n August to
keep themselves in readiness, I had committed to the obliging care of the
latter many letters for England, and one for admiral Bertie at the Cape;
but instead of being sent away, these officers with the others were put
into close confinement, and their prospects retarded until the hurricane
season, when it was expected the island would have a respite from our
cruisers.

DECEMBER 1809

In the beginning of December, despatches were said to have arrived from
France, and the marine minister having received my memorial in the early
part of the year, full time had been given to send out a fresh order; but
disappointment on such arrivals had been so constant during greater part
of the six years to which my imprisonment was now prolonged, that I did
not at this time think it worth asking a question on the subject. A
British cartel, the Harriet, arrived from India on the 12th, with the
officers of La Piemontaise and La Jena; the Harriet was commanded by Mr.
John Ramsden, formerly confined with me in the Garden Prison, and the
commissary of prisoners was Hugh Hope, Esq., whom Lord Minto had
particularly sent to negotiate an exchange with general De Caen. The
cartel had been stopped at the entrance of the port by the blockading
squadron, and been permitted to come in only at the earnest request of
Mr. Hope and the parole of the prisoners to go out again with him should
the exchange be refused. In a few days I received an open letter from Mr.
Stock, the former commissary; and having learned that Mr. Hope proposed
to use his endeavours for my release, a copy of all the letters to and
from colonel Monistrol, subsequent to the marine minister's order, was
transmitted, that he might be better enabled to take his measures with
effect; and towards the end of the month, a letter from the commissary
informed me of the very favourable reception he had met with from the
captain-general, of the subject of my liberty having been touched upon,
and of his entertaining hopes of a final success. The flattering
reception given to Mr. Hope had been remarked to me with surprise from
several hands; but a long experience of general De Caen prevented any
faith in the success of his application for my release: I feared that Mr.
Hope's wishes had caused him to interpret favourably some softened
expressions of the general, which he would in the end find to merit no
sort of confidence.

JANUARY 1810

La Venus frigate, after her exploit at T