496 
A VOYAGE TO 
[In England. 
journal, the schooner Cumberland, and the parole exacted on quitting 
Mauritius. A release from the parole was transmitted in April 1812, 
after three applications ; but upon the other points it was answered, that 
“ the vessel of captain Flinders was at the Isle of France at the capitu- 
“ lation of that colony, and returned in consequence to the power of 
“ the English government. With respect to the journal of that 
“ navigator, as it did not make part of the papers brought from the 
“ Isle of France by the prefect of that colony, a demand has been 
“ made for it to the captain-general De Caen, who is with the army. 
“ In default of an answer he will be again written to, and so soon 
“ as it shall be remitted, my first object will be to send it. ’ T he 
Cumberland had been seized in 1803, and the capitulation was made 
in 1810; in the interval, both vessel and stores, if not used, would 
be in great part rotten ; but I saw the Cumberland employed in the 
French service, and believe that the stores were also. General De 
Caen, it appeared, still kept the log book in his own hands; although, 
if considered to be private property, it was undoubtedly mine, and 
if as a public document it ought to have been given up at the capitu- 
lation, or at least to have been deposited in the office of the marine 
minister. But the captain-general had probably his reasons for not 
wishing even the minister to see it; and up to this time, the com- 
mencement of 1814,, he has so far persevered against both public and 
private applications, that neither the original nor a copy has been 
obtained. 
