In 1829, a gang of convicts destined for a prison colony in Tasmania, an island south of Australia, made a daring escape. They hijacked their boat, called the Cyprus, and fled to China. From there, some of them eventually made it to the UK, where they were arrested and put on trial for piracy. During the trial, William Swallows, the man who had captained the ship of fleeing prisoners, described an episode as they sailed past Japan. There, he said, they had been fired upon by fearsome warriors. Swallows told the court that during this attack, a telescope was knocked out of his hand. No one believed his story, and for years, the tale was dismissed as a lie – until now.
Nick Russell, a British historian living in Japan,…
