raw-hats upon their heads. Misery and they seemed to have
been long intimates; my heart sank within me at their appearance; both
had wooden clogs, consisting of a cut of about a foot long from the
branch of a tree, chained to their right leg at the ancle; and this they
carried over their arm. In addition, one of them had a stout collar
round his neck, from which projected three iron hooks, about a foot
from his head. We burst into tears, thinking we were to be similarly
equipped, and would have fled, had flight been possible; all the riches
in the world we would have counted a mean reward to the person who would
have transported us from the tyrant's farm-yard to the beautiful hills
and valleys of Scotland. As they came to where we stood gazing through
our tears, three tall, bony, sallow-looking lads, sons of the
proprietor, issued from the principal building, with implements upon
their shoulders, one of which was given to each of us, and we were now
to begin our work. Before we proceeded, our master said to us, in his
harsh manner--

'Mind ye, lads, you are my bound servants for three years, to do my
will--mayhap for more. If you offer to run away, I will catch you again;
and, besides punishment, dress you so--and he pointed with malicious
triumph to his victims--to prevent your running; and, mark me, for every
day you are absent, you serve me two.'

In spite of his threat, I believe there was not one of us who did not
resolve to make his escape from him the first opportunity. Had he
treated us kindly, we would have obeyed him with pleasure, nor thought
of anything but completing our period of service; but humanity was
foreign to his nature, and short-sighted avarice alone possessed all his
thoughts. He had himself been a convict in his youth; but had for many
years been free, and had purchased, when it was yet part of the forest,
the lot of land he now cultivated. All had been the creation of his own
labour, and he was proud of it to excess. When in good humour, which was
seldom the case, his feats against, and escapes from, the Indians, and
praises of his lands, were the only things upon which he was loquacious.

We soon learned that our two companions in misery were government
convicts, and very bad characters; both had been guilty of many crimes,
and were so hardened that nothing but the strictest surveillance and
coercion could keep them in subjection. They were like tigers in chains,
and threatened the most fear