Complex sentence: By age fourteen, he had stolen a large amount of money from the cash box of his parent's bakery and left for Ostend, where he tried to embark to the Americas; but he was defrauded one night and found himself suddenly penniless.
Split into simpler sentences: By age fourteen, he had stolen a large amount of money from the cash box of his parent's bakery and left for Ostend, where he tried to embark to the Americas. But he was defrauded one night and found himself suddenly penniless.