DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0098
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WONDERFUL ESCAPE.
A private information having been received by ME
Bond, that Sylvester Godlia, one of the persons concerned
in the late forgery on the Bank of Portugal, and who was
sent thither a few months ago with Gillington and Farrell,
against whom he was a principal witness, had escaped out
of the prison at Lisbon, and had been seen in the neigh-
bourhood of Bethnal-green, two of the officers were yes-
terday morning sent in search of him, and who apprehend-
ed and brought him before Mr. Bond and Sir Wm. Par-
sons, at Bow-street, when he made a sad confession of the
means used for his escape out of the prison at Lisbon,
which he effected by an old nail he found in his cell, and a
chain with which he forced up a plank in the floor, and
made his way through it to another dungeon, where he
found a cutlass, which enabled him to open a door, and
having engaged the sentinel placed near the door, in his
favour, they both went off together ; that he was seven
weeks in making the aperture in the floor, and he was forced
to act with the greatest caution to elude the observation of
the guard that brought him his victuals, when putting his
cloak over the spot, and sweeping the dungeon himself, he
contrived the piece of plank cut out, to fix in at that time ;
he concealed himself at an English woman’s house, at a
place called Bonisiras, and then went on board the Lord
Nelson privateer, and after cruising about ten days, was
cast away at Vigo, in Spain, and remained eight hours in
the sea ; that the cramp taking him, he clung to a piece of
w’ood, and in that situation, almost senseless, was taken up
by a Portuguese vessel, which also saved the rest of the
crew of the privateer, except four who were drowned, and
who landed them at Vigo ; that undergoing many hardships
by land, he got to Bilboa, and from thence to England by
a Spanish vessel bound to Cork ; but which, on account of
the
WONDERFUL ESCAPE.
A private information having been received by ME
Bond, that Sylvester Godlia, one of the persons concerned
in the late forgery on the Bank of Portugal, and who was
sent thither a few months ago with Gillington and Farrell,
against whom he was a principal witness, had escaped out
of the prison at Lisbon, and had been seen in the neigh-
bourhood of Bethnal-green, two of the officers were yes-
terday morning sent in search of him, and who apprehend-
ed and brought him before Mr. Bond and Sir Wm. Par-
sons, at Bow-street, when he made a sad confession of the
means used for his escape out of the prison at Lisbon,
which he effected by an old nail he found in his cell, and a
chain with which he forced up a plank in the floor, and
made his way through it to another dungeon, where he
found a cutlass, which enabled him to open a door, and
having engaged the sentinel placed near the door, in his
favour, they both went off together ; that he was seven
weeks in making the aperture in the floor, and he was forced
to act with the greatest caution to elude the observation of
the guard that brought him his victuals, when putting his
cloak over the spot, and sweeping the dungeon himself, he
contrived the piece of plank cut out, to fix in at that time ;
he concealed himself at an English woman’s house, at a
place called Bonisiras, and then went on board the Lord
Nelson privateer, and after cruising about ten days, was
cast away at Vigo, in Spain, and remained eight hours in
the sea ; that the cramp taking him, he clung to a piece of
w’ood, and in that situation, almost senseless, was taken up
by a Portuguese vessel, which also saved the rest of the
crew of the privateer, except four who were drowned, and
who landed them at Vigo ; that undergoing many hardships
by land, he got to Bilboa, and from thence to England by
a Spanish vessel bound to Cork ; but which, on account of
the