e English passport, and
subjecting the ship to capture, if known, it was resolved to detain me a
short time, and an embargo was laid upon all neutral ships for ten days.
It would appear that the report of the commandant at La Savanne gave some
suspicion of my identity, which was eagerly adopted as a cause of
detention; I was therefore accused at once of imposture, closely
confined, and my books, papers, and vessel seized. Next day another
report arrived from La Savanne, that of major Dunienville; from which,
and the examination I had just undergone, it appeared that the accusation
of imposture was untenable; an invitation to go to the general's table
was then sent me, no suspicion being entertained that this condescension
to an Englishman, and to an officer of inferior rank, might not be
thought an equivalent for what had passed. My refusal of the intended
honour until set at liberty, so much exasperated the captain-general that
he determined to make me repent it; and a wish to be acquainted with the
present state of Mauritius being found in my journal, it was fixed upon
as a pretext for detaining me until orders should arrive from France, by
which an imprisonment of at least twelve months was insured. The first
motive for my detention therefore arose from the infraction previously
made of the English passport, by sending despatches in Le Geographe; and
the probable cause of its being prolonged beyond what seems to have been
originally intended, was to punish me for refusing the invitation to
dinner.

The marine minister's letter admits little doubt that general De Caen
knew, on the return of his brother-in-law in January 1805, that the
council of state at Paris, though approving of his conduct, proposed
granting my liberty and the restitution of the Cumberland; and he must
have expected by every vessel to receive orders to that effect; but
punishment had not yet produced a sufficient degree of humiliation to
make him execute such an order willingly. When the exchange was made with
commodore Osborn in the following August, it became convenient to let me
quit the Garden Prison, in order to take away the sentinels; captain
Bergeret also, who as a prisoner in India had been treated with
distinction, strongly pressed my going into the country; these
circumstances alone might possibly have induced the captain-general to
take the parole of one who had been detained as a spy; but his subsequent
conduct leaves a strong suspicio