The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-11-25
TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES.
Aaron Trow.
BY Anthony Trollope.

this story that I shall never regard that cluster
OF islets which we call Bermuda as the For.
tunste Islands Of the ancients. Do not
let professional geographers take me up
aud say that no one has 30 accounted
them, and that the sncients have never been
supposed to have gotten themselves so far west
ward. What mean to assert IL this-that, had
any ancient been carried thither by enterprise
or stress Of weather he would not have given
those Islands 30 good a name. That the Ne
spolitan sailors Of King Alonzo should have
bccn wrecked here I consider TO be NOR. likely.
Tho vcxed Bcrmoothes is a good name for them.
There is no getting in or out of them without the
greatest uifficuity, and a patient slow naviga-
ton. which ls very heartrending. That Caliban
should have lived here I can imagine: that
Ariel would have been sick of tho place Is GER
tain; and that Gov. Prospero should have been
willing to abandon his governorshlp I conceive
TO have been only natural. When one regards
the present state Of the place one Is tempted TO
doubt whether any of the Governors have been
coniurors since his days.
Bermuda, as all the world knows, Is q British
colony at which we maintain q convict estab-
lishment Most of our outlying convict estab-
lishments have been sent back upon our hands
from our colonies, but here one is still main
taincd. There Is also in the islands a strong
military fortress, though not q fortress looking
magnificent TO the eyes Of civilians AZ do Malta
and Gibraltar. There are also here some 5000
white people and some 5000 black people, eat
ing. drinking, sleeping, aud dying.
The convict establishment Is the most notable
feature OF Bermuda TO a stranger, but 1t does
not seem to attract much attention from the
regular Inhabitants of the place. There ia no
intercourse between the prisoners and the Ber-
mudians. The convicts are rarely seen by them.
and the convict islands are rarely visited. As
TO the prisoners themselves, OF course, IL is not
open to them-or should not DO open 20 them
TO have intercourse with any but the prison
authorities.
There have, however, been instances in which
convicts have escaped from their cop6ne.
ment. and mnde their vay out among
the islands. Poor wretchcsl As n rule. there Ia
but little chance for any that can SO escape. The
whole length OF the cluster Ia hut twenty miles
and the breadth Is under four. The prisonors
are, of course. white men. md the lower rders
of Bermuda. among whom alone could n runa-
gate have any chance of hiding him self are all
negroes, 30 that such a one would be known at
once. Their clothes are all marked. Their only
chance of a permanent escape would he in the
hold of an American ship; but what Captain Of
an American or other ship would willingly en-
cumber himself with an escaped convict Ru,
nevertheless. men have escaped. and in one in
stance, believe a convict got away. so that Of
him no further tidinas were ever heard.
For the truth of the following tale I will mot
by any means youch. IL one wero To inouire on
the spot, one might probably find that the ladies'
ali believe Il. and the old men. that nj, the
younu men know exactly how much NJ IL "a
false and how much true and TIM, tho .,ooav
middle-arcd. weu.to-do islanders orc oui,e con.
WINGED that 1, IA romance from beginnIno %
end. NV readers may rnnQ. Themselves with
the ladies. the Young men, mr. the steady we'll.
TODD. middle-aged islanders. Az they plense
established on its present footing. tbree men
did escane from 4, and among Them n certain
notor,ous nr,soner named Aaron Trov T-ovy,s
pnteced,nts in England had no, bccn 81 villain.
ouslv had ns those of many of bis fsIlo,v con
y,cts thouvb IN. one ofcncs for which bs was
punished had been OF n deem dye-he Ind she'd
mans blood. AT n period OF great distress in n |
manufacturing town he Ind led men ON 70 riot.
and with his own hand had slain the first con.
stable who had endeayored 10 do hIs duty
against him. There had been courage in the
doing Of the deed. and probably no malice. lint
the deed, let its moral blackness have been what |
IL might. had sent him TO Bermuda with N sen-
tence against him Of nenol servitpde for life
Had he been then amenable to prison discipline-
even then. with such n sentence against him
as tbat-he might have won hi. way hack,
after the lapse of years In the children. and
perhaps. TO the wife that he had left behind
him: but he was anenable IN no rnles % no
discipline. His heart was sore 20 death with an
idea of injury. and he dashed himself against
the bars OF his cage with A feeling that IL would
he well n he could 40 lash bimssIf tin he might
perish in his fury.
And then a day came in which an attempt was
made by n large body of eonvicts. under hi,
leadership. 10 get the better of the officers of
the prison. IL is hardly necessary 10 saw that
the attempt failed. Such attempts always fail. |
1t failed on this occasion signally. and Trow
and two other men were condemned IN
d. scourued terribly and then kent I'm soil
tary confinement for a heightened term OF
months. Before, however, the day of scourQing
came. Troy and his two associates had escaped.
1 have not the space to tell how this was effected.
NOR the power TO describe the manner. They did
sscape from the establishment into the islands,
and though two OF them were taken after a sin