also was made known the mission on which they were bound.

As John Breslin was now in America, obviously he was the man of all
others to entrust with the command of the daring project of carrying off
the prisoners. Happily he was available for the work, and entered into
it heartily. He sent me the narrative of the rescue himself--through his
brother Michael--on his return to America, after having successfully
accomplished his mission.

He and Captain Desmond sailed from San Francisco on the 13th of
September, 1875, and reached Freemantle on 16th of November. They were
not long in opening up communications with the prisoners, so as to be in
readiness for the arrival of the _Catalpa_. In the meantime two more men
joined the expedition--John King, who brought a supply of money from
New Zealand, which was most useful, and Thomas Brennan, who arrived at
the last moment, just as the _Catalpa_ appeared off the coast, and had
got into communication with Breslin.

Everything being arranged, it was determined to carry off the following
prisoners--Martin Harrington, Thomas Darragh, James Wilson, Martin
Joseph Hogan, Robert Cranston, and Thomas Henry Hassett. They were at
work outside the prison walls, or at other employment equally
accessible, when they were taken away in two traps from Freemantle,
about nine o'clock in the morning of the 17th of April, 1876. By the
time the news of their flight, and of the direction they had taken, was
known in the prison, the party had reached Rockingham, and were on the
sea in the whale-boat which was to take them to the _Catalpa_.

The gunboat _Conflict_, which was usually stationed at King George's
Sound, was telegraphed for by the authorities, but it was found that the