sorry that he cannot allow captain Flinders
to embark in the cartel Wellesley. So soon as circumstances will permit,
that officer will be set at liberty, and to that effect be sent to
London." The most direct means of conveyance to London in time of war,
was assuredly by the way of France; but two vessels, the first of which
was commanded by the brother of the captain-general, had sailed a short
time before for that destination; so that this answer, if not false, was
at least equivocal. My opinion of the general's unfair dealing had
induced me to write by the last of these French vessels to the minister
of the marine, representing the little probability there was of his order
being executed; but this vessel was captured, and my letter most probably
thrown overboard.

An attempt to gain some knowledge of what were the captain-general's
intentions was made in the following letter, written on the 16th, to
colonel Monistrol.

Sir,

You will do me a favour in transmitting the log book which was detained
for the purpose of making extracts from it, as they have doubtless been
made long since. At the same time, Sir, you would relieve me from much
inquietude, if you could inform me of the time at which it is the
intention of His Excellency the captain-general to grant me the liberty
which His Imperial and Royal Majesty was pleased to accord in March 1806.
BY your letter of July 27 last, I was led to hope from the expression,
"vous jouirez pleinement de la faveur," etc., that this long desired
period would soon arrive. What the circumstances are to which you allude
in that letter, it is impossible for me to know; nor is it within my
imagination to conceive the circumstances which permit vessels to sail
for India or America, but which cannot allow of my departure.

The desire expressed by His Excellency to captain Bergeret and M.
Beckmann, to receive orders relating to me, and to the latter that he was
sensible of the hardship of my situation, led me to hope that he would
have taken into consideration the length of time that my detention had
continued, the misfortune which preceded it, and the time elapsed since
the date of the marine minister's letter; and I still intreat him to take
them into his consideration. I have suffered much, Sir, in the Isle of
France, and the uncertainty in which I have ever been kept has been one
of the bitterest ingredients in the cup; I thought it exhausted when you
favoured me with the copy of t