The Catalpa expedition

NEW BEDFORD INSTITUTE

OF

TECHNOLOGY

REFERENCE
LIBRARY . . .

VOLUME N9 12401

Form NBIT50. 5M-2-59-924584

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CAPT. GEORGE S. ANTHONY
Commander of the Catalpa

THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

BY

Z. W. PEASE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW BEDFORD, MASS.

GEORGE S. ANTHONY

1897

Copyright, 1897,
By GEORGE S. ANTHONY.

All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

One hundred years after the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, an American whaling captain, George S.
Anthony, commemorated the event by enforcing
another declaration of independence which set free
the Irish political prisoners who were sentenced to
a lifetime of servitude in the English penal colony
in Australia.

The story of the rescue of these prisoners in 1876
is a brave incident of history which has hitherto
been told too briefly. When Captain Anthony,
commanding the bark Catalpa, landed the men for
whose relief the expedition was planned, at New
York, public interest in the romantic voyage was
very intense. The boldness of the raid upon the
English colony and the remarkable features of the
conspiracy, excited universal curiosity concerning
the details of the affair.

At that time international complications seemed
certain, and there were many reasons why those con-
cerned in the rescue furnished only meagre infor-
mation of the inception of the plan and its progress
during the two years which were spent in bringing
it to a successful consummation.

Brief newspaper accounts appeared at the time,
and this material has been worked over into maga-

^\

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IV INTRODUCTION

zine sketches. The frequency with which the ori-
ginal newspaper story has been revived during the
years which have elapsed suggested that the interest
was still alive and led to the writing of the story
which follows. The facts were contributed by
Captain Anthony, who placed his log-book and per-
sonal records at the disposition of the writer, and
the present version is authorized by the man who
was most prominent in it.

Some of the incidents of history which led up to
the Fenian conspiracy in 1867 are compiled from
familiar sources. The records of the court-martial
are from transcripts of the proceedings made in
Dublin expressly for this book, and have never pre-
viously been published.

No attempt has been made to embellish the nar-
rative. It has been the effort of the writer to tell
it simply, as he knows the gallant commander would
best like to have it told.
New Bedford, Mass., 1897.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. Sailing of the Catalpa

11. Fenian History

III. The Irish Political Prisoners

IV. The Court-Martial
V. The Court-Martial continued

VI. Banishment to Australia .

VII. O'Reilly's Escape .

VIII. Other Escapes and Rescues

IX. Appeals from Australia

X. The Plot ....

XI. The Vessel and the Start .

XII. Whaling

XIII. A Hurried Departure

XIV. An Awkward Meeting
XV. A Strange Episode .

XVI. Arrival at Australia
XVII. The Land End of the Conspiracy
XVIII. Meeting of Anthony and Breslin
XIX. Arranging the Details .
XX. A Critical Situation .
XXI. Leaving the Ship
XXII. The Escape ....
XXHL In The Open Boat .
XXIV. An Awful Night ...
XXV. A Race with the Guard-Boat
XXVI. Overhauled by the Georgette
XXVII. Bound Home ....
XXVIII. A Cordial Reception ,
XXIX. Settlement of the Voyage .

Appendix

PAGE

1

4

9

16

35

51

54

58

66

70

75

82

91

96

103

107

110

116

122

127

132

135

142

148

152

157'

162

167

183

186

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS

Portrait of Capt. George S. Anthony . Frontispiece

Portrait of John Devoy 24

The Jail at Freemantle where the Prisoners were

confined 52

The Catalpa Outward Bound 80

Portrait of Samuel P. Smith 94

Portrait of John J. Breslin 112

The Town of Freemantle, Australia . . . 124

The Rescued Prisoners 138

The Race for the Catalpa 154

The Catalpa Homeward Bound 164

Portrait of James Reynolds 184

A Cartoon from the Irish World . . .• . 202

THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

CHAPTER I

SAILING OF THE CATALPA

On an April morning in 1875, the whaleship Ca-
talpa lay at anchor in the harbor at New Bedford,
ready for sea. Although the whaling industry was
waning on the ebb tide, there were yet over a
hundred whaleships sailing out of the port of New
Bedford, and the departure seemed to call for no
unusual notice.

It was a pretty spectacle, to be sure. The still
waters, the green pastures running down to the shore
of the lower harbor, and the ship, trim and taut.
For, while a whaleship suggests to many a greasy,
clumsy hulk, the outgoing whaler is actually as ship-
shape and clean as a man-of-war.

The yellow sun shone on the yellow hull of the
Catalpa. Her rigging was aglow with fresh tar, and
her gaudy colors and signal flags gave her a holiday
appearance alow and aloft.

Presently the sailors are on the yards, shaking
out the sails. The captain, with his papers under
his arm, the very picture of a captain, by the way.

2 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

strong and athletic in figure, with ruddy cheeks and
life and fire in his bright eyes, goes aboard with the
agent and a few friends, who are to accompany him
down the bay.

The pilot instructs the mate to get under way,
the anchors are soon on the bow and the chains
stowed. The vessel sails out of the harbor, for in
these days tugs are a luxury which the sailor de-
spises, and soon the Catalpa is sailing briskly under
fore and main topsail, main topgallant-sail, spanker,
gafftopsail and staysail and fiying jib.

Late in the afternoon the captain says good-by
to his friends. The wind is blowing freshly from
the southwest.

'' Stand on the port tack two hours longer, then
tack out and you will be clear of land," said the
pilot, and, with the prosaic wishes of " good luck,"
departs.

Later the wind hauls to the southward. Before
midnight the captain has the vessel under short sail
and is working oif shore.

And this seemingly commonplace commencement
of a whaling voyage is, in truth, the story of the
departure of one of the most boldly conceived and
audacious expeditions against the English govern-
ment which was ever planned, — the only important
Fenian conspiracy which was ever entirely success-
ful.

Standing upon one of the wharves on the water-
front, a man in a dark frieze ulster watched the inci-

SAILINU OF THE CATALPA 3

dents of the morning with absorbing interest. His
eyes said a fond good-by to the captain as he rowed
out to the vessel, for he dared not risk an appear-
ance in the group which had assembled about the
captain for a handshake. He was one of the few
men who knew that greater perils than those which
usually await the men who go down to the sea in
ships must be met by the captain if he was true to
a great trust, and that the vessel was going out in
response to the cry of men who were outcast and in
chains because they loved their country.

CHAPTER II

FENIAN HISTORY

^'This is serious business now/' said a clever
English literary man when he heard of the Fenian
organization. " The Irish have got hold of a good
name this time ; the Fenians will last."

The Fenians were the ancient Irish militia organ-
ized in the third century by Fionn or Finn, who is
said to be the Fingal of Ossian. In Scott's " Anti-
quary," Hector M'Intyre, jealous for the honor and
the genuineness of Ossian's songs of Selma, recites a
part of one in which Ossian asks St. Patrick, the
patron saint of Ireland, whether he ventures to com-
pare his psalms ^' to the tales of the bare-armed
Fenians."

" There can be no doubt," writes Justin McCar-
thy, ^' that the tales of the bare-armed Fenians were
passed from mouth to mouth of the Celts in Ireland
and the highlands of Scotland, from a time long be-
fore that at which any soothsayer or second-sighted
sage could have dreamed of the landing of Strong-
bow and the perfidy of the wife of Breflfni. There
was an air of Celtic antiquity and of mystery about
the name of Fenian which merited the artistic ap-
proval given to it."

FENIAN HISTOKY 5

The Fenian agitation commenced in 1858, follow-
ing the Phoenix clubs in the sequence of the secret
associations which have been so prominent in Irish
history. Had it not been for the American civil
war, it is quite likely that it would have lacked the
fame which it subsequently won, but the strained
relations between England and America inspired the
hope that war between the two great nations might
follow, and that this would afford an auspicious op-
portunitj^ for the uprising for Ireland's independ-
ence, which has ever been uppermost in the minds
of the Irish patriots. Then the war had created the
Irish- American soldiers, who were inclined to conse-
crate their energies to a new purpose in behalf of
their native land.

The movement was more promising than any
which had preceded it. In the first place, as Mr.
McCarthy points out, " It arose and grew into
strength without the patronage or the help of any of
those who might be called the natural leaders of the
people. In 1798 and in 1848, the rebellion bore
unmistakably what may be called the ^follow-my-
leader character.' Some men of great ability, or
strength of purpose, or high position, or all attri-
butes combined, made themselves leaders, and the
others followed. But Fenianism seemed to have
sprung out of the very soil of Ireland itself. Its
leaders were not men of high position, or distin-
guished name, or proved ability. They were not of
aristocratic birth ; they were not orators ; they were
not powerful writers. It was ingeniously arranged

6 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

on a system by which all authority converged to-
wards one centre, and those farthest away from the
seat of direction knew proportionately less and less
about the nature of the plans. They had to obey
instructions only, and it was hoped that by this
means weak or doubtful men would not have it in
their power prematurely to reveal, to betray, or to
thwart the purposes of their leaders."

The organization flourished in America, where the
provisional government was established, and it soon
had its ramifications all over Great Britain as well
as Ireland. England's secret agents began to report
the visitation of mysterious strangers to Ireland,
strangers with Celtic features but with the bearing
of American soldiers. This did not fail to attract
the attention of the English government and the
English newspapers. In " Saunders' News " I find
an impolite reference to 'Hhe imitation Yankee
rowdies who infest the streets of Dublin." The
spy system flourished, and when James Stephens, the
head centre of Fenianism, arrived in Ireland, he was
arrested in company with James Kickham, the poet.
Stephens was committed to E-ichmond Prison, Dub-
lin, early in 1865, but before he had been many
days in confinement he was released. Of the man
who accomplished the liberation of Stephens there
will be much said in ensuing chapters. The escape
produced a prodigious sensation and had the efiect
of convincing the Irish peasantry that Stephens was
the type of leader who would be adequate to the
great task which had been aspired to, — the raising of
the flag of an Irish republic.

FENIAN HISTORY 7

Meanwhile the Fenians in America were divided
on the policy of invading Canada, which was urged
by some, while others pressed for operations in
Ireland. A small body of men finally crossed the
Niagara Eiver on the night of May 31, 1866, and
drove back the Canadian volunteers, but the United
States government enforced the neutrality of the
frontier line, unexpectedly to the Fenians, arresting
several of the leaders on the American side. The
Canadians hurried up reinforcements. Several
Fenians were captured and shot, and the ill-advised
invasion scheme resulted in a miserable fiasco.

Once more Stephens, who had returned to New
York, declared his purpose of resuming operations
in Ireland, and many Irish-Americans went across
the Atlantic to await his appearance at the head of
an army of insurgents. It was their presence
alone which led to the poor attempt at rebellion
which was finally made, for not only were the peas-
antry unarmed and unprepared for a war, but most
of the people of the country were opposed to the
wild scheme, and the Catholic clergymen were
everywhere attempting to avert the certain disaster
by discouraging the secret organization and the pro-
posed insurrection.

Stephens, who was looked for to lead the men
who sought deliverance from the English govern-
ment, never appeared. Those who were true des-
perately resolved to give some sign of their sincerity.
There were many wild plots, a few conflicts with
the police. The government was informed of them

8 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

in advance, and none were successful. The habeas
corpus act was suspended, and this action was
promptly followed up by arrests, court-martials, im-
prisonments, and banishments to the penal colony at
Australia.

"In March, 1867," writes McCarthy, "an at-
tempt at a general rising was made in Ireland. It
was a total failure ; the one thing on which the
country had to be congratulated was that it failed
so completely and so quickly as to cause little
bloodshed. Every influence combined to minimize
the waste of life. The snow fell that spring as it
had scarcely ever fallen before in the soft, mild
climate of Ireland. Silently, unceasingly it came
down all day long and all night long ; it covered
the roads and fields ; it made the gorges of the
mountains untenable, and the gorges of the moun-
tains were to be the encampments and the retreats
of the Fenian insurgents. The snow fell for many
days and nights, and when it ceased falling the insur-
rectionary movement was over. The insurrection was
literally buried in that unlooked-for snow."

CHAPTER III

THE IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS

The man who watched the ship to the line where
the sea and the sky met was John Devoy.

Some time before there had come to him a voice,
crying from the prisons of Western Australia, the
land of slaves and bondmen, the penal colony of
Great Britain. In the penal gangs were six of the
comrades of John Boyle O'Eeilly. Forlorn but not
quite forgotten, they worked on the roads, ''the
weary work that has no wages, no promotion, no
incitement, no variation for good or bad, except
stripes for the laggard." O'Eeilly had escaped
from it, but he remembered the men who still toiled
in the convict's garb on the government road.

" They were cutting their patient way into a for-
est only traversed before by the aborigine and the
absconder," quoting from O'Reilly's '' Moondyne."
" Before them in the bush, as in their lives, all was
dark and unknown, — tangled underbrush, gloomy
shadows, and noxious things. Behind them, clear
and open, lay the straight road they had made —
leading to and from the prison.".

These men had been soldiers like O'Reilly, and
like him had joined the Fenian conspiracy of 1866

10 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

and 1867, when revolution was plotted in Ireland.
Devoy had been the indefatigable agent of the
revolutionary party, having been appointed chief
organizer for the British army by James Stephens,
who had been selected as chief executive of the new
rejDublic w^hich was the dream of the Irish in 1865,
as it is to-day. In a few months Devoy, quoting
his own words, " laid up sufficient evidence to pro-
cure himself a sentence of fifteen years' penal servi-
tude." Among the men were Thomas Darragh,
Martin J. Hogan, James Wilson, Thomas Hassett,
Michael Harrington, and Robert Cranston.

They were brave, reckless fellows who were
readily converted to the doctrine of Fenianism.
They attended the gatherings at the public houses,
joined in the singing of Moore's melodies in the
congenial company at Hoey's, and made the chorus
of '' We '11 drive the Sassenach from our soil " in-
spiring to hear. Then came the arrests aad the
convictions for mutiny in her Majesty's forces in
Ireland.

Mr. Darragh was born in 1834 in Broomhall,
County Wicklow, his father being a farmer there.
He was a Protestant and when he entered the army
was an Orangeman, but he was subsequently con-
verted through Fenian agencies to the national faith.
He enlisted in the 2d Queen's and saw active ser-
vice in China and Africa, receiving the distinction
medal for gallantry displayed. Mr. Darragh had
attained the rank of sergeant-major and was on the
list for promotion. He became a member of the

THE IRISH POLITICAL PKISONERS 11

Brotherhood early in its organization and was ar-
rested for mutiny in September, 1865, at the School
of Musketry, Fleetwood, England. He was taken
to Cork, where he was tried and sentenced to be shot.
The sentence was afterwards commuted to imprison-
ment for life. He was described in the prison '' Hue
and Cry " as being stout, five feet six and one half
inches in height, with red hair, gray eyes, round vis-
age, and a fresh complexion.

Mr. Hogan was born in Limerick in 1839, and
was a carriage painter by trade. He enlisted in the
English artillery, but his discharge therefrom was
secured and in 1857 he joined the 5th Dragoon
Guards. He was sworn into the organization in
1864 and deserted the army early in 1865, in order
to be ready to take part in the contemplated rising.
He was soon after arrested, tried, and sentenced to
life imprisonment. He was a finely-built man, with
'' the gait and appearance of a cavalry soldier,"
according to the official prison description.

James Wilson had lived an eventful life. His
real name was McNally, but it was a common thing
for Irishmen to enlist in the British army under
assumed names. He was born in Newry, County
Down, in 1836. He served for seven years in the
Bombay, India, artillery, which he left at the time
of the white mutiny, when the East India Company
was abolished. He had lived in Syria and America.
In 1860 or 1861 he enlisted in the 5th Dragoon
Guards and was sworn into the Fenian organization
in 1864. He was continually propagating Fenianism,

3^rf\ UBRI^R^

12 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

and in 1865 deserted with Hogan. The fact that
they remained in Dublin awaiting the uprising,
although gazetted as deserters, is a fine tribute to
their devotion. They worked under the direction
of John Devoy until they were arrested in 1866.
They were asleep in bed when the police came upon
them, or a desperate resistance might have been
looked for. Wilson is described at this time as of
medium stoutness, five feet eight and one fourth
inches in height, with a fresh complexion, brown
hair, gray eyes, and oval visage.

Thomas Hassett was born in Cork in 1846, and
was a carpenter by trade. He joined the Phoenix
organization in 1859 and afterwards went out with
the Papal Brigade to Italy, serving through the
brief campaign. In 1861 he enlisted in the 24th
Foot, and in 1864 was sworn into the Fenian Brother-
hood. He, in turn, swore in 270 members of his
regiment. It was his suggestion that the contem-
plated fight begin in Dublin by seizing the Pigeon
House, which contained twenty-five thousand stand
of arms. When it was considered to be in danger a
guard of ninety men was placed upon it, of which
number sixty were Fenians. Hassett proposed a
plan of capture to his superiors in the organization,
but it was rejected on the ground that they were
not ready for a general fight. In January, 1865, Mr.
Hassett was informed while on sentry that he would
be arrested for Fenianism as soon as he came from
his post. He concluded to leave at once, and, march-
ing into the Fenian rendezvous in full uniform with

THE IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS 13

his gun on his shoulder, presented himself to John
Devoy.

'^Most of the fellows who desert for Ireland's
sake/' said he, " come to you empty-handed, but
here am I, ready for work."

O'Eeilly presents a dramatic picture of Hassett's
appearance at the meeting of organizers, whither he
marched from the sentry post. He says, —

" Private Hassett walked off his post and, shoulder-
ing his rifle, proceeded confidently through the
streets of Dublin, in which a soldier w^ith arms is
never questioned. It was ten o'clock at night, and
it so happened that Hassett knew of a certain meet-
ing of organizers, and other ' boys on their keepin','
which was being held that evening. Thither he
bent his steps, reached the house, and, knowing how
it was done, gained admission. The rebels sat in
council upstairs ; faces grew dark, teeth were set
close, and revolvers grasped when they heard the
steady stamp on the stairs and the ' ground arms '
at their door."

" A moment after, the door opened and the man
in scarlet walked into the room ; all there knew
him well. With full equipments, knapsack, rifle
and bayonet, and sixty rounds of ammunition, Has-
sett had deserted from his post and walked straight
into the ranks of rebellion. He was quickly divested
of his military accoutrements ; scouts went out to a
neighboring clothing-store, and soon returned with
every requisite for a full-fledged civilian. The red
coat was voted to the fire, and the belt and arms

14 THE CAT ALP A EXPEDITION

were stored away with a religious hope in the coming
fight for an Irish republic.

" The next evening one more was added to the
group of strangely dressed men who smoked and
drank their pots-o'-porter in a certain house in
Thames Street. The newcomer was closely shaven
and had the appearance of a muscular Methodist
minister. The men were all deserters, and the last
arrival was Hassett. Vainly watching for the coming
fight, the poor fellows lived in a mysterious misery
for several weeks. It is hard to realize here now
the feeling that was rife in Dublin then. At last
one of the deserters was recognized in the streets by
the military informer, — Private Foley, of the 5th
Dragoons, — tracked to the rendezvous, surrounded
by the police, and every one captured."

In 1873 he escaped from prison in Western Aus-
tralia, and lived on an Irish farm for a time ; but it
was a bad season and he could not get together an
outfit. After two months he made a dash for the
coast and stowed himself away on an outgoing vessel,
but he was captured by the water police and brought
back to the convict establishment. For two years
afterward he was kept in irons with the chain
gang.

Michael Harrington was forty-eight years old at
this time. He was born in Cork, where his father
was a merchant, and he was given the advantage of
a liberal education. His tastes were for the army,
and in 1844 he enlisted in the 61st Foot. He served
through the Punjab war, and also through the Sikh

THE lEISH POLITICAL PRISONERS 15

war under Sir Hugh Gough, who made the now
famous exclamation, ^' Magnificent Tipperary ! ''
Mr. Harrington also took part in the Sepoy war,
and then returned home with his regiment. He
joined the Fenian organization in 1864 and was very
active in enlarging its membership. In January,
1866, being in danger of arrest and desirous of free-
dom to take a more active part in the projected
uprising, he deserted. Yet he remained in Dublin,
was arrested on suspicion after the suspension of
the habeas corpus act, identified as a deserter, tried
and sentenced for life. He was described on the
prison records as fairly stout, with brown hair, gray
eyes, and a sallow complexion.

Eobert Cranston was born in Stewartstown, County
Tyrone, in March, 1844, and assisted his father on
the farm previous to enlisting in the 61st Foot at
the age of twenty. He joined his fortunes with
the Fenian conspiracy and industriously assisted in
" propagating the faith." Of his regiment at least
six hundred were sworn members of the Fenian
organization.

CHAPTER IV

THE COURT-MARTIAL

The court-martials of the men with whom this
story deals are of interest in so far as they exhibit
the extraordinary efforts which were made to con-
vict the conspirators. This is particularly striking
in the case of Sergeant Darragh, who was court-mar-
tialed at Cork, February 21, 1866. In this case an
informer went so far as to receive the sacrament of
the Roman Catholic Church in carrying out a decep-
tion which was to result in the betrayal of those
who accepted him as a friend. The notorious in-
former, Talbot, testified in all, or nearly all, of the
cases, of the existence of the conspiracy.

The court-martial of Darragh throws light upon
the details of the conspiracy as well as the methods
of the spies of the English government, and inas-
much as it is an episode which has never been
printed, liberal extracts from the proceedings will be
given. The charges against Darragh were : —

First: ''For mutinous conduct at Cork on or
about the month of April, 1865, in that coming to
the knowledge of an intended mutiny in her Ma-
jesty's forces quartered in Cork barracks, he did not
give information thereof to his commanding officer."

THE COURT-MARTIAL 17

Second charge : ^^ For conduct to the prejudice of
good order and military discipline in having at Cork,
on or about the month of April, 1865, joined a
treasonable and seditious society, called the Fenian
Brotherhood, having for its object the levying of
war against the Queen, and the subverting of the
government of the country."

When the prisoner was brought forward he
handed to the President (Colonel Shute) a memo-
randum, stating that he had failed in procuring the
means of employing counsel for his defense, and
praying the Court to permit his solicitor, M. J.
Collins, to aid him in the conduct of the case. The
President said that the Court granted the applica-
tion.

Colonel Addison was then examined, and swore
that the prisoner had never at any time informed
him of any intended meeting of soldiers in Cork
barracks.

John Warner, the informer, was then produced,
and, in, answer to questions put through the deputy
judge-advocate (Colonel Nugent), deposed : I was
discharged from her Majesty's service in 1857, after
coming from the Crimea.

Did you receive a pension ? — Yes, sixpence a
day, for the period of eighteen months.

Were you wounded at the Crimea ? — Yes, in
front of Sebastopol, in the month of August, 1855.

Did you join the Fenian Society ? — Yes.

When did you first become acquainted with J. J.
Geary ? — In 1864, in the latter end of 1864, after

18 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

being discharged from the militia in Kin sale — the
City of Cork Artillery.

Are you aware whether he had any connection
with the Penian conspiracy ? If so, what was that
connection ? — He was connected with the Fenian
Society as a centre, which means a colonel of it.

After you were enrolled as a Fenian, did Geary
give you any particular instructions for your guid-
ance after you were enrolled ? — Yes.

State what they were.

Prisoner. I object to that.

The Prosecutor (Col. Lane Fox) contended that
the instructions the witness received for the carry-
ing out of the conspiracy were not hearsay, and
quoted an authority in support of that view.

Deputy Judge-Advocate. This is a statement of
a third party in the absence of the prisoner.

P7'isoner. I object to any instructions given by
Geary. The witness can state what he did in con-
sequence of any such instructions ; but any instruc-
tions given behind my back, without my kno^edge,
I object to.

The court was cleared, and on being reopened it
was announced the question was not to be put.

Examination by the prosecutor. You say you
received particular instructions for your guidance
from Geary. State what you did in consequence.
— I got instructions from Geary regarding the oath.
I was warned three weeks before I came up to the
barracks to enroll men. I was called l^efore the
meeting for not going up to the barracks.

THE COURT-MARTIAL 19

President. State what you did.

Witness. I came up to the barracks and met Dar-
ragh outside the gate. I asked him to go down to
the North Main Street with me. He went with me
to the North Main Street, to Geary's. We had
some drink in the inside tap-room, and during the
time there I asked would he become a member of
the Fenian Society, and he said yes. Then we both
went out in the back yard, and I repeated the oath
to him, and he did so after me. I then gave him
a Catholic prayer-book. He swore on that book to
be a member of the Fenian Society. Then we came
in and I introduced him to Geary as a member of
the society. Geary shook hands with him. He
said he was very glad to have one like him enrolled.
That was all at that time.

Bepeat as nearly as you can the oath which you
administered to Darragh ? — ''I (John or James,
whichever the case may be), do swear allegiance to
the present republic now virtually established in
Ireland ; that I will maintain its independence and
integrity at every risk, and I will obey the com-
mand of my superior officers. I take this oath in
the true spirit of an Irish soldier at liberty to free
my country. So help me God."

Did you know Darragh before that ? — I did, in
the regiment of the depot of the 2d Queen's.

Were you ever in the 2d Eegiment ? — I was.
I volunteered from them.

Had you any facilities for enrolling men in the
barracks ? — Yes. I was told off for that special

20 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

purpose, and a good many of the men knew me and
would not stop me going in and out of the gate.

Were Geary and the prisoner previously acquainted
when you introduced them ? — I could not say they
were.

Did they shake hands as if they knew each other ?

— They shook hands as a member should be intro-
duced, in a manner.

Did you hear Geary give any instructions to the
prisoner for his guidance ? — Yes. He gave Dar-
ragh instructions in my presence to go about the
barracks, and find out any men that would join the
society and bring men down to Geary's house, but
not to deliver the oath, — to bring them to me or
to himself. If I was not there he would swear him
in. Accordingly he did, and the first man he
brought was Butler to Geary's house.

How long was that after you swore Darragh in ?

— To the best of my belief from a fortnight to
three weeks.

Did the prisoner say anything about any partic-
ular corps that he would work in ? — Yes, he said
he would wish to work in no other regiment but
his own.

Did the prisoner bring any other soldier to you
or to Geary to be sworn ? — He took none to me
but Butler. I cannot speak as to Geary.

Did you hear Geary give Darragh any instructions
relative to taking the barracks ? — Darragh told him
the difi'erent parts, in my presence, which were weak-
est and the easiest to get in. He said if there were

THE COUKT-MARTIAL 21

one or two men in every passage — enrolled men
— they would be sufficient with a thousand outside
to take it. I heard him say that much in my pres-
ence to Geary.

Did you hear Geary say anything about what
was to be done to the commanders when the signal
for a rising was given ?

Prisoner. I object to that.

Prosecutor. When a conspiracy is proved, the
act of any one applies to the whole. I am asking
the witness now what was the intention of the
Fenian Society. We have already received docu-
ments which do not relate exactly to the prisoner,
but to the aims and objects of the society. I with-
draw the question for the present.

Prosecutor (to witness). Did you hear Geary,
as a member of the Fenian Society, say anything
about what was to be done to the commanders when
the signal for a rising was given ? — The command-,^
ers, he said, were to be destroyed if they did not
take the oath of allegiance to the society. Every
man that did not take the oath of allegiance would
be destroyed. I heard Geary say that.

Who was it said to ? — It was said to Darragh,
and to different other members in my presence.

Did you keep a list of the members enrolled ? —
Yes, sir. (A book was produced, which the witness
identified as that in which he had the names of new
members enrolled.)

The court adjourned.

22 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Cork, Thursday, February 22d.
The president (Colonel Shute) and the other
officers of the pourt took their seats at eleven
o'clock, when the trial of Sergeant Darrah, of the
2d (Queen's Own) Eegiment, was resumed.

John Warner, the informer, who was under ex-
amination at the rising of the court yesterday, was
again produced and gave the following further testi-
mony : —

Are you certain that the prisoner was present
when Geary said that the commanding officers were
to be destroyed ? — He was.
Are you quite certain ? — I am.
When he said the commanders were to be killed,
and all in the barracks who did not take the oath,
are you quite certain that he said all the com-
manders who did not take the oath ?

The prisoner objected to the question.
I Prosecutor. Was it that the commanders espe-
cially were to be destroyed that did not take the oath
of allegiance, or that every one was to be destroyed,
the commanders included ? — Every one, the com-
manders included, who did not take the oath of alle-
giance to the Fenian Brotherhood.

Are you able to read and write ? — I can read
and write a little. I can write my name.

President. Can you read print and writing ? —
I can read print, but not writing.

Prosecutor. Have you ever seen the prisoner at
Geary's since he was sworn in, and if so, how often ?
— About three or four times.

THE COURT-MARTIAL 23

Where did he generally go to when in Geary's ?
— Upstairs in a front room over the shop.

Is there a small room at the end of the shop on
the ground floor ? — There 's a small room on the
left hand side before you go into the shop, and two
inside that.

Did you see the prisoner go into either of these
rooms, and if so, how often ? — Once he went to
the inside one with me, before he was sworn, the
inside tap-room.

Were you ever in the prisoner's room in the
barracks ? — I was.

How often ? — Three or four times. I took tea
with him there one evening.

Who was present on those occasions besides the
prisoner and yourself ? — Two color sergeants of
the 2d Queen's and their wives.

Their names ? — I don't know their names.

Did you speak of the Fenian Society in the pres-
ence of these sergeants, and of the prisoner ? — No,
not in the room.

Presideiit. Did you do so in the presence of
those other sergeants ? — No, not at all.

Prosecutor. Can you state, of your own know-
ledge, what rank the prisoner held in the Fenian
Society ? — Geary told him he would be a B, which
was a captain.

Do you know if Geary and the prisoner are rela-
tions ? — I could not say.

Were you acquainted with Bryan Dillon ? — I
was.

24 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Had he any connection with the Fenian Society,
and if so, what was his rank ? — He was a centre
or an A, which means colonel in the Fenian So-
ciety.

Have you seen him in the company of the
prisoner ? — I never did.

Do you know if Bryan Dillon was tried at the
Commission for being a member of the Fenian So-
ciety ? — Yes.

The prosecutor then handed in a certificate of the
conviction of Bryan Dillon, at the special commis-
sion, held in Cork, when he was sentenced to ten
years penal servitude.

Examination continued. Do you know a man
named Thompson ? — Yes.

What was his Christian name ? — I can't say, but
he lodged at Geary's.

Was he connected with the Fenian Society, and
what was his connection ? — He was a B in the
society, which made him a captain.

Did you ever see him in company with the
prisoner ? — Once in Geary's, in the front room
over the shop.

Give a description of what took place at Geary's
house ? — A man named Donovan, from Dublin,
lectured on the rifle, showing how to make car-
tridges, and military and field engineering. '

Did you see a rifle raffled for there ? — Yes.

Was it the headquarters of the Fenian Society
in Cork ? — It was the principal part of the city for
the Fenian Society to meet in.

JOHN DEVOY
Organizer of the Rescue Expedition

THE COURT-MARTIAL 25

Do yon recognize this book (book produced), and
if so, state what you used it for ? — This is the
book on which I swore in Darragh and different
other members besides.

Did you make any communication to Sub-Inspec-
tor Hamilton as to how your being in the barracks
could be proved ?

Prisoner. I object to that question.

Prosecutor contended that the question was legal.

The court was cleared.

When it reopened, the deputy judge-advocate
announced that the Court ruled the question might
be recorded, but not answered.

Examination resumed. Had you any communi-
cation with Mr. Hamilton in reference to your being
in the barracks with the prisoner ? — Yes.

Did the members of the Fenian Society carry on
drill in the neighborhood of the barracks ? — In a
place called the Lawneys, about a mile from the
barracks.

Prosecutor. I close.

Cross-examined by the prisoner. Did you know
I was in Cork until the time you say you met me
outside the barrack gate ? — No, I did not know you
were there until then.

Did you swear, in answer to the prosecutor, that
you came up to the barracks for me, which is true ?
— I did not come up for you in particular.

Were you in the habit of caming to the Cork
barracks previous to the day you say you met me at
the gate ? If so, for how long ? — No, I was not.

26 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Did you come to the barracks before, and if so,
how often ? — I have come in before, when doing
Sir John Arnott's business, — conducting it.

Were you in barracks when the last detachment
of the 2d (Queen's) Eegiment arrived here from
England ? — I could not tell ; I was not aware what
time they came, or what place they came from.

Did you see Corporal McKillop with me marching
into Cork barracks ? — I did not.

Do you know McKillop ? — I do not. The first
time I spoke to you since I left the depot was out-
side the gate.

Did you not speak to me when I marched in with
my detachment ? — No.

Did you not go to the canteen to drink with me ?

— Not when you marched in, but I came in one
evening to the barrack and had drink with you.

