>>[Music] >>[James Martin voiceover] I, James Martin,
being convicted at the city of Exeter, being found guilty of stealing, am sentenced for
to be transported to Botany Bay for seven years, bound on March 12, 1787.
>>[Timothy Causer] James Martin was from County Antrim in Ireland.
He was convicted in Devon, where he was working at the time, of stealing lead and iron from
Powderham Castle in Devon.
He was then sent to the hulks where he was kept until he was put onto the First Fleet
and transported to New South Wales.
He's one of the first convicts to be transported.
>>[James Martin voiceover] On being landed, we were encamped and formed squads of six
in a tent.
Some were sent to clear the ground, others sent to build huts.
On the 20th day of March, I made my escape in company with seven men, with one woman
and two child in an open six oar boat, having provisions of flour, rice, pork, eight gallons
of water, a compass and a chart.
Seeming to run up the country for many miles, we hauled our boat ashore to repair her bottom
with some beeswax and resin.
Then came the natives in vast numbers with spears and shields.
We fired a musket, thinking to fright them, but they took not the least notice.
More rushed forward.
We were forced to take our boat and get out of reach.
>>[Timothy Causer] They encountered a number of aboriginal peoples here and there.
It's not quite clear as to which peoples the aboriginal people belonged to, but most of
the encounters were reasonably peaceable in that there was no actual conflict.
On a couple of occasions, they got close enough to speak but on several occasions the escapees
were so afraid that they simply fired their muskets into the air and sent the aborigines
away in terror.
>>[James Martin voiceover] We drove out to sea by a heavy gale of wind and current expecting
every moment to go to the bottom, all the night thinking every moment to be the last.
Two hands was obliged to keep bailing out the sea coming in so heavy.
It ran very hard all that night and the very next morn.
I will leave you to consider what distress we must be in.
The women and the two little babies was in bad condition.
We could by no means light a fire and had nothing to eat except a little raw rice at
night.
>>[Timothy Causer] There's a great deal of hardship on the journey and at one point they
were out at sea for three weeks, unable to put into land because of rough seas, and so
it's quite— it's a testament to their skills of seamanship, of William Bryant and William
Morton, another very experienced navigator who was another one of the convicts, that
everybody managed to survive the journey.
>>[James Martin voiceover] As God would have it, we got our boat safe on shore without
loss or damage, except one oar.
All round this island, there was nothing but reefs on a little sandy beach.
We went to look for some shellfish but found a great quantity of very fine large turtles,
which was left upon the reef.
We hauled five of them upon the beach and killed one.
We had a very noble meal this night.
We concluded on the best way to ship our course for the island of Timor.
We made it in 36 hours, after which we came to the Dutch settlement, where we went on
shore to the Governor's house, where he behaved extremely well to us.
He filled our bellies and clothed us.
>>[Timothy Causer] Just over two and a bit months after escaping they managed to put
in at Timor, Dutch West Timor, where they passed themselves off as the survivors of
a shipwreck, for a while at least.
>>[James Martin voiceover] We remained very happy at our work for two months, till William
Bryant had words with his wife and went and informed against himself, his wife and children
and all of us.
We was immediately taken as prisoners and put into the castle.
>>[Timothy Causer] It's not quite clear how they were discovered as escaped convicts.
In the narrative, Martin suggests that William Bryant informed upon himself and his wife,
Mary Bryant, another of the escapees.
This seems unlikely to me given the fact that the group had just escaped and gone on this
huge journey together, full of suffering and hardship.
Other primary sources have suggested that one of the party got drunk and let the secret
slip.
It may have just been— they may have just been overheard in conversation.
I don't think it's ever going to be cleared up as to why and how they were discovered.
>>[James Martin voiceover] Captain Edwards, who had been on search for the bounty pirates,
came to us tonight.
We told him we was convicts.
He told us we was his prisoners and put us on board the Dutch Company ship and put our
legs in irons.
We was conveyed to Batavia.
There we lost the child.
Six days after, the father of the child was taken bad and died.
Both was buried in Batavia.
Six weeks after, we was put on three different ships bound to the Cape of Good Hope.
>>[Timothy Causer] After the Cape, another of the convicts died and also William Morton,
who had been really instrumental in bringing the party to Timor on the long journey, died,
which must have been quite a hardship for everybody concerned.
And then the other child, Charlotte Bryant, died en route back to England as well.
>>[James Martin voiceover] Navigator of the boat, James Cox died.
Sam Bird died.
William Bryant died.
A boy of 12 months died.
A little girl, three years and a quarter, died.
We was brought home to England, brought to shore and conveyed by the constables to Bow
Street Office London and committed to Newgate.
>>[Timothy Causer] Given that the penalty for escaping the transportation was generally
execution, it was a surprisingly lenient sentence.
Mary Bryant was released in May 1792 and the four men had to wait until November that year
until they were released by proclamation.
Mary Bryant received a free pardon.