The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-29
The "GlOria Scott. ]"

dorsed outside, as you see Some particu- lars of the voyage of the bark Grora Scott, from her leaving Falmouth on the Sth of October, 1S55, to her destruction in N. Lat. 15 degrees 20 minutes, w. Long. 9 degrees IA minutes on November S. It is in the form of letter, and runs in this way.
 " My dear, dear son, now that ap- preaching disgrace begins to darken the closing years of my life, l can write with all truth and honesty that it Is not the terror of the law. 1t is not the loss of my position in the county, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, which cuts me to the heart; but it is the thought that you should come to blush for me-you who love me. and who have seldom, I hope. had reason to do other than respect me. But if the l blow falls which Is forever hanging over me, then I should wish you to read this. that you may know straight from me how far I have been to blame. On the other hand, if all should go well (which may kind Col Almighty grantD, then, 1 if by any chance this paper should be still undestroyed. and should fall into your hands, l conjure you. by all you hold sacred by the memory of your dear mother, and by the love which has been between us, to hurl 1t Into the fire and to never give one thought to 1t again. [ " If then your eye goes on to read this line I know that l shall already have been exposed and dragged from my home, or as Is more likely, for you know that my heart is weak, he lying with my tongue sealed forever in death In either case the time for suppression is past. and every word which I tell you is the naked truth, and this I swear as I hope for mercy.
 My name, dear lad, is not Trevor. was James Armitage in my younger days. and you can understand now the shock that 1t was to me few weeks ago when your college friend addressed me in words which seemed to imply that he had sur prised my secret. As Armtage 1t was that I entered London banking house and as Armitage I was convicted of breaking my countrys laws, and was sentenced to transportation. Do not think very harshly of me laddie. It was debt l of honor, so called, which I had to pay, and l used money which was not my own 1 to do it in the certainty that l could re- place 1t before there could be any possi- | blity of it's being missed But the most dreadful ill-luck pursued me. The money which had reekoned upon never came to l hand, and a premature examination of ac- counts exposed my deficit The case might have been dealt eniently with. but I the laws were more harshly administered l thirty years ago than now. and on my twenty-third birthday I found myself l chained AS felon with thlrty-SeYen other convicts in the 'tween-decks of the bark Gloria Scott. bound for Australia. ." It was the year 55, when the Crimean war was at its height. and the old con- vlct ships had been largely used as transports in tho Black sea. The gov l ernment was compelled. therefore to use smaller and less suitable vessels for send 1 ing out their prisoners The Gloria Scott 1 had been in the Chinese tea trade. but she was an old-fa shoued heavy-bowed. l broad beamed craft. and the new clippers had cut her out She was a 500-ton boat; and besides her thlrty-eight iailbirds she carried twenty-six of a crew. eighteen
 soldiers. a captain, three mates, q doctori a chaplain and four warders. Nearly l hundred souls were in her, all told, when 1 we set sail from Falmouth.
 1 "The partitions between the cells of the eonvicts. instead of being of thick 1 oak as is usual in convict ships. were ! quite thin and frail The man next to l me, upon the aft side. was one whom | had particularly noticed when we were l led down the quay. He was young man ] with clear, hairless face, long, thin , nose, and rather nut cracker jaws. He carried his head very iauntily in the air, i had a swaggering style of walking, and was, above all else, remarkable for his 1 extraordinary height l don't think any | of our heads would have come up to his shoulders, and I am sure that he could