Garden Prison .] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
395 
jeant that my arms had been asked for, and he was sorry it had 
taken place; had the captain-general meant to demand my sword, 
it would have been done by an officer of equal rank ; but he had no 
intention to make me a prisoner until he should receive orders to 
that effect. The explanation attending this apology seemed to be 
strange ; and the next time captain Neufville came to the house I 
observed to him, that it appeared singular, after having been con- 
fined six months, to be told I was not a prisoner, and asked him 
to explain it. He said, no certainly, I was not a prisoner, — my 
sword had not been taken away ; that I was simply detained for 
reasons which he did not pretend to penetrate, and put under sur- 
veillance for a short period. 
In this affair of the sword I thought myself rather handsomely 
treated; but about three months afterward, one of the lower Officers 
of the staff' came to demand it in the name of the town major, by 
order of the captain-general. When told the circumstances which 
had occurred upon the same subject, he said the general had con- 
sented to my wish at that time, but had since altered his mind; and 
upon the promise of sending an officer of equal rank, he said there 
was no officer of the same rank at that time in readiness, — that 
colonel D’Arsonval (the town major) would himself have come had 
he not been engaged. I might, by a refusal, have given the officer 
the trouble of searching my trunks, and perhaps have received some 
further degradation ; but since the order had come from the general, 
who had broken his word, my sword was delivered, with the observa- 
tion that I should not forget the manner of its being taken. The 
officer described himself as lieutenant-adjutant de place; he conducted 
himself with politeness, and did not ask if I or Mr. Aken had any 
other weapons. 
A seaman of the Cumberland and another prisoner from Flacq 
made their appearance one morning behind the wall of our inclosure. 
They had come to make a complaint of the scantiness of their pro- 
visions ; for besides bread, they had only six ounces of meat or fish 
] 804 . 
.Tune. 
