y of imitation in all intricate cases. As I have a fund of justice
at the bottom of my conscience, which will not permit me to exact from
others more than I would perform myself, I do hereby certify that I have
this day addressed a letter to my well-beloved sister Isabella Tyler,
spinster, in which letter I do desire for her all manner of blessings,
spiritual and temporal; that she may speedily obtain a husband six feet
high, if it so pleases her, with the wishing cap of Fortunatus."

The strictness of the man's conduct, in his relations with superiors and
subordinates alike, sprang from his integrity of heart. Everybody trusted
him. A memoir published by a contemporary commented upon the fidelity of
his friendships. "He was faithful to the utmost in the performance of a
promise, whether important or trifling in its consequences."

Some of the best friends he ever made were among the French in
Ile-de-France; and he became so much attached to them that, even when he
secured his longed-for freedom, he could not part from them without a
pang of regret. They saw in him not only a wronged man, but a singularly
high-minded one. Pitot, writing to Bougainville to urge him to do his
utmost to secure Flinders' release, repudiated, in these terms, the idea
that he could be a spy:* "No, Monsieur Flinders is not capable of such
conduct; his pure and noble character would never permit him to descend
to the odious employment of a spy." (* Manuscripts, Mitchell Library;
letter dated 19 Vendemiaire, an 13. October 11, 1804.) One wonders
whether by any chance Bougainville had occasion to show that letter to
Messieurs Peron and Freycinet!

A touching and beautiful example of his gentleness occurred in connection
with a wounded French officer whom he visited at Port Louis. Lieutenant
Charles Baudin des Ardennes had sailed as a junior officer on Le
Geographe under Baudin (to whom he was not related) and Flinders had
known him at Port Jackson. In 1807 he was serving as a lieutenant on La
Semillante, in the Indian Ocean. He was badly wounded in a sharp
engagement with the British ship Terpsichore in March, 1807, and was
brought into Port Louis, where his shattered right arm was amputated.
Flinders, full of compassion for the young man, visited him, and, as
oranges were required for the sufferer, bought up the whole stock of a
fruiterer, 53 of them. Upon his return to Wilhelm's Plains, he wrote
Baudin a letter of sympathy and encouragement, b