Some of the prisoners at the settlement, as appears from a "general
order" issued by Hunter, had "picked up somehow or other the idle story
of the possibility of travelling from hence to China, or finding some
other colony where they expect every comfort without the trouble of any
labour." It may have been the alluring hope of discovering such an
earthly paradise that flattered these men. As a matter of fact, some
convicts did escape from New South Wales and reached India, after
extraordinary perils and hardships. They endeavoured to sail up the River
Godavery, but were interrupted by a party of sepoys, re-arrested, and
sent to Madras, whence they were ordered to be sent back to Sydney.* (*
See Annual Register 1801 page 15.)

But the party whom Bass found never discovered the place of the wreck
upon which they reckoned. Instead, they drifted round Cape Howe, and
found themselves off a desolate, inhospitable coast, without knowledge of
their whereabouts, and with a scanty, rapidly diminishing stock of food.
In fear of starvation seven of them resolved to desert their companions
on this lonely island near Wilson's Promontory, and treacherously sailed
away with the boat while the others were asleep. It was the sad, sick,
and betrayed remnant of this forlorn hope, that Bass found on that
wave-beaten rock on the 3rd January. For five weeks the wretched men had
subsisted on petrels and occasional seals. Small prospect they had of
being saved; the postponement of their doom seemed only a prolongation of
their anguish. They were nearly naked, and almost starved to death. Bass
heard their story, pitied their plight, and relieved their necessities as
well as he could from his own inadequate stores. He also promised that on
his return he would call again at the island, and do what he could for
the party, who only escaped from being prisoners of man to become
prisoners of nature, locked in one of her straitest confines, and fed
from a reluctant and parsimonious hand.