His wife, however, had a further two years of her sentence to run; since she would be unable to work her passage home she was in effect facing a lifetime in the colony. And the governor had announced that no convict, even if their sentence had expired, would be allowed to leave the colony if they left behind a wife and children who could not support themselves. Although supplies brought by the Second Fleet had warded off the threat of starvation for the time being, the long term prospects for the colony still looked bleak, and so the Bryants decided that escape was their only option. In December 1790 "the Waaksamheyd", a Dutch ship that had been chartered to bring provisions from Batavia (present day Jakarta), arrived in the colony and was to stay for several weeks while negotiations took place over a further charter. Bryant and his wife befriended the Dutch captain, Detmer Smith, and acquired from him the things they would need for their escape—a compass, quadrant, chart, rice, salt pork, flour, a barrel for water, two muskets and ammunition. The plan was to steal a boat and head for the Dutch East Indies 3,000 miles away. The "Waaksamheyd" left Port Jackson on 27 March 1791, having been chartered to return to England. With no ship left in the harbour to give chase and the monsoon season fast approaching, Bryant decided to make his escape the following day when darkness fell. Along with his wife and two children, and seven other convicts (James Martin, James Cox and Samuel Bird from the First  Fleet, and William Allen, Nathaniel Lilly, navigator William Morton and Samuel Broom from the Second Fleet), he boarded the governor's cutter and loaded the provisions and equipment. They made their way past South Point without being spotted by the lookout and into the open sea. It was only in the morning that the escape was discovered. There was a certain amount of sympathy and admiration for the convicts; John Easty, a private in the Marines, wrote: Today 8 men with 1 woman and 2 Children Convicts toke a kings boat of 6 oars with a large quantity of provisions... it was Supposed that they intinded for Bativee but having no vessell in the habour thare was no Pursueing them so thay got Clear of, but it is a very Desperate attempt to go in an open Boat for a run of about 16 or 17 hundred leags and pertuclar for a woman and two Small children... but the thoughts of Liberty from Such a place as this is Enough to induce any Convicts to try all Skeemes to obtain it as they are the same as slaves all the time thay are in this country.