Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
vived a charge of sedition and fled across the Channel where he
spent some months being feôted by kindred spirits among the new
ruling eólite in Paris. The moment he set foot once more upon his nat-
ive soil he was arrested and subjected to a mockery of a trial. He
was found guilty on a number of ridiculously vague counts and sen-
tenced to be transported for fourteen years. The members of the jury
were appalled and would have made a plea for commutation of sen-
tence had not the government made their will plain by means of a
threatening letter to one of the jurymen. Thus, in March 1794, Muir
set off in a convict ship on the first leg of his circumnavigation.
At Botany Bay he decided on making the best of his captivity.
He bought some land and settled down to become a farmer. But not
everyone was prepared to let him disappear into obscurity. He was
widely regarded as a martyr for political freedom, nowhere more so
than in the USA. A group of Americans decided to rescue him and, a
little more than a year after his arrival in Australia, he was brought
away in the US sloop
Otter.
But his adventures were only just begin-
ning. He was taken across the Pacific. Then his ship was wrecked in
Nootka Sound. He and the other survivors were captured by Amer-
indians, made their escape, and travelled in an open boat right down
the coast to Mexico. They were well treated there and, making their
way across the country, were able to find a ship bound for Cuba.
There, Muir's luck changed yet again. England was now at war with
Spain and Muir was arrested by the authorities and shipped back to
Cadiz. He thus returned to Europe as he had left it - as a prisoner.
Just off the Spanish coast the frigate in which he was travelling fell
in with two English ships. There was a fierce exchange of fire and
the Spanish captain sustained heavy losses before he was able to get
his vessel into harbour. Among those given up for dead was Tho-
mas Muir. A cannon ball had taken away half his face. Amazingly, he
survived. The French government intervened and he was welcomed
back to Paris as a hero, in February 1798. There his strange journey
