Garden Prison .] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
•105 
despatches in time of war was therefore improper. Common report 
said, that captain Melius objected to it, as compromising the safety of 
his ship and results of the voyage ; but on its being known from the 
signals that an English vessel was on the south side of the island, 
M. Barrois embarked secretly, and the ship was ordered off' the same 
evening. Hence I missedbseeing her, and was arrested on arriving 
at Port Louis without examination ; and hence it appeared to have 
been, that an embargo was immediately laid on all foreign ships for 
ten days, that none of our cruisers might get information of the 
circumstance and stop Le Gdographe ; hence also the truth of what 
was told me in the Cafe Marengo, that my confinement did not arise 
from any thing I had done. 
Such was the respect paid by general De Caen to the English 
passport; and how little sacred he held that given by his own govern- 
ment for the protection of the Investigator’s voyage, will in part 
have already appeared. The conduct of the British government 
and its officers in these two cases was widely different. In conse- 
quence of the English passport, the G6ographe and Naturaliste 
were received at Port Jackson as friends, and treated with the kind- 
ness due to their employment and distressed situation, as will satis- 
factorily appear from M. Peron’s account of their voyage ; and with 
regard to the French passport, it may be remembered that the Ad- 
miralty directed me, on leaving England, not even to take letters or 
packets other than such as might be received from that office, or 
that of the secretary of state ; and the despatches sent from those 
offices were to governor King alone, and related solely to the Inves- 
tigator’s voyage. I was ordered to stop at Madeira and the Cape 
of Good Hope, but neither to the officers commanding His Majesty’s 
land or sea forces at one, nor at the other place was any despatch 
sent ; although no opportunity of writing to the Cape had for some 
time presented itself. 
The return of M. Barrois gave a reasonable hope that the captain- 
general might have received orders concerning me, and that some- 
1 80S. 
January. 
February, 