Prisoner. I wish to have Corporal McKillop
produced for identification.

President. Was the meeting in the canteen be-
fore the time you spoke to him at the barrack gate ?

— It was a week or two after I met him outside the
gate that we drank in the canteen.

Deputy Judge-Advocate. McKillop is on fur-
lough in England.

President. You say McKillop is in the bar-
racks ; how do you know ?

Prisoner. I can't know, for I have been in close
custody for six months.

President. If he be a material witness, he shall
be recalled by telegram.

THE COURT-MARTIAL 27

Cross-examined. Was that the first time you
drank with me at the canteen ? — It was not. Geary
and Butler and two more drank with us at the can-
teen. Geary paid for the drink.

When was the first time; how soon after you
swore me in ? — In some time after.

Why did you not mention that before, in answer
to the Court ? — I did not think of it. It is hard
to think of everything at once.

You say you swore in Butler, and did you swear
in any other soldier between the time you swore in
Darragh and Butler ? — I am not sure whether I
swore in Farrell between them or not. Butler
brought me a corporal and a private. I think their
names are in the book.

Did you swear any and how many soldiers be-
tween swearing in Darrah and Butler ? — I do not
think I swore any between you and Butler except
Farrell ; but I don't know whether he was or not.

What was the time between swearing me in and
swearing in Butler ? — It may be a fortnight or
three weeks.

During that time did you swear in civilians ? —
Yes.

State the number ? — It may be two or three.

Did you swear in any soldier previous to the time
you say you swore me in ? — Not a regular soldier ;
there were militia.

You say I directly went to G«ary and took a
treasonable oath without the smallest reluctance.
What month was that in ? — It may be in the
latter end of March or beginning of April.

28 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

When you joined the Fenian Society did you do
so for the purpose of betraying them ? — I took the
oath for the purpose of betraying them^ and I could
not get their intentions without taking the oath.

When did you join the society ? — In December,
1864.

When did you first give information ? — In July,
1865. I tried before to go to Captain Tooker but
was followed. Captain Tooker is a magistrate of the
city of Cork.

Did you go of your own free will to give him
information ? — I did.

Were you from May, 1864, to September, 1865,
most actively engaged in endeavoring to induce
parties to become members of the Fenian Society —
swearing them in and enrolling them ? — I was. I
should do so by orders of Geary.

How many members did you enroll ? — I can't
be exact ; they are in the book ; but about fifty
altogether.

The prosecutor said that the witness was not
bound to answer any question affecting his credibil-
ity.

The president said the main point was credibility.

Prisoner. It was the prosecutor who first asked
the question.

The Court decided the question could be put.

Cross-examination continued. Did you not know
all the secrets of the society immediately after you
were admitted ? — I did not until January, 1865,
when I was introduced to Geary,

THE COURT-MARTIAL 29

Did you swear information against the members
of the Fenian Society in September, I860 ? — Yes.
Did you mention one word about me in that ?

— No, I did not, but I told it to Sub-Inspector
Hamilton.

Prisoner. I object to that answer.

At two o'clock the court adjourned for an hour.

On the reassembling of the court, at three p. m.,
the president (Colonel Shute) said that the Court
had decided that the witness on cross-examination
had a right to explain his answer.

The Deputy Judge-Advocate. The question
was. Did you make any mention of the prisoner in
your information ?

Witness (Warner). I did not. On account of
mentioning it to Sub-Inspector Hamilton I did not
think that there was any occasion to state it in the
informations.

Prisoner. Do you know that I am a Protestant
and an Orangeman and a member of an Orange
lodge at Delgany ? — No.

Are you a Protestant and did you state to me that
you were an Orangeman ? — I am a Protestant and
on my oath I don't think I told you anything about
my being an Orangeman, because the society would
come on me if I spoke of anything of the sort at all.

Were you always a Protestant, or did you cease
to be one ? If so, when did you cease to be one ?

— I was always a Protestant, but I went to Mass a
few times, as I thought I would get into their graces
by being a Eoman Catholic and get some of their
secrets.

30 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Was the going to Mass the only thing you did
about becoming a Roman Catholic ? — That is all.

Did you not go to a Roman Catholic clergyman
in Cork and state to him that you wished to become
a Roman Catholic ? — I did. One of the Fenians
came with me and said I wished to become a Roman
Catholic.

Did you not receive some religious books and re-
ligious instructions ? — I did. He went with me to
the monk, and he (the monk) gave me some reli-
gious books to read.

Did you go afterwards by yourself to the clergy-
man or the monk ? — I went afterwards by myself
to receive some instructions from the monk accord-
ing to the order I received from him.

Then your answer is not true that your going to
Mass is the only thing you did towards being a
Roman Catholic ? — There was not time, for it re-
quires an explanation. The answer could not be
given well at once.

Were you sincere in your intention of becoming a
Roman Catholic, or were you only deceiving the
clergyman or monk ? — I was deceiving him for the
purpose of getting the information I wanted to get
from the society.

When you were in the depot at Templemore did
you know Sergeant-Major McKinmon ? — I did.

Did you desert from the depot there ? — I did.
He gave me money to desert, but I think it would
be dishonorable to speak of that here, as he is a cap-
tain now.

THE COURT-MARTIAL 31

Prisoner. I wish Captain McKinmon to be
brought here.

President. You can summon any witness you
wish, and the sooner you do so the better.

Cross-examination continued. Were you tried
by court-martial for that desertion ? — I was tried
for being absent without leave, but not for desertion.

Were you punished for it ? — Yes, I got forty-
two days for it by regimental court-martial.

When were you discharged from the 42d Kegi-
ment ? — Some time in 1857.

Was not the portion of the discharge which gen-
erally contains the character cut off ? — No, it was
not. The books of the garrison can state it. I
drew my pension in this garrison.

Where is your discharge ? — I lost it ; but you
can refer for the form to the local garrison.

What character did you get in your discharge ?

— The character was very good.

Were you examined at the special commission at
Cork, on the trial of Colonel O'Eeardon, who was
charged with being a member of the Fenian Society ?

— Yes.

Did you not swear that he was a member of the
Fenian Society ? — I did.

And that he came to Ireland to inspect the
forces ? — He gave instructions according as he got
them from John O'Mahony.

And that you put the men" through their drill
before him ? — One night for him ; but generally
for a man named Captain Kelly.

32 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Did you not further swear that he was four or
five months here, and gave instructions to the
Fenians in rifle practice ? — I swear I saw him on
several occasions in Geary's giving instructions to
Fenians.

Did not the jury disbelieve you, and was he not
acquitted ? — He was acquitted at all events. I
could not swear whether I was believed or not.

At what time did your son write the names in the
book produced ? — Always when I enrolled the men
my little boy would put them down as I would tell
him.

The witness was then examined at some length by
prisoner and prosecutor as to the entering of the
names.

Prosecutor. How long is it since you saw the
book ? — Not since I gave it to Mr. Hamilton in
September last, until to-day.

Prisoner. You have stated that all you have
stated is true ? — I have forgotten a great many
things ; but all I have stated is true.

The court adjourned at four o'clock.

John Warner was recalled and questioned by the
prisoner.

Prisoner. Did you at any time meet in Cork the
man whom you say swore you in ? — I did.

How soon after he swore you in ? — I could not
be exact as to the time ; it was in 1865, at any
rate, in Mr. O'Connor's timber yard.

How soon did you come to Cork after you were
sworn in ? — After the regiment was disembodied in
Kinsale in June, 1864.

THE COURT-MARTIAL 33

When were you sworn in ? — In May, 1864.

Did you bring the letter from Crowley with you
in June when you came to Cork ? — I did not.

Did you see Crowley from the time you left
Kinsale until you saw him in 1865 in Cork ? — No.

When did you get the letter from Crowley, and
where ? — I did not get it at all.

Were you acting for the Fenian Society in Cork
in 1864 ? — Yes. At the latter end of 1864 I at-
tended a meeting at Geary's, the first meeting I did
attend. That was in the latter part of December.

Was Geary at that meeting ? — He was ; I was
speaking to him.

Was that the first time you spoke to him ? — I
don't think it was. About a week before he sent
Mr. Bryan to me, and Geary then told me to attend
a meeting on that night week. I was speaking to
Geary in the beginning of December, or at the end
of November, 1864.

Did you not swear yesterday that you never saw
Geary till 1865, — which is true ? — I don't think I
swore that on yesterday.

Prisoner. I would ask to have the witness's
evidence of yesterday read.

President. This particular portion.

The evidence of the witness on this point was
referred to, and it appeared from it that Warner had
stated that he did not see Geary in 1864 for the first
time.

The prisoner then said he had no other question
to ask Warner.

34 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

The following letter was then put in by the
prosecutor and read by the president : —

My dear James, — Please add to the list of
contributors to the Keane Pund the following
inclosed names, for J. J., Cork. Of course you
think it awkward to have the names instead of the
cash, but the following reason, which is not fit for
publicity, will be enough for you. Since Keane's
imprisonment, on 7th Dec, I have paid for his grub
about £4 10s., so instead of having anything on
hand, I 'm only waiting for the balance, which I
hope will soon come to hand. It is so very long
since I heard from you that I don't know whether
you are dead or alive. Will you let me have some
news, and say how is Mr. Johnson.

Yours faithfully, J. J. Geary.

The court-martial of Darragh did not conclude
until March 2. The testimony against Darragh was
mainly that of soldiers who testified that the pris-
oner introduced them to Warner, who administered
the oath of the Fenians to them.

Private Michael Harrington was convicted on the
evidence of a private to whom he confessed he was
a Fenian, drinking to the health of the " ' M. C.'s '
or the ^ M. B.'s,' or something like that.'' There
was evidence that Harrington solicited men to take
the Fenian oath. Another private testified to meet-
ing Harrington at Fenian meetings when " Erin my
country '' and *' My heart beats for thee " were
sung.

CHAPTER V

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED

An incident in the trial of Private Martin Hogan
is not Avithont interest, illustrating the arbitrary
manner of the Court toward the prisoners.

Private Foley was under examination, and testi-
fied to meeting Hogan at various public houses in
Dublin, where the prisoner's conversation was of a
treasonable and seditious character.

At one meeting an American guerrilla officer, who
had served under Confederate General Morgan, dis-
cussed plans with them for mounting the men on
colts, arming them with rifles, and as to the best
means of carrying off their horses out of .the bar-
racks. Plans of action for the Fenian soldiers were
also discussed, the prisoner being present and occa-
sionally taking part in them.

Mr. McMechan cross-examined the witness, and
the examination was proceeding, when the counsel
requested that the witness be required to speak in a
louder and more distinct tone, and placed nearer to
the prisoner in order that his remarks might be
taken down.

The president ordered the witness to move to
within two or three yards of the table at which

36 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

counsel and prisoner were sitting, and to speak as
loud as he could.

This was done, but with no more satisfactory re-
sult to counsel for the prisoner, and a request to
move nearer and speak louder was repeated.

The president said the witness had spoken loud
enough for any man with even ordinary faculties to
hear, and if these were not possessed by counsel,
some one who possessed them ought to be procured.

Counsel then handed in a statement to the effect
that he did not hear the witness, nor had he heard
anything distinctly that day. He was not deaf, and
was possessed of ordinary faculties. He had no
wish to obstruct or delay the Court, and, that he
might not do so, he had asked that the witness be
directed to stand nearer. The observations made
by the president tended to unfit him for the dis-
charge of his duties, and he requested that they
would be withdrawn.

Subsequently Mr. McMechan sent in the follow-
ing and stood waiting a reply.

" Sir, — Having remonstrated with you for what
you said, and you not noticing it, I now beg to with-
draw."

The president read the first communication and
said, ^^I am sorry that my remarks should tend to
unfit counsel from attending to his duty, but I re-
fuse to withdraw them."

Mr. McMechan immediately left the court.

The president directed Mr. Lawless, the prisoner's
solicitor, to be sent for.

*

^

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 37

On Mr. Lawless entering the court, the president
said that Mr. McMechan had withdrawn from the
case, and he wished to tell him that he would give
half an hour, or any reasonable time, to provide
another counsel if he thought proper.

Mr. Lawless said he was very sorry for what had
occurred between Mi'. McMechan and the Court, but
as he was senior counsel in all the court-martial
cases, he could not, according to the etiquette of
the profession, withdraw the case from him, nor was
he at all inclined to do so, as he had full confidence
in whatever course he (Mr. McMechan) thought
right to adopt.

The President. Have you any application to
make on behalf of the prisoner !

Mr. Lawless said he had no application to make.

The President. Under these circumstances the
trial must proceed without counsel.

Colonel, the Hon. S. J. G. Calthorpe, 5th Dra-
goon Guards, was examined to prove that the pris-
oner had not given him notice of an intended mutiny
in her Majesty's forces in Ireland.

Sergeant Alsopp and Sergeant Miller of the 5th
Dragoon Guards were examined to prove the deser-
tion of the prisoner, and the making away with
regimental necessaries.

The prisoner was placed on his defense, and
stated that his counsel having left him, he did not
know what to do ; he could get no other counsel
now, and felt inclined to throw himself on the
mercy of the Court.

38 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

/♦

The president said he would receive his defense
in the morning, and adjourned the further hearing
of the case in order to give the prisoner time to
prepare it.

The trial of Martin Hogan was resumed.

Mr. Lawless was present, and handed in a written
statement to the president.

The President. Before reading this, I am anx-
ious to say, that I most emphatically disclaim any
intention whatever of having said anything disre-
spectful, or that I intended annoying the prisoner's
counsel ; and I wish to say that if I should at any
time —

Mr. Lawless. The prisoner's counsel is outside
sir. Will you allow him to be present ?

President. Certainly.

Mr. McMechan then entered the room, when the
president said, "I will repeat the words I have
just said, which were these : That I desire most
emphatically to disclaim any intention whatever of
saying anything disrespectful to the prisoner's coun-
sel, or any other person engaged in this court. If
at any time I imagined I did so, I should be very
sorry for it. I would be the last to offend any one."

Mr. McMechan. I am perfectly satisfied, sir.

Mr. Lawless. We will withdraw that statement,
sir.

The statement was handed back, and 'Mr. McMe-
chan, instructed by Mr. Lawless, remained to de-
fend the prisoner.

The prosecution was then closed.

\

1

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 39

The trial of Private Robert Cranston was one of
the longest. It was held in the Victoriair Library,
Colonel Brett presiding. Cranston was arraigned on
the following charges, First : For mutinous conduct
in having at Dublin, on the 18th February, 1866,
come to the knowledge of an intended mutiny in
her Majesty's troops then quartered in Richmond
barracks, Dublin, and not giving information of the
said intended mutiny to his commanding officer.

Second charge : For conduct to the prejudice of
good order and discipline in the following instances,
— First instance : For having at Dublin, in the
month of December, 1865, endeavored to induce
Private Foley, 64th Regiment, to join the illegal
society called the Fenian Brotherhood, having for its
object the overthrow by force and violence of her
Majesty's government in Ireland. Second instance :
For having at Dublin, in the month of January,
1866, endeavored to induce Private Thomas Morri-
son, 61st, to join an illegal society called the. Fenian
Brotherhood, having for its object the overthrow by
force and violence of her Majesty's government in
Ireland. Third instance : For having at Dublin,
on the 17th February, 1866, used the following lan-
guage to Private Abraham, 61st Regiment : " An
outbreak will take place in a few days. I am to
get a sworn member of the Fenian Society in each
of the barrack rooms in Richmond barracks to put
a bit of sponge into the nipples of all the rifles
belonging to the men who are not Fenians, and
thereby render them useless. When the regiment

40 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

is called out to meet the Fenians, the Fenians will
advance jclose up to it ; the men of the 61st who
belong to the Fenians will not fire on them, and the
others who are loyal will not be able ; and the
Fenians amongst the 61st will then go over to their
party and at once fire on those who refuse to join the
society."

Third charge : For having in December, 1865,
and in January and February, 1866, at Dublin,
knowingly received and entertained Thomas Cham-
bers, 61st Eegiment, a deserter from the said regi-
ment, and not giving notice to his commanding
officer.

The assistant adjutant-general, the Hon. Col.
Fielding, prosecuted, assisted by Dr. Townsend.

Mr. McMechan, with Mr. Lawless as attorney,
appeared for the prisoner.

Deputy Judge-Advocate. Have you any objec-
tion to be tried by the president, or by any other
member of this court ?

Prisoner. None, sir.

The charges having been read by the deputy
judge-advocate^ the prisoner pleaded not guilty.

The prosecutor having stated the case for the
prosecution, witnesses were called and examined.

Head Constable Talbot was examined, and deposed
that he was present at Fenian meetings in December,
1865, and January and February, 1866.

Did the soldiers take part in the proceedings of
those meetings ?

Prisoner objected.

I

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 41

Deputy Judge-Advocate. The particular part
taken by soldiers cannot be specified ; only the fact
that they took part, if they did so.

Were they present when the objects were dis-
cussed ? — Yes.

Private James Meara examined by the prose-
cutor : I have belonged to the 1st Battalion of the
King's Regiment (8th) for five years. I have
known the prisoner since Augustj|4.865 ; in Decem-
ber, after Christmas, I met him in Hoey's public
house in Bridgefoot Street. On that occasion there
were also present several civilians, Fenian centres,
and some soldiers. I was a member of the Fenian
Society. There was to have been a rising of the
Irish Fenians in the army. I was at several
Fenian meetings in the month of December, 1865,
at Hoey's ; and in January, 1866, at Barclay's public
house in James's Street ; and in March, 1866, at
Shaughnessy's public house at Newbridge, and also
at Tunny's public house. Barrack Street, in August,
1865. At Tunny's, in August, 1865, I met William
Francis Roantree, the prisoner Cranston, and several
others, Baines and Bynd. At Shaughnessy's I met
Baines, Doyle of the 61st, and some of the 4th
Dragoon Guards. At Hoey's I met Chambers of
the 61st, Wilson, Hogan, and Keatinge of the 5th
Dragoons, a few of the 87th, Devoy, Williams, Bynd,
and Baines. At the meeting in Hoey's in Decem-
ber, a rising in the army was" discussed. Several
men of the 61st were brought down to be sworn by
Devoy and Chambers, and I saw the prisoner take an

42 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

active part in the meeting. I was never arrested on
a charge of being connected with the Fenian Society.

Cross-examined by the prisoner. I was last ex-
amined as a witness at Green Street. I don't
know whether I was believed or not. Kearney was
not tried for firing a shot at me. He was not ac-
quitted. I was sworn a Fenian by Thomas Baines.
The oath I took, as I remember, was as follows :
" I, in the prese»ce of the Almighty God, do sol-
emnly swear allegiance to defend the Irish republic,
now virtually established, to take up arms in its de-
fense at a moment's warning, to defend its integrity
and independence ; and further to exterminate the
Saxon out of the land, to keep all secrets and truths
commended to me, and to obey my superior officers
and those placed over me." I swore to defend the
Queen against all enemies.

Did you swear to fight against her ? — I decline
to answer that question.

The deputy judge-advocate told the witness that
unless he apprehended that what he should say in
reply would subject him to a criminal prosecution he
should answer the question.

Witness, I understand you, sir. According to
the Fenian oath I was sworn to fight against her,
although in the heart I did not mean it.

After swearing to defend her, and afterwards
swearing to fight against her, say candidly whether
anything you swear is deserving of credit or belief ?

Deputy Judge- Advocate. I think that is for the
Court to infer.

THE COURT-MAETIAL CONTINUED 43

Witness. I decline to answer the question.

The prisoner having pressed for a reply, the
court was cleared, and, on reopening, the deputy
judge-advocate announced the opinion of the Court
to be that the question was as to a matter of infer-
ence, and not to be answered by the witness.

Cross-examination continued. I was at the Cur-
ragh in March. I was sworn a Fenian in March,
1865.

When did you first give information of an in-
tended mutiny to your commanding officer ? — I
decline to answer that question.

Dexjuty Judge-Advocate. You must answer it.

Prosecutor. Answer the question.

Witness. I gave information in March or April,
I am not sure which, this year.

Cross-examination continued. I decline for the
safety of the officers to say to whom I first gave in-
formation.

State under what circumstances, without mention-
ing names. — For the purpose of injuring the Fenians,
and the leaders, and so forth, to the utmost of my
power, I came forward from the motives of loyalty
and love of justice.

Eeexamined by the prosecutor. I was, in fact,
fired at, as I stated in my cross-examination.

By the Court. The intentions to mutiny existed
in the months of January and March, 1866, and
the prisoner was aware of them". I was fired at and
wounded, and the persons who did it were Fenians.

Private John Abraham examined by the prose-

44 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

cutor. The witness being a little deaf, the ques-
tions were, by direction of the Court, read out near
to him by Major Gordon. He deposed that he had
been twenty-three j^ears in the 61st Regiment.
Some time since the 17th or 18th of January he
met the prisoner, whom he had known close upon
two years, at Hoey's public house. On that occa-
sion there were present Private Harrington, Foley,
Kenny, Priestly, Cranston, the prisoner, and Cham-
bers, the deserter, all of the 61st, and a lot of cavalry
of the oth Dragoon Guards, and a good number of
civilians, including one that he had enlisted in the
60th Eifles. Chambers shook witness by the hand
and asked him how he was getting on, and he said
very well, and asked Chambers how was he getting
on, and he said very well, that he had drawn £10
6s. to-day, which was better pay than he had had
when he was in the 61st. The prisoner and Cham-
bers went out to the top of the stairs, and witness
did not hear what passed between them.

Had you ever any conversation on the parade-
ground at Pichmond barracks with the prisoner in
February last. — Yes, I was on the parade-ground
when the prisoner, Cranston, came up to me and
said, '' How are you getting on, countryman ? "
*'Very well," said I: "Cranston, how are you get-
ting on ? " " First-rate," he said. I said, " I
think things are very slow, or rather dull, this
weather." " No," he said, " they are not ; I think
things are getting on very well, for there is going
to be an outbreak in the course of two or three

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 45

days, and I can destroy every rifle that is in the
regiment. " Oh," said I, " that is easily enough
done." Said he, '' I will have a sworn Fenian to
go into each room and to stuff the chambers of the
nipples of the arms belonging to the soldiers who are
not Eenians with fine sponge." He said that when
w^e should be called out, we should get the word to
load and the soldiers who were Fenians would fire
over the heads of the civilian Fenians, and that the
arms belonging to the soldiers not Fenians would
then be all stopped. Of course he thought I was a
Fenian at the time. At that time the sergeant-
major gave the word to take up the covering, and
interrupted the conversation. No other person was
present at it, which to the best of my recollection
took place about the 17th February. On the same
evening I saw and spoke to Sergeant-Major Young
of the 61st.

A few other questions having been asked the
witness, the court was adjourned to this morning at
half past ten o'clock.

The trial of Private Cranston was resumed yester-
day morning by the court-martial sitting in the Vic-
toria Library, shortly before eleven o'clock.

Private Abraham cross-examined by the prisoner.
The last time I saw Doyle was this morning in the
square of this barrack. There were five or six men
present. I was enlisted in Lisburn.

Were you in the habit of going to houses fre-
quented by Fenians ? — I was after Cranston spoke
to me ; I don't remember when I first went to any

46 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

such house. I might have been in such houses
before Christmas last, but I knew nothing of their
character. I saw you at the Curragh, but I can't
state in whose company, as I did not look after you
to see in whose company you were. It was after
the depot joined headquarters. I might have con-
versed and drank with you there, but I don't re-
member if I did. I have drank with hundreds, and
I don't remember every man I drank with. To the
best of my belief the conversation in the canteen at
the Curragh took place more than a year ago. I
understood that in case of a rising the Fenians of
the 61st were to fight against the Queen, when
Cranston told me so. I did not when in the can-
teen at the Curragh understand that the object of
the Fenians was to put down the Queen's govern-
ment and establish a republic.

What did you then understand its object to be ?
— Well, I did not take any notice what it was to be
then or understand anything about it. I used to
hear several talking about Fenianism. I did not
take any notice of it then. I was asked to become
a Fenian and refused.

^hy ? — Why, because I thought they were no
good. I thought there was harm in them. When
asked to join, I had no curiosity to learn their ob-
jects. After the conversation in the canteen at the
Curragh, I thought they were not loyal subjects ;
but when they were all talking about Fenianism,
and I did not know that it might not be a humbug,
I think I gave information about the conversation

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 47

in the canteen at the Curragh, but I cannot answer
when. My commanding officer was Colonel Eed-
mond, and I gave him information of everything
that I knew, after Cranston spoke to me about the
outbreak. I reported to him in Richmond barracks,
and Cranston was there then. I think that was in
January. I never made any report while I was at
the Curragh myself. I had always plenty of con-
versation that I forgot. I reported all that I re-
membered.

Will you swear that you ever mentioned to your
commanding officer anything whatever about the
conversation in the canteen at the Curragh ? — No,
I will not. I can swear that I reported to some
officer. I cannot say whether it was the command-
ing officer or not.

Do not you know you never did ? — No, I do not.
I think I made a statement to Captain Whelan. I
made no statement in writing, because I can neither
read nor write.

The remainder of the testimony was largely by
informers whom Cranston had induced to take the
Fenian oath, and charged him with treasonable lan-
guage.

Private Meara, 8th Regiment, was the principal
witness against Private James Wilson, whose court-
martial came in August. Meara was one of the
witnesses Avho betrayed O'ReiJly. He testified in
the case of Wilson that he was a sworn member of
the Fenian Brotherhood, and attended meetings at
various places.

48 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

He knew the prisoner and met him about Christ-
mas, 1865, at Hoey's public house, in Bridgefoot
Street ; also met a man named Williams there. The
prisoner went up to Williams and said there was
a body of deserters in Dublin who were kicking up a
row for their pay, and Williams told him that he
had paid them. Williams said that he had told the
deserters to kick up a row. Corporal Chambers of
the 61st was present, and Devoy. Williams and
Devoy were Fenian agents, the former being occu-
pied swearing in soldiers. He was an officer of the
Fenians besides. Devoy held the same rank as
Williams, and higher if anything. He heard the
prisoner on one occasion speak to a man in his regi-
ment about making prisoners of Sir Hugh Eose and
the Lord Lieutenant. Civilians were present at the
time. The prisoner said that Sir Hugh Eose was
a more important man to make a prisoner of than
the Lord Lieutenant, and that it would be easily
done. A man named Hogan was there, and was
dressed in civilian's clothes. Corporal Chambers
was also dressed in civilian's clothes. At another
public house in the month of January witness said
to prisoner that his regiment would soon leave
Dublin, and the latter replied that it would not leave
until the green flag would be flying. I have seen a
man named Barrett of the 5th Dragoon Guards, at
Hoey's, and other men, whose names I don't know.

Private Goggins, 5th Dragoon Guards, deposed
that he was quartered in Dublin on the 17th of
January, 1866. He was in a public house in Clare

THE COURT-MARTIAL CONTINUED 49

Lane, kept by a man named Cullen. The prisoner
was there, and a man named Devoy, and another
civilian who was represented as the man who was to
command the Fenian cavalry when it broke out.
He asked the men how they could get their horses
and accoutrements out of barracks, and Wilson said
by making a dash at the gate. The man said he
was in command of cavalry guerrillas under General
Morgan. He said that the men he commanded used
to dismount and fight on foot when their swords
were broken, and he asked the men in the public
house if they could do so, too. Witness was in a
public house in Longford, kept by a man named
Hughes, in April or May, 1865. Went into the
house with the prisoner ; prisoner handed witness
a book, and asked him " to swear to take up arms
when called upon." Witness took the oath, think-
ing there was no harm in it. '' It 's all right,
now," he said, " you are a Fenian, and for your own
sake, as well as mine, keep it."

Witness said : " Jim, you know I have prize
money to draw, and you should not have taken me
in that way."

In November, 1865, the prisoner told him to
meet him at Hoey's public house in Bridgefoot
Street. There were two civilians in the room who
spoke of expected arrivals of Americans. There
was plenty of beer there, but. witness paid for none
of it, and saw no soldiers pay for it. The prisoner
was dressed in civilian's clothes in the public house
in Clare Lane.

50 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

To the Coutt. I did not consider myself a
sworn Fenian after taking the oath I have men-
tioned.

Patrick Foley, late 5th Dragoon Guards, de-
posed that he was in Hoey's public house on the
17th of January last, and met the prisoner there.
He was a deserter from the regiment. The Ameri-
can captain asked how many Fenians there were in
the 5th Dragoon Guards, and Devoy said about
one hundred. Hogan, who was a deserter, said he
could give a list of the names. The American
spoke of getting horses out of the barracks, and how
they should manoeuvre in cavalry fighting.

Wilson declined to offer any defense. As for
Private Thomas Hassett, he defiantly pleaded guilty
to treason.

All the men were sentenced to death, but the
penalty was subsequently commuted to life impris-
onment, and was finally further commuted to penal
servitude.

CHAPTER VI

BANISHMENT TO AUSTRALIA

After being convicted of mutiny in her Majes-
ty's forces in Ireland, the men spent weary months
in hideous English prisons. One day the keys rat-
tled in the dungeon doors ; they were marched out in
double irons, chained together with a bright, strong
chain. They were taken aboard the convict ship
Hougoumont, where the chains were knocked off
and they were ordered below.

There were sixty-three political prisoners on the
Hougoumont, and they were the first sent out to
Australia since the Irish uprising in 1848. They
were likewise the last ever sent to the colony. *0f
these prisoners fifteen had been soldiers, and they
were placed with the criminals in the fore part of
the ship at night, although they were permitted to
spend the days with the political prisoners.

Of the horrors of a convict ship experience it is
unnecessary to say more than to quote O'Reilly, who
was one of the unfortunate company on the Hou-
goumont.

" Only those who have stood within the bars,"
says he, " and heard the din of devils and the
appalling sounds of despair, blended in a diapason

52 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

that made every hatch-mouth a vent of hell, can
imagine the horrors of the hold of a convict ship."

Strapped to the foremast was the black gaff with
its horrid apparatus for tricing unruly men up for
flogging, and above, tied around the foremast, ever
before their eyes, was a new hempen halter, " which
swung mutineers and murderers out over the hissing
sea to eternity."

Every night the exiles. Catholic and Protestant,
joined in a prayer which ran as follows': —

" 0 God, who art the arbiter of the destiny of na-
tions and who rulest the world in thy great wisdom,
look down, we beseech thee, from thy holy place
on the sufferings of our poor country. Scatter her
enemies, 0 Lord, and confound their evil projects.
Hear us, O God, hear the earnest cry of our people,
and give them strength and fortitude to dare and
suffer in their holy cause. Send her help, 0 Lord,
from thy holy place. And from Zion protect her.
Amen."

The Hougoumont reached Freemantle, after a
dreary voyage, at three o'clock on the morning of
January 10, 1868. " Her passengers could see,"
writes James Jeffrey Eoche in his ''Life of
O'Eeilly," " high above the little town and the
woodland about it, the great white stone prison
which represents Freemantle's reason for existence.
It was ' The Establishment ; ' that is to say the gov-
ernment; tliat is to say, the advanced guard of
Christian civilization in the wild bush. The native
beauty of the place is marred by the straggling irreg-

BANISHMENT TO AUSTRALIA 53

ularity of the town, as it is blighted by the sight
and defiled by the touch of the great criminal estab-
lishment."

Then the convicts heard the appalling code of
rules, with the penalty for violation, which was usu-
ally death ; and then they were assigned to the road
parties, and from daylight to dark, in the heat which
made the cockatoos in the trees motionless and the
parrots silent, they blazed their way through the
Australian bush and forest.

The present was made horrid by the companion-
ship of desperate and degraded men, " the poison
flower of civilization's corruption," and the future
seemed hopeless.

Meanwhile James Wilson sent out an appeal for
rescue. He sent it to John Devoy in America.

CHAPTER VII

The men to whom reference has been made in
the preceding chapter were not the only Irish politi-
cal prisoners. In 1876 there were seventeen still
in prison for the attempted revolution of 1866 and
1867. The leaders had been pardoned, but this fact
only emphasized the injustice to the men who had
been swayed by love for Ireland to follow, and who
were still paying the penalty of their devotion.

Some of them, and the number included Michael
Davitt, were in prison in England. Some had been
pardoned, some had been released by death. John
Boyle O'Eeilly had escaped. He had been in the
convict settlement rather more than a year, and had
been granted a few poor privileges on account of his
ability and good conduct. He assisted one of the
officers in his clerical work, and was appointed a
" constable," with the duty of carrying dispatches
from station to station and conducting refractory
convicts in the road-gang to the prison.

