unexpectedly, and without any restriction upon my communications; and if
such a result to an attack upon Mauritius were foreseen by the present
count De Caen, captain-general of Catalonia, events have proved that he
was no mean calculator. But perhaps this, as well as the preceding
conjectures on his motives may be erroneous; if so, possibly the count
himself, or some one on the part of the French government may give a more
correct statement--one which may not only reconcile the facts here
brought together, but explain many lesser incidents which have been
omitted from fear of tiring the patience of the reader.

[CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.]

I thought it a happy concurrence of circumstances, that on the same day
we quitted Port Louis in the cartel, the arrival of a frigate from India
should require commodore Rowley to despatch the Otter to the Cape of Good
Hope. Captain Tomkinson took his departure on the 14th at nine in the
evening, from Cape Brabant, with a fresh trade wind and squally weather;
at noon next day the island Bourbon was in sight, and the breakers on the
south-east end distinguishable from the deck; but thick clouds obscured
all the hills. The winds from south-east and north-east carried us to the
latitude 27 deg. and longitude 49 deg.; they were afterwards variable, and
sometimes foul for days together, and we did not make the coast of Africa
until the 3rd of July [JULY 1810]. Being then in latitude 34 deg. 52' and
longitude 251/2 deg., the hills were descried at the distance of twenty leagues
to the northward; and the water being remarkably smooth, the lead was
hove, but no bottom found at 200 fathoms. A continuance of western winds
obliged us to work along the greater part of the coast, and Cape Agulhas
was not seen before the 10th; we then had a strong breeze at S. E., and
Cape Hanglip being distinguished at dusk, captain Tomkinson steered up
False Bay, and anchored at eleven at night in 22 fathoms, sandy bottom.
In this passage of twenty-six days from Mauritius, the error in dead
reckoning amounted to 1 deg. 18' south and 2 deg. 21' west, which might be
reasonably attributed to the current.

On the 11th we ran into Simon's Bay, and captain Tomkinson set off
immediately for Cape Town with his despatches to vice-admiral Bertie and
His Excellency the earl of Caledon; he took also a letter from me to the
admiral, making application, conformably to my instructions, for the
earliest passage to England; and requ