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181 As I do not conceive myself justified in exposing either the parties who were my colleagues, or the particular nature of our artifices, let it suffice to inform the reader, that (as is indeed usually and deservedly the fate of all sinister practices) a mere and most unexpected accident, and for which none of us could attach blame to ourselves, discovered to the Governor a principal branch of that prolific tree of fraud and imposition, from whose productive fruitfulness we had so abundantly derived the means of gratifying our folly and intemperance, which we at that time miscalled a love of pleasure; but (to continue the metaphor) the root and body of this tree, still remained hidden from the strict and rigid search set on foot by the Governor, and after this transitory alarm had subsided, proved to its remaining adherents, a source of supply for a considerable time. It so happened that I was the ostensible party in the particular affair which led to this discovery; and Governor King immediately took the most active measures to effect a full developement of that system which he well knew to be the ground-work of mal-practices to a considerable extent.

With this view I underwent several private examinations before his Excellency and some of the principal officers, and great promises were held out to extract information from me, but without effect, as I was determined not to betray my friends, whose