But there was no promise of escape in this liberty,
for there were but two avenues open, the trackless
bush and the ocean. Suicide was better than flight
to the bush ; for if the convict could hide from the

O'REILLY'S ESCAPE 55

trained " trackers," natives with a keener intelli-
gence and skill in tracking men than the blood-
hounds of the South, the only alternative was death
from hunger and thirst.

Yet O'Reilly reached a point of desperation where
death seemed almost preferable to the awful associa-
tions and weary routine which made the life a horror
to the poet. But when he told his plans to Rev.
Father McCabe, whose parish was the bush country,
and whose life work among the prisoners is a pre-
cious memory of good influence, the thoughtful man
said, ''It is an excellent way to commit suicide.
Don't think of that again. Let me think out a plan
for you."

After dreary months the good priest sent a man
named Maguire, who promised to arrange with one
of the New Bedford whaling captains who were ex-
pected with their vessels at Bunbury in February — it
was then December — to secrete him aboard. Two
months went by, and O'E/cilly had now become so
impatient that, hearing that three whaleships had
put into Bunbury, he had determined to venture
alone. That day Maguire came to him again with
the information that Captain Baker of the whaling
bark Vigilant of New Bedford had agreed to take
him on board if he fell in with him outside Austra-
lian waters.

On an evening in February O'Reilly started for a
hiding-place in the woods, and lay down beneath
a great gum-tree at the woodside to await Maguire
and another friend. At about midnight he heard
'' St. Patrick's Day " whistled.

56 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

It was the sweetest music he ever heard, for it
was the signal of the men who had come to release
him from a horrid captivity.

They rode for hours until they reached a dry
swamp near the sea. Then they waited until a boat
was brought. At daylight sturdy oarsmen had car-
ried him almost out of sight of land, and in the after-
noon they had reached the farther shore of Geo-
graphe Bay, near the place where they had arranged
to await the Vigilant.

They had no water, and suffered horribly from
thirst. Through the hot day which followed,
O'Reilly lay on the sand, tortured with blistering
pains and hunger. Maguire brought him food and
water at last, and that night he slept on the boughs.
In the afternoon the white sails of the whaleships
were seen and the company put out, but to their
amazement the Vigilant sailed away, never heeding
their signals.

O'Reilly's heart was bitter. The men returned
to the shore and resolved to leave O'Reilly in hiding
while they returned home and arranged for his es-
cape by one of the other whaleships. They left him
in the secluded sand valley, promising to return in a
week.

But O'Reilly could not wait. The next morning
he put to sea alone in a dory, and at night he was
on an unknown sea. The next noon he sighted the
Vigilant again, and once more she sailed away. It
should be said that Captain Baker did not see his
boat on either of these occasions.

O'REILLY'S ESCAPE 57

O'Keilly rowed all night, and in the morning
reached the sand hills on the headland of Geographe
Bay once more. Exhausted with fatigue and anxiety,
he cared for nothing but sleep, and this he could have
without stint in the secluded valley. Five days
later his friends returned, having arranged with Cap-
tain GifFord of the whaling bark Gazelle of New
Bedford to pick him up. In order to insure the ful-
fillment of this agreement, good Father McCabe had
paid the captain ten pounds.

The next morning O'Eeilly and his friends once
more rowed out toward the headland. He was leav-
ing Australia forever. Toward noon he was picked
up by bark Clarice and subsequently was transferred
aboard the Gazelle.

This is only the chief incident, briefly told, of the
escape of O'Reilly. It suggested some years later
a means to a more brilliant accomplishment, for the
bravery and ingenuity of the officers of the New
Bedford whaleship in a subsequent event, when an
attempt to secure possession of the escaping pris-
oner at Roderique made a strong impression upon
O'Reilly.

CHAPTER VIII

OTHER ESCAPES AND RESCUES

The rescue of the young Irish revolutionist,
John Mitchell, was the first of the series of escapes
participated in by Irish patriots. Mitchell was a
talented and brave young man, whose life and history
have been an inspiration to the devotees of Irish
freedom. He was originally a writer upon the
"Nation," but its policy was too conservative for
his tastes, and in 1847 he founded a new journal
called " The United Irishman." Mitchell belonged
to that section of " young Ireland " which advocated
immediate war with England. He believed the
time was now ripe, and he set about making his
paper as obnoxious to the English government as
possible. He was a brilliant writer and an enthusi-
• ast for the revolution. His plan was to force the
hand, first of the English government, then of the
Irish people. He deliberately challenged the gov-
ernment to arrest the leaders of his party. Then
he calculated that the Irish people would rise to
defend or rescue their heroes, and rebellion would
be effected.

For three years he continued his taunting tactics.
He wrote in a strain of fiery sedition, urging the

OTHER ESCAPES AND RESCUES 59

people to prepare for warlike effort, while he de-
scribed how to make pikes and use them ; how to
cast bullets ; and how to make the streets as danger-
ous for cavalry horses as Bruce made the field of
Bannockburn. Some of the agencies which were sug-
gested for the use of the people, when they should
take up arms, were almost devilish in their ferocity,
such as the employment of vitriol. At length the
government was forced to recognize the violence of
young Mitchell's newspaper attacks, and a measure
was framed by the government to meet the case,
enabling it to suppress newspapers like *' United
Irishman " and imprison the publishers. ^ Mitchell
was defiant still, and he was arrested. Greatly to
his chagrin, no attempt was made to rescue him.
*^ Had there been another Mitchell out of doors, as
fearless and reckless as the Mitchell in the prison,"
writes a historian, "a sanguinary outbreak would
probably have taken place. He was sentenced to
expatriation for fourteen years, and was deported first
to Bermuda and then to Australia. Smith O'Brien,
Meagher, and other of the confederate leaders were
likewise sent there.

In 1853 P. J. Smyth, who was known as
" Nicaragua, '^ a correspondent of the "New York
Tribune,'' was commissioned by the Irish Directory
of New York to proceed to Australia and procure
the escape of Mitchell and his political associates.
Mitchell was under parole, and his sense of honor
would not permit him to leave without surrendering
it. On June 8, 1853, in company with Smyth, he

60 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

presented himself to the police magistrate in Both-
well and surrendered his parole.

" You see the purport of that note, sir," said he.
'^ It is short and plain. It resigns the thing called
* ticket of leave ' and revokes my promise, which
bound me so long as I held the thing."

Then they left the magistrate, who was either
stupid or afraid to make an attempt to detain them,
and, mounting horses, rode through the Australian
woods until Hobart Town was reached, when they
sailed on the passenger brig Emma to Sydney, and
in due time reached the United States. Meagher
soon followed. O'Brien declined to have anything
to do with any plot for escape while he was on pa-
role, and his honorable conduct was rewarded by a
pardon.

After reaching this country, Mitchell founded a
paper advocating slavery, and championing the
Southern cause in the Bebellion. One of his last
acts here was a lecture, the proceeds of which went
to swell the fund which was being raised for the
Catalpa expedition. Later he returned to Ireland,
where, owing to some defect in the criminal law, he
could not be arrested, his time of penal servitude
having expired, although he had not served it. He
was elected to Parliament for Tipperary, was dis-
qualified for a seat, and then reelected. Some tur-
moil was expected, when Mitchell was withdrawn
from the controversy by death.

"Weep for him, Ireland, mother lonely;
Weep for the son who died for thee.

OTHER ESCAPES AND RESCUES 61

Wayward he was, but he loved thee only,

Loyal and fearless as son could be.
Weep for him, Ireland, sorrowing nation,

Faithful to all who are true to thee ;
Never a son in thy desolation

Had holier love for thy cause than he."

The rescue of Kelly and Deasy at Manchester was
daring and successful, but it was only accomplished
by^ihe killing of one man, and three were subse-
quently hanged for complicity in the affair. Colonel
Kelly and Captain Deasy, Fenian agents in England,
were captured by the Manchester police on Septem-
ber 11, 1867, and a week afterward were arraigned
at the Manchester police office. Being identified
as Fenian leaders, they were again remanded and
placed in the prison van to be conveyed to the bor-
ough jail. They were in charge of Police Sergeant
Charles Brett. When half way to the prison, and
just as the van passed under the railway arch over
Hyde Road at Bellevue, a man jumped into the mid-
dle of the road, pointed a pistol at the head of the
van-driver and ordered him to stop. Immediately
thirty armed men swarmed over the wall which
lined the road. A shot was fired, and the driver
was so frightened that he fell from his seat. One
horse was shot, and the gallant police escorts scat-
tered and ran for their lives.

An endeavor was then made to break in the door
of the van. It was locked on the inside, and the
key was in the possession of a police officer named
Brett, who sat within. A shot was fired at the key-
hole to blow off the lock, and the unfortunate police

62 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

officer received a wound from which he died soon
after. The doors were then opened, a woman pris-
oner in the van handing out the keys, which she
found in the pocket of the officer. "Kelly, I'll
die for you,'^ said one of the Fenian rescuers.

He kept his word.

The prisoners were freed, and were seen to enter
a cottage near the Hyde Koad. They left it unfet-
tered, and were never seen after by English officials.
Several men were put on trial for the murder of
Brett, and five were found guilty, — Allen, Larkin,
O'Brien, Condon or Shore, and Maguire. The de-
fense was that the prisoners only meditated a rescue,
and that the death of the policeman was an accident.
The five were sentenced to death, but the newspaper
reporters were so certain that Maguire was not con-
cerned in the affair that they joined in a memorial
to the government, expressing their conviction that
the verdict was a mistake. The government made
an investigation, and found that he was not near the
spot on the day of the rescue, — that he was a loyal
private in the Marines, and not a Fenian. He was
pardoned, but not unnaturally the circumstances
caused a grave doubt with relation to the soundness
of the verdict in the other cases.

Strenuous attempts were made to secure a com-
mutation of the sentence. Mr. Bright was fore-
most with his exertions, and Mr. Swinburne, the
poet, wrote an appeal for mercy, from which a few
verses are quoted : —

OTHER ESCAPES AND RESCUES 63

** Art thou indeed among these,
Thou of the tyrannous crew,
The kingdoms fed upon blood,
O queen from of old of the seas,
England, art thou of them, too,
That drink of the poisonous flood,
That hide under poisonous trees ?

*'Nay, thy name from of old.
Mother, was pure, or we dreamed;
Purer we held thee than this,
Purer fain would we hold;
So goodly a glory it seemed,
A fame so bounteous of bliss.
So more precious than gold.

" Strangers came gladly to thee.
Exiles, chosen of men.
Safe for thy sake in thy shade.
Sat down at thy feet and were free.
So men spake of thee then;
Now shall their speaking be stayed ?
Ah, so let it not be !

"Not for revenge or affright,
Pride or a tyrannous lust.
Cast from thee the crown of thy praise.
Mercy was thine in thy might.
Strong when thou wert, thou wert just ;
Now, in the wrong-doing days.
Cleave thou, thou at least, to the right.

" Freeman he is not, but slave,
"Whoso in fear for the State
Cries for surety of blood.
Help of gibbet and grave ;
Neither is any land great
"Whom, in her fear-stricken mood,
These things only can save.

"Lo, how fair from afar,
Taintless of tyranny, stands
Thy mighty daughter, for years
"Who trod the winepress of war;

64 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Slimes with immaculate hands ;
Slays not a foe, neither fears ;
Stains not peace with a scar !

" Be not as tyrant or slave,
England ; be not as these.
Thou that wert other than they.
Stretch out thine hand, but to save ;
Put forth thy strength, and release ;
Lest there arise, if thou slay,
Thy shame as a ghost from the grave.'

The government refused to listen to the appeals,
and Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien were hanged at
Manchester on November 23, 1867, meeting death
■with courage and composure, we are told. Shore
escaped, since he was proven to be an American
citizen, and the English spared him lest the protec-
tion of the American government might have been
invoked in his behalf.

One more incident may be added to the chapter
of Fenian rescues. This was the attempt to blow
up the House of Detention at Clerkenwell in De-
cember, 1867, where two Fenian prisoners were con-
fined. This affair was farcical in conception, but
its results were cruelly tragic.

" At the very time that this horrible crime and
blunder was perpetrated," writes a historian, " one
of the London theatres was nightly crowded by
spectators eager to see an Irish melodrama, among
the incidents of which was the discussion of a plan
for the rescue of a prisoner from a castle cell. The
audience was immensely amused by the proposal of
one confederate to blow up the castle altogether, and

OTHER ESCAPES AND RESCUES 65

the manner in which it occurred to the simple plot-
ters, just in time, that if they carried out this plan
they must send the prisoner himself flying into the
air. The Clerkenwell conspirators had either not
seen the popular drama or had missed the point of
its broadest joke."

A barrel of gunpowder was exploded close to
the wall. Sixty yards of the prison wall were
blown in, and many small dwellings in the vicinity
were shattered. A dozen persons were killed, one
hundred and twenty were wounded, and there were
other serious consequences. Had the prisoners
been near the wall, they would have been killed.
Five men and a woman were put on trial for the
crime, but only one man was convicted. He was
found guilty on the evidence of an informer and
executed. It was agreed that the persons who were
concerned in this plot were " of that irresponsible
crew who hang on to the skirts of all secret political
associations, and whose adhesion is only one other
reason for regarding such associations as deplorable
and baneful. Such men are of the class who bring
a curse, who bring many curses, on even the best
cause that strives to work in secret. They prowl
after the heels of organized conspiracy, and what
it will not do they are ready in some fatal moment
to attempt."

And this brings us back to the last and most im-
portant of Irish national rescue projects.

CHAPTEE IX

APPEALS FROM AUSTRALIA

In 1870 the British government had granted
conditional pardon to such political convicts in
Australia as had been civilians at the time of their
offense, but the military prisoners were exempted.
Still the latter were not without hope, as the letter
of one of them to O'Eeilly, who had amnestied
himself, shows. " It is my birthday as I write
this,'' ran the letter, " and I know I am turning it
to the best account by writing to such a dear old
friend. Who knows ? perhaps I may be able to
spend the next one with you. If not, then we will
hope for the following one. At all events, we must
not despair."

The men were not always so calmly hopeful.

Sometimes —

"There spake in their hearts a hidden voice
Of the blinding joy of a freeman's burst
Through the great dim woods. Then the toil accurst,
The scorching days and the nights in tears,
The riveted rings for years and years,
They weighed them all — they looked before
At the one and other, and spoke them o'er,
And they saw what the heart of man must see,
That the uttermost blessing is liberty."

And so it happened that Hassett, who was a man

APPEALS FROM AUSTRALIA 67

of remarkable daring, " with his eyes on the doom
and danger," made his escape from the road party in
April, 1869. He penetrated the bush to the sea,
like O'Reilly ; and after eleven months of priva-
tion he took refuge on board a ship at Bunbury.
But he had " grasped the flower but to clutch the
sting." As he reached the threshold of freedom he
was snatched back. Discovered and recaptured, he
was sentenced to three years of hard labor in the
chain gang at Swan Eiver, with six months' solitary
confinement. The first part of the sentence is not
without humor, since Hassett was serving a life
sentence at hard labor when he made his escape,
and there was no terror in the additional three
years of servitude.

Upon the occasion of the Queen's accession to the
title of Empress of India, one hundred and forty
members of Parliament, including Mr. Bright, Mr.
Plimsoll, Mr. Mundella, Mr. Fawcett, and many
others of the ablest men of the House, presented
a petition for the pardon of the political prisoners,
but it was rejected.

And so perished the last hope of the friends of
the prisoners of clemency from the government.
" Delayed, but nothing altered, more straining on
for plucking back," the friends of the prisoners,
with an audacity which must be admired, deter-
mined then that they should be freed in spite of
the government.

From time to time appeals had been sent forth
from the prisoners in Australia to their friends at

68 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

home and in America. Martin Hogan had written
to Peter Curran in 1872, having seen Curran's name
in a letter written by O'Donovan E-ossa to the Dub-
lin "Irishman." A copy of this paper had been
smuggled into the prison, and suggested the appeal
to America.

Then James Wilson wrote to John Devoy in
New York, sketching a plan of action, and his
appeal stirred the devoted man to a final gigantic
effort. Devoy sent back the cheering response that
steps were being taken for the execution of the
plan.

After a conference with John Kenneally and
James McCarthy Finnell, prisoners who had been
released, Mr. Devoy presented the matter to the
Clan-na-Gael convention at Baltimore in 1874, and
John Devoy and John W. Goff, the latter of whom
is now the recorder of the Kew York courts, James
Keynolds of New Haven, and Patrick Mahon and
John C. Talbot were appointed a committee to carry
out the project.

Devoy, Reynolds, and Goff were the most active,
and, without definitely revealing their plans, such
was the confidence of the Irish people in them that
they were not long in securing a fund of $20,000.
This was not accomplished, however, without the
sacrifice of business, health, and money, on the part
of the men most active. Sympathizing miners in
New Zealand were stirred by John King, an ex-
prisoner, to contribute $4,000, and two agents of
the revolutionary party in Ireland, Denis F. Me-

APPEALS FROM AUSTRALIA 69

Carthy of Cork and John Walsh of Durham, Eng-
land, brought $5,000 and their personal aid.

John J. Breslin, a brave man who assisted James
Stephens, the head centre of the Fenian movement,
to escape from the jaws of death in 1865, and of
whom I shall have much more to say presently, was
assigned the dangerous role of active agent, with
Thomas Desmond of San Francisco as an associate.
They were to go to Australia and place themselves
in communication with the prisoners.

Finally a vessel was to be fitted out for Australia,
manned by men fearless of consequences, to rescue
the life prisoners from their captivity.

It was here that Mr. O'Eeilly made a valuable
suggestion to Devoy, that a whaling vessel should
be sent. Such a vessel might sail on an ostensible
whaling voyage and avert the suspicion with which
another ship cruising in the waters of Western
Australia might be received. The suggestion was
at once accepted as an inspiration.

CHAPTER X

THE PLOT

While the fact that 0'E,eilly was rescued by a
whaleship was the direct cause of the determination
to send a vessel representative of New Bedford's
victorious industry, there were other reasons which
commended the selection.

Men who engaged in this perilous mode of hardy
enterprise must necessarily be persevering and
brave. Perhaps the originators of the enterprise
remembered that it was a whaleship bearing the
name of Bedford which was the first vessel to
display the flag of the United States in British
waters, and that in 1783, when the countries were
at war.

Barnard's '-'History of England," a rare book,
recites that " the ship Bedford, Captain Moores, be-
longing to the Massachusetts, arrived in the Downs
on the 3rd of February, passed Gravesend on the
3rd, and was reported at the Custom House on the
6th instant. She was not allowed regular entry
until some consultation had taken place between
the commissioners of the customs and the lords of
council, on account of the many acts of parliament
in force against the rebels of America. She is

THE PLOT 71

loaded with 487 butts of whale oil, is American
built, manned wholly by American seamen, and
wears the rebel colors. This is the first vessel
which has displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes
of America in any British port. The vessel is at
Horseledour, a little below the Tower, and is in-
tended to return immediately to New England.''

The New Bedford whaleman has ever been a
type of enterprise and daring, but the commission
which these Irish patriots proposed, of challenging
the British navy with a whaleship and snatching a
half dozen men from the jaws of the British lion,
was a supreme test of pluck.

When it was decided to fit out a whaleship,
O'Reilly directed Devoy and his friends to consult
with Captain Henry C. Hathaway in New Bedford.
At the time of his rescue, Captain Hathaway was
the third mate of the Gazelle, and O'Reilly occu-
pied a stateroom with him. A strong attachment
had grown up between them, which was strength-
ened when Hathaway saved O'Reilly from drown-
ing during a fight with an ugly whale, in which
O'Reilly's love of excitement had led him to par-
ticipate.

Captain Hathaway was at this time captain of
the night police force in New Bedford. He entered
into the plans with interest, and told Devoy that the
commander whom he needed to carry the expedition
to success was Captain George S. Anthony. John
T. Richardson, the father-in-law of Captain Anthony,
was a whaling agent, and the proposition v/as first

72 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

broached to him, and he agreed to arrange an inter-
view for the Clan-na-Gael committee with Anthony.

Captain Anthony was a New Bedford boy, and
pledged his life to the sea at the age of fifteen. He
had been a successful whaleman, and his faithful-
ness had been demonstrated in a service of ten years
in one ship, of which Jonathan Bourne was the
agent.

But the captain had recently married, and had con-
cluded to abandon the longboat forever. He was
given a position at the Morse Twist Drill Works,
where he was employed in February, 1875, when
Devoy and his friends first went to New Bedford.

But a sailor is never long contented ashore, and
Anthony was growing restless. Mr. Bourne was
inclined to make light of his resolution to become a
mechanic, and constantly dropped in upon him at
the shop with tempting offers to return to his ser-
vice, until the foreman suggested to Mr. Bourne that
he should " let Anthony alone." Then Mr. Bourne
slapped the stout sailor on the back and said, ^' Well,-
Anthony, I '11 let you alone. But remember and
let me know when you are ready to go whaling
again."

Mr. Bourne's experience had taught him some-
thing. He had detected the restlessness of An-
thony, who acknowledged that he was out of place
in a machine-shop, and he knew that one day he
would come to his office, prepared to sign shipping
papers.

A few days later Anthony met Mr. Eichardson

THE PLOT 73

and said to him : *' I 'm tired of this. Go down
and see Mr. Bourne and ask him if he will let me
have a ship."

" Wait a few days ; I have something better for
you," said Mr. Kichardson. Two days before he
had met Devoy and his comrades, and he was then
carrying their secret about with him.

The next morning Mr. Kichardson again met the
captain : " Come to the store this evening," said
he ; " there will be two or three men there whom I
wish you to meet."

At about eight o'clock Anthony presented himself
at Richardson's. The store of the latter was at 18
South Water Street. It was an outfitters' estab-
lishment, with a stock of such clothing as is to be
found in the slop chest of the sailor in the front of
the store, while there was an open space at the rear
filled with chairs.

About a big stove sat a number of men, several
of whom were strangers to Anthony. He remem-
bered that he had seen them about Richardson's
place for several days, and had once been on the
point of inquiring who they were. Captain Hatha-
way was one of the men in the group whom he
knew, and it may be said that Mr. Devoy, Mr. Gofi*,
and Mr. Reynolds were also present.

" It's just as well to sit in the dark," said one,
and the lights were at once put out, which seemed
to Anthony a rather singular proceeding.

Then he was introduced to the men, but their
names were unfamiliar to him at that time. Captain

74 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Anthony was less a stranger to the men whom he
met. They had made a study of him for several
days before they decided to intrust him with the
secret and the enterprise which was nearest their
hearts, and they had now decided that he would do.

The man who stood in the lamplight for a minute
before the flame was extinguished was of athletic
build, with black hair, and eyes which were so
black, bright, and alert that they were the conspicu-
ous feature of the face. The brilliant color in the
captain's cheek indicated vigorous good health.

Then John Devoy, whom Captain Anthony had
carelessly noticed was a short man with full black
whiskers, unfolded the plan of the proposed rescue
of the Fenian prisoners to the astonished captain.

CHAPTER XI

THE VESSEL AND THE START

It was an ideal conspiracy, you see, the plans
being made under the cover of darkness. Mr.
Devoy was a brilliant talker, and he knew his subject
well. He hurried over the story of the revolution
in which the men were engaged, making prominent
the fact that his friends who had been transported
to Western Australia were not criminals.

Then he sketched the plan of rescue. In his
enthusiasm it probably seemed the easy task to
Devoy which he represented it to be. His friends
would provide a whaleship, fitted for sea. Captain
Anthony was to sail as soon as possible, and beyond
keeping up a pretense of whaling, his part would
merely be to show his vessel off the coast of
Australia on a certain date. There he would be
hailed by a company of men in a boat. He would
take them aboard and sail for home. The shore end
of the escape would be managed by others.

Captain Anthony asked for time in which to con-
sider the proposition, and he was given one day.
Meanwhile he was pledged never to speak of the
plan, not even to Mrs. Anthony, whether or not he
accepted the commission. The captain did some
hard thinking that night, and the next evening,

76 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

when he again met the committee at Richardson's,
he told them he would go. They expressed their
gratification, gave authority to Mr. Richardson and
Captain Anthony to select a suitable vessel, and left
the city, well satisfied with their selection of a com-
mander.

I have always suspected that Devoy and his
friends must have aroused the sympathy of Captain
Anthony and awakened within him a personal interest
in the men whose zeal for patriotism had placed
them in an unfortunate position. A promise that
he would be well paid was certainly inadequate to
the weary voyage, the risk, and the sacrifice he
must make in leaving his family. Captain Anthony
had been married but a year, and there was a baby
daughter but a few months old. His mother was ill,
and had not the spirit which dominated Devoy
appealed to him, there can be no satisfactory explana-
tion of his assumption of the trust.

Mr. Richardson and Captain Anthony now com-
menced their search for a vessel. They looked at
the Jeannette, a Is ew Bedford whaler, the Sea Gull,
a Boston clipper and fast, but in need of expensive
repairs, and the Addison, formerly a whaleship, but
at that time a packet running on the route between
Boston and Fayal. None were regarded as entirely
suitable.

At last they heard of the Catalpa. She was for-
merly a whaleship sailing out of New Bedford, but
had been placed in the merchant service. She had
just returned with a cargo of logwood from the West

THE VESSEL AND THE START 77

Indies and was for sale. Captain Anthony and. Mr.
Richardson went to East Boston, where she lay.
They were satisfied with her, and, finding she could
be bought cheaply, communicated with the commit-
tee, which authorized her purchase. She was bought
on March 13, 1875, and the price paid was $5,500.

The Catalpa was a vessel of 202.05 tons net,
90 feet in length, 25 feet in breadth, with a depth of
12.2 feet. She was rigged as a merchant bark, with
double topsails, a poop deck, and cabin half aboye
decks. Her main deck was roomy and she had an
open hold, there being nothing between decks
excepting her beams. The house and galley were
on deck, merchant fashion ; altogether she seemed
a stanch -vessel. The bark was brought around to
New Bedford and the fitting commenced at City
Wharf under Captain Anthony's direction.

Davits and whaleboat gear were rigged, a forecas-
tle was built for the sailors, a half deck put in, sail
and rigging pens built on one side and a steerage on
the other. Then it was discovered that the riding
keelson was rotten, and John W. Rowland, who was
in charge of the repairs, performed a mechanical feat
never before attempted. The foot of the mainmast
rests upon this part of the vessel, yet a new piece
was put in with such skill that the rigging did not
settle throughout the voyage.

The bark was provided with a forward and after
cabin. Two rooms on the starboard side were
knocked into one for the use of the captain, the
mate's room was on the port side, opposite, and the

78 THE CAT ALP A EXPEDITION

second and third mates were furnished accommoda-
tions in the forward cabin.

The vessel was fitted ostensibly for a whaling
voyage of eighteen months or two years in the North
and South Atlantic. Captain Anthony was given
supreme authority in the arrangement of the vessel
and in securing the fittings, and gave his personal
attention to the stowing of the ship.

On the day of sailing, the vessel and outfit had
cost the Clan-na-Gael committee $18,000. The ves-
sel stood in the name of James Eeynolds of New
Haven, a fact which aroused considerable curiosity
among the New Bedford w^haling agents, since he
was a newcomer in the field which they had re-
garded as a monopoly.

The conspirators made but one request with rela-
tion to the crew. They wished to have one of their
number accomjDany the vessel, and Dennis Duggan
was selected. He was shipped as carpenter. Other-
wise the responsibility was placed with Captain An-
thony, and it was a difficult task, requiring no little
discretion and knowledge of the character of men.

He made a wise choice, it will be seen later, in the
selection of Samuel P. Smith of Edgartown as first
mate. The crew was purposely made up largely
of Kanakas, Malays, and Africans, since they were
likely to be less suspicious than other sailors and
could better endure the climate of the southern seas.

The shipping articles described the crew as finally
made up as follows. The names of some of the
men were invented and bestowed upon them by the
shipping agents.

THE VESSEL AND THE STAKT

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80 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Although the suspicions of nobody had been
aroused in any quarter which would lead to anxiety,
the shipping agents were very persistent in their in-
quiries about the destination of the ship.

*^ Captain Anthony is going where he has a mind
and will stay as long as he pleases," was Mr. Rich-
ardson's invariable reply to those who questioned
him.

The bark was now ready for sea, and Devoy, who
was at this time night editor of the "New York
Herald," went to New Bedford to give Captain
Anthony his final instructions.

" You will cruise until fall, about six months, in
the North Atlantic," were Devoy's orders. "Then
you are to put in at Fayal, ship home any oil which
you may have taken, and sail at once for Australia,
where we expect you to arrive early in the spring
of 1876. You are to go to Bunbury, on the west
coast, and there communications will be opened up
with you from our Australian agent."

The serious illness of Captain Anthony's mother
delayed his departure for two days. Devoy remained
over, and at nine o'clock on Thursday morning,
April 29, 1875, he waved his handkerchief in fare-
well to Captain Anthony as he rowed away from the
dock to board the Catalpa.

Although a large company of his friends had
made up a party to accompany the captain down the
bay, he could not trust himself to bring his wife.
He had said good-by to his wife and baby at home.

This was the first anniversary of Captain An-

i> \ (\ V'l

THE VESSEL AND THE START 81

thony's wedding, and among those who were on the
bark was Eev. 0. A. Roberts, the clergyman who
had officiated at the marriage. Mr. Roberts was
curious to see a chronometer, and after the vessel
was under way he examined it and asked about its
winding. Captain Anthony's attention thus being
called to it, he learned that he was bound to sea
without a key for his chronometer. Fortunately a
mechanic named Arnett was on the vessel, and he
bored and filed an old clock key to fit the chronom-
eter, and it was wound. This was only the com-
mencement of trouble with the chronometer, which
continued throughout the voyage.

Late in the afternoon, off Cuttyhunk, the friends
on shore left the Catalpa. During the remainder of
that day Captain Anthony was in the depths of de-
spondency. While in the companionship of Devoy
and the conspirators he had imbibed the enthusiasm
and spirit of the affair. But now he was alone with
the responsibility. There was not an officer with
whom he could share his secret. With a hulk of a
whaleship he was defying the mightiest naval power
on earth.

In the evening half a gale was blowing and the
bark was plunging drearily in heavy seas, under
short sail. The captain thought of his wife, his
child, and his mother sick at home, and he thought
of the task he had assumed to accomplish in the
convict land of Australia. There was gloom within
the little cabin that evening, as well as without.

CHAPTER XII

WHALING

But the heart-heaviness did not last long. If
Captain Anthony had not been a man of exceptional
pluck, he would not have been bound to Australia
in the Catalpa. The first days of a voyage are busy.
The crew is called aft, watches are told oif, and
boats' crews selected. The regulations to be ob-
served on shipboard are read, and the master gives
general instructions to be obeyed during the voyage.
Then, if the weather permits, the boats are lowered
and the green hands are taught their places and the
handling of their oars.

Perhaps the reader will be interested in the first
entry ,in the log-book of the voyage which was to
become famous. It is prosaic enough : —

Remarks on Board Bark Catalpa, Captain Anthony,
Outward Bound, Thursday, Apr. 29th, 3875.

This day commences with light breezes from the

S. E. and clear weather. At 9 A. m. took our anchors

and stood to sea. At 11.30 the captain came on

board with officers. Crew all on board.

Eor several days thereafter all hands were busily
employed in getting the vessel ready for whaling.

WHALING 83

Captain Anthony did not enter into the preparations
with the spirit which might have been expected
under different circumstances, possibly, but the work
afforded relief from the routine.

The chronometer once more intruded itself upon
the captain's troubled mind. After taking a num-
ber of sights and making a computation by it, the
result showed the vessel to be in the interior of New
York State. The hammering and pounding which
the instrument had undergone in the process of fit-
ting the key had changed the rate. The captain
and the mate corrected it, but when three days out
a German bark was signaled and it was found that
there Avas a difference of forty miles in longitude
between the navigators. The chronometer was
never reliable thereafter, and the captain was never
certain of his position.

Violent, rugged weather was now encountered.
The first whale was raised on the afternoon of May
3, but it was going quickly to windward and there
was no chance to lower the boats. The next day at
five p. M., when on the southern edge of the Gulf,
a school of whales was sighted and the vessel was
luffed to the wind ; but again the whales were going
so fast that it was useless to lower. On May 5
another school of whales was sighted on the lee
quarter and the captain wore ship to head them off.
A heavy squall arose, with rain,-and under two lower
topsails the bark dashed along, but the whales Avere
elusive. All the next day the chase continued, and
one small whale was taken.

84 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

The whale was taken alongside. At 5.30 the work
of cutting commenced and it was finished at eight in
the evening. The great pieces of blubber are hauled
over the main hatch and minced into fine pieces,
called " horse pieces." Then the boiling commences.
Water is turned into caboose pens, or jogs along
the deck, to prevent the woodwork catching fire
from the try works. The casks containing provi-
sions, towlines, and sails are emptied, cleansed, and
swabbed clean. The hot oil is then poured in and
the casks are lashed to the rail on the ship's side to
cool before being stored below.

