icers dared not venture to let me have any printed books; I
must however do colonel Monistrol and M. Bonnefoy the justice to say,
that they acted throughout with much politeness, apologizing for what
they were obliged by their orders to execute; and the colonel said he
would make a representation to the captain-general, who doubtless lay
under some mistake.

This turn to my affairs surprised, and at first stunned me. The single
circumstance about which I had entertained the least apprehension, was
the neglect in my passport of providing for any other vessel than the
Investigator; but from this order of the captain-general, I found myself
considered in the light of a spy; my desire to know how far Mauritius
could be useful as a place of refitment in the future part of my
voyage--a desire formed and expressed in the belief of its being a time
of peace, was made a plea for depriving me of liberty and the result of
more than two years of risk and labour. The sensations raised by this
violation of justice, of humanity, and of the faith of his own
government, need not be described; they will be readily felt by every
Englishman who has been subjected, were it only for a day, to French
revolutionary power. On returning to my place of confinement, I
immediately wrote and sent the following letter, addressed to His
Excellency the captain-general De Caen, governor in chief, etc. etc. etc.
Isle of France.

Sir,

From your order, which was explained to me this morning, I find that the
plea for detaining me is not now that I do not appear with the
Investigator, according to _the letter_ of my passport from the first
consul of France; but that I have violated the neutrality therein
required by having given in my journal, as an additional reason for
putting into this port, that "it would enable me to acquire a knowledge
of the periodical winds, and of the present state of the French colony;
how far it or its dependencies in Madagascar might be useful to Port
Jackson, and how far it would be a convenient place for me to touch at in
my future expected voyage:" I quote from memory only, my journal being in
your possession. How this remark, made upon the supposition of our two
nations being at peace, can be a breach of neutrality, I acknowledge
myself unable to discover. Nothing can, in my opinion, add to the
propriety of the intentions with which I put into this port, but I shall
justify it by the example of your own nation; and to do