368 
A VOYAGE TO 
[At Mauritius. 
1803 . desire to know how far Mauritius could be useful as a place of refit- 
WcS b S. ment in the future part of my voyage, -a desire formed and ex- 
pressed in the belief of its being a time of peace, was made a plea for 
depriving me of liberty and the result of more than two years of risk 
and labour. The sensations raised by this violation of justice, of huma- 
nity, and of the faith of his own government, need not be described ; 
they will be readily felt by every Englishman who has been sub- 
jected, were it only for a day, to French revolutionary power. On 
returning to my place of confinement, I immediately wrote and sent: 
the following letter, addressed to His Excellency the captain-general 
De Caen, governor in chief, &c. &c. &c. Isle of France. 
SIR, 
From your order, winch was explained to me this morning, I find that 
the plea for detaining me is not now that I do not appear with the Investi- 
gator, according to the letter of my passport from the first consul of France; 
but that I have violated the neutrality therein required by having given m 
my journal, as an additional reason for putting into this port, that ff it would 
enable me to acquire a knowledge of the periodical winds, and ol the present 
state of the French colony ; how far it or its dependecies in Madagascar might 
be useful to Port Jackson, and how far it would be a convenient place for 
me to touch at in my future expected voyage I quote from rnemoiy only, 
my journal being in your possession. How this remark, made upon the 
supposition of our two nations being at peace, can be a breach of neutrality, 
I acknowledge myself unable to discover. Nothing can, in my opinion, add 
to the propriety of the intentions with which I put into this port, but I shall 
jurify it by the example of your own nation ; and to do so, it is only neces- 
sary for me to refer to the instructions which preface the published voyage 
of the unfortunate La Perouse, by the judicious Fleurieu. Your Excellency 
will there see, that the much lamented navigator was ordered to make particu- 
lar observations upon the trade, manufactures, strength, situation, &c. of 
every port where he might touch ; so that, if the example of your own nation 
be taken as a standard of propriety, the plea for making me a prisoner is 
altogether untenable. Upon the supposition even of its being war, and that 
