port that will be spread of the total loss of the two ships with all on
board. My officer can be laid under what restrictions may be thought
necessary, and my honour shall be a security that nothing shall be
transmitted by me but what passes under the inspection of the officer who
might be appointed for that purpose.

"If your Excellency does not think proper to adopt any of these modes, by
which, with submission, I conceive my voyage of discovery might be
permitted to proceed without any possible injury to the Isle of France or
its dependencies, I then think it necessary to remind the Captain-General
that since the shipwreck of the Porpoise, which happened now six months
back, my officers and people as well as myself have been mostly confined
either on a very small sandbank in the open sea, or in a boat, or
otherwise on board the small schooner Cumberland, where there is no room
to walk, or been kept prisoners as at present; and also, that previous to
this time I had not recovered from a scorbutic and very debilitated state
arising from having been eleven months exposed to great fatigue, bad
climates and salt provisions. From the scorbutic sores which have again
troubled me since my arrival in this port the surgeon who dressed them
saw that a vegetable diet and exercise were necessary to correct the
diseased state of the blood and to restore my health; but his application
through your Excellency's aide-de-camp for me to walk out, unfortunately
for my health and peace of mind, received a negative. The Captain-General
best knows whether my conduct has deserved, or the exigencies of his
Government require, that I should continue to remain closely confined in
this sickly town and cut off from all society.

"With all due consideration, I am,

"Your Excellency's prisoner,

"MATTHEW FLINDERS."

To this petition Decaen returned no reply. Feeling therefore that his
detention was likely to be prolonged, Flinders, weary of confinement, and
longing for human fellowship, applied to be removed to the place where
British officers, prisoners of war, were kept. It was a large house with
spacious rooms standing in a couple of acres of ground, about a mile from
the tavern, and was variously called the Maison Despeaux, or the Garden
Prison. Here at all events fresh air could be enjoyed. The application
was acceded to immediately, and Colonel Monistrol himself came, with the
courtesy that he never lost an opportunity of manifesting, to