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Collection Item
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