A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume II Part 45

[AT MAURITIUS. PORT LOUIS.]

On waiting upon colonel Monistrol on the 30th, it appeared that nothing had been done relative to the c.u.mberland, or to returning what had been taken away, particularly the third volume of my log book so often before mentioned; he promised however to take the captain-general's pleasure upon these subjects, and to repeat my offer of making and signing any extracts from the book which His Excellency might desire to preserve. In the evening I had the pleasure to meet a large party of my countrymen and women, at a dinner given by M. Foisy, president of the Society of Emulation; and from the difficulty of speaking English after a cessation of four years, I then became convinced of the possibility of a man's forgetting his own language.

APRIL 1810

There were lying in port two Dutch and one American vessel, with a number of Frenchmen on board, whom marshal Daendels, governor of the remaining Dutch possessions in the East, had engaged to officer some new regiments of Malays; these vessels waited only for the absence of our cruisers to go to Batavia; and that we might not give information of them was the alleged cause for detaining the cartel all the month of April, our squadron keeping so close off the port that they dared not venture out.

MAY 1810

On May 2, captain Willoughby of the Nereide made a descent upon the south side of the island, at Port Jacotet; where he cut out L'Estafette packet boat, spiked the guns of the fort, carried off the officer with two field pieces, and M. Etienne Bolger, commandant of the quarter of La Savanne, the same who had acted so ungraciously on my arrival at the Baye du Cap.

This _sullying of the French territory_ produced a fulminating proclamation from general De Caen, nearly similar in terms to that of the emperor Napoleon after the descent at Walcheren; its effect on the inhabitants, however, was not much, for on asking some of them what they thought of this second-hand gasconade, the reply was, "Oh it is not to us, it is to Bonaparte that the proclamation is addressed;" meaning that it was a bait to catch his approbation. Three days afterwards a flag of truce was sent out to negotiate an exchange for M. Bolger and the officer who had commanded the fort, for whom twenty soldiers of the 69th regiment were given; we afterwards learned that a proposal had been made to let the cartel sail, provided the squadron would suffer her to pa.s.s without being visited; but to this arrangement captain Pym, the then senior officer, refused his consent.

An order was given on the 8th for all the British officers to embark in the cartel, and we hoped to sail immediately; but the merchants of the town presented a pet.i.tion to the captain-general for a delay, lest we might give information of the expected arrival of some ships from France.

Our cruisers were stationed purposely to stop every French vessel, whether going in or out, and this pet.i.tion therefore seemed to be ridiculous; it appeared however to be complied with, for we not only were prevented sailing, but denied all communication with the inhabitants for several weeks; and the five ladies on board were as much subjected to these restrictions as the officers. The French cartel returned from the Cape of Good Hope on the 10th, with exchanged prisoners; and the former reports of a projected attack on Mauritius and Bourbon were so strongly revived that general De Caen made a tour of the island, in order, as was said, to have batteries erected at all the landing places without defence, and to strengthen the existing fortifications. On the 18th, an exchange was made with the squadron of sixteen soldiers and people out of the prison on sh.o.r.e, for the commander and some others of L'Estafette; but nothing transpired relative to the sailing of the cartel.

JUNE 1810

June 2, a salute of twenty-one guns was fired to celebrate the marriage of the French emperor with the princess Maria Louisa of Austria. This intelligence, accompanied with that of the capture of La Canonniere, was brought by a ship from Bourdeaux, which had succeeded in getting into the Black River, as had L'Atree frigate some weeks before. The entrance of these vessels at the time that five or six of our ships were cruising round the island, affords additional proof of the impossibility of blockading it effectually, without a much more extensive force than so small a spot can be thought to deserve. Mauritius owes this advantage princ.i.p.ally to its numerous hills; from whence vessels at sea are informed by signal of the situation of the cruisers, and are thus enabled to avoid them.

On the 7th, a parole made out by the English interpreter was brought on board for me to sign; and at daylight of the 18th a pilot came to take the cartel out of harbour, and we received forty-six seamen of the Sea Flower and soldiers of the 69th; my sword was then delivered back, and the following duplicate of the parole was given, with a certificate annexed from colonel Monistrol.

