"Delaforce was 16 years old when he was convicted (unjustly he claims) of theft and transported to New South Wales on the Hoogly in 1834. He worked briefly on the emancipist Samuel Terry's Mount Pleasant station, where he developed sandy blight (acute conjunctivitis), a painful condition which required 10 months hospitalisation at Windsor. He was then sent to Port Macquarie, where he joined the iron gang, working with and under the supervision of 'specials' or educated convicts. He records that he and other members of the gang were frequently flogged, starved and cheated by overseers. In 1838 Delaforce was assigned to Lake Innes station where he dug drains, gardened and acted as milkman, but was unjustly accused of robbing the store and returned to the chain gang. His sentence expired in 1843, but Delaforce continued to live and work in Port Macquarie up to the time of the publication of his pamphlet" (Walsh and Hooton 51).
Source
Walsh, Kay and Joy Hooton. Australian Autobiographical Narratives : An Annotated Bibliography. Canberra : Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, University College, ADFA and National Library of Australia, 1993.
