^§84 
1804 . 
February. 
A VOYAGE TO [At Mauritius. 
was silent. He regretted not to have been in town on my arrival, 
believing it would have been in his power to have turned the tide of 
consequences; and obligingly offered to supply me with money, 
if in want. 
During a fortnight from this time, no incident occurred worth 
notice. My scorbutic sores being much better, the surgeon came 
but seldom ; and the visits of the interpreter being less frequent than 
before, our solitude was rarely interrupted. The Gulph of Car- 
pentaria and Torres' Strait being finished, my time had since be n 
employed in writing an explanatory memoir upon the latter chart ; 
Mr. Aken was occupied in copying the journal of bearings for the 
Admiralty, and my servant in transcribing the two first volumes of 
the log, which had been torn and defaced in the shipwreck; so that 
our time did not pass wholly in vain. It was the completion of the 
charts, however, that I had most at heart ; and although the success 
of an application for more materials were very doubtful, an essay to 
obtain them was made on the 27th, i n the following letter to the 
captain-general. 
SIR, 
The term of my imprisonment being lengthened out much beyond 
my expectation, puts me under the necessity of making another application 
to Your Excellency for more books and charts, that I may still proceed in 
completing the account of my observations and discoveries. If the whole 
were put into my possession it would be of much service to my labour, and 
save Your Excellency from being troubled with any further application on 
this head ; but if this will not be complied with, I beg to make a small se- 
lection from them, which will principally consist of a roll of charts. I am 
not however to deceive Your Excellency this roll contains the greater 
part of my original fair charts, and I am desirous to have them principally 
for the purpose of making an abtidgm nt of my discoveries upon a single 
sheet. With all due consideration, I am 
Your Excellency’s prisoner, 
Matthew Flindir* 
