swered by
an unqualified negative. In regard to our living in the country, the
general had said to captain Bergeret, "he should think further upon it;"
and this we were given to understand must be considered as a retraction
of his promise: a second example of how little general De Caen respected
his own word.

Charles Lambert, Esq., owner of the Althaea indiaman, brought in some
time before as a prize, having obtained permission to go to England by
the way of America, and no restriction being laid upon him as to taking
letters, had the goodness to receive a packet for the Admiralty,
containing copies of the charts constructed here and several other
papers.

AUGUST 1804

In August I found means of sending to India, for Port Jackson, a letter
addressed to governor King; describing my second passage through Torres'
Strait, and the bad state of the Cumberland which had obliged me to stop
at Mauritius, with the particulars of my imprisonment and the fate of his
despatches. This letter was received in the April following, and extracts
from it were published in the Sydney gazette; wherein was made a
comparison between my treatment in Mauritius and that of captain Baudin
at Port Jackson, as described by himself and captain Melius. This account
was copied into the _Times_ of Oct. 19, 1805, whence it afterwards came
to my knowledge.

One advantage of being confined in the Garden Prison rather than at the
Cafe Marengo, was in the frequency of visitors to one or other of the
prisoners; permissions were required to be obtained from the town major,
but these were seldom refused to people of respectability. In this manner
we became acquainted with all the public news, and also with the opinions
entertained in the island upon the subject of my imprisonment. Those who
knew that I had a passport, and was confined upon suspicion only, thought
the conduct of the captain-general severe, impolitic, and unjust; and
some who pretended to have information from near the fountain head,
hinted that if his invitation to dinner had been accepted, a few days
would have been the whole of my detention. Others understood my passport
and papers to have been lost in the shipwreck, and that it was uncertain
whether I were the commander of the expedition on discovery or not;
whilst many, not conceiving that their governor could thus treat an
officer employed in the service of science without his having given some
very sufficient cause, naturally enough