unhappy fate—I receive sentence of death—Am
reprieved, and soon afterwards sent on board the hulks—Some
account of those receptacles of human misery, _page_ 97.

CHAP. X.

I embark a second time for New South Wales—Indulgently treated
by the Captain—My employment during the voyage—Arrive at Port
Jackson, after an absence of four years—My reception from
Governor Macquarrie—Assigned by lot to a settler—His brutal
treatment of me—I find means to quit his service, and return to
Sydney, _page_ 113.

CHAP. XI.

Appointed an overseer—Determine to reform my life, and become
a new man—All my good intentions rendered unavailing by an
unforeseen and unavoidable misfortune—I become a victim to
prejudice, and the depravity of a youth in years, but a veteran
in iniquity—I am banished to the coal-river, _page_ 122.

CHAP. XII.

Return to head-quarters, after an exile of two years—Renew my
vows of rectitude, to which I strictly adhere—Proposal made me
to obtain my liberty—I make the attempt—Its failure, and the
consequent punishment inflicted on me—Conclusion, _page_ 137.

MEMOIRS OF JAMES HARDY VAUX.