Page 134 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

ing behind the tree-tops on the left side of the harbour,
the figure of a man appeared on the top of this rock. He
was clad in the coarse garb of a convict, and wore round
his ankles two iron rings, connected by a short and heavy
chain. To the middle of this chain a leathern strap was at-
tached, which, splitting in the form of a T, buckled round
his waist, and pulled the chain high enough to prevent him
from stumbling over it as he walked. His head was bare, and
his coarse, blue-striped shirt, open at the throat, displayed
an embrowned and muscular neck. Emerging from out a
sort of cell, or den, contrived by nature or art in the side of
the cliff, he threw on a scanty fire, which burned between
two hollowed rocks, a small log of pine wood, and then re-
turning to his cave, and bringing from it an iron pot, which
contained water, he scooped with his toil-hardened hands a
resting-place for it in the ashes, and placed it on the embers.
It was evident that the cave was at once his storehouse and
larder, and that the two hollowed rocks formed his kitchen.
Having thus made preparations for supper, he ascended
a pathway which led to the highest point of the rock. His
fetters compelled him to take short steps, and, as he walked,
he winced as though the iron bit him. A handkerchief or
strip of cloth was twisted round his left ankle; on which the
circlet had chafed a sore. Painfully and slowly, he gained
his destination, and flinging himself on the ground, gazed
around him. The afternoon had been stormy, and the rays
of the setting sun shone redly on the turbid and rushing wa-
ters of the bay. On the right lay Sarah Island; on the left the
bleak shore of the opposite and the tall peak of the French-

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