en; and having no hope to obtain an answer
to a letter, I requested M. Bonnefoy to make an application to the
general for permission to sell the Cumberland. Ten days afterward the
interpreter informed me, that general De Caen had spoken to him of my
wish to live in the country, which had been made known to him by captain
Bergeret; and he desired him to tell me, "to have a little patience, he
should soon come to some determination upon my affair;" being spoken to
upon the sale of the Cumberland, his reply was, "a little patience, it is
time enough yet;" and when the charts and books for which I had applied
on Feb. 27 were mentioned, he still gave the same answer.

My people were brought on shore on the 23rd, with other British subjects
from the prison ship, in order to be sent to a district called Flacq, on
the east side of the island; and this circumstance confirmed my suspicion
that it was not intended to liberate us until orders were received from
France. Mr. Charrington, the boatswain, was permitted to speak to me in
the presence of an officer before their departure; and after learning the
condition of the poor prisoners, I recommended him to keep our people as
clean in their persons and regular in their conduct as circumstances
would permit; and not to attempt any escape, since we must be liberated
in six or eight months by order of the French government. One of them,
the Prussian who had behaved so ill, had gone away in the Spanish frigate
Fama, by permission of the French; the others had been kept strictly on
board the prison ship after the departure of the three Dutch men of war.
Although several prizes had been brought in, the number of English
prisoners was inconsiderable; owing to some of the vessels being manned
with lascars who were not confined and in part to the sailors having been
induced to enter on board the French privateers, for the sake of
obtaining more provisions and to avoid being kept in irons.

I had hitherto forborne to write any letters to England, whether public
or private, but what passed open through the office of the town major,
that no plea, even what arbitrary power could construe into such, might
be taken for continuing our imprisonment; but the arrival of letters thus
sent being exceedingly problematical, and my hope of liberation from
general De Caen having disappeared, the motive for this forbearance had
ceased to exist. An account was therefore written to the secretary of the
Admira