Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/235

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The fate of Miiir, Gerald, Skirving, and Pairner may he told here- The author of '*Eeminiscenees of Glasgow" asserted that the United States goveniment despatched the Otter for the *' relief of Thonias Miiir in partienlar, and hin fellow corapatriotH, if they eould be found." Whate^er may have heen tlie agency, it is true thai Miiir, with other prisoners, escaped (IBtli Feb. 179ti) in an American vessel, the Otter. After mishaps lie reached France, and busied hhnself in intrigues with Wolfe Tone and others about the invasiun of England, Tone says of him — *'0f all the vain, obstiDate block) leads I ever met, I never saw his equal/' Gerald (whose defence of Inmselt" may still be read with admiration) reached Sydney (5th Nov* 1795) in ill health, and died in the following March. All persons spoke of huu with sympathy. Skirving also died a few days afterwards, amidst the kindly feelings of all around him. Palmer/*^ who had been transported for seven years, arranged for the puixhase of a. ship in which to return to England. A young friend," Mr. Ellis, who had been permitted to accompany him in his exile, still clung to bis fortunes, and joined him as part-owner of the ship. They sailed to New Zealaed for tinil)er to take to the Cape of Good Hope, and w^ere compelled to seek provisions at Tonga taboo, where native wars frustrated their plans. They obtained supplies at the Fiji Islands, and ran on a reef at Goraa» but with the help of the natives repaired then' crazy vessel. They sailed for Chma, but their provisions faihng and theu* ship leaking, they took refuge in Guam, where (a year after they left Sydne}') the Spanish Governor made tbem prisoners of '"III lioswuirB *' Tvift' of JobnsQii" it will Ik.' seen thiit in Juotii 3781 the Rev. Tlionms Fyaclie Palmer* Fellow <»f (^>iiften's ToUege, Cambridge, dmcd ^ith Juhnson at Mr. Dillya in BedforflshiLe. He apjifius to have been unsettled in judyjnieiit. He siib&tMiuoDtly became miiiiHter to a small Uuitiirian eongi egation at Dundee. TJ^e aspiiutioiis of dreamers aboat the perfectibility of men by the piuLesat's of the French revolutionists took possessioD of his unstable mind, and in a few years he was found conapiriug with friends of Paine and of the wretched MargaroL In the House of (.'onimona in Maif li 1794 Fox said, in a df^liate on the transportation of ^fuir and Palmer, that he " very much doubted, eoneidcring the dangers of the voyage to Botany Bay, whether it might not be rated etjual with death ; in hia mind it was the Jiaine/' Pitt aaid that iluir and Palmer were ** meu of lil>LTal education, and should have gimrdetl against tfie commission of ciimes which levelled them with the lowest and most iguorant part of mankind."