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.