This whale was a very small one and made but
about twenty barrels of oil. It may not be uninter-
esting to give the reader some idea of the size of the
right whale, which is the largest of whales. Cap-
tain Davis, a veteran whaleman, has made a compari-
son of the various parts with familiar objects, which
is here quoted : " The blubber, or blanket, of a large
right whale would carpet a room twenty-two yards
long and nine yards wide, averaging half a yard in
thickness. Set up a saw-log two feet in diameter
and twenty feet in length for the ridgepole of the
room we propose to build ; then raise it in the air
fifteen feet, and support it with pieces of timber
seventeen feet long, spread, say, nine feet. This
will make a room nine feet wide at the bottom, two
feet wide at the peak, and twenty feet long, and will
convey an idea of the upper jaw, the saw-log and
slanting supports representing the bone. These
walls of bone are clasped by the white blubbery

WHALING 85

lips, which at the bottom are four feet thick, taper-
ing to a blunt edge, where they fit into a rebate sunk
in the upper jaw. The throat is four feet, and is
mainly blubber, interpenetrated by fibrous, muscular
flesh. The lips and throat of a two-hundred-and-
fifty -barrel whale should yield sixty barrels of oil,
and, with the supporting jaw-bones, will weigh as
much as twenty-five oxen of one thousand pounds
each. Attached to the throat by a broad base is the
enormous tongue, the size of which can be better
conceived by the fact that twenty-five barrels of oil
have been taken from one. Such a tongue would
equal in weight ten oxen. The tail of such a whale
is about twenty-five feet broad and six feet deep,
and is considerably more forked than that of the
spermaceti. The point of juncture with the body is
about four feet in diameter, the vertebra about fifteen
inches, the remainder of the small being packed
with rope-like tendons ' from the size of a finger to
that of a man's leg. The great rounded joint at the
base of the skull gleams like an ivory sphere, nearly
as large round as a carriage wheel. Through the
greatest blood-vessels, more than a foot in diameter,
surges, at each pulsation of a heart as large as a
hogshead, a torrent of barrels of blood heated to one
hundred and four degrees. The respiratory canal is
over twelve inches in diameter, through which the
rush of air is as noisy as the exiiaust-pipe of a thou-
sand-horse-power steam engine ; and when the fatal
wound is given, torrents of clotted blood are spat-
tered into the air over the nauseated hunters. In

86 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

conclusion, the right whale has an eye scarcely larger
than a cow's, and an ear that would scarcely admit
a knitting-needle."

On May 12 the Catalpa had reached the
*^ Western Ground/' and two whales were killed.
It was nearly midnight before they were taken
alongside.

On May 30, in lat. 37° 3' north, long. 57° 50'
west, a brig in distress was raised to leeward, dis-
masted and flying signals. She proved to be the
brig Florence Annapolis, forty-nine days from Liv-
erpool, bound to Nova Scotia with a cargo of salt.
Water and provisions were gone and the crew was
on the verge of starvation. When the mast went
by the board, one of the crew had his leg broken
and two others were injured. Captain Anthony
supplied the vessel with water and small stores, and
his crew assisted in rigging up two sails, with which
the brig ultimately reached port in safety.

Late on the afternoon of June 13 the first
whale seen for a month was sighted. It was a
smoky day, with a fresh breeze from the south. Mr.
Smith, the mate, was in charge of one of the boats,
which was lowered. The boatsteerer had thrown
the iron, and Mr. Smith had taken his position at
the head of the boat with the lance for the fatal
stroke, when he was knocked overboard by the
whale and severely cut about the head. He was
pulled in by the crew, and crawled on his hands and
knees to the head of the boat once more, where he
killed the whale and fell back in a faint. Smith

WHALING 87

was brought aboard the bark, badly injured, and
the whale was alongside at one A. m. The next
morning Mr. Smith insisted upon attending to
his duties and assisted in directing the cutting-in,
although he was very weak from the loss of blood
from the cuts on his head and neck. This little in-
cident indicated to Captain Anthony that he had
made no mistake in selecting Mr. Smith, and he felt
sure that when the supreme test came he would
have at least one man behind him upon whom he
could rely to the uttermost.

From that date until August nothing of particular
interest occurred. Icebergs were seen in July, and
the Kanaka boatsteerer died and was buried at sea,
the service being read by Captain Anthony.

Late in August the Catalpa fell in with the bark
General Scott, Captain Eobbins, and '' gammed,"
with her. The word " gammed " is the whaling
vernacular for keeping company. On the morning
of the 27th a flat calm prevailed, M'hen a large sperm
whale was raised close to the ship. Three boats
were lowered and this attracted the attention of the
captain of the General Scott, who ordered his
men to the boats. The fact that the whale spouted
seventy times each time it came up indicated that
it was of good size. Then the whale sounded and
was down forty minutes. The boats from both
ships were now in ardent chase, "but when the whale
came up he was nearer the Scott's boats. So the
officers shouted and agreed to ''mate," or divide
the whale. Mr. Smith of the Catalpa struck the

88 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

whale, and all joined in the killing. Then, as the
General Scott was so much larger than the Catalpa,
the whale was taken alongside that vessel for boil-
ing. It is a rule among whalemen that when two
ships are mated, if either takes a whale before the
first has been boiled, the ships again divide. So
while the General Scott was trying out, the Catalpa
cruised away, captured another whale, and at six
o'clock the same night had it alongside. This lat-
ter whale was small, making about forty-five barrels,
which was divided. The larger whale '^stowed
down " 130 barrels.

On September 5 the Catalpa gammed with the
bark Draco, Captain Peakes. Captain Anthony had
sailed in the Draco for ten years of his life, and
Captain Peakes was an old friend. On the 19th
the Catalpa raised sperm whales and secured two.
On October 14 Flores was sighted, and the captain
now learned that through the fault of his chro-
nometer he was 120 miles out of his ^' reckoning."

Captain Peakes suggested to Captain Anthony
that before going in he should catch up a deckload
of albicores, which abounded, and as they are a
choice edible he could trade them ofi* in the town
for potatoes. The albicores follow ships in this
locality, and were all about the vessel, breaching for
flying-fish and squid. So with white rag for bait,
the crew caught half a hundred fish weighing forty
or fifty pounds each.

Captain Anthony landed in his small boat and
was at once placed under arrest by the custom-

WHALING 89

house authorities for smuggling. The fish, it seems,
were regarded as a product of the American fisheries,
and could not be landed without paying a duty.
Moreover, Captain Anthony was informed that they
were worthless. So he gave them away to a man
on the dock, but this made no difference to the cus-
toms authorities, who insisted that they must be re-
turned to the vessel or pay the duty. The captain
ordered a native to take them back to the ship or do
anything he liked with the fish. He rowed around
a point and landed the fish, but the island officials,
having demonstrated their authority, released Cap-
tain Anthony from arrest.

The potatoes were placed aboard the vessel, when
a heavy gale sprang up. Captain Anthony was
ready to sail, but he had left his bill of health
ashore, and he was forced to lay olf and on in terri-
ble weather before he could get back once more.

On October 20 the Catalpa left the island for
Fayal, and several days later, in a gale of wind, the
vessel was worked up between Pico and Fayal and
anchored off the town. The vessel had 210 bar-
rels of sperm oil aboard, and for several days the
crew was employed in breaking out the cargo and
landing it to be shipped home. Then the casks of
bread and flour were recoopered and the watches
were given liberty on shore. Here the captain was
rejoiced at getting letters from, his family and a
photograph of his daughter.

Most of the crew, including third mate Bolles, one
of the boatsteerers, and nearly all of the foremast

90 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

hands, deserted, and three sailors who were sick
were discharged. A runner agreed to furnish men,
but it was necessary for them to be smuggled aboard
the ship, since they had no passports. They were
picked up by the Catalpa's boats under shadow of
the fort, and, although hailed by the guard-boat,
they were successful in reaching the vessel. One or
two of the men who ran away were captured, and a
crew was once more patched up.

The chronometer again claimed attention. Al-
though the captain had had it adjusted at Flores, in
the short run to Fayal he found himself sixty miles
out of the way in his reckoning. Here he met
Captain Crapo of the bark Ospray, who had three
chronometers, including one which had been in the
bark Cornelia, condemned on the Pacific coast.
Captain Anthony bought this for $110 and experi-
enced much satisfaction in the belief that he now
had an instrument which he could trust.

These were busy days for the captain, for aside
from the trouble with the crew, the fierce weather
on the Western Ground had used up rigging and
canvas, and he was compelled to buy a new outfit.

On the sixth of November Captain Anthony
made a hurried departure from Fayal.

CHAPTEE XIII

A HURRIED DEPARTURE

The cause of the haste in leaving the island was
a letter which Dennis Duggan, the ship's carpenter,
received from Thomas Brennan.

Duggan, it will be remembered, was the only
Irishman on the Catalpa, since the leaders had
agreed that the presence of a number might arouse
the suspicion of the British authorities when Aus-
tralia was reached. Brennan had been very urgent
in his appeals to accompany the expedition when it
left America, but permission was refused. He de-
clined to accept the rebuff, however, and he deter-
mined to stow away on the vessel before she sailed,
but arrived at New Bedford a day too late.

Nothing daunted, he shipped on a little schooner
sailing for St. MichaePs, planning to join the Ca-
talpa at Fayal. The letter which Duggan received
announced that Brennan had taken passage on a
steamer from St. Michael's which was due to arrive
the following day.

Captain Anthony and Duggan had agreed never
to converse on the subject, lest the suspicions of the
officers might be excited ; but the carpenter promptly
carried the letter to the captain.

92 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

"I think we have all the crew we need at pres-
ent," remarked Captain Anthony. ^' Mr. Brennan
may get left."

He hastened to the custom-house, cleared his
vessel for Teneriffe in the Canary Islands, and at
5.30 o'clock in the afternoon, in a drizzle of rain
and a fresh breeze from the southwest, the moorings
were slipped and the Catalpa was working out to
windward between Pico and Fayal.

As the vessel was heading out through the is-
lands the next morning, the steamer on which
Brennan was a passenger was seen at a distance,
going in to Fayal and the captain bestowed a grim
smile upon Duggan. Brennan saw the ship like-
wise, but it will be seen that he did not falter in his
purpose to join the Catalpa.

And now a crisis had come in the affairs of the
expedition. Captain Anthony knew that the decep-
tion could not be kept much longer from his chief
mate, Mr. Smith, and had planned for many months
to make a confidant of him on the voyage from
Fayal to Teneriffe.

Thus far the vessel had proceeded according to
the plans announced before starting. During the
period which had elapsed, the Catalpa had pursued
whaling with good success, but, as the reader knows,
this avocation was only a cloak to the true purpose
of the voyage.

During the hard labor of the months which had
passed. Captain Anthony had never forgotten for an
instant the desperate work which was before him.

A HURRIED DEPARTURE 93

He thought of it by day and dreamed of it by night,
yet he must continually be on the guard to keep his
plans from his comrades in the cabin.

He had explained as a reason for going to Ten-
eriffe, that he contemplated whaling about the river
Platte, and proposed to stop there for water. The
water at Fayal was taken from wells near the shore
and was brackish, while that at Teneriffe is much
sought after by whalers.

So far there was nothing to arouse a question
upon the part of the chief officer. But after Ten-
eriflfe there was to be the long and dreary voyage
around the Cape of Good Hope and across the In-
dian Ocean, with no pretense of whaling. The
officer must be admitted into the secret before Ten-
eriffe was reached. If he refused to assist the en-
terprise he must be landed there. He might very
properly be indignant at being inveigled into such
a voyage and give away the plan.

Captain Anthony had decided that of all men
Smith the mate was an officer among a thousand for
such work. He was bold and adventure-loving.
But his very impetuosity was dreaded by the cap-
tain in the interview which was to come ; for whereas
he might accept a part in the programme with en-
thusiasm, he was perhaps as likely to be enraged at
the deception practiced upon him.

It was therefore with many misgivings that
Captain Anthony asked him into the cabin one
pleasant evening, when the vessel was a few days
out from Fayal. Mr, Smith seemed to be in excep-

94 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

tionally good spirits, and it was an opportunity which
the captain had awaited for some time. The doors
were closed, and at Anthony's invitation Smith sat
down.

It is not the fashion of sailors to make long
stories, and Captain Anthony was as hlunt and brief
as if he were instructing his mate to put more sail
on the ship.

"Mr. Smith, you shipped to go whaling," com-
menced the captain. " I want to say to you now,
before we get to Teneriffe, that the Catalpa has
done about all the whaling she will do this fall.
We 're bound to the western coast of Australia to
try and liberate six Fenian prisoners who are serv-
ing a life sentence in Great Britain's penal colony.
This ship was bought for that purpose and fitted for
that purpose, and you have been utterly deceived in
the object of this voyage. You have a right to be
indignant and leave the vessel at Teneriffe. You
will have the opportunity when we arrive there, and
if you go I can't blame you.

" But this ship is going to Australia, if I live,
and I hope you will stay by me and go with me.
God knows I need you, and I give you my word I
will stand by you as never one man stood by an-
other, if you will say you will remain in the ship
and assist me in carrying out the plans."

Mr. Smith's face, at this announcement, was a
picture of surprise which the captain will never for-
get. After a moment, the mate asked a few ques-
tions about the prisoners to be rescued, the plan,

SAMUEL P. SMITH
First Mate of the Catalpa

A HURRIED DEPARTURE 95

and the men behind it, and Captain Anthony assured
him that if any trouble came he would exonerate
him completely from the conspiracy and would pro-
claim that he shipped to go whaling. Then Mr.
Smith sat silent for a few minutes.

The reply which came is not the polite language
of the parlor, but it was very satisfactory to Captain
Anthony, and was couched in language which
could not have been made more expressive of Mr.
Smith's purpose. He arose and took the captain
by the hand.

" Captain Anthony," said he, " I '11 stick by you
in this ship if she goes to hell and burns off her
jibboom."

This undoubtedly struck the captain at that mo-
ment as the quintessence of eloquence, and you may
be sure the hand of Mr. Smith, which was placed
in his, was shaken with a heartiness which told the
story of his joy.

The two men talked long together. Smith had
wondered at the interest of the strange men, Devoy
and Keynolds, who had visited the ship during her
fitting, and he never had been able to understand
how it was expected the vessel could go to the
Eiver Platte and return in eighteen months; but
otherwise his curiosity had never led him to suspect
that he was not in the entire confidence of the cap-
tain. Captain Anthony was in a happier frame of
mind when he went to his stateroom than he had
experienced for many months.

CHAPTEE XIV

AN AWKWARD MEETING

The peak of TenerifFe, 12,182 feet high, can be
seen ninety miles on a clear day. Captain Anthony
had seen it as far by accurate observation. Trust-
ing in the correctness of his new chronometer, he
expected to raise the land dead ahead. He was
therefore surprised, one afternoon, when he raised
the peak sixty or seventy miles on his weather
quarter. Captain Anthony ordered the vessel hauled
sharp by the wind, and by a fortunate change was
able to head up so that he arrived off the port the
following evening, November 20. The new chro-
nometer was no longer to be implicitly trusted.

The bark was at once boarded by the custom-
house officials, who wished to see the bill of health.
Captain Anthony passed out the health papers certi-
fied to by the Spanish consul. There had been so
many changes in the crew at Fayal and the start
was made so hurriedly that the number of men was
erroneously given as twenty-five. The officials
ordered the captain to call all hands to the rail,
which was done, and only twenty-two men were
mustered. Then the captain was asked to account
for the other three men, but was unable to do so,

AX AWKWARD MEETING 97

and he was asked if he had not made way with
them, which he, of course, strenuously denied.

Then the officer demanded the log-book, ship's
papers, crew lists, and certificates of discharges and
desertions, and, failing to find any accounting for the
three men, announced that he should detain the
vessel until an explanation was forthcoming. But
after profuse apologies and explanations on the part
of the captain, the officer finally agreed to permit
the vessel to enter.

Captain Anthony went ashore, saw the consul,
and made arrangements for taking water aboard.
He dared not give the crew shore liberty, lest they
might run away. The consul advised him to ship
the men taken aboard at Fayal regularly, but as the
men might refuse to return if they landed at Tener-
iffe, on the ground that they did not belong to the
vessel, he consented to go aboard the Catalpa, and
the men were accordingly shipped aboard the bark.

An American schooner from New HaVen was in
port, and Captain Anthony took his chronometer
aboard. For three days he was engaged in taking
sights and fixing the rate, which had been given in-
correctly, he found. Captain Anthony was now
bound across the Indian Ocean, and as he knew that
this was the last land he would see for many weeks
or months, he was very particular about the work.

A quantity of lumber, boards and joist, were
taken aboard here, to build quarters for the guests
whom the captain expected to take aboard at Aus-
tralia. The explanation was vouchsafed to the crew

98 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

that the big spruce boards and joist were for mend-
ing the boats ; but notwithstanding the absurdity, it
was perfectly satisfactory to the men. The captain
had drawn $1,000 on the owners at Fayal for refit-
ting, and he spent $300 additional at Teneriffe.

On November 25 the Catalpa sailed from Tener-
iffe, clearing for " River La Platte and other places."
The vessel was now in ship-shape order, and was
bound for Australia as straight as she could be sent.

Still the deception of whaling must be kept up
with the crew, and a man was always kept on the
lookout at masthead. For several weeks light
breezes prevailed, and nothing occurred to break the
monotony. On December 19 three small whales
were taken, making about forty barrels of oil. Then
there was a short season of baffling winds and squally
weather, but about the 24th the trade winds struck
on. The Catalpa crossed the equator in longitude
27° on Christmas night. The prevailing winds had
been to the southward, and the vessel had sailed on
the port tack for so long a time that she must have
been close in upon Cape St. Rourke. No land was
sighted, however, and it must have been passed in
the night.

Then for a period of two months the voyage was
monotonous enough. Light breezes prevailed and
considerable of the time was spent in repairing sails.
Finback whales were sighted and occasionally the
boats were lowered, but the pursuit was without
success.

On the night of Friday, February 11, the vessel

AN AWKWARD MEETING 99

was in lat. 41° IV, long. 17° 58', when a heavy gale
from the S. S. AV. commenced. At daylight the bark
was under two lower topsails and foresail, steering
S. E. by E. The cross sea on this occasion was
the most treacherous and menacing which Captain
Anthony had ever experienced. The combers, com-
ing in opposite directions, came together with re-
ports like a clap of thunder, and the danger of a sea
striking the deck was looked upon with no little
apprehension. As the gale and sea increased the
Catalpa hove to under the two lower topsails and
mizzen staysail. Suddenly, to Captain Anthony's
consternation, the lower foretopsail split and tore in
shreds. Now, before leaving port the captain had
been warned never to take in the topsails in heavy
weather lest the vessel should thrash herself in
pieces. The vessel was flat-bottomed and shallow
and required sail to prevent her from rolling to
windward and shipping seas, which might be her de-
struction, he was told, and in corroboration of this
he knew that when the topsails were taken in in a
hurricane off Cape Horn, on a previous voyage, a sea
boarded the Catalpa, sweeping everything from the
deck, breaking the mate's leg, and doing serious dam-
age to the vessel.

" Now look out for trouble ! " shouted Captain
Anthony to Mr. Smith, as the very catastrophe which
was dreaded happened. But to the captain's sur-
prise the Catalpa came up into the wind and sea
and lay like a duck, rising and settling in the surges
with a graceful, buoyant swell.

100 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

At three o'clock on the afternoon of the storm a
vessel was sighted on the other tack with nothing set
but the main spencer and foretopmast staysail. She
rolled until her keel was almost in sight, and Cap-
tain Anthony not only recognized her as a whale-
ship, but from the brightness of the copper on the
vessel's bottom, which was exposed as she reeled in
the great seas, he knew that she had left home but
recently. But Captain Anthony realized that his
presence in this locality would be difficult to explain
to a whaling captain who knew that he had sailed
ostensibly on a short voyage in the Atlantic, and he
heroically determined to forego his inclination to
hear the latest news from home. The little bark
wore around and came on the same tack with the
Catalpa, but she was soon left far astern.

At midnight, however, the wind died out, and the
next day the little bark was in sight. The weather
was genial, the sun glowing, and to all appearances
there never blew a gale over so placid a sea. Cap-
tain Anthony decided to speak the vessel. So he
hauled aback, and when the stranger came up, low-
ered a boat and boarded her. She proved to be
the Platina of New Bedford. Captain Walter How-
land, who commanded her, was an intimate friend,
but Captain Anthony was not so well pleased at the
meeting as he might have been under other circum-
stances. The Platina was four months out from
home and had fifty barrels of oil.

" What under heavens are you doing here, An-
thony," said Captain Howland. ^^ You 're the last

AN AWKWARD MEETING 101

man I expected to see out here. I thought you in-
tended to make a short voyage in the iSTorth At-
lantic.''

Captain Anthony said he had concluded to go
farther, and inquired of Captain Howland where he
proposed to go. The latter said he was bound for
the Seychelles Islands and through the Mozambique
Channel. Captain Anthony evinced much interest
in this plan, and the Platina's master got out his
charts and gave the captain considerable information
about the locality, Captain Anthony taking copious
notes the while. Captain Anthony told Captain
Howland that he might bring up on the whaling
ground which was his destination.

Then Captain Howland gave his old friend the
news from home, but it was quite evident that he
was suspicious of Captain Anthony's presence in
this part of the world, for several times he stopped
short, and repeated, " Say now, honest, what are you
doing here ? "

^' Where are you going to refit ? " he asked at
another time. Captain Anthony evaded answering
this question by asking Captain Howland where
he proposed to refit, and entered the information he
received in his notebook.

Meanwhile Mr. Farnham, the second mate, and the
boat's crew from the Catalpa were mingling with
the Platina's crew, and learned for the first time
that the vessel was not off the coast of Patagonia,
bound for the Eiver La Platte, but nearer the Cape
of Good Hope and headed for the Indian Ocean.

102 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

" I tot we long time getting that Eiver Platte,"
Captain Anthony heard the Portuguese mate saying
to the men. '^ I tink maybe old man go to New
Zealand catch whales. I there once. I tink nice
place.''

Late in the day Captain Anthony said good-by
to Captain Howland and returned to the Catalpa.
The wind breezed up, main royals were set, and on-
ward the vessel bowled. The Platina was in sight
for three days, when she disappeared from the
Catalpa's horizon.

CHAPTER XV

A STRANGE EPISODE

Nothing stranger ever happened on land or sea
than the circumstance whereby Captain Anthony
came into possession of the charts used on the con-
vict ship Hougoumont, which were subsequently
employed to frustrate the plans of the government
which first provided them.

A large English bark was signalized on the 16th
of February in lat. 39° 46' S., long. 31° 54' E. It
was a beautiful morning, and Captain Anthony con-
cluded to board her and see if he could procure a
detailed chart of the Australian coast, which he was
now rapidly approaching.

The vessel proved to be the Ocean Beauty, sev-
enty days from Liverpool and bound for New Zea-
land. The captain was a big, convivial Englishman,
full of jolly stories which he loved to tell. Cap-
tain Anthony spent a pleasant hour in his cabin and
finally asked him if he had made many voyages in
this direction.

'^ Been making them out here all my life," he
said. " Why, I was master of a convict ship, the
Hougoumont, and carried a shipful of prisoners to
Australia in 1868/'

104 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

The name " Hougoumont '' seemed familiar to
Captain Anthony. Suddenly it flashed upon his
mind that this was the vessel which Devoy had
named as taking the Fenian prisoners whom he was
bound to rescue out to the colony. The meeting
at this time, and the reminder, unnerved the cap-
tain for a moment and if the Englishman had been
observant he might have suspected from his conduct
that the mention of the name of the vessel created
an unexpected sensation.

But the suggestion started the captain of the
Ocean Beauty to relate reminiscences of life on
the convict ship. He told Captain Anthony of
John Boyle O'Reilly. " You may have heard of
him," he said, " for he escaped in one of your whale-
ships." He recalled the publication of a paper by
O'Reilly on the Hougoumont called ^' The Wild
Goose," so named because the soldiers of Sarsfield,
who entered the service in foreign armies upon the
failure of their effort for liberty, were called " The
Wild Geese." It was published weekly. Father
Delaney, the ship's chaplain, furnishing O'Reilly
with the paper and writing materials. John Flood,
Dennis B. Cashman, and J. Edward 0' Kelly were
editors, with O'Reilly, and Cashman wrote an orna-
mental heading entwined with shamrocks, and the
sub-heads as well. It was published on Saturdays,
and O'Reilly read it to the company between decks
on Sundays. In this publication his narrative poem
^' The Flying Dutchman," written off the Cape of
Good Hope, first appeared.

A STRANGE EPISODE 105

"We published seven weekly numbers of it,"
O'Reilly has written. ''Amid the dim glare of the
lamp the men, at night, would group strangely on
extemporized seats, the yellow light full on the
pale faces of the men as they listened with blazing
eyes to Davis's ' Fontenoy,' or the ' Clansmen's Wild
Address to Shane's Head ! ' Ah, that is another of
the grand picture memories that come only to those
who deal with life's stern realities ! "

The Englishman's reference to Australia opened
the way for Captain Anthony to inquire the possi-
bilities of the place for refitting and taking aboard
fresh provisions. The Englishman advised it, say-
ing that it was a cheap place to recruit ship.

" Have you a sheet chart of the coast you could
spare me ? " asked Captain Anthony finally.

" Lots of them. Here 's the roll I used when I
was master of the Hougoumont. Help yourself.
You 're welcome to any you want."

The Englishman handed out a bulky roll, and
Captain Anthony selected a chart of the western
coast of Australia on a large scale, showing the sur-
vey about Swan River, Ereemantle, Bunbury, Rott-
nest Island and lighthouse.

Then, as the wind was strengthening. Captain
Anthony arose to go. The Englishman bid him
" God speed," and the men parted.

Upon reaching the Catalpa,, Captain Anthony
went down into the cabin, chuckling in great glee.

"What's happened? " asked Mr. Smith.

" Why," said the captain, " would you believe

106 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

it ? I 've just been given the very chart which was
used by the captain of the Hougoumont to land the
prisoners we 're after, at Freemantle. The captain
little thought it was to be used in taking a ship
there to rescue the same men."

The hilarity over this circumstance kept the two
men in good humor for a long time.

CHAPTER XVI

ARRIVAL AT AUSTRALIA

For eleven days, from February 29 to March 10,
the vessel lay to most of the time under lower top-
sails and staysails, in a heavy and prolonged gale
from the S. S. E., dead ahead. It rained, and the
days were anxious and dreary to the captain. When
an observation was finally taken it was found that
in this period the vessel had made only 60 miles
progress south and 120 miles east. Such a storm
from the east is very unusual in this latitude.

But at last strong, fair winds from the west and
southwest set in and the Catalpa sailed like a race-
horse. On March 15 the island of St. Paul in lat.
38° 25' S. and long. 78° 28' E. was raised. Whale-
men always like to stop at St. Paul for the fishing.
Captain Anthony had been there a number of times,
and with a crude apparatus had often taken a boat-
load of crawfish in a few hours. A large iron hoop
is used, interwoven with spun yarn, and baited.
Other varieties of fish can be caught with hook,
line, and pork bait.

Sail was shortened and lines were prepared for
fishing. Small boats were lowered and, upon row-
ing in near the shore, the kelp, which abounded, was

108 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

hauled over the how of the hoat and served as an
anchor. The Catalpa ran around under the lee of
the island, which hy the way has a peak 820 feet in
height, when a westerly gale came on, commencing
with heavy squalls.

The sea was ugly and the fishing expedition was
abandoned. "With all sail set, the Catalpa made fine
progress that day. Great seas struck her stern and
followed over the leading boards, but the vessel was
already due at Australia and Captain Anthony de-
termined to crowd her henceforth.

After leaving St. Paul the crew was satisfied that
the bark was going to New Zealand, and of course
they were not enlightened. Fair wind in plenty
favored the vessel and she was driven hard, some
days making 200 miles, until on March 27 the high
land of Cape Naturaliste on the Australian coast
was sighted. The crew was now certain that this
was New Zealand, and Mr. Farnham, the second
mate, said he recognized the promontory.

The chains were soon bent on the anchors, and at
night the vessel was anchored in the shoal water of
Geographe Bay. At five o'clock the next morning
the Catalpa was once more under way, and at ten
o'clock reached anchorage off Bunbury harbor, at
the head of the bay.

So after nearly a year at sea, a year of worry and
hard work, the rendezvous was reached. It brought
little exaltation to Captain Anthony, for he knew
that the crisis was at hand which would be the
supreme test of his courage.

ARRIVAL AT AUSTRALIA 109

During these closing days he had said but little
to his only confidant, Mr. Smith, but his mind had
been busy Avith disconcerting thoughts. Whom
would he meet ? Might not the conspirators have
failed in carrying out the land end of the plot ?
Possibly the plan had been discovered and the au-
thorities were awaiting his arrival on shore to take
him in custody and seize the vessel. The long de-
lay had been a long torture for a man of Captain
Anthony's activity, and he welcomed the develop-
ments which awaited him on shore.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LAND END OF THE CONSPIRACY

For many weary months the reader has followed
the fortunes of the expedition hy sea. It was at
this point that Captain Anthony's solicitude concern-
ing the success of the conspiracy on land became
intense ; so here seems a proper place to commence
the recitation of another part of the story.

And here we meet a man of whom it has been
said that there is no more romantic figure in the
stormy history of modern Ireland. John J. Breslin
was selected to go to Australia and manage the land
end of the rescue.

Mr. Breslin was already a famous hero, and his
burning love of country, his chivalry and his bravery,
were written in the hearts of Erin's sons and daugh-
ters. He is described by one writer as "a tall,
courtly man, whose classical features, flowing white
beard, and military bearing, made him a striking per-
sonage wherever he went.

" His history reads like a chapter from the days
of good King Arthur. His name will, in time to
come, start wonderful echoes among the thousand
hills of Ireland."

His bold and adroit rescue of James Stephens, the

THE LAND END OF THE CONSPIRACY 111

head centre of the Fenian movement in Ireland,
while the government was gloating over his capture,
startled the nations in 1865. Mr. Breslin was born
in Drogheda in 1835. His father was a County
Tyrone man and subsequently removed to Leinster.
John received a good national school education and
was always studious and an undefatigable reader.
Although he ever upheld the views of the Nation-
alists, he had no connection with any organization
until 1865, when Stephens's reply to the magis-
trates after his arrest confirmed him in the national
faith.

Stephens had been engaged with the Irish patri-
ots, Smith and O'Brien, in 1848, and escaped to
Paris after the miserable failure of the insurrection
at Ballingarry. For five years he plotted by corre-
spondence, and then the little coterie of exiles drew
lots to see which should return to Ireland to organ-
ize the new conspiracy. Stephens was selected, and
he made a house-to-house canvass of the Emerald
Isle, walking over 3,500 miles, reconnoitring the
strongholds of Ireland, sometimes disguised as a
priest, sometimes as a beggar, and associating with
the people in their cabins and farmhouses.

Meanwhile tireless and faithful friends of Ireland
in America were working with similar purpose, and
the result was the organization known as "The
Irish Republican Brotherhood," or " Fenians."
jNIore than a million Irishmen in America, and half
that number in Ireland, were enrolled. At the
head of the vast conspiracy was James Stephens.

112 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

The aim of the Fenian organization was the forma-
tion of an army to cope with the army of England.

When the organization grew formidahle, England
determined to suppress the brotherhood in Ireland,
and through treachery and the employment of spies
the British government at length learned that Ste-
phens was the ''head centre;" but so manifold were
his disguises that the police were baffled for a long
time.

During his wanderings Stephens had married a
beautiful Tipperary girl. She was identified as
Mrs. Stephens while at the head of the household of
a gentleman living in the suburbs of Dublin, whose
name was presumed to be Herbert. The house was
surrounded one night and " Herbert," who proved
to be Stephens, was captured as he slept.

There was much rejoicing in England at the cap-
ture, and Stephens was consigned to the Richmond
bridewell, one of the strongest prisons in Ireland.
The ponderous iron door of his cell was secured with
bars, and it was on a corridor which was guarded by
a second iron door, double locked. There he was
shut in and extraordinary precautions taken to pre-
vent his escape.

Mr. Breslin was at that time superintendent of
the prison hospital. One night he opened the door
of Stephens's cell with a false key, placed a loaded
revolver in the fallen leader's hand, and led him
forth to freedom. Guards, heavily armed, were
everywhere, but they were eluded, and Stephens
once more escaped to France.

