parole which I had given (que j'avais donnee) on Aug 23,
1805, by which I was allowed to go as far as two leagues from the
plantation of Madame D'Arifat; but since His Excellency the
captain-general has thought good to make other regulations, I shall
endeavour to conduct myself with so much prudence respecting the orders
now given, that His Excellency will not have any just cause of complaint
against me.

I have the honour to be, etc.

The two objects I had in view in giving this answer, were, to promise
nothing in regard to my movements, and to avoid close imprisonment if it
could be done without dishonour; had it been demanded whether I still
considered the parole to be in force, my answer was perfectly ready and
very short, but no such question was asked. Many circumstances had given
room to suspect, that the captain-general secretly desired I should
attempt an escape; and his view in it might either have been to some
extraordinary severity, or in case his spies failed of giving timely
information, to charging me with having broken parole and thus to throw a
veil over his own injustice. Hence it might have been that he did not
seek to know whether, being restricted to the plantation of Madame
D'Arifat, I still admitted the obligatory part of the parole to be
binding; and that the expression in my answer--_the parole which I had
given_, implying that it existed no longer, passed without question.
However this might be, I thenceforward declined accepting any invitations
beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the plantation; and until the
decisive moment should arrive, amused by solitude with instructing the
two younger sons of our good family in the elements of mathematical
science, with inventing problems and calculating tables that might be
useful to navigation, and in reading the most esteemed French authors.

After the evacuation of the town and bay of St. Paul at Bourbon, the
blockade of Mauritius was resumed by commodore Rowley with increased
strictness. The frigate La Canonniere and the prize formerly H. M. ship
Laurel, which the want of a few thousand dollars had induced the
government to let for freight to the merchants, were thus prevented
sailing; and a cartel fitted long before to carry the English prisoners
to the Cape of Good Hope, and waiting only, as was generally supposed,
for the departure of these two ships, was delayed in consequence. When
captains Woolcombe and Lynne of the navy had been desired i