Garden Prison.'] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
415 
their kindness which will ever be retained. From their conversation 
I learned what was the treatment of French prisoners at Bengal and 
Bombay ; and the contrast it formed with that of English officers 
and seamen in Mauritius, both in the degree of liberty and allowance 
for subsistence, was indeed striking. Something has already been 
said upon this subject, and much more might be said; but it is a 
more agreeable task to bestow praise where it can with truth be 
given. It is therefore with pleasure, and with gratitude on the part 
of my unfortunate countrymen to admiral Linois and the officers of 
his squadron, as also to the commanders of privateers, that I declare 
no one of the several prisoners I conversed with to have made any 
complaint of them ; on the contrary, almost all acknowledged to 
have been treated with kindness whilst on board, and except some- 
times a little pilfering by the sailors, to have lost nothing of what 
they had a right to keep by the received usages of war ; the trunks 
of many were not searched, it being only required of the possessor 
to declare, that it was his private property and that no letters or 
journals were contained therein. When the Fly packet was taken 
by the privateer La Fortune, lieutenant Manwaring’s table plate 
and time keeper were returned to him; and his treatment by M. 
Laraeme was altogether so liberal, when compared with the usual 
conduct of privateers in Europe, as to merit being cited. 
In order to give some notion of the mischief done to British 
commerce in India, by ships from Mauritius, an abstract of all the 
captures made in the first sixteen months of the war, so far as they 
came to our knowledge in the Garden Prison, is subjoined. 1 here 
are probably several omissions ; and the supposed values annexed to 
them are the least that can be estimated, perhaps not exceeding two- 
thirds of the prime cost. 
1805 . 
August. 
