ive orders, and the promise, when they arrived, that I
should be set at liberty so soon as circumstances would permit, were
shown to be fallacious; and the so long expected order to be of none
effect. The reasoning of the inhabitants upon this suspension was, that
having been so long in the island, I had gained too much knowledge of it
for my departure to be admitted with safety; but if this were so, the
captain-general was punishing me for his own oversight, since without the
detention forced by himself, the supposed dangerous knowledge could not
have been acquired. In calling it an oversight I am probably wrong. When
the general suffered me to quit the Garden Prison, he expected the order
which afterwards arrived; and what appeared to be granted as an
indulgence, was perhaps done with a view to this very pretext of my too
extended knowledge of the island; a pretext which could scarcely have
been alleged so long as I remained shut up in prison.

NOVEMBER 1808

One of the naval officers who embarked in La Semillante had served in the
expedition of captain Baudin; he took charge of a triplicate of my
memorial to the marine minister, and promised to use his efforts in
obtaining for it a powerful support. This triplicate was accompanied by
many letters, addressed to distinguished characters in the ministry, the
senate, in the council of state and the national institute; as well from
myself as from several worthy persons who interested themselves in the
issue of my detention. By this and another opportunity, I stated to the
Admiralty and the president of the Royal Society the circumstances
attending the order which had arrived; and from these various steps
united, my friends in Mauritius conceived the hope of a success almost
certain; but from having been so often deceived I was less sanguine, and
saw only that if this memorial and these letters failed, there was little
hope of being restored to liberty before the uncertain epoch of peace.

1809

Constant occupation was, as usual, my resource to beguile the time until
the effect of the memorial and letters could be known. Being furnished by
some friends with several manuscript travels and journals in the
interior, and along the coasts of Madagascar, I constructed a chart of
the northern half of that extensive island, accompanied with an
analytical account of my materials; and in this employment, reading
various French authors, mathematical studies, and visiting occasiona