ong national prejudice, though it may turn aside or depress for a
time, cannot yet extinguish in a people the broad principles of justice
and humanity generally prevalent in the human heart.

Some part of my desire to ascertain the motives which influenced general
De Caen to act so contrary to the passport of the first consul, and to
the usages adopted towards voyages of discovery, may perhaps be felt by
the reader; and he may therefore not be displeased to see the leading
points in his conduct brought into one view, in order to deducing
therefrom some reasonable conclusion.

On arriving at Mauritius after the shipwreck, and producing my passport
and commission, the captain-general accused me of being an impostor; took
possession of the Cumberland with the charts and journals of my voyage,
and made me a close prisoner. On the following day, without any previous
change of conduct or offering an explanation, he invited me to his table.

All other books and papers were taken on the fourth day, and my
imprisonment confirmed; the alleged cause for it being the expression in
my journal of a desire to become acquainted with _the periodical winds,
the port, and present state of the colony_, which it was asserted were
contrary to the passport; though it was not said that I knew of the war
when the desire was expressed.

After three months seclusion as a _spy_, I was admitted to join the
prisoners of war, and in twenty months to go into the interior of the
island, on _parole_; I there had liberty to range two leagues all round,
and was unrestricted either from seeing any person within those limits or
writing to any part of the world. It might be thought, that the most
certain way of counteracting my desire to gain information alleged to be
contrary to the passport, would have been _to send me from the island_;
but general De Caen took the contrary method, and kept me there above six
years.

His feeling for my situation, and desire to receive orders from the
French marine minister had been more than once expressed, when at the end
of three years and a half, he sent official information that the
government granted my liberty and the restitution of the Cumberland; and
this was accompanied with the promise, that I, so soon as circumstances
would permit, I should fully enjoy the favour which had been granted me
by His Majesty the Emperor and "King;" yet, after a delay of _fifteen
months_, an application was answered by saying, "th