Thomas Scott - 'Life of a Convict named "Isaacs" a Jew in Van Diemen's Land taken down from his own dictation in the year 1821 at Elizabeth River where he then was - Servant to Govr. Sorell as his Stock Keeper' - p21821

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and I was determined to get it by some means or other The Corpl put us all 
in the Gd House & there we remd till next morng when the Adjutant came down 
& said we were the 3 who had robbed the Gr. Mastsr. Stores he said to me, 
what the other two did not know I learnt them, and d----d the sergt that 
ever enlisted such as scoundr. brought as disgrace upon the Regt he told me 
he woud flog me about all the rest if I did not tell him where the 
property was - at the same time he might as well have asked the stones where 
it was for I shod never have told him he then related the circumstances to 
the Colonel who the next day tried us by court martial for the robbery and 
then we were sent to the Guard house again we remd there 2 days & then upon 
solitary confinemt upon bread and water

Then began to be very well pleased think I it wd. be all that I wd. receive - we 
remd there 30 days in that condition one morning & previously unknown to us 
we were suddenly taken out and received 300 lashes apiece by the tap of 
the drum I then began to feel very sorry off not takg my Frs advice when 
I was at home - but all this I did not mind - I then got well and remaining a 
few mths in the Coutr. to whc. I belonged steady a yr 2 gentlemen lately 
come into the Regt as an officer picked me out to be his servt I thought to 
myself he could not pick out a worse - he used to put very gt trust in me 
till one day I took the liberty of going to his desk where his money was and 
took out 5 dollars – he did not miss this small sum I continued this very often 
thinkg he wd not miss such small sums till one day he hapd to miss 15£ 
he called me to an accnt I told him I knew nothing about it he said he 
wd not report it to the Coln. or he wd get me a good flogging if I wd not 
tell him whether I took the money or not - I told him I knew nothing about it 
he might do as he liked - he sent me to my duty again - a few months after 
our regt was ordered to Spain we set sail from Jersey & in 7 weeks we arrived at 
Lisbon where being formerly used to pilfering I still carried it on but fortune 
favrd me here so that I was never found out

Sometimes there when I was short of money I would take my blanket & sell it 
to a Spanh woman and get sometimes 5 or 6 dollars for it, when I had sold it 
I wd go and put 2 stripes upon my arm as a corpl and go to the person I sold 
the blanket to and demand it back again I soon found that this was a good way 
of doing here, I sometimes sold it to 5 or 6 people in a night, and always got it 
back again.

I then found out another scheme that when the army wd be engaged I 
wd always be in the rear robbing & plundering their dead but one day I was 
picked up at that by an officer who asked me what I was about I mad him no 
answer, but he told me to go with him he then ordered his drummer to tye me 
up to the Ast tree and gave me 5 dozen this was at the battle of Salamanca 
and sent me by a corpl to me regt when I joined my