JOHN J. BR^SLIN

Who managed the land end of the Rescue

THE LAND END OF THE CONSPIRACY 113

The escape amazed England. It was long before
suspicion fastened upon Breslin. Then he came to
America, and was for a while a railway freight agent
in Boston. Here he worked for a time, making few
acquaintances. ^^Few knew him," said O'Keilly,
''and to few were shown the culture and refinement
behind the modest exterior. In thought and ap-
pearance eminently a gentleman ; in demeanor dig-
nified and reserved ; in observance, rather distrust-
ful, as if disappointed in his ideal man ; somewhat
cynical, perhaps, and often stubbornly prejudiced
and unjust ; a lover of and a successful worker in
literature, — such is an outline of a character that
may indeed be called extraordinary."

In America Mr. Breslin soon became a powerful
spirit in the Clan-na-Gael, and the proposed expe-
dition to rescue the political prisoners in Australia
was work for which his bold spirit hungered and
thirsted. His selection as the manager of the land
end of the rescue was equally as fortunate as that
of his co-worker. Captain Anthony.

His associate was Captain Thomas Desmond, a
Nationalist from the time he could stand alone.
Captain Desmond was born in Queenstown, but came
to this country in early childhood and was living in
Los Angeles, California, at this time.

Messrs. Breslin and Desmond sailed from San
Francisco for Australia in September, 1875. There
they were to meet John King, a Dublin man, who
had lived in New South Wales for several years,
and who had collected about $3,500 for the rescue
project.

114 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Upon their arrival at Freemantle, Australia, in
November, the men separated and became ostensible
strangers. Mr. Breslin assumed the name of J. Col-
lins, and posed as a man of wealth seeking invest-
ments. His dignity and grace of manner enabled him
to carry out the role with success, and it was not long
before he became a universal favorite. The gov-
ernor was attracted by the charm of his manner, and
frequently entertained him.

After visiting Perth, Mr. Breslin concluded that
he would make Freemantle his headquarters, and
established himself at the Emerald Isle Hotel. Des-
mond went on to Perth and found employment at
his trade of carriage-making.

Presently Mr. Breslin made the acquaintance of
William Foley, a Fenian who had once been a pris-
oner, and through him notified James Wilson of his
arrival and arranged for further communications.
On one occasion Mr. Breslin was invited to inspect
the prison, "The Establishment," as they call it
in the colony, and he was conducted through it by
the superintendent, Mr. Donan.

The Fenian prisoners were working on the roads
by day, and after much difficulty Mr. Breslin suc-
ceeded in talking over his plans with Wilson.
Then, inasmuch as the Catalpa was not expected
before the last of January, to avoid suspicion he
took a trip inland, visiting Perth, Guildford, York,
Northam, Newcastle, and various smaller villages.

Then followed dull weeks of anxious waiting.
About $4,000 in money was brought by King, who

THE LAND END OF THE CONSPIRACY 115

passed as a gold miner, contributed by New Zealand
sympathizers, which proved timely at this crisis.
Two other agents of the revolutionary organization
in Ireland, Denis F. McCarthy of Cork, and John
Durham, also appeared on the scene and volunteered
their assistance. They assumed the duty of cutting
the telegraph wires after the escape should be
efifected.

The prisoners were frequently shifted around,
communication with them was often difficult, and
Mr. Breslin was as nearly distracted as a cool-headed
man could be. In March, the whaling bark Canton
was reported at Bunbury, and Mr. Breslin tele-
graphed the master to know if he had any news of
the Catalpa of New Bedford. He replied that he
knew nothing of her.

Mr. Breslin determined to go to Bunbury, and on
the 6th of March left for the town. There was no
news, and he returned to Freemantle in a small
coasting vessel called the ]\Iay.

At length, on the 29th of March, at 6.30 in the
morning, there was posted on the bulletin board at
the telegraph office at Freemantle the announce-
ment of the arrival of the Catalpa at Bunbury.

CHAPTER XVIII

MEETING OF ANTHOXY AND BRESLIN

The morning after the arrival of the Catalpa at
Bunbury was bright and beautiful. Captain An-
thony ordered a crew of picked men into one of
the boats, for he dared not trust some of his sailors
ashore, fearing they would desert the ship, and
landed on the jetty. Then the boat returned, and
the captain walked toward the town.

He was on the alert for recognition, and wan-
dered about the old town all day, momentarily
expecting and hoping that some fellow-conspirator
would reveal himself. He returned to the ship at
night, disappointed and anxious. Captain Anthony
and Mr. Smith had a serious consultation, and agreed
that there was nothing to do but to wait.

The next morning Captain Anthony again went
ashore. At the head of the jetty a boy approached
and asked if he was Captain Anthony. Upon re-
ceiving an affirmative reply, the lad handed the
captain a telegram. It read as follows : —

Electric Telegraph, Western Australia,
Bunbury, 29th March, 1876.

Time, 10.40 A. m.
By B. W.

The following telep:ram received here from Freemantle Station.
Subject to the regulations and conditions printed on the other
side : —

MEETING OF ANTHONY AND BRESLIN 117

To Captain Anthony : —

Have you any news from New Bedford ? When
can you come to Freemantle ?

J. Collins.

The captain was straightway relieved of a ton of
care. Now he knew that there were friends in this
remote land who were to share the great responsi-
bility. He went to the telegraph office and wired
to Collins : —

No news from New Bedford. Shall not come
to Freemantle.

G. S. Anthony.

Captain Anthony engaged rooms at the local hotel
and prepared to await developments. He had bought
fresh meat for the ship of a marketman named David
Hay, who told him much of an American gentleman
of great wealth who was prospecting in the locality.
Suspecting he might be the confederate who was to
meet him, Captain Anthony looked up Hay, who
presently alluded once more to the American, de-
claring he was the finest man he ever met.

" What is his name ? " asked Anthony.

'' Mr. Collins," replied Hay.

At four o'clock the next afternoon, when the
mail-coach from Freemantle rolled into Bunbury,
Captain Anthony was at Hay's store.

" Why, there 's the very man I was telling you
about ! " ejaculated Hay, as he looked up. " Come
up to Spencer's Hotel and I '11 introduce you.'^

The men walked up to the hotel and asked for

118 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Collins. He came down from his room in a few
minutes, and the introduction followed. The meet-
ing had taken place in the most natural manner
possible, and without giving cause for suspicion that
the men were meeting by appointment.

Collins w^ore a light suit. He was a magnificent
fellow, and he charmed Captain Anthony, as he
charmed all men with whom he came in contact.
The captain remained to supper with his new friend,
but not a word of the rescue was uttered at this
time. After supper, Collins ordered cigars and in-
vited Captain Anthony to take a walk. It was now
after sundown, and the men walked out on the jetty
in the darkness. The jetty was a long pile wharf,
with a sentry house at the head, where an officer is
constantly on guard to prevent smuggling. When
they had walked a safe distance down the jetty,
Breslin turned, grasped the captain's hands with a
hearty " How are you ? "

Then he told the captain of his fears, consequent
upon the tardiness of the vessel in arriving, and then
quickly outlined the plan. The prisoners, he said,
were working on the road under a strong guard all
day, and were locked in prison cells at night. Plans
were to be devised by which the men were to escape
and reach the coast at a place called Rockingham,
about twenty miles south of Freemantle. There
Captain Anthony was to meet them with a whale-
boat and take them aboard his , ship, which w^as to
lie a dozen miles off the coast, where it would at-
tract no attention. In order that Captain Anthony

MEETING OF ANTHONY AND BRESLIN 119

might become thoroughly acquainted with the lo-
cality, Breslin proposed that he should return to
Freemantle with him on the colonial mail steamer
Georgette, which was to leave Bun bury the next
day, April 1. Then the captain might study the
coast and see the spot where the men were to be
embarked, if the plans worked well. The rescue
was to be attempted on Thursday, April 6.

Then the men walked back to the hotel and
retired. The following morning Captain Anthony
took Mr. Breslin aboard the Catalpa and introduced
him to Mr. Smith. Then they went ashore to go
aboard the Georgette.

As they walked up the jetty their surprise was
overwhelming when they saw Thomas Brennan
coming toward them.

Brennan's indefatigable determination to join the
expedition had at length succeeded. When he ar-
rived at St. Michael's as the Catalpa sailed out, he
was by no means disconcerted. He then . resolved
to go to London and take a steamer for Australia.

Brennan offered- the captain of the Selbourne, a
fruit steamer, fifty pounds to take him to Liverpool ;
but the proposition was rejected, and he stowed him-
self away with several other men. When the ship
was at sea, the men presented themselves to the cap-
tain, who made them prisoners, believing they were
criminals fleeing from punishment for crimes com-
mitted on the island. He declared he would deliver
them to the Liverpool authorities.

This was serious for Brennan. He had a large

120 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

sum of money about him which would render him
liable to suspicion, and he could not afford to be
delayed. When Liverpool was reached the captain
signaled for the police, whereupon Brennan jumped
overboard and started for the shore. When nearly
exhausted he was picked up by a rowboat and landed.
Then he proceeded to London and took a steamer
for Australia.

Ill-luck pursued him, for when the steamer reached
King George's Sound she was quarantined on ac-
count of smallpox, which was raging. And the next
day the Georgette was to sail for Bunbury, where he
suspected the Catalpa might be. If he missed her,
he would be detained another month. He made his
escape and secured passage on the Georgette.

It must be admitted that neither Breslin nor
Anthony were overjoyed at the meeting. They
already had all the assistance they needed, and each
addition to the party only increased the chances of
arousing suspicion. But Brennan was here, and
there was nothing to do but take him along to
Freemantle.

It was agreed that Captain Anthony was to be
introduced as the guest of "Mr. Collins" on the
steamer. Brennan was to be a stranger. Captain
Anthony at once commenced to cultivate the friend-
ship of Captain O'Grady of the Georgette. The
latter had sailed out of New York and was inter-
ested in the American. Captain Anthony was with
him in the pilot-house throughout the trip, and se-
cured an acquaintance with the coast, the courses,

MEETING OF ANTHONY AND BRESLIN 121

and bearings. He gave particular attention to the
coast outside Eockingham and the positions of Eott-
nest and Garden islands.

At noon the next day Freemantle was reached.
High over the town the stone prison in which the
prisoners were confined at night stood like a senti-
nel, and reminded Captain Anthony that his task
was no trifling one. But there was a suggestion
more grim in the discovery of one of Her Britan-
nic Majesty's gunboats, the Conflict, anchored in the
harbor. She was a schooner-rigged vessel, carrying
two guns and thirty men, and the captain saw by
her lines that she must be a fast sailer.

The appearance of the gunboat was unexpected,
and Captain Anthony and Mr. Breslin exchanged
significant glances as they saw her. It was Sunday
morning when they landed, and they went to the
Emerald Isle Hotel, where Captain Anthony was
introduced to his fellow-conspirators, John King
and Captain Desmond. The latter was working as a
wheelwright at Perth and posed as a Yankee. He
kept up his assumed identity by a liberal use of the
vernacular of the Vermont farmer. From the latter
it was learned that the gunboat had come to Free-
mantle on an annual visit, and might remain for a
week or ten days, then proceeding to Adelaide and
Sidney ; also, that another gunboat was expected to
call at Freemantle and take Governor Eobinson to
visit the northwest coast.

CHAPTER XIX

ARRANGING T^E DETAILS

In the afternoon Mr. Breslin brought around a
trap to drive over the road to Rockingham, where
the men were to embark in the whaleboat for the
ship, if the escape was successful. For ten miles
the drive was over the hard macadamized road built
by the prisoners and called the Fenian road. With
a pair of horses and four men in the trap, this dis-
tance was accomplished in forty minutes, and the
test was very satisfactory. Then a sandy, heavy
road was encountered for a distance of seven miles,
which merged into a mere track winding through
the " black boys," as the trees are called, the bush,
and the sand to Rockingham Hotel. The latter
stretch was about four miles, and the total distance
was made in two hours and twenty minutes.

Here a hard, sandy beach was discovered. Gar-
den Island, a long, low stretch of land covered with
tall grass and bush, makes out from a point and
extends nearly to Freemantle, forming Cockburn's
Sound, a sheltered inlet. At the north end of the
island is a narrow passage between the island and
Cape Peron, a point on the mainland. Here the
men alighted.

ARRANGING THE DETAILS 123

"Now, this is the place/' said Mr. Breslin,
'^ where we propose to bring the men, and where
we expect you to meet us with a boat."

Captain Anthony stuck up an old piece of joist
or rail in the sand above high-water mark.

" Let it be understood that this is the place where
I will meet you with my boat if God spares my
life," said the captain.

The four men then drove back to the hotel at
Kockingham, where they rested, for the day had
been intensely hot, and men and horses were thor-
oughly fatigued. That evening they arranged a
code of cipher for telegraphing. Breslin was to
notify Captain Anthony at Bunbury when the gun-
boat left Freemantle, and the captain was to tele-
graph back the hour of sailing. Forty-eight hours
from the time when the telegram was sent. Captain
Anthony was to have the Catalpa off the coast at
Kockingham and his boat on the beach.

This was leaving much to chance, of course.
Bockingham was a hundred miles from Bunbury,
and head winds, bad weather, or calms might pre-
vent the Catalpa from covering the distance within
that time. But it was indeed a desperate undertak-
ing ; the men had resolved to take desperate chances
and trust the luck which had thus far attended the
expedition.

The telegraphic code was arranged as follows :
When the gunboat sailed, Breslin was to send the
message, " Your friend (N. or S. meaning north or
south) has gone home. When do you sail ? " This

124 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

meant, "The gunboat has sailed north or south.
All right. Start from Bunbury." In case the
gunboat arrived to take the governor to the north-
west coast, Breslin was to wire " Jones is going
overland to Champion Bay. When do you clear
out of Bunbury ? '' And when the coast was again
clear, " Jones has gone to Champion Bay ; did not
receive a letter from you," meaning, " All right
again."

On Monday, Captain Anthony was invited to go
with his friends and a party of merchants in the
colony to Perth, the residence of the governor. The
company assembled at one of the hotels, and previ-
ous to the dinner were entertained by the songs of
a Western Australian shepherd. A copy of the
verses of one of the selections, describing one of
the unique sports of the colony, was given the cap-
tain at his request. These are the lines : —

''I 'm an odd thinking man,

And will get on if I can, —
I 'm only a shepherd, 'tis true;

I find sport with my gun
Whilst out on the run,

In hunting the kangaroo !

*' Some folks talk of the fox,

Ride through heather and box,
Hounds, steeds, and their hunting crew ;

That is all very well,
But no sport can excel

The chase of the kangaroo.

**If I put up a doe,

Oft her offspring she '11 throw
From the pouch in her breast, 'tis true;
And now for the fun^ —

ARRANGING THE DETAILS 125

For I don't use my gun, —
But run down the young kangaroo.

" Whilst my dogs on the scent

Of killing intent,
Swiftly o'er the plain they flew:

They ne'er lose a trail,
Nor to kill ever fail.

Or show the dead kangaroo.

"When a booma 's at bay

You 've the devil to pay,
He '11 fight like a boxer, 't is true:

He 's a terrible foe,
As the dogs often know,

In encounters with kangaroo.

"I 've kept you too long.

So an end to my song ;
I hope 't will amuse not a few.

WTien we meet again
We '11 go out on the plain,

For a hunt of the kangaroo."

When the gentlemen were about to be seated at
the dinner-table, Captain Anthony was filled with
consternation as a government official placed his
hand on his arm and said, " Excuse me, sir, but
what is your name and business, and what are you
doing here ? "

Captain Anthony naturally thought the plot had
been betrayed, when Breslin stepped up to explain
that this was a custom of the country. The captain
received such a shock that he failed to thoroughly
enjoy the dinner. He found another illustration of
the suspicion which is always abroad in the penal
colony, later in the day. Going into the hydro-
graphic office to buy a chart of the coast, he was

126 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

compelled to reply to a long series of questions be-
fore he was permitted to purchase it.

On Thursday, April 6, Captain Anthony started
back to the ship in the Bunbury mail coach, carry-
ing $250 in gold which Mr. Breslin had given him
to square up his bills. This was a thirty-two hours'
journey over sandy roads, and as the weather was
hot and Captain Anthony was the only passenger,
he was utterly wearied when he arrived at Bunbury
at four p. M. the following day.

CHAPTER XX

A CRITICAL SITUATION

And now followed a period of waiting, and the
captain was worn with anxiety. The possible sus-
picion of the people ashore at the delay in departure
must be anticipated, and the captain busied himself
in getting potatoes and onions, wood and water
aboard, and opened up negotiations for a quantity
of kangaroo skins.

The crew had become uneasy at the long delay,
and were almost mutinous at their restricted shore
liberty, for Captain Anthony did not dare to trust
them with shore leave, excepting in charge of an
officer. Their own theory of the proceeding was
that the vessel was fitting for a cruise to New Zea-
land. They were humored in this belief, and were
kept busy in painting and refitting.

One forenoon, when the captain was ashore with
Mr. Smith, they noticed the colors at half-mast, and
saw that four of the crew had stolen a boat and
were rowing ashore, with another boat's crew in
pursuit. The runaways reached shore and started
for the beach. The police were notified, and soon
overtook and captured them. The ringleader, Jo-
seph McCarty, struck an officer and was detained.

128 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

The other three were delivered aboard the vessel
and were placed in irons in the steerage. The man
who was arrested was a desperate fellow, and Cap-
tain Anthony was glad to have him go. He was
sentenced for seven days for the assault. The cap-
tain hoped to get to sea before he was released, but
the man served his time and went down on the jetty
and sought to go aboard the ship. Captain Anthony
did not dare to trust the man, in view of his delicate
mission, and refused to receive him. He was one
of the men who was shipped at Teneriffe, and had
a bad record.

Two days had passed since the captain's return to
the vessel, and no word had been received from
Breslin. Meanwhile, the vessel was in readiness
for a prompt departure. At noon, on Tuesday,
April 11, a telegram was delivered to Captain An-
thony, which read as follows : —

Your friend S. has gone home. When do you
sail?

J. Collins.

Captain Anthony at once cleared his vessel at the
custom-house, and later in the day, as he was about
to telegraph that he would start, word was brought
to him at the hotel that the Catalpa had been seized
by the custom-house officials and that an officer
was in charge. The distracted captain hastened to
the custom-house, and found his offense had been
a violation of the law in landing a barrel of pork
after he had cleared. After a long consultation the

A CRITICAL SITUATION 129

officers released the vessel, but it was then too late
to sail.

On Wednesday, Captain Anthony telegraphed: —

I '11 sail to-day. Good-by. Answer, if received.

G. S. Anthony.
Back came the reply : —

Your telegram received. Friday being Good
Friday, I shall remain in Freemantle, and leave for
York on Saturday morning. I wish you may strike
oil. Answer, if received.

J. Collins.

Freemantle.

Captain Anthony at once appreciated the situa-
tion. He knew that the prisoners were detained in
their cells on Sundays and holidays, and that his
plan would have placed him at Rockingham on
Friday. He replied to Breslin's telegram : —

Yours received. Did not leave to-day. Wind
ahead and raining. Sail in the morning. Good-by.

G. S. Anthony.

That evening the captain discovered that his crew
had been doing a rescue on its own account, and had
stowed a ticket-of-leave man in the mizzen-topmast
staysail. While he pitied the fellow, he was fearful
that the authorities might discover the man hidden
on his vessel, and make trouble which would inter-
fere with the great object ahead. So he notified the
police, and they came aboard and took the man
ashore.

130 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Still misfortune crowded in upon the conspirators.
A heavy storm came on, extra anchors were neces-
sary ; but with the whole length of chain out the
Catalpa dragged, and destruction on the bar was
threatened.

It was impossible to sail, and Captain Anthony
knew that Breslin's plans must be upset once more.
He went to the telegraph office to send a message,
and found it closed on account of the holiday. He
hunted up the operator, a woman. She declined to
go to the office, saying it would be useless, since the
Freemantle office was closed. The captain pleaded,
for he knew that everything depended upon it. At
length the woman opened the office and sat down to
the instrument.

She called for several minutes. There was no
reply.

" I told you it would be of no use," she replied.

Just then came an answering click. The opera-
tor sat down at the instrument once more. After a
moment, she said : —

"They are taking the message. An operator hap-
pened in.''

Captain Anthony nearly shouted with joy. This
is the message which he sent : —

J. Collins, Esq. : —

It has blown heavy. Ship dragged both an-
chors. Can you advance money, if needed ? Will
telegraph again in the morning.

G. S. Anthony.

A CRITICAL SITUATION 131

Once more the element of good luck had mani-
fested itself, this time at a most critical point.

On Saturday morning, April 15, Captain Anthony
finally telegraphed : —

"I shall certainly sail to-day. Suppose you will
leave for York Sunday morning. Good-by.'^

Straightway the answer came back : —

Your telegram received. All right. Glad you
got off without damage. Au revoir.

J. Collins.

Captain Anthony reported at the custom-house
that he was ready for sea, and the officers came off
and prodded the hold and every dark space with
spears, according to custom, to see if any prisoners
were stowed away. At two o'clock in the after-
noon a moderate favoring breeze from the S. S. W.
was blowing. Anchor was hoisted, and with all
sail set the Catalpa slipped up the coast bound for
E/Ockingham.

CHAPTER XXI

LEAVING THE SHIP

At sundown the vessel was well outside the har-
bor and sail was shortened. In the evening the
captain went below for a nap, telling the officers in
charge of the deck not to go over three miles an hour,
to keep the land well in sight, and call him at mid-
night if all was well, but sooner if there was any
change in the weather. At twelve o'clock Captain
Anthony was on deck again. The weather continued
favorable, for which he was exceedingly grateful.
The inverted season corresponded to fall at home,
and it was the time when storms were looked for.
A delay now would certainly be disastrous, and the
weather was a source of the most constant anxiety.

The captain remained on deck throughout the
night. At noon on Sunday the vessel had pro-
ceeded up the coast until it was about twenty miles
south of Rottnest lighthouse, off Freemantle har-
bor. Now he called Mr. Smith into the cabin,
spread out the chart, and explained to him that
the lighthouse was twelve miles offshore from the
Freemantle jetty and one hundred and ninety-seven
feet above the level of the sea, with a signal station
on top from which the approach of vessels was sig-

LEAVING THE SHIP 133

naled to the town. He cautioned the mate to keep
the ship out of near range, and told Mr. Smith that
the crisis had come and he was about to start in the
small boat. He was to lay off and on the land and
keep a sharp lookout for his return.

*' If I do not come back," he said, " you must use
your best judgment. Go whaling or go home, as
you like."

Then the men clasped hands, and Captain An-
thony once more thanked fortune that he could leave
his vessel in the hands of a brave man who could
be trusted, whatever the emergency.

The captain then went on deck, threw a coat into
one of the whaleboats, stowed away a bag of hard-
bread, two kegs of water, and half a boiled ham, and
ordered the boat lowered. A crew which the cap-
tain had selected after much thought was then sta-
tioned at the oars : Mr. Sylvia the third mate, Tobey
the boatsteerer, Lewis a Portuguese, and Mopsy and
Lombard, two Malays. Each man was told io take
his coat, and the proceeding doubtless caused amaze-
ment among the men ; but good sailors obey orders
in silence and no word was spoken among them.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon when the
boat left the ship. Captain Anthony was due at
Eockingham at noon the next day. A small sail
was put on the boat, and she made good progress.
Just before dark, when the boat was well in under
Garden Island, the sail was taken in and oars were
shipped, for the captain did not wish to make a
landing before nightfall. When the boat was off

134 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

the south end of the island the captain was startled
at a roaring like thunder, and an instant later saw
blind breakers, ten feet in height, making directly
for the boat. He shouted orders to the men to look
out for their oars and trim the boat. They let the
oars come alongside and succeeded in keeping the
little craft steady. She was lifted high in air on
three of the rollers. Then all was quiet, for the
boat had reached the smooth waters of Cockburn
Sound. Oars were shipped once more, and the boat
jogged on in the darkness. The captain knew by
the ranges he had taken as he came through the
passage that he must be near the spot selected as a
meeting place.

A landing was made on the beach. Captain
Anthony stepped ashore and had not walked more
than three hundred feet when his foot struck the
stake which had been set up as a mark on his previ-
ous visit.

It was now about 8.30 o'clock in the evening.
The boat was hauled up on the beach and the men
were told to lie down in the grass and sleep. It
was clear and warm, and, unquestioning, they did as
the captain told them.

Captain Anthony walked the beach all the night
through, filled with disquieting thoughts and long-
ing for the day.

CHAPTER XXII

THE ESCAPE

Meanwhile, how had it fared with Breslin,
whom we have seen must have been forced to change
his plans several times at brief notice ? Mr. Bres-
lin had arranged a signal with Wilson which meant,
^^ Get ready ; we start to-morrow morning," but he
could not give it on Friday. He succeeded, how-
ever, in sending a letter of instructions, concluding :
" We have money, arms, and clothes ; let no man's
heart fail him, for this chance can never occur
again."

Desmond went from Perth to Freemantle and
joined Breslin, with a pair of fine horses and a four-
wheeled wagon. He reached there Friday evening.
Mr. Breslin had a similar conveyance and the best
pair of horses he could get in Freemantle engaged
for Friday and Saturday. On Friday afternoon he
took the horses out for a trial trip, to see that they
went well together and were in good condition.

Everything was in -readiness for the attempt, when
Mr. Breslin received Captain Anthony's telegram
announcing that the Catalpa could not start on ac-
count of the storm. By a fortunate chance Cranston
had been sent from the prison into the town that

136 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

evening, and he was informed of the change in the
programme. Mr. Breslin thought that inasmuch as
the vessel had dragged both anchors, she must have
gone on the bar, and that a delay of weeks might
follow before she was again ready for sea. So Des-
mond returned to Perth and prepared for another
wait. But on Saturday came the telegram from
Captain Anthony announcing that he would sail that
day.

The escape must therefore be accomplished on
Monday. Mr. Breslin engaged the same horses for
Sunday and sent King to Perth on horseback to
notify Desmond to return to Freemantle with his
horses on Sunday evening. Saturday evening he
walked to the jetty and gave to Wilson the signal
which meant, *' We start to-morrow morning.'' For-
tunately he noticed Wilson's puzzled look, for an
escape on Sunday, when the men were locked in the
prison, was, of course, impossible. Then he realized
the error. Walking leisurely across, he said to Wil-
son as he passed," Monday morning," without being
observed by the warden or the other prisoners.

Desmond arrived in Freemantle at about two
o'clock Sunday afternoon with an inferior pair of
horses, and when Mr. Breslin went to get the horses
he had engaged, he found that Albert, the owner,
had given the best horse to Mr. Stone, the superin-
tendent of the water police, to go to Perth, his bro-
ther-in-law, the sheriff, having been injured by being
thrown from his horse. Moreover, Albert told him
he could not have the other horse, since he had

THE ESCAPE 137

promised it to a man to go to the Perth regatta on
Easter Monday. So he engaged another pair, but
the expedition was much more poorly equipped in
this respect than on the date first selected.

And now came Monday. There were many
anxious hearts in Australia that night, and Captain
Anthony, who paced the lonely beach, was not alone
in his sleepless vigil. At 5.30 o'clock in the morn-
ing Breslin had the hostler called. Brennan started
at six for Eockingham with arms and luggage. At
seven Mr. Breslin went to Albert's stable and found
his horses harnessed to a light trap, waiting for him.
He told the hostler to let them stand a few minutes
and then found Desmond and directed him to have
his horses harnessed and ready to leave in half an
hour.

It was arranged that Desmond should leave by a
side street which, after a few turns, took him up on
the Eockingham Koad, while Breslin was to drive
up High Street, as if he were going to Perth, then
turn around by the prison and on to the same road.
King, who was well mounted, was to remain for a
reasonable time after the start, then follow with in-
formation whether the alarm had been given.

At half past seven Breslin drove slowly up the
principal street, turned to the right, walked his
horses slowly by the warden's quarters and pension-
ers' barracks. The men were beginning to assemble
for parade. He had arranged with the prisoners
that he would have the traps waiting at the road at
a quarter before eight, the nearest to be stationed

138 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

about five minutes' run from the prison, and that
they would remain until nine o'clock.

Being ahead of time, Breslin drove slowly along
the E-ockingham Boad, met Desmond, and they
stopped under a tree and divided the hats and coats
they had brought to cover the convict garb, each
taking three long linen coats and three hats. Then
Breslin drove back toward Freemantle, Desmond
following.

Time, 7.55 o'clock.

A few minutes later, three men in prison dress
were seen coming down the Bockingham Boad.
They proved to be Wilson, Cranston, and Harring-
ton. Breslin told them to pass on and get into Des-
mond's trap, which they did. Desmond wheeled
his horses around and they were seated and ready to
start when the other three came in sight. Breslin
drove toward them and found they were Darragh,
Hogan, and Hassett. One carried a spade and an-
other a large kerosene can. When the men recog-
nized their rescuers, the man with the spade threw it
with exultant vigor into the bush and the prisoner
with the can bestowed a kick upon it in good foot-
ball fashion.

At this critical juncture, Breslin's horses rebelled
and refused to wheel around. Darragh caught one
by the head, but he plunged so that Breslin was
afraid the animal would break the harness, and
shouted to Darragh to let go. He did so and the
horses started fairly well together. Driving to a
wider part of the road, they wheeled nicely. Bres-

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THE ESCAPE 139

lin picked up his men, and the horses were ofif at
dashing speed. Desmond, meanwhile, was out of
sight, and King had come up, reporting everything
quiet when he left.

It must here be explained how the prisoners were
able to get away so successfully. Their good con-
duct and length of imprisonment had entitled them
to the rank of constable, which afforded the oppor-
tunity for communication with each other. Wilson
and Harrington worked in the same party at the
construction of harbor works in Freemantle. Hogan
was a painter by trade, and on this morning was
employed in painting the house of Mr. Fauntleroy,
outside the prison walls. Cranston was employed
in the stores, and as messenger occasionally. Dar-
ragh was clerk and attendant to the Church of
England chaplain, and enjoyed facilities for com-
munication with the other prisoners. This morning
he took Hassett with him to plant potatoes in the
garden of Mr. Broomhole, clerk of works in the
convict department.

It fortunately happened that on the morning of
April 17 all the political prisoners were at work
outside the prison wall. Cranston walked out as if
going to deliver a message. He overtook the work-
ing party and told the warden he had been sent to
take Wilson and Harrington to move some furniture
in the governor's house, which was the nearest point
to the meeting place. He exhibited a key, and the
warden directed the two men to go with Cranston.

Darragh and Hassett started as if for work in the

140 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

same direction, and Hogan made an excuse to the
warden to leave his work for a moment, and joined
them.

^' There was one incident of this daring enterprise
which completed its dramatic intensity," writes
James Jeffrey Roche. ^' The soldier convicts in
Freemantle numbered one more than those who were
rescued. That one was purposely left behind be-
cause of an act of treachery which he had attempted
against his fellows ten long years before. He was
tried with the others, by court-martial, and found
guilty of treason ; but before his sentence received
the approval of the commander-in-chief he had
offered to divulge the names of certain of his com-
rades not yet arrested, though implicated in the
Fenian conspiracy. His offer was not accepted.
The government punished him for his treason, and
his comrades, half a score of years afterward, pun-
ished him more cruelly for the treason which he
had contemplated against them."

The two traps, followed by King, made a quick
journey to Rockingham. Mr. Somers, the proprie-
tor of the hotel, stood in the door as the traps
passed, but suspected nothing, inasmuch as he knew
Breslin and Desmond, and the prison garb of the
other men was concealed by their long coats. As
the men drove up, he shouted : —

^^ What time will the Georgette be at the timber
jetty ? "

" Is the Georgette coming here ? " shouted Bres-
lin.

THE ESCAPE 141

" Yes. She 's due now."

Here was alarming news. The presence of the
Georgette would ruin all. The horses were driven
to a gallop. At half past ten the party approached
the beach and saw Brennan making signals to them
to hasten.

CHAPTEE XXIII

IN THE OPEN BOAT

Captain Anthony walked up and down the
beach throughout the long night, while his crew
slept in the warm sand. He knew that the fate of
the expedition, disastrous or successful, depended
upon the developments of the ensuing day, and he
was impatient to know the fate which awaited him.
Twice during the night he roused the men to haul
the boat farther up the beach, as the tide was rising.
They responded sleepily and then dropped asleep
again in careless sailor fashion.

As daylight approached, the captain was surprised
and alarmed to find he was near a timber station.
It had been unnoticed on the previous visit. Soon
after sunrise, a gang of men put in an appearance
and commenced carting lumber to a jetty not more
than half a mile away.

He knew his presence must be discovered, and it
was not long before one of the men from the jetty
was seen approaching.

