COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
rii 
pairs; but, from her being put into quarantine, issi. 
and other unforeseen delays, they were not com- Sept. 2r. 
pleted for nearly a month: our sails were re- 
paired by the Menai s sailmakers ; and, as all 
our running rigging was condemned, and we had 
very little spare rope on board, her rope-makers 
made sufficient for our wants. The greater part 
of our. bread being found in a damaged state 
from leaks, was surveyed and condemned. 
Captain Flinders’s^ account of Mauritius ap- 
* It afforded me very g^reat pleasure to hear the high terms in 
which my late friend and predecessor Captain Flinders was spoken 
of by the inhabitants of this island, and their general regret at 
his infamous detention. His friend M. Pitot had lately died, but I 
met many French gentlemen who were acquainted with him. Gene- 
ral Decaen, the governor, was so much disliked by the inhabitants, 
that Captain Flinders gained many friends at his expense, who 
would not otherwise have troubled themselves about him; and 
this circumstance, probably, went far towards increasing the seve- 
rity of the treatment he so unjustly received. An anecdote of him 
was related to me by a resident of Port Louis, which, as it re- 
dounds to his honor, I cannot lose the gratification of recording. 
When Captain Flinders was at the house of Madame d’Arifat, in 
the district of Plains Wilhems, in which he was latterly permitted to 
reside upon his parole, an opportunity of escaping from the island 
was offered to him by the commander of a ship bound to India : it 
was urged to him by his friends that, from the tyrannical treat- 
ment he had received, and the unjustifiable detention he was en- 
during, no parole to such a man as General Decaen ought to be 
thought binding, or prevent him from regaining his liberty, and em- 
bracing any opportunity of returning to his friends and country. 
The escape was well planned, and no chance of discovery likely to 
happen : the ship sailed from Port Louis, and at night, bringing to 
