S8S 
A VOYAGE TO 
[At Mauritius. 
1804. 
March. 
was permitted to speak to me in the presence of an officer before 
their departure ; and after learning the condition of the poor pri- 
soners, I recommended him to keep our people as clean in their per- 
sons and regular in their conduct as circumstances would permit ; 
and not to attempt any escape, since we must be liberated in six or 
eight months by order of the French government. One of them, 
the Prussian who had behaved so ill, had gone away in the Spanish 
frigate Fama, by permission of the French ; the others had been 
kept strictly on board the prison ship after the departure of the three 
Dutch men of war. Although several prizes had been brought in, 
the number of English prisoners was inconsiderable ; owing to some 
of the vessels being manned with lascars who were not confined, 
and in part to the sailors having been induced to enter on board the 
French privateers, for the sake of obtaining more provisions and to 
avoid being kept in irons. 
I had hitherto forborne to write any letters to England, whether 
public or private, but what passed open through the office of the town 
major, that no plea, even what arbitrary power could construe into 
such, might be taken for continuing our imprisonment; but the arrival 
of letters thus sent being exceedingly problematical, and my hope 
of liberation from general De Caen having disappeared, the motive 
for this forbearance had ceased to exist. An account was therefore 
written to the secretary of the Admiralty of my arrival, reception, 
and treatment in Mauritius, inclosing copies of all the letters written 
or received ; that my Lords Commissioners might be enabled to 
take proper measures for obtaining our liberty and the restitution of 
my charts and journals ; especial care was taken at the same time, to 
avoid the mention of any thing which could be thought to infringe 
on the passport, as much as if it had remained inviolate on the part 
of general De Caen. This letter was inclosed to a friend in London, 
and sent by the way of America ; and I afterwards learned from the 
public papers that it was received in the August following. 
The end of March had arrived, and nothing more was said of 