'' What 's going on ? '^ asked the man, as he came
up.

Captain Anthony told him he was bound to Free-
mantle for an anchor, to replace one which was lost.
The man grinned at this.

IN THE OPEN BOAT 143

"Lad," said he, "you've hooked it (ran away)
from some ship, and I advise you to get out. This
is no place to lay.''

Then Anthony told him he was master of a ship,
but the man was not to be convinced.

" I believe you 're after Kenneth Brown," he said.

Brown was a man who was at that time under
arrest for the murder of his wife.

Captain Anthony concluded it was useless to at-
tempt a further explanation, and asked the man if
he would tell him the best way to get out with his
boat.

" I 'm an ex-prisoner myself," said the man, " and
I knew you were after somebody." He seemed
disposed to assist the captain, to the relief of the
latter, for if he had started to join his companions,
Anthony would have been alarmed to an extent
which might have made it necessary to resort to
desperate means for his detention.

The visitor then told the captain that he must be
very sure and keep close to Garden Island. There
was a dangerous reef farther out, and it would be
sure destruction to the boat to attempt to go out
that way.

" But that 's the way I came," said the captain.
As he looked out, he saw the breakers making white
water on the coral reef. He must have been carried
completely over it by the blind follers the , previous
night. He now realized that his escape had been
providential.

Then the man said, in reply to questions, that

144 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

he was getting a cargo of timber ready for the
Georgette."

'^ When is the Georgette coming ? " asked the
captain with eagerness.

"Why, she's coming now," he replied. '^You
can see her smoke."

There in the offing the captain saw the smoke of
the steamer, and he began to realize that the situa-
tion was growing critically perilous.

At this moment there was a rattle of wheels, and
Captain Anthony saw a two-wheeled trap, drawn by
a horse on the gallop, coming up the beach toward
him.

Brennan was driving, and he had the luggage of
the party. He had lost his way, and had led his
horse through the brush until he reached the beach.
There he saw the men and the boat and drove his
horse on the run toward them.

" Who is that man ? " asked Brennan, as he came
up and saw the stranger.

" He 's a prisoner here and working on that
jetty," replied the captain.

" We must shoot him," said Brennan.

"There will be no shooting y^t," said the cap-
tain. " Where are the others ? "

" Close behind," said Brennan, and he commenced
unloading valises and bags belonging to Breslin,
King, and Desmond.

Next King came up on horseback. The situation
was explained to him, and he rode back to urge his
comrades on.

IN THE OPEN BOAT 145

Meanwhile the boat's crew sat huddled in the
sand, apprehensive at the proceedings. The captain
ordered them to push the boat into the water, each
man to stand by the side of the boat, abreast his
thwart. When he gave the order, he instructed
them to shove the boat off as quickly as possible, to
take the oars and pull. He cautioned them not
to be afraid, whatever happened, at which the poor
fellows looked at each other in consternation.

After an interval of fifteen minutes, which seemed
much longer, a rattling of wheels and clatter of hoofs
was heard, and Desmond and Breslin drove up with
the prisoners, their horses quite exhausted.

As the prisoners jumped from the traps, their
long linen coats blew open, showing their convict
suits, with the unusual accompaniments of English
belts, each containing two six - shooters. They
seized rifles from the carriages, and with their arms
full of cartridges made a rush for the boat.

At this the crew stood paralyzed, for they thought
they were about to be attacked. One Malay drew
a sheath knife and the others seized buckets, raised
oars, and prepared to Tesist the men who were clos-
ing in upon them. This move was so unexpected
that it was fortunate that an attack was averted,
but a loud order from the captain in various lan-
guages at his command quieted the men. It was
subsequently learned that the^ theory of the crew
was that Captain Anthony had been smuggling and
that the arrivals were government officials. The
crew had determined to fight if necessary, to prevent
the prre^t of the captain.

146 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

At length the boat was afloat. The prisoners
had been ordered to stow themselves as closely as
possible in the bottom of the boat. Breslin, King,
and Desmond sat in the stern and Captain Anthony-
took a position on top of the stern sheet, with the
steering oar.

After some splashing the men began to pull with
enthusiasm to the accompaniment of a running
stream of rallying cries from the captain of " Pull
as if you were pulling for a whale," '' Come down,
Mopsy," " Pull, Tobey, pull," " Come down, you
big Lewis," ^' Pull, Tobey, pull," "Give them
the stroke, Mr. Sylvia," " What do you say, men,"
*^ Come down altogether," " Pull away, my men,
pull away."

Now the wind was beginning to breeze up from
the west, blowing straight on shore. On the beach
stood the timber-worker from the jetty, dumfounded
at the spectacle, with the six horses, wandering about
the shore. The boat was no more than a half mile
from the beach when a squad of eight mounted po-
licemen drove up. The flight had been discovered.

With the police were a number of " trackers,"
aboriginal bushmen who play the role of human
bloodhounds. They wore short bokas, or cloaks of
kangaroo skin, with belts of twisted fur around
their naked bodies. These natives are attached to
the prisons to follow the trail of absconding con-
victs, and they are wonderfully adept in running
down a prisoner.

The police were armed with carbines and might

m THE OPEN BOAT 147

have shot some of the men in the boat, but fortu-
nately they did not fire. They watched the boat
a while and then took the horses and led them
toward the timber station.

Breslin had prepared a note to the governor
which he fastened to a float and posted by the ocean
mail. As the wind and tide Avere setting ashore, it
undoubtedly reached its destination. The letter was
as follows —

Rockingham, April 17, 1876.

To His Excellency the British Governor of

Western Australia.

This is to certify that I have this day released
from the clemency of Her Most Gracious Majesty
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, etc., etc., six Irish-
men, condemned to imprisonment for life by the
enlightened and magnanimous government of Great
Britain for having been guilty of the atrocious and
unpardonable crimes known to the unenlightened
portion of mankind as '' love of country " and
" hatred of tyranny ; " for this act of ^' Irish assur-
ance " my birth and blood being my full and suffi-
cient warrant. Allow me to add that

In taking my leave now, I 've only to say
A few cells I 've emptied (a sell in its ^\s^y) ;
I 've the honor and pleasure to bid yon good-day,
From all future acquaintance, excuse me, I pray.

In the service of my country,

John J. Breslin.

CHAPTEE XXIV

AN AWFUL NIGHT

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the
rowboat went through the passage, and as Captain
Anthony saw the menacing reef upon which the
water was foaming and breaking, it seemed impossi-
ble that he had gone over it the night before.

Now the little boat was riding on lengthened seas
which were rolling in from the ocean with increas-
ing violence. The wind was blasty, but hauled a
little in the boat's favor, so that Captain Anthony
ordered the little sail set and told his companions if
he could head in the way he was now going, the
ship should be raised in an hour.

The fury of the wind and sea now poured upon
the boat, and darkness was coming on, when the
Catalpa was raised ahead. Captain Anthony knew
that the little boat would not be visible to the ship
and that the latter would stand off shore as soon as
it became thick.

The sky grew blacker and the sea grew steadily
heavier. The boat began to jump and jar until it
seemed that she might lose her spar or mast step.
The seas commenced to comb and break across the
stern, or, running the length of the boat, would

AN AWFUL NIGHT 149

tumble in, soaking the men and threatening to
swamp the little craft. Captain Anthony felt that
his salvation lay in reaching the ship that night.

The sixteen men were directed to take a place on
the weather gunwale, and the man in charge of the
sheet was ordered to take a turn about the thwart
and not to slacken an inch. A crisis had arrived,
and any risk was preferable to a night on the ocean
in such a storm as was imminent. The boat leaped
forward at a spanking rate, and the spray flew like
feathers ; and the water rose in mimic mountains,
crowned with white foam which the wind blew in
mist from summit to summit. Miles away the
Catalpa was seen, barely discernible at moments
when she rose on the crest of a larger wave than
common, thrusting her bows into the air, surrounded
by foam, and apparently ready to take flight from
the sea.

Then, with a crash, the mast went over the side,
breaking close to the thwart. The boat nearly
capsized to windward, but the captain threw her
head to the wind and the magnificent efforts of the
crew kept her afloat. Monstrous seas now rolled
into her, threatening to overwhelm the craft. She
was almost water-logged, and shipped water over
bow and stern alternately, as she rose and fell.
The crew bailed vehemently and desperately. The
rescued men were very sick, and lay in the bottom of
the boat, a wretched heap of miserable humanity.

The boat was relieved of some of the water, and
the wreck hauled in. Oars were shipped, but row-

150 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

ing accomplished nothing more than holding the
boat on her course, and almost in despair the men
saw the Catalpa tack offshore.

The gale increased in violence as night wore on,
and the men wefe completely worn out. The seas
dashed over them, and their strength was taxed to
exhaustion in bailing quickly lest the next sea might
tumble in and wreck the boat. After the mast
went, Captain Anthony took the midship oar, lashed
on the jib, and stuck it up. The sheet was hauled
aft, and the centreboard lowered, which steadied
the boat and kept steerageway on her. The phos-
phoresence afforded a spectacle which Captain An-
thony had never witnessed in equal degree, but
it only made the wild scene more terrifying and
awful.

For hours the seas continued to hurl themselves
across the boat, while the men cast out the sea with
bailers improvised from water kegs, the heads of
which were knocked out.

Little was said, but occasionally one of the res-
cued men would ask " Captain, do you think we will
float through the night ? ^' The captain would
cheerily reply, ^' Oh, yes, I 've been out on many
a worse night ; '^ but he has since confessed that
he would not have given a cent for the lives of the
entire company. Under other circumstances the
danger would have been much less. But the boat
was overloaded, the gunwales being within two
inches of the water, and she was nearly unmanage-
able. To run back to Garden Island meant capture.

AN AWFUL NIGHT 151

The crew had eaten nothing but a little dry hard-
bread since the noon of the day previous, and were
painfully athirst. The provisions and water in the
boat had been washed overboard. Captain Anthony
was on his knees on top of the stern sheets steering,
and often the seas rose to his armpits. The men
were groaning, and it was so dark that the captain
could not see his crew. No word was spoken ex-
cepting repeated orders to bail.

Late in the night, when the captain had decided
that the boat must swamp before long, the gale sub-
sided somewhat. Daylight was welcome after the
awful night. The sea had now gone down, and
there was prospect of a fair day. The seas came
aboard less frequently, and courage and hope re-
turned.

At sunrise every one was overjoyed to see the ship
standing in toward the land. Oars were once more
shipped, and with the sail drawing good progress
was made.

CHAPTEE XXV

A RACE WITH THE GUARD-BOAT

About an hour after sunrise the Georgette was
seen coming out of Freemantle. The men knew she
was searching for them, and she seemed to be head-
ing directly for the little boat. The sail was taken
down, oars shipped, and the men lay down, one on
top of the other, so that nothing showed above the
rail. The steamer passed within a half mile of the
boat and Captain Anthony could plainly see an offi-
cer on the bridge with glasses, scanning the shore.
The boat must have appeared like a log and been
mistaken for a piece of floating timber, if it was seen
by the men on the Georgette, for she steamed by
and went out to the Catalpa.

The anxious men in the boat feared she would re-
main by the Catalpa and prevent them from going
aboard, but the Georgette steamed up the coast after
a while and swung in toward Garden Island, passing
the whaleboat once more, but at a safe distance.

Oars were once more manned. Mr. Smith on
the Catalpa had not sighted the boat yet, for the
background of high land interfered. The men
pulled for two hours, when it was seen that there
was a lighter alongside the ship, and it was at first

A KACE WITH THE GUARD-BOAT 153

surmised that it was a fishing vessel. Captain Des-
mond looked intently and then exclaimed : —

" My God ! There 's the guard-boat, filled with
police. Pass out those rifles."

The guard-boat was large, with two mutton-leg
sails, and there were thirty or forty men aboard.
Affairs in the whaleboat assumed a belligerent as-
pect. E/ifles were distributed, wet cartridges drawn
from revolvers and replaced with fresh, and the pris-
oners swore they would fight until the last man was
killed.

At Desmond's cry the appearance of exhaustion
vanished. Every man was alert. The crew put
new vigor into the stroke of the oars. When about
two and a half miles from the Catalpa, the lookout
at the masthead evidently raised the whaleboat, for
the Catalpa suddenly bore down with all sail set.
The police evidently suspected something, for the
officers ran up the sail-hoops on the mast and started
after the ship, with three or four men at the sweeps
to hasten her progress.

Now it was a question whether the guard-boat
would intercept the small boat before the ship was
reached. If this was done, there would be a fatal
conflict. The rescued men tried to help at the
oars, but their efi'orts were a detriment, and they
were ordered to lie in the bottom of the boat, that
they might not hamper the crew^ There they lay,
and hugged their rifles grimly.

There were moments of suspense, but at length
it was seen that the whaleboat would reach the

154 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Catalpa. As soon as lie was within hailing distance
Captain Anthony shouted to Mr. Smith : —

" Hoist the ensign ! "

The ensign was already bent, and one of the men
jumped to the halyards and ran it to the peak.

Mr. Smith had men at the braces and managed
the vessel superbly. As the boat slammed along-
side, everything was thrown hard aback. The men
grabbed the boat tackle and swung the forward tackle
to Mr. Sylvia and the after to Captain Anthony.

The captain secured it, and, turning to order the
men aboard ship, found he was alone in the boat.
The prisoners had gone up the sideboards by the
grip rope, with rifles and revolvers in their hands.
The boat was hoisted on the davits, and as the
captain stepped over the rail the guard-boat swept
across the bow.

The rescued men knew the officers, and they
crowded to the rail in great glee, waving their rifles
and shouting salutations and farewells, calling the
officers by name. The guard knew that it was use-
less for them to attempt to board the vessel. The
officer in command accepted the result gracefully,
and, giving a military salute, said " Good-morning,
captain." " Good-morning," replied Captain An-
thony, and the guard-boat kept off toward the shore.

There were wild scenes on board the whaleship
in the next hour. The rescued men were in a state
of exaltation, and cheered the captain, the crew, and
everybody connected with the enterprise. If Cap-
tain Anthony, Mr. Breslin, and the others had been

A RACE WITH THE GUARD-BOAT 155

reprieved from a death sentence they would have
felt no greater joy and contentment. Captain An-
thony and Breslin complimented Mate Smith, and
the former called the steward.

^' Get up the best dinner the ship can afford/' he
said. " We 're hungry."

The steward succeeded admirably. There were
canned chickens and lobsters, boiled potatoes,
canned fruits, tea and coffee, and it was the most
memorable dinner in the lifetime of the men who
assembled. Messrs. Breslin, Desmond, and King
dined with the captain, and the rescued men ate in
the steerage.

Mr. Smith related that when the Georgette came
alongside that morning, the captain of the English
steamer asked where the boat was which was miss-
ing from the cranes. The mate replied that the
captain had gone ashore. '' What for ? " was asked.
" I don't know anything about it," said Mr. Smith.
" Can I come aboard ? " asked the officer. • " Not
by a damned sight," was Mr. Smith's reply. It
was the theory of the Georgette's officers that the
gale had been so violent that the small boat must
have returned to land, so, leaving the guard-boat
alongside, she ran in under the shore to cut off the
whaleboat if possible.

After dinner Captain Anthony directed Mr.
Smith to let the boat's crew go_ below and stay as
long as the men wished.

That night the wind died out, and the topsails
hung supinely from the yards, the air which breathed

156 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

occasionally from the land being unable to shake
the heavy canvas. The captain gave up his room
to Mr. Breslin, and Desmond and King were as-
signed to rooms- in the forward cabin.

Captain Anthony lay down on a four-foot lounge,
instructing Mr. Smith to work off shore if possible,
but the ship did not move her own length during
the entire night.

CHAPTER XXVI

OVERHAULED BY THE GEORGETTE

At daybreak Captain Anthony was called by Mr.
Smith, who announced that the Georgette was
approaching. Breslin was summoned, and the men
hastened on deck.

As the steamer came nearer, it was seen that she
had a regiment of soldiers aboard. The Georgette
was a four hundred ton vessel, twice as big as the
Catalpa. On her upper deck a big gun was mounted,
and the soldiery were assembled on the main deck,
a forest of bayonets glistening in the morning sun.

It was a show which was calculated to intimi-
date the men on the little whaleship, but no one
on the Catalpa faltered. The captain ordered the
ensign hoisted to the masthead, and mounted the
poop deck.

It was seen that Colonel Harvest, heavy laden in
the gorgeous trappings of a British army officer, was
in charge of the deck. At one moment, when the
colonel's attention was elsewhere. Captain O' Grady
waved his hat at his whilom companion on a recent
trip, and Captain Anthony waved his hand in re-
sponse.

The next salutation was a solid shot fired across

158 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

the bow of the Catalpa. As it ricocheted along,
the water flew as high as the masthead. Mean-
while the ship was rolling helplessly, for there was
no wind. As the yards bowed to meet the water,
her sails flapped and yards creaked. But now a
faint breeze fllled the sails, and the Catalpa began
to make some headway. When she was abeam the
Georgette, Colonel Harvest shouted : —

''Heave to!"

" What for ? " screamed Captain Anthony in
reply.

" You have escaped prisoners aboard that ship."

'' You 're mistaken," said Captain Anthony.
*' There are no prisoners aboard this ship. They 're
all free men."

The Georgette had a whaleboat on the davits,
and the men on the whaleship assumed it was for
boarding purposes. Breslin collected the rescued
men together, and they determined to resist. While
the above colloquy was in progress, Mr. Smith had
fitted out the company with cutting spades, whaling
guns, and heavy pieces of iron and logs of wood
with which to sink the boat if it came alongside.

*'I see the men aboard the ship now," yelled
Colonel Harvest.

" You 're mistaken, sir," returned Captain An-
thony. '' Get up, men, and show yourselves."

The men walked to the rail. " You can see for
yourself they are my crew," said the captain.

" I have telegraphed the American government,
and have orders to seize you," was the colonel's
next announcement.

OVERHAULED BY THE GEORGETTE 159

Captain Anthony knew this was impossible and
made no reply.

" Are you going to heave to ? '' asked the colonel.

" No, sir," replied Captain Anthony firmly.

The Georgette was on the lee of the Catalpa.
The wind was freshening and the Georgette was
steaming to keep up.

'^ Don't you know you have violated the colonial
laws ? '' asked Colonel Harvest.

" Ko, sir," answered Captain Anthony ; at which
the colonel seemed greatly enraged.

" I '11 give you fifteen minutes in which to heave
to," said he, " and I '11 blow your masts out unless
you do so. I have the means to do it."

He pointed to the gun, which the soldiers were
swabbing, preparatory to reloading.

" This ship is sailing under the American flag and
she is on the high seas. If you fire on me, I warn
you that you are firing on the American flag."
This was Captain Anthony's reply.

The vessels were now about eighteen miles ofl"-
shore. On the tack upon which she was sailing
the Catalpa was running inshore. Captain Anthony
feared it was the trick to decoy him into Australian
waters, and decided to go about on the other tack.
He consulted with Mr. Smith whether it was advis-
able to tack or wear ship, his fear of the former
course being that the vessel might get " in irons "
and lose her headway, and in the confusion the
Georgette might shoot alongside.

So it was decided to wear. When the Catalpa's

160 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

crew hauled up the clews of the mainsail, hauled
down the head of the spanker, and let the gaff-
topsail run down, the officers on the Georgette evi-
dently thought the Catalpa proposed to haul back,
and the steamer was stopped.

Then Captain Anthony put the wheel up, and
the vessel swung off quickly and headed straight for
the Georgette, going before the wind. The captain
of the steamer construed this as an attempt to run
him down. He rang the jingle-bell and went ahead
at full speed, but when the Catalpa swung by him,
her flying jibboom just cleared the steamer's rigging.
The ship's sails filled on the other tack and the
Catalpa headed offshore.

The Georgette again steamed under the bark's
lee. Colonel Harvest once more asked the captain
if he proposed to *^ heave to," and the captain once
more replied that he did not. The steamer followed
for an hour. Colonel Harvest walking the bridge.
Then the Georgette stopped. It was now four
o'clock in the afternoon. The wind was fair and
fresh, and constantly increasing.

When the Catalpa was some distance away. Cap-
tain Anthony called to the rescued men, ^' Boys,
take a good look at her. Probably you '11 never
see her again." When the vessels were a few miles
apart, the Georgette steamed back towards Freeman-
tie, leaving a grateful and thankful party behind.

*' When the English commander gave the order
to his stokers to slack down the fires, a veritable
feu d^enfer^ the battle ended," said the '^ Kilkenny

OVERHAULED BY THE GEORGETTE 161

Journal," in describing the incident. '^ But it was
a terrible affray, and while the firing lasted there
was a tremendous expenditure of coals. Every
credit is due the Georgette. She steered off in
magnificent style. As it turned a stern lookout
upon its foe, the banner of Britain displayed its
folds, and the blazoned lion, shimmering in the sun,
seemed to make a gesture of defiance with his tail,
by curving it between his heels."

And the Catalpa sailed serenely on, and the star-
spangled banner floated bravely in the breeze.

CHAPTER XXVII

BOUND HOME

That night the Catalpa took a squall from the
eastward which developed into a gale, and the hark
ran before it under two lower topsails and a foresail.
In forty-eight hours the vessel was four hundred
miles off the coast.

This led the leaders of the rescue to appreciate
their extreme good fortune, for if the gale had arisen
the night the Catalpa left Bunbury, Captain An-
thony and his crew would not have been waiting on
the beach at Rockingham to receive the fleeing pris-
oners. The police, closely following, would have
rearrested the men, Breslin and his followers would
have been arrested, and disaster would have been
the result of the year of anxiety and the expendi-
ture of a fortune contributed largely by men who
gave at considerable sacrifice. England would have
been exultant at having captured the man who re-
leased Stephens, and the Clan-na-Gael would have
suffered bitterly from the ignominy.

The day after the storm, April 19, Captain An-
thony had two casks of clothing hoisted on deck.
They were the best '^ slops " (the whaleman's ver-
nacular for clothes and supplies) ever put aboard a

BOUND HOME 163

whaling vessel. The casks' heads were taken out,

and Captain Anthony said to the men, " Go in and
help yourselves. Take all you care for, and you '11
need the thickest, for you '11 see some cold weather
before you reach America." Each man selected at
least two suits of clothing, as well as a large supply
of underclothes.

The rigging-pen between decks was knocked down
and two tiers of berths were built, one for each of
the rescued men, from the lumber bought at Tener-
iffe. They were amply supplied with bedding, seats
and tables were built, and a boy from the forecastle
was assigned to attend the men.

The vessel was kept well to the northward, to
take advantage of the southeast trade-winds, which
were taken in lat. 24°. Then fresh and fair w4nds
wafted the vessel across the Indian Ocean. At times
the old Catalpa logged two hundred miles a day,
although she was not regarded as a fast sailor.

The men were given the freedom of the ship and
thoroughly enjoyed the liberty which had been re-
stored to them. Mr. Breslin wrote a song which
the men were wont to sing as they lay on the decks
on warm evenings. These were the words : —

" Right across the Indian Ocean, while the trade-wind follows

fast,
Speeds our ship with gentle motion ; fear and chains behind us

cast.
Rolling home ! rolling home ! rolling home across the sea;
Rolling home to bright Columbia ; home to friends and liberty.

"Through the waters blue and bright, through dark wave and

hissing foam,
Ever onward, with delight, we are sailing still for home.

164 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

O'er our pathway, in the sunshine, flies the wide-winged alba-
tross,

O'er our topmast, in the moonlight, hangs the starry Southern
Cross.

" By the stormj-- cape now flying, with a full and flowing sail.
See the daylight round us dying on the black breast of the gale!
See the lightning flash above us and the dark surge roll below!
Here 's a health to those who love us ! Here 's defiance to the foe !

"Kow the wide Atlantic clearing with our good ship speeding

free.
The dull ' Cape of Storms ' we 're leaving far to eastward on

our lee.
And as homeward through the waters the old Catalpa goes.
Ho! you fellows at the masthead, let us hear once more, "She

blows."

" Next by lonely St. Helena, with a steady wind we glide

By the rock-built, sea-girt prison, where the gallant Frenchman

died.
With the flying fish and porpoise sporting 'round us in the wave,
With the Starr}' flag of freedom floating o'er us bright and brave.

"Past 'The Line,' and now the dipper hangs glittering in the

sky.
Onward still ! In the blue water, see. the gulf weed passing by.
Homeward! Homeward to Columbia, blow you, steady breezes,

blow,
'Till we hear it, from the masthead, the joj'fulcry, " Land ho! '"

Mr. Farnham, the second mate, died suddenly of
heart disease on the 8th of May, and was buried at
sea the following day. He had been a faithful
man, and there was sincere sorrow throughout the
ship's company.

Captain Anthony made his course for the south
end of Madagascar, and stood well inshore in round-
ing the cape, across the Agulhas Banks, to receive
the advantage of the current which sets into the
Atlantic Ocean. Here severe winter weather was

THE CATALPA HOMEWARD BOUND
Running before a Gale

BOUND HOME 1C5

encountered. Then the " trades '' were welcomed
once more, and the Catalpa sailed on with a fleet of
twenty-one merchant vessels, all following the same
course.

Naturally the bark gave St. Helena a wide berth,
since the neighborhood of a British possession was
to be avoided. Subsequently it was learned that
an English warship awaited the Catalpa at this
point. There is an English naval station at As-
cension, and Captain Anthony was likewise shy of
a near approach to the island.

On July 10 the Catalpa crossed the equator into
the North Atlantic on long. 31° west. " You 're
almost American citizens now," remarked the cap-
tain to the men on this day.

Sperm whales were seen occasionally, and the
boats were twice lowered, but the men were impa-
tient to proceed, and little loitering was indulged.

After running out of the northeast trades. Cap-
tain Anthony proposed to Mr. Breslin that the vessel
should make a business of cruising for whale for
a while. "Now is just the season," said he, ''for
whaling on the Western Grounds. We are well
enough fitted, excepting that we lack small stores,
and we have plenty of money to buy from other
vessels. I know the whaling grounds, and by haul-
ing up to the northward we are almost certain to
pick up a few hundred barrels of oil, and the voyage
can be made as successful financially as it has been
in other respects." Mr. Breslin agreed to this, and
the course was made north by east. The men no-

1G6 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

ticed the change in direction, and pleaded that
they might be j)ut ashore without any delay, and
after a day or two it was decided to yield to their
wishes ; orders were given to keep her off, and the
bark was once more homeward bound.

In the height of a savage gale the Catalpa passed
Bermuda, and a few days later the lead showed that
the vessel was approaching the coast. Then a pilot
came aboard, and he was greatly surprised to find
the destination to be New York, inasmuch as the
vessel was a whaleship. But Captain Anthony and
Mr. Breslin had agreed that this was the best place
to land the men. Sandy Hook was eighty miles
away. At six p. m. an ocean tug was spoken, which
offered to tow the vessel into New York harbor for
$250, but after considerable dickering the price was
reduced to $90, and it was accepted.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A CORDIAL RECEPTION

Meanwhile the story of the rescue had been
telegraphed to New York, and reporters swarmed
aboard at quarantine, which was reached at mid-
night. Captain Anthony did not know what the
situation might be or how much it would be wise
for him to tell, and the reception of the newspaper
men was one of the most arduous experiences of the
voyage. But their editions were waiting, and they
could not delay long. At two o'clock on the morn-
ing of August 19, 1876, the Catalpa anchored off
Castle Garden.

Captain Anthony and Mr. Breslin went ashore at
sunrise in one of the boats and first went to the
hotel of O'Donovan Eossa, which was a headquarters
for men affiliating with the Clan-na-G-ael. The first
person whom they met in the office, singularly
enough, was a man who was a prisoner in Australia
at the time of the rescue, but who was subsequently
released and arrived in this country by steamer. He
received the rescuers with enthusiasm. Various
leaders were summoned, and the captain and Mr.
Breslin were warmly welcomed.

Later in the morning Captain Anthony went to

168 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

<■
the barge office and secured a permit to land his

passengers. When he returned to the Catalpa she

was surrounded by small boats, for the morning

newspapers had told of her presence in port, and

there was much curiosity to see her.

" Men," said Captain Anthony, as he stepped on
the deck, " I have a permit for you to go ashore, and
you are at liberty to go when you please."

^' God bless you, captain, you 've saved our lives,"
said Darragh, and in a few minutes the company
left in the shore boat, in high spirits.

Meanwhile Captain Anthony had communicated
with Mr. Richardson, and he was instructed to leave
the vessel in New York and return home, for his
friends were anxious to see him. The local branch
of the Clan-na-Gael, with representatives of other
Irish societies, had been meeting nightly, arranging
a reception to the gallant rescuer, and he was re-
ceived at the train by thousands of people on the
Sunday morning of his return.

They were shocked at the changed appearance of
the captain. When he left New Bedford, sixteen
months before, he weighed 160 pounds and his hair
was black as coal. The months of worry and in-
tense excitement had worn upon him to such an
extent that his weight was now reduced to 123
pounds and his hair was sprinkled with gray.

A few days after Captain Anthony arrived home,
the following circular reached the office of the chief
of police in New Bedford : —

A CORDIAL RECEPTION

169

James Darragh, 9707,
life sentence, 2d
March, 1866, aged
42, Fenian, ab-
sconded from Free-
mantle, 8.30 A. M.,
April 17, 1876.
Martin Hogan, 9767,
sentence, life, August
21, 1866, aged 37,
Fenian, absconded
as above.
Michael Harrington,
9757, life sentence,
July 7, 1866, 48
years, Fenian, ab-
sconded as above.
Thomas Hassett, 9758,
life sentence, June
26, 1866, Fenian, ab-
sconded, etc.
Robert Cranston, 9702,
life sentence, June
26, 1866, Fenian, ab-
sconded, etc.
James Wilson, 9915,
life sentence, Aug.
20, 1866, age 40, ab-
sconded, etc.
N. B. — Martin Ho-
gan's marks include
the letter D on his left
side; so do those of
Michael Harrington,
Thomas Hassett, and
James Wilson.

POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Chief Office, Perth, Western Australia,
April 18, 1876.

Sir, — I beg to inform you that
on the 17th instant the imperial
convicts named in the margin
absconded from the convict settle-
men at Freemantle, in this colony,
and escaped from the colony in the
American whaling bark Catalpa,
G. Anthony master. This bark is
from New Bedford, Massachusetts,
U. S. A. The convicts were taken
from the shore in a whaleboat be-
longing to the Catalpa, manned by
Captain Anthony and six of the
crew. The abettors were Collins,
Jones, and Johnson.

I attach the description of each
of the absconders, and have to re-
quest that you will be good enough
to furnish me with any particulars
you may be able to gather concern-
ing them.

I have the honor to be, sir.
Your obedient servant,
M. A. Smith, Supt. of Police.

To the Officer in charge of the Police Department,
New Bedford, Massachusetts, U. S. A.

It was addressed to "The Officer in charge of
Police Department, New Bedford, Massachusetts,
United States, America."

170 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Now Captain Henry C. Hathaway was at this
time chief of police, and in view of the fact that he
had been rather intimately connected with the enter-
prise, it may be believed that he was not unduly
zealous in assisting the Australian authorities.

The Catalpa, in charge of a pilot, sailed to New
Bedford. The scene on her return was very differ-
ent from that at her departure. She arrived at the
old whaling port on the afternoon of August 24th.
She was sighted as she came into the bay, and the
news of her approach attracted thousands of people
to the wharves. A salute of seventy guns was fired
as the bark sailed up the river, and when she was
made fast to the dock, men and women swarmed
aboard and carried away everything which was not
too large for souvenirs.

On the following evening a reception was tendered
Captain Anthony at Liberty Hall, and the audi-
torium was crowded with cheering, enthusiastic peo-
ple. The stage was decorated with the American
flag and the flag of Ireland. John McCullough
called the meeting to order, and the officers were as
follows : —

President. — Dr. Stephen W. Hayes.

Vice-Presidents. — John McCullough, Michael
r. Kennedy, Hugh J. McDonald, Neil Gallagher,
John F. Edgerton, James Carroll, Jeremiah Dono-
hue, Michael Murphy, John Sweeney, William Mor-
rissey, Edmund Eogarty, James Clary, Michael F.
McCullough, Antone L. Sylvia, Patrick Cannavan,
James Sherry, John Agnew, John Welch.

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 171

Secretaries. — Patrick Haley, Peter O'Connell,
and John Green.

John Boyle O'Reilly was present, and Captain
Anthony was the guest of honor. Mr. Smith, the
Catalpa's mate, and Thomas Hassett, one of the
rescued men, were also present.

Dr. Hayes expressed his gratitude that the politi-
cal prisoners were now in the land of the free, where
the flag which protected them on the Catalpa would
continue to protect them as long as it waved.

