solace of home:* (* Flinders' Papers.) "I yesterday
enjoyed a delicious piece of misery in reading over thy dear letters, my
beloved Ann. Shall I tell thee that I have never before done it since I
have been shut up in this prison? I have many friends, who are kind and
much interested for me, and I certainly love them. But yet before thee
they disappear as stars before the rays of the morning sun. I cannot
connect the idea of happiness with anything without thee. Without thee,
the world would be a blank. I might indeed receive some gratification
from distinction and the applause of society; but where could be the
faithful friend who would enjoy and share this with me, into whose bosom
my full heart could unburthen itself of excess of joy? Where would be
that sweet intercourse of soul, the fine seasoning of happiness, without
which a degree of insipidity attends all our enjoyments?...I am not
without friends even among the French. On the contrary. I have several,
and but one enemy, who unfortunately, alas, is all-powerful here; nor
will he on any persuasion permit me to pass the walls of the prison,
although some others who are thought less dangerous have had that
indulgence occasionally."

"When my family are the subject of my meditation," he said in a letter to
his step-mother, "my bonds enter deep into my soul."

His private opinion of Decaen is expressed in a letter written at this
period:* (* Flinders' Papers.) "The truth I believe is that the violence
of his passion outstrips his judgment and reason, and does not allow them
to operate; for he is instantaneous in his directions, and should he do
an injustice he must persist in it because it would lower his dignity to
retract. His antipathy, moreover, is so great to Englishmen, who are the
only nation that could prevent the ambitious designs of France from being
put into execution, that immediately the name of one is mentioned he is
directly in a rage, and his pretence and wish to be polite scarcely
prevent him from breaking out in the presence even of strangers. With all
this he has the credit of having a good heart at the bottom."

The captain of a French ship, M. Coutance, whom Flinders had known at
Port Jackson, saw Decaen on his behalf, and reported the result of the
interview. "The General accused me of nothing more than of being trop
vive; I had shown too much independence in refusing to dine with a man
who had accused me of being an impostor, and who had unj