I undersigned, captain in His Britannic Majesty's navy, having obtained leave of His Excellency the captain-general to return in my country by the way of Bengal, promise on my word of honour not to act in any service which might be considered as directly or indirectly hostile to France or its allies, during the course of the present war.

Matthew Flinders.

Je soussigne certifie que monsieur Mathieu Flinders, capitaine des vaisseaux de Sa Majeste Britannique, a obtenu l'autorisation de Son Excellence le capitaine-general De Caen de retourner dans sa patrie, aux conditions enoncees ci-dessus, dont le double est reste entre mes mains.

Au Port Napoleon, Isle de France, le 7 Juin 1810.

L'adjutant commt., chef de l'etat-major-gen.

(Signed) Monistrol.

I had much feared to be laid under the obligation of going to India, and of thus losing some months of time and incurring a considerable and useless expense; but although the parole expresses the "having obtained leave to return by the way of Bengal," neither the part containing my promise nor the certificate of colonel Monistrol specified any particular route; and the officer of the staff who delivered this duplicate, said he supposed I should not lose time in going to India, but proceed to the Cape in the first vessel sent in by the squadron.

Frequent mention has been made of attempts to procure back the third volume of my journal, the sole book remaining in the hands of the captain-general. Twice during my residence in the town these attempts had been renewed, but with no better effect than were my applications respecting the c.u.mberland; nor would certificates be given of the refusal either of these objects or of the Port-Jackson despatches. I therefore requested Mr. Hope to certify the steps which had been taken, that the Admiralty and Secretary of State might be satisfied of every thing in my power having been done; and this he did in the following terms.

This is to certify to whomsoever it may concern, that after having succeeded in executing that part of the instructions of His Excellency lord Minto, governor-general of British India, relating to the liberation of Matthew Flinders, Esq., late commander of His Majesty's ship Investigator, who had been detained more than six years in the Isle of France, I did, at the request of captain Flinders, make a personal application to His Excellency general De Caen for the third volume of the log book of his voyage of discovery, which that officer represented to be still kept from him by His Excellency. That the answer to this was a positive refusal, both of the book and of permission to take a copy of it; and the reason given for this refusal was, that captain F. _not being set at liberty in consequence of any orders from France_, every thing relating to this log book and to his little schooner c.u.mberland must remain to be settled between the French and British governments in Europe.

I do further certify that captain Flinders did, in my presence, apply to the chief of the staff in the Isle of France, for certificates of the above log book and schooner being refused to be given up; and also for a certificate of two boxes of despatches having been taken on his arrival in this island, in December 1803, and that I have since made a similar application to the same officer for the said certificates; but which have been refused for the same alleged reason as before given to me by His Excellency the captain-general De Caen.

Witness my hand on board the Harriet cartel, in Port Napoleon, Isle of France, this 9th of June 1810.

(Signed) H. HOPE, Commissary and agent of the British government in India for the exchange of prisoners.

It may probably be asked, what could be general De Caen's object in refusing throughout to give up this log book, or to suffer any copy to be taken? I can see no other reasonable one, than that the statements from it, sent to the French government as reasons for detaining me a prisoner, might have been partial and mutilated extracts; and he did not choose to have his accusations disproved by the production either of the original or an authentic copy. Besides this book and the little schooner, I lost a cask containing pieces of rock collected from different parts of Terra Australis, the two spy-gla.s.ses taken in the Garden Prison, and various small articles belonging to myself; but I was too happy at the prospect of getting out of the island to make any difficulty upon these heads.

[OFF MAURITIUS.]

On the same morning that the pilot came on board, the anchors were weighed; but in swinging out, the ship touched the ground, and hung till past four in the afternoon. During this time we saw L'Estafette coming in with a flag of truce from the squadron; and the boat that went to meet her was returning when the cartel had floated off, and sail was made. We were a good deal alarmed at what might be the subject of L'Estafette's communication, and particularly anxious to get without side of the port before any counter order should come from the general; at sunset it was effected, the French pilot left us, and after a captivity of six years, five months and twenty-seven days, I at length had the inexpressible pleasure of being out of the reach of general De Caen.

