Rodrigues, it was boarded by a magistrate and a contingent of police, who claimed to have information that the Gazelle carried an escaped convict from Western Australia, and demanded that he be given up. The crew gave up Bowman, but denied having O'Reilly on board. The Gazelles next port of call was to be Saint Helena, another British colony. The captain recommended that O'Reilly transfer to another ship before then. On 29 July the Gazelle met the American cargo vessel on the high seas and O'Reilly changed ships. The Sapphire arrived at Liverpool on 13 October and O'Reilly transferred to another American ship, the . The Bombay docked in Philadelphia on 23 November 1869 where O'Reilly was enthusiastically welcomed by Irish compatriots. Shortly after O'Reilly arrived in Philadelphia he went to New York where he was invited to deliver a lecture in the Cooper Institute which he delivered on 16 December 1869. While there he recounted details of the escape. O'Reilly quickly realised that New York did not offer any field for his ambitions and he was advised to move to Boston, which he did, arriving there on 2 January 1870. 1870–1890: Writing and journalism career 1870–1874: Early years, Fenian invasion of Canada and Songs From the Southern Seas O'Reilly settled in Charlestown, a neighbourhood in Boston, which had a large Irish community. He gave his first lecture in the United States on 31 January 1870 on "England's Political Prisoners". The lecture was a success and O'Reilly was invited to repeat it in Salem, Providence and other areas. A bit later that year he was given the position as a reporter with The Pilot. In June 1870 O'Reilly travelled to Canada, to cover the Fenian Invasion of Canada, where he met General John O'Neill. O'Reilly was on the front line at every event during the failed invasion including O'Neill's arrest. The coverage was O'Reilly's first major work on The Pilot. Marriage and family On August 15, 1872 O'Reilly married Mary Murphy (1850–1897), a journalist who wrote for the Young Crusader under the name of Agnes Smiley. They had four daughters: Mary, Eliza, Agnes and Blanid. Their eldest daughter, Mary Boyle O'Reilly, was a journalist and war correspondent before and during World War I. The third daughter, Agnes O'Reilly, went on to marry the philosopher William Ernest Hocking soon after he earned his PhD from Harvard University, where he would later