Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 3]
certainly there was no want of zeal on my part. Tis not myself only, but all my officers are also suffering; even Mr Fowler, who distinguished himself in his passage home against admiral Linois, has received no promotion or appointment, that I can learn. Allow me, my dear Sir, to recommend him to your attention and assistance, and permit me to add the names of lieutenant Flinders and Mr Franklin, I think they will be found worthy of anything you may find an occasion of doing for them. I should also mention Mr Lacy, did I not think he had friends who are all-sufficient to serve him.
In this island I have many friends and very warm friends, and indeed no enemies but general De Caën, who, if I am rightly informed, is himself heartily sorry for having made me a prisoner; but led by his violence and unfounded suspicions, he has proceeded too far to retreat: he remitted the judgment of my case to the French government of France, and cannot permit me to depart, or send me even to France, until he shall receive orders. The minister of the marine, it seems, found the imprisonment of the commander of a voyage of discovery, with a French passport, so extraordinary and difficult to decide that he referred it to the council of state; and the council has been so much occupied with [missing text], with making princes of the blood, viceroys, and mareschaux[ of the empire etc. etc. that they have no time to think of an English prisoner so far distant. To give an idea of the interest my extraordinary situation has excited here, I inclose the copy of a letter written by a literary society in this island to the Institute of Paris, which I beg of you also to shew to Sir Joseph Banks; but it must not be made public, at least as yet, lest it should reach this island and injure the authors with the captain-general. Several other letters to individuals in the departments of the marine, and in the council of state, in the same strain have also been, or are about to be sent from officers here; and my friend Bergeret, who embarks for France in a few days, promises to employ his influence in the same cause; so that I hope, one day, to have the affair fully and fairly [indecipherable] investigated: another years imprisonment will, however, most probably be my lot.
Should Mrs Flinders be in London, (you would know it from Mr. Bonner No. 86 Feet Street) I hope that she will find you out, and make acquaintance with my much esteemed friend Mrs King . Ah, I hope she, and you and my dear little Elizabeth have arrived in safety and in health. I long to see that dear little girl. Whilst I have been losing my hair, any strength, and peace of mind in a prison, she has been increasing in charms, and making