Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 2]
certificate; and only add further upon this subject, that my companion, the master, is now at the hospital a second time, and there is some doubt if he will ever return.
Since December, two vessels have arrived from France, the last only three days since. Several French officers have come in these, and many dispatches and letters have been received, but not the least information has been given me of a change in my situation. It was to the arrival of orders from France that I have some time looked forward, as to the period when I must either be set at liberty, or be sent to France; but if orders concerning me are either not arrived by these rare opportunities, or they are not sufficient to bring my misfortune to an issue, I know not to what period my imprisonment may be extended, so long as this unhappy war rages. From the powerful interference of the government, in whose service I have run the greatest risks and exerted my utmost powers, it is, that as a sheet anchor, my confidence must ultimately rest; this confidence is indeed somewhat abated since I have known, that as long since as May 1803 my imprisonment in this island was publicly known in England, and I have not known that any effort has been made towards my release. If these circumstances are exactly as I am left to suppose them, it makes me fear that the Admiralty have given credit to the account that general De Caen may have transmitted to the French government. I know not what the account is, or can be, but I can easily conjecture that he will send home such an one as shall clear himself from blame in the eyes, at least, of his own government; but little do I fear his establishing any imputation of wrong against me, that it is my greatest desire to be sent to France, to undergo any trial or examination that may be instituted upon my conduct; and against all partiality for their captain-general, and their antipathy to the name of an Englishman. I would stake my life, that with the