lly
some of the inhabitants within my circle, this time of anxious suspense
passed not unprofitably. In the month of March [MARCH 1809] arrived the
frigate La Venus, captain Hamelin, the same who had commanded Le
Naturaliste at Port Jackson. His affairs, or some other cause, prevented
him from seeing or writing to me; but he told M. Pitot that many persons
took an interest in my situation, and that several officers of Le
Geographe and Naturaliste had made applications to the marine minister.
The answers they received had constantly been, that orders were sent out
to Mauritius to set me at liberty and restore the Cumberland; yet it was
known in France before captain Hamelin sailed, that these orders had not
been executed, and the future intentions of the government were unknown.
The publication of the French voyage of discovery, written by M. Peron,
was in great forwardness; and the emperor Napoleon considering it to be a
national work, had granted a considerable sum to render the publication
complete. From a Moniteur of July 1808, it appeared that French names
were given to all my discoveries and those of captain Grant on the south
coast of Terra Australis; it was kept out of sight that I had ever been
upon the coast; and in speaking of M. Peron's first volume the newspapers
asserted, that no voyage _ever_ made by the English nation could be
compared with that of the Geographe and Naturaliste. It may be
remembered, that after exploring the South Coast up to Kangaroo Island,
with the two gulphs, I met captain Baudin, and gave him the first
information of these places and of the advantages they offered him; and
it was but an ill return to seek to deprive me of the little honour
attending the discovery. No means were spared by the French government to
enhance the merit of this voyage, and all the officers employed in it had
received promotion; but the Investigator's voyage seemed to obtain as
little public notice in England as in France, no one of my officers had
been advanced on their arrival, and in addition to so many years of
imprisonment my own promotion was suspended. It would ill become me to
say that in one case there was an ostentatious munificence, or in the
other, injustice and neglect; but the extreme difference made between the
two voyages could not but add to the bitterness of my situation, and
diminish the little remaining hope of being speedily and honourably
liberated.

A vessel from St. Malo arrived in Ma