Port Louis.] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
383 
3rd. But if it be indispensable to detain me here, I request that 
my officer and people may be permitted to depart in the schooner ; 
as well for the purpose of informing the British Admiralty where I 
am, as to relieve our families and friends from the report which will 
be spread of the total loss of the Porpoise and Cato, with all on 
board. Mr. Aken can be laid under what restrictions may be deemed 
requisite; and my honour shall be a security that nothing shall be 
transmitted by me, but what passes under the inspection of the officer 
who may be appointed for that purpose. 
In case of refusing to adopt any of these modes, by which my 
voyage might proceed without possibility of injury to the Isle of France, 
I then reminded His Excellency that since the shipwreck of the Por- 
poise, six months before, my people as well as myself had been mostly 
confined either upon a small sand bank in the open sea, or in a boat, 
or otherwise on board the Cumberland where there was no room to 
walk, or been kept prisoners as at that time; and that I had not pre- 
viously recovered from a scorbutic and very debilitated state, arising 
from eleven months exposure to great fatigue, bad climate, and salt 
provisions. After noticing my scorbutic sores, and his refusal of the 
surgeon’s application for me to walk out, it was added, — -The cap- 
tain-general best knows whether my conduct has deserved, or the 
exigencies of his government require, that l should continue to be 
closely confined in this sickly town and cut oft from society ; but ot 
no part of this letter was any notice taken. 
Two days before, I had been favoured with a visit from captain 
Bergeret of the French navy, who had commanded La Virginia 
frigate when taken by Sir Edward Pellew, and of whose honourable 
conduct in the affair of Sir W. Sydney Smith’s imprisonment, public 
mention had been made in England. This gentleman sat some time 
conversing upon my situation, which he seemed desirous to amelior- 
ate ; he said that “ the general did not consider me to be a prisoner 
“ of war, and that my confinement did not arise from any thing I 
“ l\ad done.” From what then did it arise ? At this question he 
1804. 
February. 
