872 
A VOYAGE TO 
[At Mauritius. 
isos. Our undefended pallet beds were besieged by swarms of buffs and 
Friday 23. musketoes, and the bites of these noxious insects upon bodies ready to 
break out with scurvy, produced effects more than usually painful and 
disagreeable. Being almost covered with inffamed spots, some of 
which had become ulcers on my legs and feet, l wrote to the captain- 
general, requesting the assistance of a surgeon ; and also to know 
under what limitations he would allow me to write to the Admiralty 
of Great Britain, and to my family and friends ; but the main subject 
was left untouched, in expectation of an answer to the former letter. 
In the afternoon, one of the aides-de-camp said that His Excel- 
lency did not prevent me from writing to whom I pleased ; but that 
my letters must be sent open to the town major, who would forward 
them to their address. The same evening a surgeon, who did not 
Saturday 24. speak English, came to our room; next morning he returned with 
the interpreter, and finding the ulcers to be scorbutic, ordered me, 
in addition to his dressings, to drink plentifully of lemonade and live 
upon fruit and vegetables. Their visit Was repeated on the follow- 
Sunday 25. ing day; but nothing transpired relative to the general's intentions, 
nor to any answer proposed to be given to my letter of the 21st; 
and I therefore wrote another in the following terms. 
SIR, 
From whatever cause it may be that I have received no answer to my 
letter of the 21st last/l shall yet continue to do my duty to my government 
and the cause of discovery, by pointing out every circumstance that may have 
a probability of inducing you to liberate my people, my vessel, and myself. 
A former letter showed, that upon the principles adopted in voyages of 
discovery by your own nation, the plea for detaining me a prisoner was un- 
tenable ; and also that independently of any passport, it ill became the French 
nation to stop the prosecution of a voyage of discovery, especially one car- 
ried on with the zeal that mine has hitherto been. In this letter I shall 
endeavour to point out another circumstance, at least as important as the 
former, so far as regards the injustice of my detainer. In this point of view 
