James Hardy Vaux's 1819 Dictionary of Criminal Slang and Other Impolite Terms as Used by the Convicts of the British Colonies of Australia with Additional True Stories, Remarkable Facts and IllustrationsIn the early 1800s, magistrates in the Australian colonies were often frustrated by the language used by reoffending convicts to disguise their criminal activities and intentions. Convict clerk James Hardy Vaux came up with a useful idea: a dictionary of slang and other terms used by convicts. And so, in 1812, he compiled what was to be Australias first published dictionary. With words such as fence (a receiver of stolen goods), flesh bag (a shirt),