events.

The second motive was "the seizing of Le Naturaliste, as announced by the
newspapers." Decaen was here referring to the fact that, when Le
Naturaliste was on her homeward voyage from Port Jackson, conveying the
natural history collections, she was stopped by the British frigate
Minerva and taken into Portsmouth. But no harm was done to her. She was
merely detained from May 27th, 1803, till June 6th, when she was released
by order of the Admiralty. In any case Flinders had nothing to do with
that.

The third motive was that Captain Flinders' logbook showed an intention
to make an examination of Ile-de-France and Madagascar, from which Decaen
drew the inference that, if the English Government received no check,
they would extend their power, and would seize the French colony. Herein
the General did a serious injustice to Flinders. His log-book did indeed
indicate that he desired "to acquire a knowledge of the winds and weather
periodically encountered at Ile-de-France, of the actual state of the
French colony, and of what utility it and its dependencies in Madagascar
might be to Port Jackson, and whether that island could afford resources
to myself in my future voyages." But information of this description was
such as lay within the proper province of an explorer; and the log-book
contained no hint, nor was there a remote intention, of acquiring
information which, however used, could be inimical to the security of the
French colony.

Decaen's mind had been influenced by reading Francois Peron's report to
him concerning the expansive designs of the British in the Pacific and
Indian Oceans. "There is no doubt," he informed his Government, "that the
English Government have the intention to seize the whole trade of the
Indian Ocean, the China Seas and the Pacific, and that they especially
covet what remains of the Dutch possessions in these waters." He derived
that extravagant idea from Peron's inflammatory communication, as will be
seen from a perusal of that interesting document.

By these strained means, then, did Decaen give a semblance of public
policy to his decision to detain Flinders. It would have been puerile to
attempt to justify his action to his superiors on the personal ground
that the English captain had vexed him; so he hooked in these various
pretexts, though ingenuously acknowledging that they would have counted
for nothing if Flinders had dined with him and talked the matter over
conversational