A VOYAGE TO [Towards England. 
obtained on the 21st, at the entrance of the English Channel ; but it 
then blew a gale of wind from the westward, and obliged us to lie 
to on this, as it did on the following night; and it was greatly feared 
that the cutter would be driven on the coast of France, near the 
Casket rocks. In the morning of the 23rd, the wind being more 
moderate, we made sail to the northward, and got sight of the Bill 
of Portland ; and at five in the evening came to an anchor in Stud- 
land Bay, off' the entrance of Pool Harbour, after a run from St. 
Helena of six weeks ; which in an indifferent sailing vessel, very 
leaky, and excessively ill found, must be considered an excellent 
passage. 
Captain Parkinson and lieutenant Robb went off the same 
night with their despatches ; and next morning we ran through: the 
Needles and came to at Spithead, where the prize brig, from which 
we had been long separated, had just before dropped her anchor. 
I went on shore to wait upon admiral sir Roger Curtis, and the same 
evening set off for London ; having been absent from England nine 
years and three months, and nearly four years and a half without 
intelligence from any part of my connexions. 
The account of the Investigator’s voyage, and of the events 
resulting from it is concluded; but there is one or two circumstances 
which the naval reader may probably desire to see further explained. 
A regulation adopted at the Admiralty forbids any officer to 
be promoted whilst a prisoner, upon the principle apparently, that 
officers in that situation have almost always to undergo a court 
martial, which cannot be done until they are set at liberty. My 
case was made subject to this regulation, although it required no 
court martial ; and was moreover so different to that of prisoners in 
general, that nothing similar perhaps ever occurred. In consequence 
of my French passport, not only was the possibility of reaping any 
advantage from the war done away, but the liberation on parole or by 
exchange, granted to all others in Mauritius, was refused for years, 
the passport removing me from the class of prisoners of war ; yet one 
