day he took over the government. He had therefore been in
command exactly four months when Matthew Flinders, in the Cumberland, put
into Baye du Cap on December 15th.

For his conduct in the Flinders affair Decaen has been plentifully
denounced. "A brute," "a malignant tyrant," "vindictive, cruel and
unscrupulous"--such are a few shots from the heavy artillery of language
that have been fired at his reputation. The author knows of one admirer
of Flinders who had a portrait of Decaen framed and hung with its face to
the wall of his study. It is, unfortunately, much easier to denounce than
to understand; and where resonant terms have been flung in freest
profusion, it does not appear that an endeavour has been made to study
what occurred from the several points of view, and to examine Decaen's
character and actions in the light of full information. A postponement of
epithets until we have ascertained the facts is in this, as in so many
other cases, extremely desirable.

No candid reader of Decaen's Memoires, and of Prentout's elaborate
investigation of his administration, can fail to recognise that he was a
conspicuously honest man. During his governorship he handled millions of
francs. Privateers from Ile-de-France captured British merchant ships, to
a value, including their cargo, of over 3 million pounds sterling,* a
share of which it would have been easy for Decaen to secure. (*
"Prentout, page 509, estimates the value of captures at 2 million pounds,
but Mr. H. Hope informed Flinders in 1811, that insurance offices in
Calcutta had actually paid 3 million pounds sterling on account of ships
captured by the French at Mauritius. Flinders, writing with exceptional
opportunities for forming an opinion, calculated that during the first
sixteen months of the war the French captures of British merchant ships
brought to Ile-de-France were worth 1,948,000 pounds (Voyage 2 416).) But
his financial reputation is above suspicion. His management was
economical and efficient. He ended his days in honourable poverty.

He was blunt and plainspoken; and though he could be pleasant, was when
ruffled by no means what Mrs. Malaprop called "the very pineapple of
politeness." His quick temper brought him into continual conflict with
superiors and subordinates. He quarrelled repeatedly with generals and
ministers; with Admiral Linois, with Soult, with Decres, with Barras,
with Jourdan, and with many others. When General Lecourbe handed him