O'Eeilly's address on this occasion was one of his
most eloquent eff'orts, and it is to be regretted that
it is not preserved in its entirety. The summaries
which were printed in the newspapers do him very
inadequate justice.

He said that it was with no ordinary feelings that
he had come. He owed to New Bedford no ordi-
nary debt, and he would gladly have come a thou-
sand miles to do honor to New Bedford whalemen.
Seven years of liberty, wife, children, and a happy
home in a free country were his debt of gratitude,
and when the close of his sentence came, in 1886,
his debt to New Bedford might be grown too heavy
to bear.

They were there, he said, to do honor to Captain
Anthony, to show their gratitude to the man who
had done a brave and wonderful deed. The self-
sacrifice and unfailing devotion of him who had
taken his life in his hand and beached his whaleboat
on the penal colony, defying its fearful laws, defy-
ing the gallows and the chain-gang, in order to keep

172 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

faith with the men who had placed their trust in
him, — this is almost beyond belief in our selfish and
commonplace time.

There were sides to this question worth looking
atj he continued. To Irishmen it was significant in
manifold ways, one of which was that these men,
being soldiers, could not be left in prison without
demoralizing the Irishmen in the English army, who
would not forget that their comrades had been for-
saken and left to die in confinement, when the civil-
ian leaders of the movement had been set free. But
the spirit that prompted their release was larger and
nobler than this, and its beauty could be appreciated
by all men, partaking as it did of the universal instinct
of humanity to love their race and their native land.

England said that the rescue was a lawless and
disgraceful filibustering raid. Not so, said Mr.
O'Reilly. If these men were criminals, the rescue
would be criminal. But they were political off'enders
against England, not against law, or order, or reli-
gion. They had lain in prison for ten years, with
millions of their countrymen asking their release,
imploring England, against their will to beg, to set
these men at liberty. Had England done so it
would have partially disarmed Ireland. A generous
act by England would be reciprocated instantly by
millions of the warmest hearts in the world. But
she was blind, as of old; blind and arrogant and
cruel. She would not release the men ; she scorned
to give Ireland an answer. She called the prisoners
cowardly criminals, not political offenders.

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 173

After the ship sailed and there was a long time
when no tidings came, O'Reilly said that doubts and
fears came, as they were sure to do ; but Captain
Hathaway said once and always of Captain Anthony :
^' The man who engaged to do this will keep that
engagement, or he won't come out of the penal
colony."

After describing some of his own experiences in
Australia, ]Mr. O'Reilly pointed to the bronzed and
worn face of Mr. Hassett, one of the rescued prison-
ers, and said : " Look at that man sitting there. Six
years ago he escaped from his prison in the penal
colony and fled into the bush, living there like a
wild beast for a whole year, hunted from district to
district, in a blind but manful attempt to win his
liberty. When England said the rescue was illegal,
America could answer, as the anti-slavery men an-
swered when they attacked the Constitution, as Eng-
land herself answered in the cause of Poland : ' We
have acted from a higher law than your written con-
stitution and treatise, — the law of God and human-
ity.' It was in obedience to this supreme law that
Captain Anthony rescued the prisoners, and pointed
his finger at the Stars and Stripes, when the English
commander threatened to fire on his ship.

"The Irishman," concluded Mr. O'Reilly, "who
could forget what the Stars and Stripes have done
for his countrymen deserves that in time of need
that flag shall forget him."

Then Mr. Hassett described the bravery of Cap-
tain Anthony, and pictured him as he held the steer-

174 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

ing oar on the night of the gale, risking his life for
the men. He could never amply express his grati-
tude to Captain Anthony, he said, and he was sure
that New Bedford never produced a braver sailor.

Meanwhile there were similar demonstrations
throughout the country. At San Francisco a mass
meeting of Irish citizens passed resolutions of sym-
pathy for the prisoners and took steps for increasing
the relief fund which had been started.

The Eobert Emmet Association of Troy, N. Y.,
fired a salute in honor of the safe arrival of the Ca-
talpan six. At Woonsocket the wildest enthusiasm
prevailed ; meetings were held and salutes fired.
The Emmet Skirmishing Club of Sillery Cove, Que-
bec, held a congratulatory meeting, and the Shamrock
Benevolent Society of St. Louis, one of the largest
Irish Catholic societies in the West, adopted resolu-
tions of honor to Captain Anthony.

The news of the rescue had been slow in reaching
England, and as late as May 22 a debate was in
progress in Parliament on the release of the political
prisoners in Australia. Disraeli was the first lord
of the Treasury, and he had been asked to advise
her Majesty to extend her royal mercy to the pris-
oners who were suffering punishment from offenses
in breach of their allegiance.

In a speech Disraeli said the men sent to Austra-
lia were "at this moment enjoying a state of exist-
ence which their friends in this house are quite
prepared to accept." The Irish members shouted
"No." But Mr. Disraeli was right and the Irish

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 175

members were wrong, for the men were on the deck
of an American vessel as he spoke, free from Eng-
lish authority.

On the morning after Disraeli's speech Boucicault
wrote a letter to the '^ London Telegraph " which
was read with much interest. He wrote : —

The reply made by Mr. Disraeli last night to
the 134 members who pleaded for the amnesty of
the Irish prisoners should not be regarded as wholly
unsatisfactory. His speech was in the gentle spirit
of an apology, formed of excuses for the delay of
the Government in acceding to the wishes of the
people of Ireland. But the manner of this fluent
and eloquent speaker was exceedingly hopeful. He
hesitated, wandered, halted, lost his way, and turned
about in distress. A leading member observed in
my hearing that he had never seen him so confused.
He said there were only fifteen prisoners 5 that two
of them could not be regarded as political offenders,
because in the aot of rebellion they had shed blood,
and therefore were ordinary murderers. (He did
not add they were no more entitled to consideration
than Oliver Cromwell, whose statue graces the
House.) Then turning to the thirteen prisoners —
of these six were imprisoned in England and seven
in Western Australia — these men, he assured the
House, were so comfortable where they were, so
happy, so well off, that really their liberation would
be a misfortune to them, rather than a boon.

It is a rule in literary composition that, when a

176 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

substantive expresses vigorously the full scope and
meaning of an idea, we weaken its effect by the
addition of an adjective. So would any remark, or
even a note of admiration detract from the rule of
this astounding proposition. It should be left alone
in a space of silence. The lameness and impotency
of the speaker made an eloquent impression on the
House, for the lameness seemed that of one who de-
clined to trample on the prostrate, and the impotency
was that of a kind and just man who could not find
words to frame a cruel sentence.

Your obedient servant,

Dion Boucicault.

London, May 23.

The rescue was the subject of very savage com-
ment in the English newspapers, and some of the
editorials are reprinted in the Appendix.

Invitations to attend various functions in honor
of the rescue poured in upon Captain Anthony, and
he found himself a hero with the Irish people
throughout the world, a position in which he stands
to-day, for the debt has never been forgotten. That
the valiant deed still lives in the memory, it may
be said that ten thousand people in Philadelphia
greeted the captain last summer, on the occasion of
the presentation to the Clan-na-Gael societies of the
flag which flew over the Catalpa on the day when
the British were defied. Here is the story printed
in the " Philadelphia Times " on the date of August
6, 1895 : —

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 177

The green flag of Ireland, entwined with the Stars
and Stripes, floated proudly over the main entrance
to the Eising Sun Park yesterday and gave greeting
to ten thousand people who joined in the annual
Clan-na-Gael celebration. The multitude came from
all sections of the city, and all the surburban towns
and the adjoining counties sent large contingents of
Clan-na-Gael sympathizers. The management made
every possible provision for the entertainment of
those present, and spared neither expense nor time in
making the celebration a success, giving big prizes
to the field and track athletes from many sections
of the Union and from Canada who took part in the
sporting events.

The grounds were decorated possibly on a more
elaborate scale than on any former occasion. Ex-
clusive of what the track and field provided in the
way of amusement, there were pastimes for the
younger and older folks, such as tenpin alleys, mer-
ry-go-rounds, baseball, and swings. There were sev-
eral bands of music, one for those who occupied
seats on the pavilion from which the track and field
sports could be seen, and two others on the dancing
platform.

The great feature of the day's exercises, and that
which attracted the most attention, were the intro-
duction of Captain George S. Anthony and the pre-
sentation by him to the Clan-na-Gaels of the flag
which floated from the masthead of the whaling
bark Catalpa, which had on board the political pris-
oners rescued from the penal settlement of Western

178 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

Australia, when it was overtaken by a British gun-
boat. Captain Anthony presented the flag from a
temporary platform erected on the tracks, and after
it had been accepted in behalf of the Clan-na-Gael
the scene was one of great enthusiasm. Luke
Dillon, president of the Irish American Club, intro-
duced Captain Anthony, and almost simultaneously
the old Stars and Strij^es were unfurled to the breeze
and the band seated on the grand stand played the
'' Star-Spangled Banner." About four thousand
people joined in singing the anthem, and the Clan-
na-Gael Guards fired two volleys as a salute.

On the platform were seated State Senator James
C. Vaughn, of Scranton ; Michael J. Breslin, a
brother of John J. Breslin, who had charge of the
land part of the Catalpa expedition ; Martin Hogan,
of New York, Thomas Darragh, and Robert Cran-
ston, three of the rescued prisoners ; Dr. William
Carroll, William Francis E-oantree, John Devoy,
J. J. Thompson, Major Fitzpatrick, of Trenton,
N. J. ; Michael Gribbel, of Jersey City ; Bernard
Masterson, Eugene Buckley, and Michael J. Gribble,
of Pittsburgh.

Captain Anthony, in presenting the flag, said : —
" Twenty years ago you came to me with a re-
quest to aid you in restoring to freedom some sol-
diers of liberty confined in England's penal colony
of Western Australia. Your story of their suffer-
ings touched my heart, and I pledged my word as an
American sailor, to aid in the good work to the best
of my ability.

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 179

'^You intrusted me with the command of the
bark Catalpa. I took her to the West Australia
coast, and when the gallant Breslin and his trusty-
men had efifected the rescue of their friends I
brought the party safely in the ship's boat to the
Catalpa and placed them on board under the shelter
of the American flag. When on the high seas the
commander of an armed British steamer fired a solid
shot across the Catalpa's bows, demanded the sur-
render of the rescued men, and threatened to blow
out the masts of my vessel, if I failed to comply
with his demands, I refused, and told the British
commander that if he fired on the American flag on
the high seas he must take the consequences. He
then withdrew, and I took your friends to New
York, where I landed them in safety.

" The flag which floated over the Catalpa on that
April day in 1876 — the Stars and Stripes which
protected the liberated m'en and their rescuers — I
have preserved and cherished for twenty years as a
sacred relic. I would fain keep it and hand it
down to my children as a family heirloom, but I
am confident it will be safe in the keeping of those
who were associated with me in an enterprise of
which we have all reason to be proud. Your coun-
trymen have ever been loyal to the flag of the
United States and ever ready to shed their blood in
its defense. I, therefore, present you with this flag
of the Catalpa as a memento of our common share
in a good work well done and a token of the sym-
pathy of all true Americans with the cause of lib-

180 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

erty in Ireland. I know you will cherish it as I
do, and that if the interests of that flag should ever
again demand it your countrymen will be among the
first to rally to its defense.''

When Captain Anthony finished his address he
was the recipient of many beautiful bouquets.

John Devoy, who had been delegated by the Clan-
na-Gael to accept the colors, was unable to do so
because of sickness, and Michael J. Ryan, who
acted in his place, read the speech which Mr. Devoy
had prepared : —

'' Captain Anthony, old friend and comrade, I
accept this flag on behalf of the organization which
fitted out the Catalpa, selected you as her commander,
and which shared with you the credit for the work
of humanity which she was the chief instrument in
accomplishing. I accept it with pride as a memento
of a noble deed, and I promise you it shall be cher-
ished by us while life is left us, and handed down
to future generations, who will love and cherish it
as well. It is the flag of our adopted country, un-
der which Irishmen have fought side by side with
native Americans on every battlefield where the
interests and the honor of that flag were at stake,
from Bunker Hill to Appomattox. It is the flag
which symbolizes the highest development of human
liberty on this earth, and in the future, as in the
past, the race to which we, to whom you present
this flag, belong, will stand shoulder to shoulder
with yours in its defense and in the maintenance of
its proud and glorious record.

A CORDIAL RECEPTION 181

" You recall to our minds to-day memories of
events in which native Americans and Irishmen
were closely associated ; in which Irish enthusiasm
and Yankee coolness, grit, and skill in seamanship
effected a combination that won a decisive victory
for humanity over the forces of oppression. The
battle of human freedom has not yet been won, and
the combination of which you formed such an im-
portant part may serve as an example worthy of
imitation and enlargement in the future.

^' Your part in that work was noble and disinter-
ested throughout. I went to Xew Bedford twenty
years ago, knowing not a soul in the city, bearing a
letter of introduction from John Boyle O'Heilly to
Henry C. Hathaway, who has done noble work in
aiding the poet>patriot to escape from the Western
Australian prison to the land of the free. He en-
tered heartily into the project with which the Clan-
na-Gael had intrusted me, and introduced me to
you and your father-in-law, Mr. Richardson. • With-
out any promise of reward for your services, or com-
pensation for the risks you would run, you undertook
to carry out the work of liberation. You sailed
away to the southern seas, you carried out the work
you pledged yourself to accomplish, you incurred
new risks which had not been asked of you, you
defied the British commander who threatened to
fire on the Stars and Stripes, an,d brought the six
Irishmen rescued from a British prison in safety to
America. In all this you bore yourself proudly
and gallantly, like a true American sailor, and you

182 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

placed the Irish people under heavy obligations to
you.

'^ Our chief regret to-day is that the man most
closely associated with you in the rescue, John J.
Breslin, the man who commanded the land force
of the expedition, and to whose skill and courage
its success was wholly due, is not here to receive
this flag from your hands. As he has gone to his
last account, the honor of taking his place has been
assigned to me, although I was only concerned in
the management of the American end of the enter-
prise. Many of those who took part in the rescue
and two of the men to whom you helped to give
liberty are here to do you honor and to thank you
in the name of the Irish race for the gallant feat
you accomplished nineteen years ago and for your
generous gift of this historic flag. Others still are
in their graves, while some live too far away to par-
ticipate in this day's proceedings, which recall an
event of which we are all proud.

" Captain Anthony, in the name of the Clan-na-
Gael, I thank you for the Catalpa's flag, and wish
you a long and happy life.''

CHAPTER XXIX

SETTLEMENT OF THE VOYAGE

In February, 1877, Mr. Devoy, with James Rey-
nolds, went to New Bedford and made a liberal
settlement with the crew. An average was taken
of the catch of oil by the vessels which sailed the
same season with the Catalpa, several of which had
made '' big cuts." The settlement with the men
was on this basis.

The Catalpa was presented to Captain Anthony,
Mr. Richardson, and Henry C. Hathaway, but her
value was not great. She was eventually sold and
altered into a coal barge, coming to an ignominious
end at Belize, British Honduras, where she was
condemned.

Captain Anthony's occupation was now gone,
since it would be unsafe for him to enter an Eng-
lish port. He was for a while an officer of the New
Bedford police force, but was appointed an inspector
in the New Bedford custom-house in President
Cleveland's first term, a position which he has since
held.

Gallant John Breslin died in -New York on No-
vember 18, 1888, with the name of his country upon
his lips. To the last he believed that revolution
was the only remedy for Ireland's wrongs. The an-

184 THE CATALPA EXPEDITION

nouncement of his death drew tears from Irish eyes
the world over, for his burning love of country, his
chivalry and unparalleled bravery had touched the
hearts of Erin's sons and daughters. Clan-na-Gael
societies telegraphed their sorrow, and John Devoy
and all the Catalpan leaders hastened to New York
to be present at the funeral exercises.

^'Out of all the incidents of the so-called 'Fenian
movement,' " said the "Pilot," " the most brilliantly
daring have been two rescues of prisoners, namely,
that of the chief organizer, James Stephens, from
Kichmond Prison, Dublin, in 1865, and of the six
military prisoners from Western Australia last April.
These two rescues are in many ways remarkable.
Unlike almost every other enterprise of Fenianism,
they have been completely successful ; and when com-
pleted have been commented on in the same way, as
' well done.' Every other attempt or proposal has
fallen through or ended with loss. The rescue of
Kelley and Deasy from the police van in Manchester
was successful so far as the release of the prisoners
went ; but it was bought with the lives of Allen,
Larkin, and O'Brien, and the nine years' misery of
Condon. The proposed attack on Chester Castle
was discovered and prevented by the English gov-
ernment. The seizure of Pigeon House Fort, with
its armory, at Dublin, never emerged from the stage
of dreamland. The attempt to blow up Clerkenwell
Prison, London, to release Eichard Burke, was a
disastrous failure, by which nothing was accom-
plished, by which many suffered, the lives of sev-

JAMES REYNOLDS
Treasurer of the Rescue Committee

SETTLEMENT OF THE VOYAGE 185

eral poor working people were sacrificed, and the
wretched lodging-house homes of others destroyed.

" But the rescue of James Stephens, even while
the government was gloating over his capture, was
as unexpected and thorough as if the man had van-
ished in smoke. No one suffered from it, — at least
from English law, — no one was arrested ; neither
the government nor the public ever knew how or
by whom it was accomplished. The man or men
who did the work claimed no recompense either of
money or notoriety. Two thousand pounds reward
failed to elicit the slightest clew. The thing was
cleverly, cleanly, bravely done, and those who knew
of it knew how to keep the secret.

^'The rescue of the six military prisoners from
the penal colony of West Australia was performed
in a similar manner as to daring, silence, and com-
plete success. Looking back on it, no one can say
that aught was forgotten or left to chance. With
admirable deliberation every inch of the train was
laid, every sporadic interest was attended to, and
the eventful rescue was carried out to the prear-
ranged letter with scientific precision. As in the
escape of Stephens, no trail remained ; no one left
in the trap ; no price paid in human life or suffer-
ing. It was a clean thing from beginning to end ;
it was ^ well done.' ''

The total expense of the expedition was about
$30,000, and a fund was raised in addition to give
the rescued men a start in the new life which had
been vouchsafed to them.

APPENDIX

[London Telegraph."]

Closely following upon the recent debate in the House
of Commons on the Fenian prisoners, still held most justly
in durance, come particulars from Western Australia of
the escape of the half dozen jail-birds who, while they
were in captivity, excited so much sympathy among Irish
rebels and their abettors. Every Englishman knew that
this sympathy was misplaced, and, as a matter of fact, it
turns out that it was the very mildness of the captivity of
the Hibernians in an Australian penal settlement which
made their escape so easy.

[After telling how the rescue was effected, the " Tele-
graph" continued:]

So the English cruiser had to return to Freemantle as
empty as it left, and the skipper of the Catalpa, who was
evidently, like most Yankee mariners, an accomplished
sea lawyer, sailed off in triumph, laughing at our scrupu-
lous obedience to international law. This is a humiliating
result, and it is not easy to see who most deserves blame,
— the sleepy warder who allowed all the men to give him
the slip and sounded no alarm in time to overtake them
on their long carriage drive, or the authorities at Rock-
ingham, who permitted the Catalpa to get outside the
territorial limit before stopping her. Nor is it clear what
is the next step to be taken. If the American vessel took
on board the convicts in Australia, that is in British
waters, we presume that we can insist on their rendition
and on redress in some shape for a violation of our sover-
eignty. We can readily conceive what would have hap-
pened if an English vessel in the harbor of say Norfolk,

APPENDIX 187

Va., had received Confederate prisoners on board, and had
sailed off, daring pursuit or arrest. Thus our govern-
ment may be excused for being firm and peremptory in
calling attention to whatever violation of law the Yankee
whaler may have committed. On the other hand, there is
the consideration that the enterprising skipper of the
Catalpa has, without meaning it, done us a good turn ;
he has rid us of an expensive nuisance. The United
States are welcome to any number of disloyal, turbulent,
plotting conspirators, to all their silly machinations. If
these are transferred to British soil, we shall know how
to deal with them, — as we have shown already.

[^Melbourne Argus. 1
The news from Western Australia confirms the suspi-
cion that a grave international outrage was committed in
the escape of the Fenian prisoners from Freemantle.
They were actually taken away while wearing the convict
garb by the master of an American ship, who dispatched
a boat ashore for that purpose. It is impossible to sup-
pose that a man did not know very well what he was do-
ing, and his proceedings are precisely as if a French boat
were to run to the hill of Portland and take away as
many convicts from there as could crowd into her. The
imperial authorities are bound to take cognizance of the
episode, and to demand a substantial redress. We shall
be told, no doubt, that the escaped convicts are political
refugees, and attention may be called to the fact that
Communist convicts frequently arrive in Australia without
the permission of their gaolers. But the attempt at a par-
allel will deceive no one. The Communists arrive here
without any aid on our part. They build boats and take
their chance, and if the Fenians had found their way to
America, their case would be very different from what it
is. Rochefort and his companions came over, it is true,
in a British bark ; but, though the complicity of the cap-
tain was suspected, it was never proved. But with the

188 APPENDIX

Catalpa there is evidence of a plot ; there is testimony
that the American master took his boat to an unsuspected
spot, and that he made special exertions to ship the men.
The ship was on the high seas, it is true, and outside of
British jurisdiction, but the master and his boat went to
the shore, and for a felonious purpose, and that constitutes
the breach of the law of nations. The offense is too seri-
ous, too glaring, to be overlooked, and we presume that
important communications will speedily pass between the
governments of Westminster and Washington.

[Melbourne Advocate.']
The correspondence will be voluminous, but very cour-
teous on both sides, and, after being long drawn out, it
will terminate in friendly assurances ; for it would never
do that first cousins, bound together by common interests,
and in whose hands the great destinies of the English-
speaking race rest, should seriously quarrel over the fate
of a half dozen unfortunate Irishmen. The Slidell and
Mason business was a little more serious, and there was
no quarrel over it. The cabinet of Westminster will have
a strong case for Washington in this Fenian business, but
Washington is not without a case against Westminster ;
for its demand for the unconditional extradition of an
American criminal has been refused by the English gov-
ernment. Washington, besides, will be apt to say that
these escaped Fenians were political prisoners, and though
Great Britain may maintain the contrary, European opin-
ion will be decidedly against her view of the case. Some-
thing will also be said about Comipunist convicts being
sheltered on British soil, and after all that can be urged
on each side has been said, the whole affair will taper
down to an indivisible and invisible point, or, to use a
more homely phrase, it will end in smoke.

APPENDIX 189

THE RESCUED PRISONERS

On the 12th inst., William Foley, one of the Irish po-
litical prisoners recently confined in Western Australia,
arrived in New York from Queenstown, on the steamship
Wisconsin. When the news of the escape of the prisoners
came last week, it was thought that Foley was among the
number, but it now appears that his sentence expired last
January, and he sailed from Perth, Western Australia,
on the 16th of that month for London. From London he
proceeded to Dublin, and after spending a fortnight there
went to his home in Tipperary, but finding none of his
friends there except one uncle, a very old man, he went
to Cork, where he remained about ten days, when he
started for New York. The following is the substance of
Foley's story, given to a " New York Herald " reporter
by the gentleman who received it : —

Toward the end of last November two gentlemen ar-
rived in Western Australia, and, knowing the means, at
once placed themselves in communication with the pris-
oners, and commenced to thoroughly survey the ground
on which they were to work. Foley, being on ticket-of-
leave at the time, and having just got out of the hospital,
where he had been suffering from heart disease, was in-
troduced to one of them by a friend, and on the stranger
giving certain information which showed what his mission
was, an understanding was arrived at. A great deal of
delicate work had to be done, and every precaution taken
to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities, but
up to the last moment of Foley's stay in the colony not
the least suspicion was aroused. The two agents each
followed a legitimate occupation, and acted in every way
as if going to make their home in Western Australia, or
bent solely on making lasting business connections with
the colony, and so discreet were their movements and
conduct that no one dreamed that they were anything but

190 APPENDIX

what they appeared to be. " I asked no questions," said
Foley, " and they told me nothing which I had not a right
to know."

Toward the close of the spring of last year all the
prisoners not on ticket-of-leave, and two of the men who
had tickets-of-leave, were sent in from the various
gangs in which they had been working through the
bush and lodged in the principal convict station at Free-
mantle. Their names were James Wilson, Martin Hogan,
Thomas Hassett, Thomas Darragh, Michael Harring-
ton, Robert Cranston, and James Kelley, life-sentenced
men, and Thomas Delaney and James McCoy, whose
tickets-of-leave were revoked. These were all, with the
exception of Wilson, engaged in constructing a reservoir
within the prison of Freemantle, which is situated on the
hill, intended to supply water to the shipping in the har-
bor. Wilson was training a horse for the doctor of the
prison, and this employment enabled him to go out of the
prison several times each day, and gave him many facili-
ties for perfecting the plan of escape. Many disappoint-
ments occurred, however, owing to unforeseen accidents,
and one golden opportunity was lost through failing to
connect with a certain ship. The ability of the agents
was tested to the utmost and the patience of the expect-
ant prisoners was sorely tried. Still nothing occurred to
arouse the suspicion of the prison officials and no one
connected with the attempt lost heart. Two days before
Foley took his departure he had an interview with
Wilson, and on the former asking him how he should
correspond with him, Wilson said, " Don't write to us any
more ; I am confident we shall all follow you soon."
When taking his leave two days later neither could
speak, but could only exchange a silent but hearty shake
of the hand. This was on January 16. Foley took his
passage on a sailing vessel for London, and after a voyage
of ninety-four days arrived in that city.

Though he could not feel sure that all had escaped.

APPENDIX 191

Foley expressed the greatest confidence in the safety of
those who had got on board the American ship. The
Georgette, which was sent in pursuit of the Catalpa, ac-
cording to the statements of the Sydney papers, tele-
graphed here from San Francisco, is only a small screw
steamer, built on the Clyde, about two hundred tons
burthen, which is employed in carrying the mails from
Champion Bay, the most northern settlement in West
Australia, to King George's Sound, which is the most
southerly point at which vessels call in the same colony,
and she is manned by only ten men at the most, — ordi-
nary sailors who never saw any service. In Perth and
Freemantle there are not more than thirty policemen at
any time, and if all of these went on board the Georgette
the released soldiers and their friends could make short
work of them in a hand-to-hand fight. The only artillery
in the colony is in Perth — four old nine-pounders belong-
ing to a company of volunteers, the members of which
live scattered through the surrounding country and could
not be got together at a short notice. There are about
forty retired soldiers living in the neighborhood of Perth,
but they are all old men, and could not be collected at
any shorter notice than the volunteers.

It would take some time to unlimber the guris, get the
Georgette ready and prepare for a pursuit, and the point
on the coast selected for a rendezvous, according to ar-
rangements made previous to Foley's departure, is about
twenty-five miles from Freemantle. Everything consid-
ered, it would take several days to enable the Georgette
to start in pursuit, and by that time the Catalpa, or any
other vessel on which they might be, would be beyond
her reach. Then the Georgette could not be provisioned
for a long cruise, nor could the police force nor the pen-
sioners be spared from the colony for any length of time,
and there was no ship of war at all in the neighborhood.
Altogether the chances of the recapture of the prisoners
by the Georgette appear to be very remote, even if she

192 APPENDIX

would risk boarding an American ship on the high seas.
Boats had been already secured when Foley left, to ac-
commodate all the prisoners and convey them out to sea
so that they might not get on board any ship in British
waters. " The news," said Foley, " seems too good to be
true ; it is so short a time since I saw them within the
prison walls, and all I can say is, God speed them on their
way, and may God bless the Yankee captain who took
them aboard."

Foley is thirty-eight years of age, and enlisted in 1853
in the Bombay Horse Artillery, under the East India
Company, and served all through the Sepoy rebellion.
In 1859 he returned to England, and soon after reen-
listed in the Fifth Dragoon Guards, in which regiment he
remained mitil his arrest for Fenianism in February,
1866. He is a simple, quiet man, but known by his com-
rades to be a man of indomitable courage. Before his
imprisonment he was a man of magnificent physique, be-
ing six feet in height and splendidly proportioned. At
present he is reduced considerably, through the terrible
ordeal through which he has passed, and very little of
that soldier's strut so characteristic of British cavalrymen
can be noticed in him. — Pilot, June 24, 1876.

CAPTAIN ANTHONY OF THE CATALPA

The remarkable story printed in this week's " Pilot,"
from the pen of the chief agent in the rescue of the pris-
oners, makes it clear that the captain of the whaling bark
Catalpa is a man of extraordinary nerve and integrity.
Captain George S. Anthony is a yomig man, scarcely
thirty years of age; a silent, unassuming sailor. There
is nothing in his appearance, except, perhaps, the steadi-
ness of the deeply-sunken dark eye, to tell that in a
moment of pending danger that would frighten brave
men this one would take his life in his hand, and, with

APPENDIX 193

his usual quiet air, steer into the very jaws of destruc-
tion.

When the Catalpa lay off the coast of the penal colony,
at the appointed place for the rescue, Captain Anthony
did not, as he might have done, send one of his officers in
command of the boat that was to land on the dangerous
coast. With a picked crew of his whalemen, the captain
took the steering-oar himself. When he had reached the
shore, a man who had been watching the incoming boat
informed him that he had passed over a terrible danger ;
that right in the line he had crossed lay a fatal reef, over
which no boat had ever before sailed in safety. Had this
information not been given, it is almost certain that the
entire boat's crew, with the rescued prisoners, would have
been lost, for Captain Anthony would certainly have sailed
out as he had entered, and in that event the bones of the
brave fellows would now be whitening on the ledges of
the reef. When the escaped prisoners arrived, and the
frail boat again put to sea, the firm hand of the captain
still held the steering-oar. The night came down, the
wind rose, and the water lashed over the deep-laden boat.
They could not see the ship's lights, but steered blindly
into the darkness. There was no choice of roads. Be-
hind them was the chain-gang for the rescuers and the
gallows for the absconders. The morning came, and the
drenched and weary men, instead of a bark, saw a gun-
boat in pursuit. They were grateful then for the rising
waves, in the troughs of which their little boat escaped
the watchful eyes of the pursuit. The trained skill of the
seaman was here invaluable. He knew that a boat might
escape bemg seen from the deck of a ship, though only a
short distance away. He lowered his sail, and got into
the wake of the gunboat, the point where they would be
least likely to look. And when" the gunboat steamed
away, and the smaller police-cutter hove in sight and bore
straight down on the whaleboat, trying to cut them off
from the ship. Captain Anthony shouted encouragement

194 APPENDIX

to his tired men, calling them by name, using all the
whaleman's arts to urge his hands in the last spurt before
the whale is struck — till he saw that they had distanced
the cutter by a few terrible yards, and were safe along-
side the Catalpa. For thirty hours Captain Anthony had
held the steering-oar of his whaleboat.

It is a splendid story of endurance and devotion to duty.
The brave man had undertaken to rescue these prisoners,
and he held to his engagement with a manly faith that
neither danger nor death could appall. To the rescued he
was not bound by ties of race or nationality; but he knew
they were political prisoners, cruelly held in bondage;
and the seaman's heart, made generous by intercourse
with foreign lands, felt deeply the bond of humanity,
regardless of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon promptings.

It must not be forgotten that by this achievement Cap-
tain Anthony has destroyed his career as a whaleman.
He has placed himself beyond the pale of every British
harbor in the world. He can no more follow his profes-
sion in the South Sea or in the Indian Ocean, for nearly
every port at which the whaleships get supplies are pos-
sessions of the British Crown. By this one act, done for
Irishmen, Captain Anthony has literally thrown away the
years and experience that have made him one of the best
whalemen in New Bedford.

The Irish people of America should not forget this, nor
allow such a debt to remain against their name. Cap-
tain Anthony should get such a testimonial as
will put him beyond the necessity of ever going
TO SEA AGAIN. Unless this be done, the brave man has
ruined his future in the interests of a selfish and ungrate-
ful people. If the masses of our people would contribute
each a mite — ten cents apiece — enough would be done.
At the meetings of Irish societies throughout the country,
subscriptions of this kind might be raised ; and local
treasurers could be appointed to receive contributions.
All subscriptions sent to " The Pilot " will be acknow-

APPENDIX 195

ledged. There is not an Irish man or woman in America
who could not give something, no matter how small, to
such an object ; and we trust that no time will be lost in
setting the movement in practical operation. — Pilots
September 2, 1876.

