Some part of my desire to ascertain the motives which influenced general De Caen to act so contrary to the passport of the first consul, and to the usages adopted towards voyages of discovery, may perhaps be felt by the reader; and he may therefore not be displeased to see the leading points in his conduct brought into one view, in order to deducing therefrom some reasonable conclusion.

On arriving at Mauritius after the shipwreck, and producing my passport and commission, the captain-general accused me of being an impostor; took possession of the Cumberland with the charts and journals of my voyage, and made me a close prisoner. On the following day, without any previous change of conduct or offering an explanation, he invited me to his table.

All other books and papers were taken on the fourth day, and my imprisonment confirmed; the alleged cause for it being the expression in my journal of a desire to become acquainted with the periodical winds, the port, and present state of the colony, which it was asserted were contrary to the passport; though it was not said that I knew of the war when the desire was expressed.

After three months seclusion as a spy, I was admitted to join the prisoners of war, and in twenty months to go into the interior of the island, on parole; I there had liberty to range two leagues all round, and was unrestricted either from seeing any person within those limits or writing to any part of the world. It might be thought, that the most certain way of counteracting my desire to gain information alleged to be contrary to the passport, would have been to send me from the island; but general De Caen took the contrary method, and kept me there above six years.

His feeling for my situation, and desire to receive orders from the French marine minister had been more than once expressed, when at the end of three years and a half, he sent official information that the government granted my liberty and the restitution of the Cumberland; and this was accompanied with the promise, that I, so soon as circumstances would permit, I should fully enjoy the favour which had been granted me by His Majesty the Emperor and "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 suspend 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. commissary 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 generalitv 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; requesting the reader to bear in mind that much of what is said must necessarily depend upon conjecture.

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 service of the Mahrattas. The plan of operations in India was probably extensive, but the early declaration of war by England put a stop to them, and obliged His Excellency to abandon the brilliant prospect of making a figure in the annals of the East; he then came to Mauritius, exclaiming against the perfidy of the British government, and with a strong dislike, if not hatred to the whole nation. I arrived about three months subsequent to this period, and the day after M. Barrois had been sent on board Le Geographe with despatches for France; which transaction being contrary to the English passport, and subjecting the ship to capture, if known, it was resolved to detain me a short time, and an embargo was laid upon all neutral ships for ten days. It would appear that the report of the commandant at La Savanne gave some suspicion of my identity, which was eagerly adopted as a cause of detention; I was therefore accused at once of imposture, closely confined, and my books, papers, and vessel seized. Next day another report arrived from La Savanne, that of major Dunienville; from which, and the examination I had just undergone, it appeared that the accusation of imposture was untenable; an invitation to go to the general's table was then sent me, no suspicion being entertained that this condescension to an Englishman, and to an officer of inferior rank, might not be thought an equivalent for what had passed. My refusal of the intended honour until set at liberty, so much exasperated the captain-general that he determined to make me repent it; and a wish to be acquainted with the present state of Mauritius being found in my journal, it was fixed upon as a pretext for detaining me until orders should arrive from France, by which an imprisonment of at least twelve months was insured. The first motive for my detention therefore arose from the infraction previously made of the English passport, by sending despatches in Le Geographe; and the probable cause of its being prolonged beyond what seems to have been originally intended, was to punish me for refusing the invitation to dinner.

The marine minister's letter admits little doubt that general De Caen knew, on the return of his brother-in-law in January 1805, that the council of state at Paris, though approving of his conduct, proposed granting my liberty and the restitution of the Cumberland; and he must have expected by every vessel to receive orders to that effect; but punishment had not yet produced a sufficient degree of humiliation to make him execute such an order willingly. When the exchange was made with commodore Osborn in the following August, it became convenient to let me quit the Garden Prison, in order to take away the sentinels; captain Bergeret also, who as a prisoner in India had been treated with distinction, strongly pressed my going into the country; these circumstances alone might possibly have induced the captain-general to take the parole of one who had been detained as a spy; but his subsequent conduct leaves a strong suspicion that he proposed to make the portion of liberty, thus granted as a favour, subservient to evading the expected order from France, should such a measure be then desirable. At length the order arrived, and three years and a half of detention had not produced any very sensible effect on his prisoner; the execution of it was therefore suspended, until another reference should be made to the government and an answer returned. What was the subject of this reference could not be known, but there existed in the island only one conjecture; that from having had such a degree of liberty during near two years, I had acquired a knowledge of the colony which made it unsafe to permit my departure.