Three frigates and a sloop of war composed the squadron cruising before the port; but instead of coming to speak us for information, as was expected, we observed them standing away to the southward; a proceeding which could be reconciled only upon the supposition, that commodore Rowley had sent in an offer not to communicate with the cartel. This was too important an affair to me to be let pa.s.s without due inquiry; my endeavours were therefore used with Mr. Ramsden, the commander, to induce him to run down to the ships; and this was done, on finding they persisted in stretching to the southward. At nine o'clock Mr. Ramsden went in a boat to the Boadicea, but was desired to keep off; a letter was handed to him for the commissary, containing a copy of one sent in by L'Estafette, wherein it was proposed, if general De Caen would suffer the cartel to sail, that she should not be visited by any ship under the commodore's orders. Mr. Hope replied that the cartel had not come out in consequence of this proposal, nor had the boat reached the sh.o.r.e at the time; and this point being clearly ascertained, a communication was opened, and I applied for a pa.s.sage to the Cape of Good Hope. It happened fortunately, that the Otter sloop of war was required to go there immediately with despatches; and the commodore having satisfied himself that no engagement of the commissary opposed it, complied with my request. Next day I took leave of Mr. Hope, to whose zeal and address I owed so much, and wished my companions in the cartel, with her worthy commander, a good voyage; and after dining with commodore Rowley, embarked in the evening on board the Otter with captain Tomkinson.

On bidding adieu to Mauritius, it is but justice to declare that during my long residence in the island, as a marked object of suspicion to the government, the kind attention of the inhabitants who could have access to me was invariable; never, in any place, or amongst any people, have I seen more hospitality and attention to strangers--more sensibility to the misfortunes of others, of what ever nation, than here--than I have myself experienced in Mauritius. To the names of the two families whose unremitting kindness formed a great counterpoise to the protracted persecution of their governor, might be added a long list of others whose endeavours were used to soften my captivity; and who sought to alleviate the chagrin which perhaps the strongest minds cannot but sometimes feel in the course of years, when reflecting on their far-distant families and friends, on their prospects in life indefinitely suspended, and their hopes of liberty and justice followed by continual disappointment; and to the honour of the inhabitants in general be it spoken, that many who knew no more than my former employment and my misfortunes, sought to render me service by such ways as seemed open to them. The long continuation and notorious injustice of my imprisonment had raised a sensation more strong and widely extended than I could believe, before arriving at Port Louis to embark in the cartel; when the number of persons who sought to be introduced, for the purpose of offering their felicitations upon this unexpected event, confirmed what had been before said by my friends; and afforded a satisfactory proof that even arbitrary power, animated by strong national prejudice, though it may turn aside or depress for a time, cannot yet extinguish in a people the broad principles of justice and humanity generally prevalent in the human heart.

Some part of my desire to ascertain the motives which influenced general De Caen to act so contrary to the pa.s.sport 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 pa.s.sport and commission, the captain-general accused me of being an impostor; took possession of the c.u.mberland 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 a.s.serted were contrary to the pa.s.sport; 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 pa.s.sport, 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 rest.i.tution of the c.u.mberland; and this was accompanied with the promise, that I, so soon as circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 pa.s.sport, 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 ident.i.ty, 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 pa.s.sed. 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 pa.s.sport, 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 rest.i.tution of the c.u.mberland; 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 circ.u.mstances 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 unt.i.tled general of division; he and his officers, as one of them told me, then felt themselves little better circ.u.mstanced 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sign 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 lat.i.tude 27 and longitude 49; 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 lat.i.tude 34 52' and longitude 25, 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 anch.o.r.ed at eleven at night in 22 fathoms, sandy bottom.

In this pa.s.sage of twenty-six days from Mauritius, the error in dead reckoning amounted to 1 18' south and 2 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 pa.s.sage to England; and requesting, if any circ.u.mstance 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sage, 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage of fourteen days, anch.o.r.ed 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, pa.s.sed 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 19 west. The trade wind shifted to the S. W. in lat.i.tude 5 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 pa.s.sed 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 lat.i.tude 22 north and longitude 33 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sage.