A Long Way Home: The Life and Adventures of the Convict Mary Bryant
The Bryant’s escape by the sea
By Elizabeth Palmer
During the night of
March 28, 1791, William Bryant, his wife Mary, their children Charlotte and
Emmanuel, and seven other convicts, escaped from Sydney in the governor’s own
six-oar cutter. An extraordinary feat
of navigation, they sailed from Sydney to Timor (a journey of 3,250 miles) in
just under 10 weeks.
Mary, nee Broad,
was a sailor’s daughter from Cornwall who was transported for 7 years for
stealing a cloak. She came out on
<I>Charlotte<I> and gave birth to a baby daughter on the trip, whom
she named Charlotte after the ship.
William Bryant also
came from Cornwall and also travelled on <I>Charlotte<I>. He was transported for resisting arrest by
excise officers. Mary and William
married soon after reaching Port Jackson.
Their child, Emmanuel, was born April 1790.
As a fisherman,
William Bryant was an asset to the colony, and he was soon put in charge of the
boats that hauled the fishing nets.
What some would see as a chance to make good, Bryant saw as a chance to
make money. He was caught selling fish
on the sly and given 100 lashes.
In October 1790, an
East Indies Trader visited Sydney. From
its captain, Bryant received a compass, a quadrant, muskets, food and a chart
of the waters between Sydney and Timor.
This he hid in rolls of bark under the floorboards.
They waited until
the Supply was dispatched to Norfolk Island and the East Indies trader also
left Port Jackson, both in March 1791, after which they put their escape plan
into action.
The beginning of
their journey was fairly easy-going. They
had no difficulty in finding edible palms and quantities of fish. Any natives they encountered were either
friendly or kept well away.
Their luck soon
changed, though, as they encountered so much rain that for 5 weeks they were
constantly soaked and rarely able to light a fire. Between Port Macquarie and Brisbane they were driven out to sea
by wind for almost 3 weeks.
After reaching land
again, they met hostile natives. Even
after leaving Cape York Peninsula, they were pursued by natives in canoes. They then travelled through open water to
Arnhem Land and then again through open water to Timor.
On June 5, they
reached Koepang in Timor, where they told the Dutch Governor they were
survivors of a shipwreck on the Australian coast. For two months their tale was believed and they were given new
clothing and food as they waited for a ship bound for England.
After 2 months,
William Bryant, possibly because he was drunk, told the Governor their true
story and the entire party was immediately taken prisoner and held in detention
until the arrival of Captain Edward Edwards, who had been chasing bounty
mutineers and had lost his ship near New Guinea.
The Bryants and
their fellow convict escapees were put in irons and shipped to Batavia, where
William Bryant and his son, Emmanuel, died of fever.
The others were
taken back to the Cape and then the survivors (three men died at sea) were put
on board a man-of-war, which was taking a marine detachment back to
London. On the way, Mary’s daughter,
Charlotte, died and was buried at sea.
In London, Mary and
the other convicts were taken prisoner in Newgate, where they gained the
interest of the English publish and the press, who named Mary “the girl from
Botany Bay”. Many letters, some from
influential people, urged clemency on her behalf.
In May 1793, Mary
Bryant was granted an unconditional pardon and returned to Cornwall. Her fellow escapees were later pardoned in
November 1793. One made the surprising
decision to immediately join the New South Wales Corps and return to Botany
Bay.
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