“How shall I a habit break?
As you did that habit make,
As you gathered, you must lose;
As you yielded, now refuse,
Thread by thread the strands we twist
Till they bind us neck and wrist,
Thread by thread the patient hand
Must untwine ere free we stan”
~ John Boyle O'Reilly
(28 June 1844–10 August 1890) was an Irish-born poet and novelist. As a youth in Ireland he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, for which crime he was transported to Western Australia. After escaping to the United States, he became a prominent spokesperson for Irish sentiment and culture, through his editorship of the Boston newspaper The Pilot, his prolific writing, and his lecture tours.
While in Bunbury, O'Reilly formed a strong friendship with the local Catholic priest, Father Patrick McCabe. Late in 1869, McCabe offered to arrange for O'Reilly to escape the colony. By February, McCabe's plan was ready for execution. On 18 February 1869, O'Reilly absconded from his work party, and met up with a party of Irish settlers from the local town of Dardanup. Together they rode to the Collie River where a rowboat was waiting for them. They then rowed out of the Leschenault Inlet into the Indian Ocean, and north about twelve miles up the coast. O'Reilly then hid in the dunes, and awaited the departure from Bunbury of the American whaling ship Vigilant, which Father McCabe had arranged would take him on board. The ship was sighted the next day, and the party rowed out to sea, but the captain reneged on the agreement, and the Vigilant sailed off without acknowledging the rowboat. O'Reilly then had no choice but to return to the shore, and once again hide in the dunes while his friends tried to make arrangements with another ship. After two weeks of hiding, an arrangement was struck with the captain of the American whaler Gazelle. O'Reilly and his friends met the Gazelle three miles out to sea on 2 March, and was taken on board. With him was a ticket of leave convict named James Bowman, who had heard of the intended escape, and had blackmailed the conspirators into allowing him to escape with O'Reilly.
McCabe had arranged for the Gazelle to take O'Reilly only as far as Java, but adverse weather prevented the ship finding safe passage through the Sunda Strait. Instead, the captain decided to sail for Roderiquez, Mauritius, which was at that time a British colony. As soon as the Gazelle arrived at Roderiquez, it was boarded by a magistrate and a contingent of police, who claimed to have information that the Gazelle had on board an escaped convict from Western Australia, and demanded that he be given up. The crew immediately gave up Bowman, but denied having O'Reilly on board. The Gazelle's next port of call was to be Saint Helena, another British colony, and it was decided that if possible O'Reilly should transfer to another ship before then. On 29 July, the Gazelle met the American cargo vessel Sapphire on the high seas, and O'Reilly changed ships. The Sapphire arrived at Liverpool on 13 October, and O'Reilly transferred to another American ship, the Bombay. The Bombay docked in Philadelphia on 23 November 1869, where O'Reilly was enthusiastically welcomed by his compatriots.
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