Extensive wars were at this time carrying on in Europe, the French arms were victorious, and general De Caen saw his former companions becoming counts, dukes, and marshals of the empire, whilst he remained an untitled general of division; he and his officers, as one of them told me, then felt themselves little better circumstanced than myself—than prisoners in an almost forgotten speck of the globe, with their promotion suspended. Rumours of a premeditated attack at length reached the island, which it was said the captain-general heard with pleasure; and it was attributed to the prospect of making military levies on the inhabitants, and increasing his authority by the proclamation of martial law; but if I mistake not, the general's pleasure arose from more extended views and a more permanent source. If the island were attacked and he could repulse the English forces, distinction would follow; if unsuccessful, a capitulation would restore him to France and the career of advancement. An attack was therefore desirable; and as the captain-general probably imagined that an officer who had been six years a prisoner, and whose liberty had been so often requested by the different authorities in India, would not only be anxious to forward it with all his might, but that his representations would be attended to, the pretexts before alleged for my imprisonment and the answer from France were waved; and after passing six weeks in the town of Port Louis and five on board a ship in the harbour, from which I had before been debarred, he suffered me to depart in a cartel bound to the place where the attack was publicly said to be in meditation. This is the sole motive which, upon a review of the general's conduct, I can assign for being set at liberty so unexpectedly, and without any restriction upon my communications; and if such a result to an attack upon Mauritius were foreseen by the present count De Caen, captain-general of Catalonia, events have proved that he was no mean calculator. But perhaps this, as well as the preceding conjectures on his motives may be erroneous; if so, possibly the count himself, or some one on the part of the French government may give a more correct statement—one which may not only reconcile the facts here brought together, but explain many lesser incidents which have been omitted from fear of tiring the patience of the reader.

[CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.]

I thought it a happy concurrence of circumstances, that on the same day we quitted Port Louis in the cartel, the arrival of a frigate from India should require commodore Rowley to despatch the Otter to the Cape of Good Hope. Captain Tomkinson took his departure on the 14th at nine in the evening, from Cape Brabant, with a fresh trade wind and squally weather; at noon next day the island Bourbon was in sight, and the breakers on the south-east end distinguishable from the deck; but thick clouds obscured all the hills. The winds from south-east and north-east carried us to the latitude 27 deg. and longitude 49 deg.; they were afterwards variable, and sometimes foul for days together, and we did not make the coast of Africa until the 3rd of July [JULY 1810]. Being then in latitude 34 deg. 52' and longitude 251/2 deg., the hills were descried at the distance of twenty leagues to the northward; and the water being remarkably smooth, the lead was hove, but no bottom found at 200 fathoms. A continuance of western winds obliged us to work along the greater part of the coast, and Cape Agulhas was not seen before the 10th; we then had a strong breeze at S. E., and Cape Hanglip being distinguished at dusk, captain Tomkinson steered up False Bay, and anchored at eleven at night in 22 fathoms, sandy bottom. In this passage of twenty-six days from Mauritius, the error in dead reckoning amounted to 1 deg. 18' south and 2 deg. 21' west, which might be reasonably attributed to the current.

On the 11th we ran into Simon's Bay, and captain Tomkinson set off immediately for Cape Town with his despatches to vice-admiral Bertie and His Excellency the earl of Caledon; he took also a letter from me to the admiral, making application, conformably to my instructions, for the earliest passage to England; and requesting, if any circumstance should place general De Caen within his power, that he would be pleased to demand my journal from him, and cause it to be transmitted to the Admiralty. I went on shore next morning and waited upon colonel sir Edward Butler, the commanding officer at Simon's Town; and learning that an India packet had put into Table Bay, on her way to England, made preparation for going over on the following day. At noon, however, a telegraphic signal expressed the admiral's desire to see me immediately; and as the packet was expected to stop only a short time, I hoped it was for the purpose of embarking in her, and hastened over with horses and a dragoon guide furnished by the commandant; but to my mortification, the packet was standing out of Table Bay at the time I alighted at the admiral's door, and no other opportunity for England presented itself for more than six weeks afterward.

During the tedious time of waiting at Cape Town for a passage, I received much polite attention from His Excellency the earl of Caledon, and Mr. Alexander, secretary to the colony; as also from the Hon. general Grey, commander of the forces, commissioner Shield of the navy, and several other civil and military officers of the Cape establishment. I made little excursions to Constantia and in the neighbourhood of the town; but feared to go into the interior of the country lest an opportunity, such as that which the India packet had presented, might be lost. Towards the latter end of August [AUGUST 1810], captain Parkinson of the army and lieutenant Robb of the navy arrived from commodore Rowley's squadron, with intelligence of the island Bourbon being captured; and a cutter being ordered to convey them to England, I requested of the admiral and obtained a passage in her.

SEPTEMBER 1810

We sailed from Simon's Bay on the 28th August, in the Olympia, commanded by lieutenant Henry Taylor; and after a passage of fourteen days, anchored in St. Helena road on the afternoon of September 11; and having obtained water and a few supplies from the town, sailed again the same night. On the 16th, passed close to the north side of Ascension, in the hope of procuring a turtle should any vessel be lying there; but seeing none, steered onward and crossed the Line on the 19th, in longitude 191/2 deg. west. The trade wind shifted to the S. W. in latitude 5 deg. north, and continued to blow until we had reached abreast of the Cape-Verde Islands, as it had done at the same time of year in 1801. At my recommendation lieutenant Taylor did not run so far west as ships usually do in returning to England, but passed the Cape-Verdes not further distant than sixty leagues; we there met the north-east trade, and on the 29th Mr. Taylor took the brig Atalante from Mauritius.

