at nothing similar perhaps
ever occurred. In consequence of my French passport, not only was the
possibility of reaping any advantage from the war done away, but the
liberation on parole or by exchange, granted to all others in Mauritius,
was refused for years, the passport removing me from the class of
prisoners of war; yet one of the greatest hardships to officers of a
state of warfare was at the same time applied to me in England, and
continued throughout this protracted detention. So soon as it was known
that I had been released, and was arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, a
commission for post rank was issued; and on my representations to the
Right Hon. Charles Yorke, first lord commissioner of the Admiralty, by
whom I had the honour to be received with the condescension and feeling
natural to his character, he was pleased to direct that it should take
date as near to that of general De Caen's permission to quit Mauritius,
as the patent which constituted the existing Board of Admiralty would
allow. A more retrospective date could be given to it only by an order of
the King in council; unhappily His Majesty was then incapable of
exercising his royal functions; and when the Regency was established, my
proposed petition did not meet with that official encouragement which was
necessary to obtain success. It was candidly acknowledged, that my
services in the Investigator would have been deemed a sufficient title to
advancement in 1804, had I then arrived in England and the Admiralty been
composed of the same members; but no representation could overcome the
reluctance to admitting an exception to the established rule; thus the
injustice of the French governor of Mauritius, besides all its other
consequences, was attended with the loss of six years post rank in His
Majesty's naval service.

One of my first cares was to seek the means of relieving some relations
of my Mauritius friends, prisoners of war in England; and in a few
months, through the indulgence of the Admiralty and of the earl of
Liverpool, secretary of state for the colonies, I had the gratification
of sending five young men back to the island, to families who had shown
kindness to English prisoners.

The Board of Admiralty was pleased to countenance the publication of the
Investigator's voyage by providing for the charts and embellishments; and
a strong representation was made by its directions to the French
government, upon the subjects of my detained jour