That a servant thus enabled to act as the medium of intercourse, must prove on many occasions highly convenient, may be confessed; but, like a double-edged sword, he may operate either way, as to himself may appear expedient; and while pretending to serve, may be pillaging his employer. It is to be lamented, that the stranger has no immediate resource; and, in case of injury, little redress. The mischief is not owing to any deficiency in the police, but arises from that invariable precaution with which _Rum-Johnnies_ carry on their manœuvres: they never fail to have a third person in the way, who is to disappear with the purloined articles, and to bear all the blame; while the principal affects great resentment at the villain’s audacity, and sorrow for master’s loss. This is often so dexterously managed as to occasion serious quarrels, when friends, who see through the deception, endeavor to convince the infatuated party, that his confidential menial is at the bottom of the roguery. The disreputable circumstance of having a thief at his elbow, does not sit very easy on the stranger’s mind: deriving so much convenience from _Rum-Johnny’s_ aid, and, having only the fair side of the knave’s conduct in view, he is unwilling to give credit to what appears a gross misrepresentation, founded on prejudice. By this means, he sinks deeper into the mire, and renders it dangerous for his well-wisher to attempt his extrication. I recollect an instance of a young gentleman’s joining a regiment, about a hundred miles up the country, who had among his servants a _khedmutgar_, (or table-attendant,) of whom I never could get a sight. The fellow was always sick, or busy; or some excuse was invariably made. At length, one of my own domestics informed me, that he was a _Rum-Johnny_ who had been discharged from my service, in which he held the office of _mosaulchy_, (or link-boy,) for theft. I found out, that he had been employed in the barracks at Fort-William, where he picked up a little English, and had fastened upon the gentleman, no doubt with the intention to avail himself of the first good prize wherewith to decamp. Finding, to his great discomfiture, that I had been removed to that station, where he found me, the scoundrel kept aloof, under the hope of carrying his project into execution. Strange to say, it was with extreme difficulty I could convince my young friend that he was the dupe of a downright thief; who, if I had not been improperly lenient, would have had the certificate of his crime noted on his back, by the drummers of the regiment!