406 
A VOYAGE TO 
\_At Mauritius. 
February wou ^ be immediately determined ; but a whole month passed in 
silence as so many others had before done. It was reported, however, 
as having come from the general, that the council of state had ap- 
proved of the precautions he had taken ; but whether it had decided 
upon my being set at liberty, sent to France, or continued a prisoner, 
was not said. . 
There were at this time only six officers in the Garden Prison, 
Mr. Aken being still at the hospital ; lieutenant Manwaring of the 
Bombay marine, before commander of the Fly packet, with two of 
his officers had possession of one part of the house, and Messrs. Dale 
and Seymour, midshipmen of the Dddaigneuse, lived with me in the 
other. These two young gentlemen, the first in particular, aided 
me in making copies of charts and memoirs, in calculating astrono- 
mical observations, &c. ; and I had much pleasure in furnishing them 
with books and assisting their studies. 
March. In the beginning of March, I was surprised to see in the official 
gazette of the French government, the Moniteur of July 7, 1804, a 
long letter from Dunkirk addressed to the editor ; containing many 
particulars of my voyage, praising the zeal with which it had been 
conducted, and describing my detention in Mauritius as a circum- 
stance which had originated in a mistake and was understood to be 
terminated. In the succeeding Moniteur of the nth, some observa- 
tions were made upon this letter on the part of the government, 
which afforded some insight into what was alleged against me ; and 
these being important to the elucidation of general De Caen’s policy, 
a translation of them is here given. 
Moniteur, No. 292. 
Wednesday 22 Messidor, year 12; or July 11, 1804, 
In a letter from Dunkirk, addressed to the editor of the Moniteur, and 
inserted in the paper of the I 8 U 1 of this month. No. 288, we read an account 
of the Voyage of Mr, Flinders, an English navigator, who arrived at the Isle 
