Wilhems Plains.] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
461 
ordinary that in July 1807, the quadruplicate sent from England 
in December, round by India, should first arrive, when two or more 
vessels had come from France in the preceding twelvemonths. 
Colonel Monistrol’s letter gave me to understand that the 
order would be executed, but the time when, and the manner, w r ere 
left in uncertainty ; I therefore requested a permission to go to town 
for the arrangement of my affairs, hoping there to learn some fur- 
ther particulars ; this however was refused, the answer being, “ that 
when the time of my departure should be fixed,” a permission would 
be granted for as many days as were necessary. Whence this 
delay in executing the minister’s order could arise, I knew not ; but 
having heard that the Cumberland had been removed from her 
usual place, and fearing that her reparation and refitment might be 
the cause, a letter was sent to inform colonel Monistrol, “ that the 
impossibility of obtaining any better vessel for a direct passage to 
England could alone have induced me to undertake it in the Cum- 
berland ; and that unless His Excellency denied me any other means 
of quitting the Isle of France, it was not my intention to re-embark 
in her. If therefore it were His Excellency’s desire that she should 
be restored to me, rather than her value, I hoped he would admit of 
her being sold ; and allow me to take a passage on board some ship 
bound to America or India a request for the restitution of my 
books and papers was also made, that the intervening time might be 
employed in arranging them from the disorder into which they had 
been thrown at the shipwreck, four years before. At the end of three 
weeks, a letter from the colonel invited me to go to town, that he 
might restore the books and papers, with the other objects relating 
to my voyage of discovery ; and on presenting myself at his office, 
the trunk into which they had been put was given up ; my sword 
and spy-glasses were to be returned at the time of departure, as 
also the amount of the schooner and her stores, which had been 
valued soon after my arrival. On asking for the two boxes of de- 
spatches, the colonel said they had long been disposed of, and he 
iso;. 
July. 
\ 
August. 
