o had qualified me with
the title of impostor without examination; but it seemed that any act of
aggression on the part of the general was to meet only with submission
and respect. Embarrassment sheltering itself under despotic power, was
evident in this letter; but it gave no further insight into the reasons
for making me a prisoner, and consequently no opportunity of vindicating
my innocence. It therefore seemed wisest, seeing the kind of man with
whom I had to deal, to follow his directions and leave the main subject
to the operation of time; but to take off my mind from dwelling too
intensely upon the circumstance of being arrested at such a conjuncture,
I determined to employ it in forwarding my voyage, if an application for
the necessary papers should be attended with success.

MONDAY 26 DECEMBER 1803

Having obtained a translation of the general's letter from the
interpreter, who came next morning in company with the surgeon, I wrote
to request,

1st. My printed books from the schooner.

2nd. My private letters and papers out of the secretary's office.

3rd. To have two or three charts and three or four manuscript books, for
the purpose of finishing the chart of the Gulph of Carpentaria; adding in
explanation, that the parts wanting were mostly lost in the shipwreck,
and I wished to replace them from my memory and remaining materials
before it were too late. For these a receipt was offered, and my word
that nothing in the books should be erased or destroyed; but I wished to
make additions to one or two of the books as well as to the charts, and
would afterwards be ready to give up the whole.

4th. I represented a complaint from my seamen, of being shut up at night
in a place where not a breath of air could come to them; which, in a
climate like this, must be not only uncomfortable in the last degree, but
very destructive to European constitutions. Also, that the people with
whom they were placed were affected with that disagreeable and contagious
disorder the itch; and that their provisions were too scanty, except in
the article of bread, the proportion of which was large, but of a bad
quality.

An answer was given on the same day by one of the general's
aides-de-camp, who said that orders had been given for the delivery of
the books and papers; that the place where the seamen were kept was very
wholesome; and as to the provisions, that orders had been given on my
arrival for the people of the Cumberland