122 THE DETENTION OF FLINDERS AT THE MAURITIUS. 



not respected ? We find a satisfactory answer here. . . • 

 Captain Flinders was going home. Grovernor King took 

 the opportunity of sending home some despatches, and these, 

 despatches, there is little doubt, were the cause of all poor 

 Flinders' trouble. We have here (unfortunately, without a 

 date) a memorandum from Captain Kent, of H.M.S. Buffalo, 

 for Grovernor King, in which it is stated that the colony ' is 

 admirably situated for sending forth a squadron against the 

 Spaniards on the coast of Chili and Peru.' Governor King 

 makes this idea the subject of a despatch. He enlarges upon 

 the opportunities this most excellent harbour offers for the 

 concentration of troops, which might at any time be sent 

 against Spanish America. This despatch he entrusts to 

 Captain Flinders, and this Governor De Caen finds when, his 

 susj)icion aroused by the peculiar appearance of the little 

 Cumherland, he seizes her and detains all her papers. Now 

 Flinders' passport was granted to an officer commanding a 

 ship to be employed on scientific work only, and here Flinders 

 was found conveying a despatch to England, England being 

 at the time engaged in a life and death struggle with France, 

 which, if delivered and acted on, would have the effect of 

 placing points of vantage, and possibly valuable colonies, 

 within easy striking distances. A despatch of this sort could 

 hardly be considered as a document of purely international 

 scientific interest. Governor De Caen did not so consider it, 

 and having a natural animus against all Englishmen, con- 

 sidered himself justified in using the excuse this paper gave 

 him to justify a rigorous imprisonment." And the writer 

 goes on in a rather sneering style about " poor Flinders." 



I confess that I have " a natural animus" against special 

 pleading of this sort. If it had to be answered from infor- 

 mation given by itself the task would be difficult, for the 

 information given is so vague. The only one of the documents 

 above referred to, which is specifically said to exist among the 

 papers, is the memorandum " unfortunately vnthout a date "^ 

 from Captain Kent. But Governor King's despatch founded 

 thei'eupon ; is it among the papers ? If so, why is it not to be 

 published as Captain Kent's memorandum is ? Again, what 

 is the proof that Flinders took this despatch, and that it fell 

 into the hands of De Caen, and when did he use " the excuse 

 this paper gave him to justify a rigorous imprisonment?" 



On the contrary there is much to prove that no such 

 despatch was carried by Flinders, and that consequently none 

 such could have been taken from him by De Caen. Flinders 

 did take despatches from King to the Secretary of State in 

 England, and those despatches were taken from him and 

 never returned; but they could not have been of this 

 contraband character, for in almost all certainty they were 

 papers relative to Flinders' expedition, detailing the arrange- 



