THURSDAY 22 DECEMBER 1803
On the day following the transmission of the letter, my servant was brought on shore from the prison ship, where he left Mr. Charrington and the seamen closely confined; but no answer was returned either on the 22nd or 23rd, nor did we hear any thing that could give an insight into what further was intended to be done. We suffered much from the heat of the weather and want of fresh air; for the town of Port Louis is wholly exposed to the rays of the sun, whilst the mountains which form a semicircle round it to the east and south, not only prevent the trade wind from reaching it, but reflect the heat in such a manner, that from November to April it is almost insupportable. During this season, the inhabitants whose affairs do not oblige them to remain, fly to the higher and windward parts of the island; and the others take the air and their exercise very early in the morning and late in the evening. We who were shut up in the middle of the town, and from having been three months confined to a vessel of twenty-nine tons were much in need of exercise, could not but feel the personal inconveniences of such a situation in their full rigour; and the perturbation of mind, excited by such unworthy treatment, did not tend to alleviate their effects on our health. But the heat and want of fresh air were not the worst evils. Our undefended pallet beds were besieged by swarms of bugs and musketoes, and the bites of these noxious insects upon bodies ready to break out with scurvy, produced effects more than usually painful and disagreeable. Being almost covered with inflamed spots, some of which had become ulcers on my legs and feet, I wrote to the captain-general, requesting the assistance of a surgeon; and also to know under what limitations he would allow me to write to the Admiralty of Great Britain, and to my family and friends; but the main subject was left untouched, in expectation of an answer to the former letter.
In the afternoon, one of the aides-de-camp said that His Excellency did not prevent me from writing to whom I pleased; but that my letters must be sent open to the town major, who would forward them to their address. The same evening a surgeon, who did not speak English, came to our room; next morning [SATURDAY 24 DECEMBER 1803] he returned with the interpreter, and finding the ulcers to be scorbutic, ordered me, in addition to his dressings, to drink plentifully of lemonade and live upon fruit and vegetables. Their visit was repeated on the following day [SUNDAY 25 DECEMBER 1803]; but nothing transpired relative to the general's intentions, nor to any answer proposed to be given to my letter of the 21st; and I therefore wrote another in the following terms.
Sir,
From whatever cause it may be that I have received no answer to my letter of the 21st last, I shall yet continue to do my duty to my government and the cause of discovery, by pointing out every circumstance that may have a probability of inducing you to liberate my people, my vessel, and myself.
A former letter showed, that upon the principles adopted in voyages of discovery by your own nation, the plea for detaining me a prisoner was untenable; and also that independently of any passport, it ill became the French nation to stop the prosecution of a voyage of discovery, especially one carried on with the zeal that mine has hitherto been. In this letter I shall endeavour to point out another circumstance, at least as important as the former, so far as regards the injustice of my detainer. In this point of view then, Sir, I shall admit, that to make any remarks upon a port which might enable either myself or others to come into it again with more facility, or which might give information concerning the refreshments and articles of commerce to be procured at it, is, although made in time of peace, a crime; and consequently, that if La Pérouse executed his instructions, he was no better than a spy at the different ports where he put in. Let this, Sir, for the moment be admitted; and I ask what proofs you have that I have made such remarks? You will probably say, I intended to make them. True, but intention is not action. I might have altered my intentions on coming into the port, and finding our two nations to be at war: you cannot know what alteration a knowledge of the war might have made in my sentiments. We do indeed judge much of the merit or demerit of an action by the intention with which it is performed; but in all cases there must be an action performed to constitute any certain merit or demerit amongst men. Now in my case there appears to have been intention only; and even this intention I have before shown to be consistent with the practice of your own nation, and I believe of all nations.
As it appears that Your Excellency had formed a determination to stop the Cumberland, previously even to seeing me, if a specious pretext were wanting for it, it would have been more like wisdom to have let me alone until the eve of sailing, and then to have seized my journal; where it is possible something better than intention might have been fixed upon as a cause for making me a prisoner. This would have been a mean action, and altogether unworthy of you or your nation; but it might have answered your purpose better than the step now taken. I say there appears to have been a previous determination to stop the Cumberland, and from this cause; that on the first evening of my arrival, and before any examination was made into my papers (my commission and passport excepted), you told me impetuously that I was imposing upon you. Now I cannot think that an officer of your rank and judgment could act either so ungentlemanlike, or so unguardedly, as to make such a declaration without proof; unless his reason had been blinded by passion, or a previous determination that it should be so, nolens volens. In your order of the 21st last it is indeed said, that the captain-general has acquired conviction that I am the person I pretend to be, and the same for whom a passport was obtained by the English government from the First Consul; it follows then, as I am willing to explain it, that I am not and was not an impostor. This plea was given up when a more plausible one was thought to be found; but I cannot compliment Your Excellency upon this alteration in your position, for the first, although false, is the most tenable post of the two.
Trusting that upon a due consideration of all the circumstances, you will be pleased to fulfil the intention for which the passport was given, I have the honour to be,
From my confinement, Your Excellency's obedient servant, Dec. 25, 1803. Matthew Flinders.
In the evening, a letter was brought me by a soldier from general De Caen, and the haste with which it had been sent inspired favourable hopes; I did not expect the visit of the interpreter until the following day, and therefore attempted to decipher the letter by the help of a French dictionary, with a degree of anxiety which its contents were but little calculated to satisfy: it was as follows.