488 
A VOYAGE TO 
[ Off Mauritius. 
1810. 
June. 
“ King yet, after a delay of fifteen months, an application was 
answered by saying, “ that having communicated to His Excellency 
“ the marine minister the motives which had determined him to sus- 
“ pend my return to Europe, he could not authorize my departure 
“before having received an answer upon the subject;” in twenty 
months more, however, he let me go, and declared to Mr. commis- 
sary Hope that it was not in consequence of any orders from France. 
When first imprisoned in 1803, for having expressed a wish 
to learn the present state of the colony, there was no suspicion of 
any projected attack upon it ; in 1810, preparations of defence were 
making against an attack almost immediately expected, and there 
were few circumstances relating to the island in which I was not as 
well informed as the generality of the inhabitants ; then it was, after 
giving me the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the town 
and harbour of Port Louis, that general De Caen suffered me to go 
away in a ship bound to the place whence the attack was expected, 
and without laying any restriction upon my communications. 
Such are the leading characteristics of the conduct pursued by 
His Excellency general De Caen, and they will be admitted to be so 
far contradictory as to make the reconciling them with any uniform 
principle a difficult task ; with the aid however of various collateral 
circumstances, of opinions entertained by well informed people, and 
of facts which transpired in the shape of opinions, I will endeavour 
to give some insight into his policy ; req uesting the reader to bear in 
mind that much of what is said must necessarily depend upon con- 
jecture. 
After the peace of Amiens, general De Caen went out to 
Pondicherry as captain-general of all the French possessions to the 
east of the Cape of Good Hope; he had a few troops and a 
number of extra officers, some of whom appear to have been intended 
for seapoy regiments proposed to be raised, and others for the ser- 
vice of the Mahrattas. The plan of operations in India was probably 
extensive, but the early declaration of war by England put a stop to 
