Port Louis.'] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
CHAPTER IV. 
Arrival at Port Louis ( or North-West ) in Mauritius. Interview with 
the French governor. Seizure of the Cumberland, zvith the charts and 
journals of the Investigator’ s voyage ; and imprisonment of the com- 
mander and people . Letters to the governor, with his answer. Restitu- 
tion of some books and charts. Friendly act of the English interpreter. 
Propositions made to the governor. Humane conduct of captain Ber- 
geret. Reflections on a voyage of discovery. Removal to the Maison 
Despeaux or Garden Prison. 
At four in the afternoon of Dec. 17, we got to an anchor at the 
entrance of Port Louis, near the ship which I had hoped might be 
Le Geography ; but captain Melius had sailed for France on the 
preceding day, and this proved to be L’Atalante frigate. 
The peculiarity of my situation, arising from the renewal of 
war and neglect in the passport to provide for any accident happen- 
ing to the Investigator, rendered great precaution necessary in my 
proceedings ; and to remove as much possible, any doubts or mis- 
conceptions, I determined to go immediately with my passport and 
commission to the French governor, and request his leave to get 
the necessary reparations made to the schooner ; but learning from 
the pilot that it was a regulation of the port for no person to land 
before the vessel had been visited by the officer of health, it was 
complied with. At five the boat came along-side ; and having an- 
swered some general questions proposed in good English, 1 went 
into the boat in my frock uniform, and was conducted to the govern- 
ment house by an officer of the port and an interpreter. These 
gentlemen, after speaking with an aide-de-camp, told me that the 