ESCAPE OF THE IRISH PRISONERS

. . . Business was almost entirely suspended, and the
imposing Masonic ceremony of laying the foundation
stone of the new Freemasons' Hall, which was to take
place at four o'clock, was almost forgotten, and attracted
but little if any attention. In the course of the after-
noon, His Excellency, accompanied by the Colonial Secre-
tary, drove down, and after consultation with the Super-
intendent of Water Police, the Comptroller-General, and
other officials, and the agent for the Georgette, it was
decided to dispatch the Georgette again to the Catalpa,
with a view to intercept the boat, or to demand the sur-
render of the prisoners from the captain, if they were on
board. The pensioners and police were again embarked,
a twelve-pounder field-piece was shipped and fixed in the
gangway ; provisions were put on board, and a fatigue-
party of pensioners were engaged in coaling — thirty tons
being put on board in a short time. By eleven o'clock
arrangements were completed, and the Georgette steamed
away from the jetty. Not a few, both on board and on
shore, but gave way to gloomy forebodings as to the
result of this second visit to the ship. Certainly, the
arrangements made by the authorities warranted those
who were not acquainted with international law, or
aware of his excellency's instructions, in concluding that
the governor had determined upoii resorting to force, if
necessary, to capture the fugitives. By early morning
the Georgette was outside of Rottnest, and at daylight
sighted the ship bearing S. S. E. under full sail. The

196 APPENDIX

Georgette hereupon hoisted her pennant and the ensign,
and all hands were put under arms. As the Georgette did
not gain upon the ship, and the wind was freshening, a gun
was fired under the vessel's stern, — and she then run up
the American flag. She took no further notice of the
signal, and the Georgette, under full steam and all sail,
gave chase. As the ship did not attempt to shorten sail
or take any notice of the signal, when the Georgette had
steamed to within a quarter of a mile of her a gun was
fired across her bow, and the captain of the ship then got
into the quarter-boat. . . .

WHAT THE AUSTRALIAN PRESS SAYS

The comments of the Western Australian papers will
be interesting to the readers of " The Pilot." " The
Perth Inquirer " of the 26th of April says : " It seems
humiliating that a Yankee with a half dozen colored men
should be able to come into our waters and carry off six
of the most determined of the Fenian convicts, — all of
them military prisoners, — and then to laugh at us for
allowing them to be taken away without an effort to
secure them. But international law must be observed,
and, doubtless, the Home Government will seek and ob-
tain redress for this outrage. It is evident that Collins
came to this colony with ample means as the agent of the
American Fenian Brotherhood, and that Jones, Johnson,
and Taylor were co-workers in furthering the escape of
the prisoners. Immediately the Catalpa arrived in Bun-
bury, Collins proceeded there, and doubtless interviewed
Captain Anthony, who shortly afterwards came to Free-
mantle under the plea of securing fresh charts, but in
reality to reconnoitre the coast. The Catalpa appears to
have cleared out of Bunbury on the 28th of March, when
a ticket-of-leave man named Smith was found stowed
away and taken by the police. She must have returned
to Bunbury, and again cleared out finally on the 15th in-
stant. It would appear that there was a desire to obtain

APPENDIX 197

correct legal information on international law, for about
the time of Captain Anthony's visit to Freemantle, John-
son called upon Mr. Howell, the solicitor in Perth, and
asked several questions as to the limit of neutral waters,
from which we infer that the captain knew what he was
about when he told Mr. Stone that his flag protected him
where he then was."

TOO BAD TO BE LAUGHED AT BY THE YANKEES

The "Freemantle Herald," of April 22, said : —
" The early return of the steamer gave rise to every
kind of conjecture, and as her approach was watched
from the shore, wagers were freely made as to the cause
of her early return. Many declared that the Catalpa,
warned of the steps the governor was taking by the pre-
vious visit of the Georgette, had attacked her and beaten
her off. Others laid bets that, overawed by the determi-
nation of force on board the Georgette, the captain of the
Catalpa had quietly surrendered the runaways. As is
usual in such cases, the sequel showed that neither was
right. When the true condition of affairs became known,
there were some manifestations of indignation at the col-
ony having been fooled by a Yankee skipper. The pen-
sioners and police felt that they had been taking part in
a very silly farce, and had been laughed at by the Yankees
at sea and the public on shore, and sincerely hoped that
instructions would be given to go out again and take the
prisoners by force. The governor, however, who through-
out had acted with most commendable energy and pru-
dence, was not to be led into committing a breach of
international law to gratify a feeling of resentment at
the cool effrontery of the Yankee, directed that the armed
parties on board the Georgette should be dismissed, and
the vessel returned to the agent, "with his excellency's
thanks for the readiness with which the vessel had been
placed at his disposal, and for the hearty manner in which
both the agent, Mr. McCleery, the captain, Mr. M.

198 APPENDIX

O'Grady, and all concerned, had cooperated with him in
the matter ; at the same time expressing his approbation
of the conduct of Mr. Stone. These instructions were
carried out, and in a short time the crowds dispersed, and
the town elapsed into its normal condition of quietude,
having suffered three days of the most intense excitement
ever experienced in its history." — Pilot, August 12, 1876.

HOW THE IRISH PRISONERS ESCAPED

The following letter has been received by Mrs. O'Reilly,
John Street, Kilkenny, from her son. Rev. John O'Reilly,
who is at present in Freemantle, Western Australia. Fa-
ther O'Reilly, following in the footsteps of many ardent
young missionaries, left home and friends to pursue his
sacred calling in the region of the Southern Cross. We
can easily understand what his feelings were when the
mail steamer returned to her moorings after her fruitless
pursuit of the whaler bearing away the escaped prison-
ers : —

Freemantle, W. A., April 18, 1876.

My dear Mother, — You owe to the accidental de-
tention of the mail steamer the letter which I am now
writing. The cause of the delay is an event which will
probably excite so much attention in the Old Country and
America, that it will form the principal if not the sole
topic of my note.

You are aware before now that Western Australia is a
convict colony. Hither were sent some seven or eight
years ago a number of the prisoners sentenced to penal
servitude on the occasion of the Fenian disturbances a
little before that date. These were gradually released,
and at the beginning of the present month only eight re-
mained in confinement in Western Australia. All eight
had been soldiers. The prisoners of the establishment
work in various gangs throughout the town, and the

APPENDIX 199

Fenians were distributed at different points with the rest.
Amongst the prisoners some are chosen to fill offices of
trust in connection with the prison arrangements, and are
called constables. One of the Fenians was a constable,
and by delivering pretended orders to the warders in
charge of the working parties, he was enabled to get six
of the Fenians together when occasion required.

The occasion came yesterday. At nine o'clock he with-
drew these whom he required from under the warders in
charge. The six prisoners assembled at a spot just out-
side Freemautle. Two carriages, with two horses each,
were in readiness. They got in, and away they go.

I must retrace my steps a little. Towards the end of
last year a gentleman represented as from one of the
neighboring colonies arrived here. He put up at the
best hotel at the port, and has since mixed with the best
society. He went by the name of Mr. Collins. His busi-
ness here was always an enigma to the residents, but it
was supposed by some that he had come here with a
view of seeing his way to the opening of some business.
Another person lately arrived here too, named Jones, a
Yankee ; but as he worked at a trade no one noticed him.
Now it appears these two persons were the chief actors
in the plot. They arranged the details of the flight, and
awaited the fugitives with carriages at the place of ren-
dezvous yesterday.

The party drove to a spot sixteen miles or so from
Freemantle, where they were seen to enter a boat evi-
dently belonging to a whaler in the offing.

Yesterday, port and metropolis were in a state of in-
tense excitement. The government chartered an only
steamer, a peaceful mail boat, put on board a guard of
pensioners and police, — we have no soldiers in the colony,
— and sent it in pursuit. A little before the steamer an
open boat manned with water police had started on the
trail of the runaways.

To-day, at four, the steamer returned. A crowd had

200 APPENDIX

assembled on the jetty to see her come in ; I was amongst
the number; she did not bring the prisoners ; she reported
having been alongside the whaler. The captain and one
boat's crew were absent. The authorities in the steamer
requested to go on board, but were refused permission.
As the vessel lay in neutral waters, they could not use
force to attain their desires.

The water police boat is still in chase of the missing
ship's boat, but I doubt if they will come up with her.
Under cover of the darkness of the night — aiid it threat-
ens to be dark indeed — the absent crew, with the fugi-
tives, will make the ship ; and even if the police crew
found them, and there was a fight, as there would be
pretty sure to be, if a forced capture were attempted, it
is very doubtful who would be the victors. Against the
fifteen water police, there would be the six prisoners,
their two accomplices, and the boat's crew.

The whistle is sounding its warning, and my letter must
hurry to the post. With kindest love to all, believe me,
Your affectionate son, J. O'Reilly.

— Pi7o/, June24, 1876.

THE ESCAPE OF THE POLITICAL PRISONERS

" There was a torchlight procession in Dublin on Satur-
day night, June 10, in celebration of the escape of the
political convicts from West Australia, and Disraeli was
burned in effigy." So runs the latest telegram from Ire-
land, and the news is fully significant. Ireland knows
the meaning of the escape, and will act on it. It was
planned and carried out by her sons in America; and
this fact will intensify the national spirit of the Old Coun-
try, and make her feel that she is beginning to reap the
harvest of her motherhood.

The first news of the escape of the Irish prisoners
appeared last week in the following dispatch : —

APPENDIX 201

" London, June 6. A dispatch from Melbourne, Aus-
tralia, states that all the political prisoners confined in
Western Australia have escaped on the American whale-
ship Catalpa."

About the same time the SS. Colima from Sydney,
Australia, reached San Francisco with news to the same
effect, but adding that the ocean cable from Australia to
Java had been cut on April 27, immediately before the
escape.

Two weeks ago the English Prime Minister scornfully
refused to release those prisoners at the earnest request
of Ireland. It was in his hands then to render this escape
meaningless, and to make Irishmen believe that they had
better wait for the slow course of English justice. But
the old spirit of domineering insolence was too strong in
the British House of Commons. To show mercy to Ire-
land would be a confession of weakness ; they determined
to refuse the Irish petition, and at their own haughty
will select the time to release the prisoners.

But Ireland has had satisfaction this time. At the
moment that Disraeli was jauntily telling the House that
he would not release the prisoners, they were on board a
Yankee ship, free as air, thousands of miles from an
English chain or an English dungeon. Ireland laughs
at England at home ; and all America joins in our jeer
across the Atlantic.

It is the beginning of a new order of things in Irish
national movements. Heretofore England could buy in-
formers and perpetuate the distrust of each other which
has been the curse of Irishmen. The reins of agitation
have been too often given into inferior hands, and infe-
rior intelligence has too long dominated Irish councils.

The escape of the prisoners from Western Australia is
the best proof that Irishmen can rnanage the most dan-
gerous and difficult enterprises, and keep their own coun-
sel in a way unknown almost to any other nation. The
plan of this escape was completed nearly two years ago.

202 APPENDIX

Every portion of the gigantic scheme was worked out in
the United States. The machinery was set m motion
here, eighteen months ago, which recently struck such an
alarming note in the penal colony. When the freed men
are landed safe in America or some other country, the
plan of the escape may be published. Until then we
shall only say that nothing was left to chance, that no ex-
pense was spared, and that brave men were ready to risk
liberty and life itself to make the attempt a success.

To one devoted man, more than to any other, the whole
affair is creditable. He it was who, with the pitiful
letters received from the prisoners in his hand, excited the
sympathy of Irish conventions and individual men. He
neglected his business in New York to attend to the pris-
oners. He told those who helped the object that they
would have to trust him, that the secret must not be
generally known. They did trust him, for they had
reason to know his purity as a patriot. The event proves
the truth and devotedness of the man. We have asked
him for permission to publish his name ; but he will not
allow us till the men are absolutely safe. To another
man, an American friend, the gratitude of the Irish peo-
ple is also due.

These outlines are not imaginative, but real. We have
been acquainted with the plan since its inception ; and of
late have been anxiously watching for the good news.

There was never an enterprise so large and so terribly
dangerous carried out more admirably. It will be re-
membered of Irish patriots that they never forget their
suffering brothers. The prisoners who have escaped are
humble men, most of them private soldiers. But the
PRINCIPLE was at stake — and for this they have been
released. England will now begin to realize that she
has made a mistake that will follow her to her death-
bed, in making Ireland so implacable and daring an
enemy. This is only an earnest of what will come when
the clouds of war are over her. The men who sent the

A CARTOON FROM THE IRISH WORLD, SEPTEMBER 2, 1876

APPENDIX 203

Catalpa to Australia are just the men to send out a hun-
dred Catalpas to wipe British commerce from the face of
the sea. — Pilot, June 17, 1876.

LESSONS FROM THE PRISONERS' ESCAPE

The well-planned and boldly executed rescue of the
Irish political prisoners from the penal colony of Western
Australia contains lessons worth noting by those who de-
sire to perpetuate Irish nationality. A nation that culti-
vates the evil weed of Distrust will never become strong
or great. Cohesion is the principle of power, and the peo-
ple that cannot stand by each other for a common cause,
under common leaders, are no stronger than a ball of
sand, to be scattered at a touch.

Heretofore the curse of Ireland has been the impossi-
bility of union. Party hated party ; class distrusted
class. Rich men were called traitors because they, hav-
ing something to lose, refused to enter on every wild plan
of revolution without considering the probabilities. Poor
men were too easily led by demagogues. The man who
spake loudest, who boasted most, became the idol of the
hour. When the opportunity offered, he sold the people
he had so easily deceived, and scorned them for their
credulity. There are plenty of " successful men " of this
class — such as Judge Keogh, who a few years ago called
God to witness that he would never desert the People's
Cause, but who, when made a judge, was the first to
lay a ruthless hand and an insulting tongue on the religion
and nationality of his country.

With such an experience Irishmen have grown distrust-
ful to such a degree that the danger from their doubt is
greater than from their deception." Better a thousand
times to be deceived than to lose faith in your brother's
honesty and patriotism.

The CURE of this national disease is coming — for the

204 APPENDIX

CAUSE of it is plain. Distrust has grown from disap-
pointment ; and this has been the result of a bad selec-
tion of men. Ireland has hitherto trusted the talkers
rather than the doers. She has given her vote to the
noisy demagogues who tickled her ear, and has turned
from the men who appealed to her common-sense. For
twenty-five years past — with the exception of the abor-
tive Fenian movement — the Irish people have acted as
if green flags, denunciation of England, and poetic sun-
burstry were enough to establish Ireland's claim to na-
tional independence.

We trust and believe that a change for the better is
coming. Ireland is beginning to see that the men who
are able to do something for themselves, the men of
judgment and prevision in their own affairs, are likely to
bring the best intelligence into national deliberations.
Hereafter it will not be a recommendation for an Irish
politician that he has failed to make a decent living at
everything else.

The rescue of the political prisoners proves that the
Irishmen who talk least can do most. It proves also
that distrust is not chronic in the Irish people — that
they can stake great issues on the faith of single men
— when they have selected them for their capacity and
intelligence instead of their braggadocio.

Another and most valuable lesson from the rescue has
a bearing on the English army. The thousands of Irish-
men in the ranks knew that those men were kept in
prison because they had been soldiers. It seemed,
too, for two or three years past, that those men had
been forgotten. The leaders of the movement were
free ; and no one seemed to care for the poor fellows
whose very names were unknown. The soldiers in the
army knew that of all the Irish prisoners of '66 and '67,
there were none who risked more or who would have
been more valuable than a trained dragoon, the indispen-
sable artilleryman, and the steady linesman. To see their

APPENDIX 205

comrades forgotten and left to rot in their dungeons was
enough to make the Irishmen of the army abjure their
nationality and accept the English dominion in Ireland.

This has been averted by the rescue. The soldiers in
the English army will read the news with a deeper thrill
than any other Irishmen. It has a larger meaning to
them than to others. " Now," they will say, " now,
at last, we are a part of the Irish people. Our red coats
do not separate us from our countrymen ; and if we
suffer for their cause they will be true as steel to us in
the day of trial."

It is full time that Irish nationality should take intelli-
gent position. All shades of Irish politics can agree in
mutual respect ; they are all shades of green. One party
may desire more than another, and believe it possible of
attainment. But they should not hate the others that
think differently. The Home Rulers are as honest as the
Fenians, and as intelligent. One should say to the other :
" We travel the same road ; but when you stop, we
go farther. If we succeed, you can join us ; if we fail,
we shall return to you for support." This is true nation-
ality ; and when this spirit grows among the Irish people,
there cannot be a doubt of the result. — Pilot^ June 24,
1876.

THE RESCUED PRISONERS

GRAND RECEPTION IN BOSTON

On the 1st inst., a grand entertainment was given in
Music Hall for the benefit of the released prisoners, who
were present. The immense hall was crowded ; nearly
every seat on floor and galleries was filled. The stage
was fitted up with a handsome proscenium, the Sheil Lit-
erary Institute playing the patriotic drama of Robert
Emmet. The greatest credit is due to the management
committee. Polite ushers were in attendance, and not
the least hitch occurred in the whole evening's entertain-

206 APPENDIX

ment. The address was delivered by John E. Fitzgerald,
Esq., who was greeted with thundering applause. He
pictured in graphic words the condition of Ireland for
centuries ; while Poland and other struggling nationalities
had been wiped from the map, the intense individualism
of the Irish as a nation had preserved them. The move-
ment for which these gallant fellows had suffered was the
embodiment of the national idea. (Applause.)

The more pacific and undefinable agitation known as
the Home Rule movement was by no means final — as
England well knew. In was a step toward something
fuller, — toward the only consummation that will ever
satisfy Irishmen, — complete separation. (Great ap-
plause.) The sentiment of Henry Grattan was still vivid,
— that no one but the Irish people had a right to legislate
for Ireland. Mr. Fitzgerald dwelt eloquently on the
devotion of the Nationalists to their imprisoned brethren.
He spoke in the highest praise of the efforts of those by
whom this last brilliant exploit was accomplished with so
much wisdom and secrecy. He said that the sum of
$30,000 had been contributed in this country in its aid,
and though the object of the contribution was so widely
known, the secrecy was maintained until its accomplish-
ment. He hoped that a generous and substantial testi-
monial would be presented to Captain Anthony, the brave
man who had risked and accomplished so much in their
behalf. Mr. A. O'Dowd recited Meagher's "Sword
Speech " in impressive style. A song, " Caed Mille
Failthe," by Mr. E. Fitzwiliiam, was sung by the com-
poser, and pleased the audience so well that an encore
was given, in response to which Mr. Fitzwiliiam sang
another of his compositions, entitled, " The Irishman's
Version of One Hundred Years Ago,*' which was also
generously applauded. Miss Annie Irish, a well-known
vocalist, sang two songs in acceptable style ; and Mr.
Sheehan, who was warmly received, received an encore,
to which he responded in his usual excellent manner.

APPENDIX 207

The drama by the Shell Literary Institute was, as
usual with that body, well played, and gave great pleas-
ure to the immense and patriotic audience. Before its
performance there were loud requests for " Captain An-
thony " to come forward, but that brave fellow, who sat
in the audience with Captain Hathaway, of New Bedford,
was too modest to make his appearance.

At the close of the drama the demand for the appear-
ance of the rescued prisoners was imperious, and had to
be gratified, though it was intended by the committee
that the men should not be paraded. But the call was so
strong and kindly that the bronzed men appeared on the
stage, and were introduced by Mr. Fitzgerald. The
greeting they received will never be forgotten. It was
plain how deep a chord their suffering and escape has
struck in the Irish heart. They numbered six, though
Mr. Wilson, one of the rescued men, was not present ;
his place was filled by Mr. William Foley, the ,ex-prisoner
who arrived in this country about two months ago.

The entertainment was a complete success ; and, be-
sides its value as a patriotic safety-valve, it will add a
considerable sum to the testimonial to be presented to the
ex-prisoners, to enable them to begin life in this new
country under fair circumstances. — Pilot, September 9,
1876.

THE RESCUED PRISONERS

RECEPTION TO JOHN J. BRESLIN

A large audience assembled in Boston Theatre on the
evening of Sunday, the 24th inst., to tender a public
reception to Mr. John J. Breslin, the chief agent in the
rescue of the Fenian prisoners ^rom Australia. The
reception was under the management of the United Irish
Brotherhood, and the committee of arrangements de-
serves the greatest credit.

208 APPENDIX

Charles F. Donnelly, Esq., presided on the occasion,
and among others on the platform were Captain Anthony,
City Marshal Hathaway, of New Bedford, Alderman
O'Brien, Thomas Riley, Esq., and a large number of
prominent and respectable citizens.

Mr. Donnelly, in an eloquent address, reminded his
audience that the turmoil of a political campaign did not
prevent them from assembling to do honor to brave men.
Could they say that the spirit of the knights and saints of
old was dead ? Did it not survive in the act of the brave
men there present ? A year ago, and the escape of the
political prisoners would have been deemed an impossi-
bility ; it had been undertaken and executed by Mr.
Breslin, who set out to rescue from bondage, ten thousand
miles away, men whom he had never seen, men whose
only crime was loving their country, perhaps not wisely,
but too well, — if an Irishman could love his country too
well. But the age of chivalry had been revived even in
this hard, practical age by a generous Yankee captain.
(Loud applause.) Many morals might be drawn from
this event, but he would select one, — it was this : that
when an Irishman and a Yankee combine to carry out an
undertaking, they can do it in spite of the whole power
of the British Empire.

Mr. Donnelly then stated that he had received a letter
from Wendell Phillips regretting his inability to attend,
and expressing sympathy with the objects of the meeting.
A telegram of similar import was read from General
Butler, which concluded thus : "A prominent Massa-
chusetts politician says that Fenianism should be crowded
out of politics. Fenianism is the love of one's native land.
I hope it may never be crushed out of the heart of any
citizen of this country."

Alderman O'Brien, the next speaker, said that when
coming there he had no intention of making a speech.
He came there in common with his fellow-citizens to ex-
tend to these brave men a cordial welcome, and to show

APPENDIX 209

them that he felt as he spoke, he would shake hands with
them all. He was followed by Thomas Riley, Esq., who
began by likening the cause of Ireland to that patriotic
society whose birth antedated that of George III., and
which still lived on. The spirit of Irish liberty was not
dead, as was proved by their presence there that night to
do honor to a man and an act. The achievement of Mr.
Breslin was worthy of the annals of an earlier era. Ire-
land's history was one of oppression. An Englishman
had once charged that the Irish were " an unpolished na-
tion ; " to which a native of Ireland replied, " It ought
not to be so, for we have received hard rubs enough to be
polished long ago." It was acts like Mr. Breslin's that
kept alive the spirit of liberty. Plantagenet and Tudor,
and Stuart and Cromwell, all had dealt Ireland crushing
blows, all had waded through seas of Irish gore ; yet all
their dynasties had perished off the face of the earth, and
the spirit of Irish liberty still survived. The worst of
the Roman Emperors was Julian, yet he sent no Chris-
tian to the cross or the wild beasts, he merely banned and
barred Christian education, for he well knew that without
education a nation relapsed into the depths of barbarism.
England had done the same ; in her savage, barbarous
penal code she had proscribed education and educators,
but Ireland still clung to the light of liberty. She lis-
tened to the sound of the battle of freedom in the West,
and her sons caught the flame, and Flood, and Grattan,
and the Volunteers raised her to nationhood, and crowned
her with the star of freedom. She had lost that eminence,
but the spirit burned again in the immortal O'Connell ;
it still survived the golden-mouthed Father Burke. The
speaker paid a touching tribute to the memory of John
Mitchel, and denounced England as championing the in-
iquity of the age, of upholding dead and rotten Turkey
and her butcheries, and that the hour of retribution had
arrived, if Russia would only advance. If England lost
her temper in the threatened European complication. Ire-

210 APPENDIX

land would be her "beetle of mortality." During his
eloquent address Mr. Riley was frequently applauded.

Captain Hathaway, who succeeded him, said he was not
an Irishman, but that was not his fault. He detailed the
facts already published as to the inception of the plan of
escape, how Mr. Devoy had approached him with a letter
from his (Mr. H.'s) friend, Mr. John Boyle O'Reilly, and
the consequent chartering of the Catalpa.

Captain Anthony, who divided attention with Mr. Bres-
lin as the lion of the night, succeeded, and was greeted
with a storm of applause, to which that man of deeds,
not words, responded by two modest bows.

Mr. John J. Breslin, who was enthusiastically received,
then addressed the audience. He said that parliamentary
action, prayers, and petitions had all failed to move the
bowels of compassion of the British government in behalf
of the prisoners, for the reason said government had no
bowels. Mr. John Devoy, well and honorably known in
'65, in 1873 began to actively agitate the plan of escape,
and had, in the fall of 1874, raised funds sufficient to
warrant him to make the attempt. The funds were raised
in various ways ; one of John Mitchel's last lectures was
given for the purpose. Mr. Devoy placed himself in
communication with a gentleman whose high literary
abilities and rare poetic talents had raised him to a prom-
inent position among the journalists of the day ; by whom
he (Mr. Devoy) was introduced to Captain Hathaway, of
New Bedford, through whom the Catalpa was obtained.
Mr. Breslin gave a clear, concise, and detailed account of
his proceeding from first to last in carrying out the de-
tails of the escape. Most of this has already appeared in
our columns. His description of the face of the country,
cities, geology, and flora of Western Australia was partic-
ularly good, and show both scholarship and observation
on his part. Alluding to the sandy nature of the soil, he
related the following anecdote : An inhabitant meeting
a " new chum," told him it was a fine country. " It is,"

APPENDIX 211

said the latter, " so mighty fine that most of it would pass
through a sieve."

At the close of Mr, Breslin's address, the chairman an-
nounced the meeting adjourned. Before and after the
proceedings, Mr. Breslin, who is of commanding presence
and courteous demeanor, was surrounded by groups of
enthusiastic countrymen, each eager to express admiration
and sympathy. — Pilots September 30, 1876.

WHY DON'T ENGLAND DEMAND THE PRIS-
ONERS ?

Mr. Gladstone is an able man, watchful and jealous
of the honor of England. He has written a pamphlet of
great power on the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria, in
which he says that Turkey should be excluded from Bos-
nia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, as a power unfit to rule
civilized and Christian people. He says that the English
government should lead in accomplishing this result, —
" to redeem by these measures the honor of the British
name, which in the deplorable events of the year has been
more generally compromised than I have known it in any
former period." That is true ; the past two or three
years have torn away more of England's prestige than all
Tier previous history. She has fallen into decay so fast
that she has not made a single effort to reassert herself
as a Great Power. When Russia broke the Black Sea
Treaty, England growled, but backed down. She sees
the Czar laying railways to Northern Asia, and she hears
the tramp of his legions already on the border of Hindo-
stan ; but she fears to stir a finger. When her Prime
Minister, Disraeli, last year made an assertion that irri-
tated Prussia, and that iron empire frowned, the fearful
minister hastened to eat his words before the face of Bis-
marck. When the Fenian prisoners — men whom she
persisted in calling " criminals " — were taken from her

212 APPENDIX

in defiance of all her laws, she dare not demand them
from the United States. Why ? Because the root of her
greatness is split — the germ of her strength is rotten.
Beside her heart she has the disease that will sooner or
later strike her down. She has maltreated, misgoverned,
scorned, derided the island and the people of Ireland,
until opjjression has generated in their hearts the terrible
political mania of national hatred. God forbid that we
should exult in such a feeling ; but no one who knows
Ireland and Irishmen can deny its existence. England,
to save herself, to possess the land, has driven the Irish
people over the world ; but wherever they went they
carried with them the bitter memory of their wrongs and
hates. She has strengthened the world against herself.
She is powerless and contemptible ; if she were to-day to
demand the return of the Fenian prisoners, the people of
all nations would shout in derision, and the United States
would answer with a particular sneer. It is well for Mr.
Gladstone to say that her honor is waning. But he has
only seen the beginning of the end. The haughty and
truculent country must eat the leek till its heart is sick. —
Pilot, September 16, 1876.

JAMES REYNOLDS, THE TREASURER

James Reynolds, of New Haven, Conn., familiarly
known as " Catalpa Jim," was born in County Cavan, Ire-
land, on October 20, 1831. His ancestry dates back over
fourteen hundred years to the noble sept MacRaghnaill,
which the Irish historians tell us was a branch of the tribe
called Conmaie, whose founder was Conmacrie, third son
of Fergus MacRoigh, by Meive, the celebrated queen of
Connaught, in the first century of the Christian era.

He was but sixteen years of age when, during the
memorable famine that peopled the cemeteries of Ire-
land, he bade adieu to his native heath and sailed away
to the distant shores of America, bearing with him a

APPENDIX 213

freight of precious memories that were to bear fruit in
after years of patriotic endeavor. On his arrival in this
country he at once apprenticed himself to learn the brass-
founding trade, and in 1850 he settled in Connecticut,
where he has since made his home. For twenty-eight
years he has been a resident of New Haven, where he has
received repeated political honors at the hands of his
fellow citizens. For several years he has been at the
head of the town government as town agent ; the only
Irishman who has ever been elevated to this position in a
city where Puritanic influences and prejudices have not
yet wholly passed away. In addition to his municipal
duties, Mr. Reynolds has for years conducted a lucrative
and somewhat extensive business as a brass-founder.

He early espoused the cause of his country and brought
to its service all the energies of an active and impulsive
nature. When, in the years following the rebellion, Irish
patriotism was directed in a movement against England
through her colonies in America, we find him foremost
among those whose financial resources flowed freely into
the common treasury. Not when his practical mind told
him that not here lay the channel to Irish freedom did
he close his purse-strings ; not even when a prudent judg-
ment convinced him that here lay a waste of Irish blood
and human treasures did he say nay to the appeal for
funds. It was enough for him to know that even one
blow was struck at England, one thrust was made in the
great cause of Irish freedom. James Reynolds never
believed that the liberation of Ireland was to be effected
through the conquest of Canada. His strong native sense
and sagacious foresight taught him the folly of such a
hope, yet, when the movement was inaugurated, he en-
tered into it heart and soul, with all the enthusiasm of
his noble nature, hopeful that eyen one blow might be
struck at the shackles that bound his country.

But it was in the Catalpa movement that his great
patriotism found its highest opportunity, and the name

214 APPENDIX

of James Reynolds gained the imperishable splendor of
immortal fame. The history of that memorable expedi-
tion is still fresh in the memory of Irishmen ; how the
little bark with its gallant crew sailed into Australian
waters and bore away its precious freight, bringing to
freedom and glory those patriots who were expiating in
exile their efforts for Ireland ; bidding bold defiance to
the British man-of-war who gave her chase, and riding
safely into the harbor of New York, — all these details
are still green in the Ii'ish memory. And while the fame
of this daring rescue shall last ; while the name of Ca-
talpa shall wake and fan the fires of Irish enthusiasm, so
long will the name of James Reynolds be held in fond
and loving remembrance. For it was he who mortgaged
his home, who placed a chattel upon his household goods,
who beggared himself for the time, that the sinews
might be forthcoming to inaugurate and sustain the ex-
pedition. Other choice spirits lent him their counsels
and their fortunes, but James Reynolds gave his all that
the Catalpa rescue might be consummated. True, the
success of the expedition recompensed him in a measure
for his financial sacrifices ; it brought back some of the
little fortune he freely gave in the cause, but his chief
reward, the glory of his great heart and the pride of his
noble life, is the memory which he treasures, which his
children and his children's children will carry in their
hearts, that his sacrifices were not in vain, — that they
brought humiliation to England, liberty and happiness
to the rescued patriots, and eternal fame and glory to
Ireland.

When the Land League movement was inaugurated, he
at once actively interested himself, and was one of the
leading delegates at its first national convention. He has
been a member of the succeeding ones, and has acted a
number of times on the committee on resolutions. He
was for several years a member of the executive coun-
cil, the committee of seven, and was state delegate of the

APPENDIX 215

League for Connecticut. He enthused much of his own
enthusiasm into the movement, and during his adminis-
tration the League in the Nutmeg State was to the front
in point of numbers and the character and influence of
its' work.

James Reynolds is a pure, unselfish patriot ; around
his name breathes a lustre uudimmed by a single thought
of personal ambition, the faintest breath of self-interest
or individual aggrandizement. Other men have given
greater intellectual gifts to the service of Ireland ; others
have told her wrongs with a sublimer magic of eloquence,
and waked the sympathies of men in the sweep of their
mighty oratory ; and still others, perhaps, have braved a
larger measure of personal danger ; but none has devoted
his whole energies, his entire worldly fortune, with a
loftier patriotism, a more generous spirit of sacrifice,
than James Reynolds has for the little isle that gave him
birth.

Personally he is a man of genial temperament, frank,
guileless, and companionable, unaffected in manner and
speech, open-handed and generous ; a man whose friend-
ships are firm and lasting ; a citizen whose activities are
always beneficial. — The Irish-American Weekly, Lincoln,
Neb., March 20, 1892.

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