[IN ENGLAND]

OCTOBER 1810

On reaching the latitude 223/4 deg. north and longitude 33 deg. west, the north-east trade veered to east and south-eastward, which enabled us to make some easting; and being succeeded by north-west winds, we passed within the Azores, and took a fresh departure from St. Mary's on the 15th of October. Soundings in 75 fathoms were 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 Studland 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 of the greatest hardships to officers of a state of warfare was at the same time applied to me in England, and continued throughout this protracted detention. So soon as it was known that I had been released, and was arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, a commission for post rank was issued; and on my representations to the Right Hon. Charles Yorke, first lord commissioner of the Admiralty, by whom I had the honour to be received with the condescension and feeling natural to his character, he was pleased to direct that it should take date as near to that of general De Caen's permission to quit Mauritius, as the patent which constituted the existing Board of Admiralty would allow. A more retrospective date could be given to it only by an order of the King in council; unhappily His Majesty was then incapable of exercising his royal functions; and when the Regency was established, my proposed petition did not meet with that official encouragement which was necessary to obtain success. It was candidly acknowledged, that my services in the Investigator would have been deemed a sufficient title to advancement in 1804, had I then arrived in England and the Admiralty been composed of the same members; but no representation could overcome the reluctance to admitting an exception to the established rule; thus the injustice of the French governor of Mauritius, besides all its other consequences, was attended with the loss of six years post rank in His Majesty's naval service.

One of my first cares was to seek the means of relieving some relations of my Mauritius friends, prisoners of war in England; and in a few months, through the indulgence of the Admiralty and of the earl of Liverpool, secretary of state for the colonies, I had the gratification of sending five young men back to the island, to families who had shown kindness to English prisoners.

The Board of Admiralty was pleased to countenance the publication of the Investigator's voyage by providing for the charts and embellishments; and a strong representation was made by its directions to the French government, upon the subjects of my detained 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 capitulation 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." The 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 capitulation, 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 commencement of 1814, he has so far persevered against both public and private applications, that neither the original nor a copy has been obtained.

APPENDIX I.

ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS BY WHICH THE LONGITUDES OF PLACES ON THE EAST AND NORTH COASTS OF TERRA AUSTRALIS HAVE BEEN SETTLED.

In the Appendix to Vol. I. a statement was made of the circumstances under which the observations for settling the longitudes of places on the South Coast were taken; as also of the method used in the calculations, and the corrections applied more than what is usual in the common practice at sea. That statement is equally applicable to the following tables for the East and North Coasts, and the explanation of their different columns is the same; a reference therefore to the former Appendix will render unnecessary any further remark on these heads.

The first observations on the East Coast were taken at Port Jackson, and the results would naturally form the first table of this Appendix; but these observations being so intimately connected with those on the South Coast that the time keepers could not receive their final corrections without them, the Port-Jackson table became an indispensable conclusion to the former series; and it is thought unnecessary to repeat it in this place.

Table I. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter I.) LONGITUDE OF THE ANCHORAGE IN KEPPEL BAY.

Table II. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter III.) LONGITUDE OF UPPER HEAD, IN BROAD SOUND.

Table III. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VI.) LONGITUDE OF SWEERS' ISLAND, GULPH OF CARPENTARIA.

Table IV. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VII) LONGITUDE OF OBSERVATION ISLAND, SIR E. PELLEW'S GROUP.

Table V. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VIII.) LONGITUDE OF FINCH'S ISLAND, IN N. W. BAY—GROOTE EYLANDT.

Table VI. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VIII.) LONGITUDE OF THE TENTS, IN CALEDON BAY.

Table VII. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter IX.) LONGITUDE OF THE ANCHORAGE IN COEPANG BAY, TIMOR.

Table VIII. (Reference from BOOK III. Chapter II.) LONGITUDE OF WRECK-REEF BANK, LYING OFF THE EAST COAST.

Table IX. (Reference from BOOK III. Chapter V.) LONGITUDE OF THE GARDEN PRISON, 1' N. E. FROM PORT LOUIS—MAURITIUS.

APPENDIX II

ON THE ERRORS OF THE COMPASS ARISING FROM ATTRACTIONS WITHIN THE SHIP, AND OTHERS FROM THE MAGNETISM OF LAND; WITH PRECAUTIONS FOR OBVIATING THEIR EFFECTS IN MARINE SURVEYING.

[Not included in this ebook.]

APPENDIX III

GENERAL REMARKS, GEOGRAPHICAL AND SYSTEMATICAL, ON THE BOTANY OF TERRA AUSTRALIS. BY ROBERT BROWN, F. R. S. ACAD. REG. SCIENT. BEROLIN. CORRESP., NATURALIST TO THE VOYAGE.

A LIST OF PLANTS NATIVE BOTH OF TERRA AUSTRALIS AND OF EUROPE.

DESCRIPTION OF PLANTS FIGURED IN THE ATLAS.

[Not included in this ebook.]



END OF VOLUME II