1804.
July.
commission, &c, and the shattered accounts of the Investigator's stores. For these a receipt was required, the same as before; but the third volume of my log book, for which so many applications had been made, was still refused. Word had been sent me privately, that the trunk had been opened and copies taken of the charts, but to judge from appearances this was not true; and on putting the question to colonel Monistrol, whether the trunk or papers had been disturbed, he answered by an unqualified negative. In regard to our living in the country, the general had said to captain Bergeret, "he should think further upon it;" and this we were given to understand must be considered as a retraction of his promise: a second example of how little general De Caen respected his own word.
Charles Lambert, Esq., owner of the Althæa indiaman, brought in some time before as a prize, having obtained permission to go to England by the way of America, and no restriction being laid upon him as to taking letters, had the goodness to receive a packet for the Admiralty, containing copies of the charts constructed here and several other papers. August.In August I found means of sending to India, for Port Jackson, a letter addressed to governor King; describing my second passage through Torres' Strait, and the bad state of the Cumberland which had obliged me to stop at Mauritius, with the particulars of my imprisonment and the fate of his despatches. This letter was received in the April following, and extracts from it were published in the Sydney gazette; wherein was made a comparison between my treatment in Mauritius and that of captain Baudin at Port Jackson, as described by himself and captain Melius. This account was copied into the Times of Oct. 19, 1805, whence it afterwards came to my knowledge.
One advantage of being confined in the Garden Prison rather than at the Café Marengo, was in the frequency of visitors to one or other of the prisoners; permissions were required to be obtained from the town major, but these were seldom refused to people of respectability. In this manner we became acquainted with all the