398 
A VOYAGE TO 
[_/ll Maur itius. 
1804. 
August. 
public news, and also with the opinions entertained in the island upon 
the subject of my imprisonment. Those who knew that I had a 
passport, and was confined upon suspicion only, thought the conduct 
of the captain-general severe, impolitic, and unjust; and some who 
pretended to have information from near the fountain head, hinted 
that if his invitation to dinner had been accepted, a few days would 
have been the whole of my detention. Others understood my pass- 
port and papers to have been lost in the shipwreck, and that it was 
uncertain whether T were the commander of the expedition on dis- 
covery or not; whilst many, not conceiving that their governor 
could thus treat an officer employed in the service of science with- 
out his having given some very sufficient cause, naturally enough 
made a variety of unfavourable conjectures ; and in due time, that 
is, when these conjectures had passed through several hands, reports 
were in circulation of my having chased a vessel on shore on 
the south side of the island,— of soundings and surveys of the coast 
found upon me, — and of having quarrelled with the governor of 
New South Wales, who had refused to certify on my passport the 
necessity of quitting the Investigator and embarking in the Cumber- 
land ; and this last seemed to have acquired credit. I will not pre- 
tend to say, that general De Caen had any part in propagating these 
reports, for the purpose of satisfying the curiosity of an inquisitive 
public and turning its attention from the truth, though far from 
thinking it improbable ; be that as it may, the nature of my voyage, 
our shipwreck, the long passage made in the little Cumberland, and 
our severe imprisonment, had excited a considerable degree of in- 
terest ; and I Was told that this imprisonment had been mentioned 
in an anonymous letter to the captain-general, as one of the many 
tyrannical acts committed in the short time he had held the govern- 
ment of the island. 
One of the persons who asked permission to see me, was 
M. Augustin Baudin, brother of the deceased commander of Le 
G^ographe ; he testified the grateful sense his brother had always 
\ 
