Two days before, I had been favoured with a visit from captain Bergeret of the French navy, who had commanded La Virginie frigate when taken by Sir Edward Pellew, and of whose honourable conduct in the affair of Sir W. Sydney Smith’s imprisonment, public mention had been made in England.  This gentleman sat some time conversing upon my situation, which he seemed desirous to ameliorate; he said that “the general did not consider me to be a prisoner of war, and that my confinement did not arise from any thing I had done.”  From what then did it arise?  At this question he was silent.  He regretted not to have been in town on my arrival, believing it would have been in his power to have turned the tide of consequences; and obligingly offered to supply me with money, if in want.

During a fortnight from this time, no incident occurred worth notice.  My scorbutic sores being much better, the surgeon came but seldom; and the visits of the interpreter being less frequent than before, our solitude was rarely interrupted.  The Gulph of Carpentaria and Torres’ Strait being finished, my time had since been employed in writing an explanatory memoir upon the latter chart; Mr. Aken was occupied in copying the journal of bearings for the Admiralty, and my servant in transcribing the two first volumes of the log, which had been torn and defaced in the shipwreck; so that our time did not pass wholly in vain.  It was the completion of the charts, however, that I had most at heart; and although the success of an application for more materials were very doubtful, an essay to obtain them was made on the 27th, in the following letter to the captain-general.

Sir,

The term of my imprisonment being lengthened out much beyond my expectation, puts me under the necessity of making another application to Your Excellency for more books and charts, that I may still proceed in completing the account of my observations and discoveries.  If the whole were put into my possession it would be of much service to my labour, and save Your Excellency from being troubled with any further application on this head; but if this will not be complied with, I beg to make a small selection from them, which will principally consist of a roll of charts.  I am not however to deceive Your Excellency—­this roll contains the greater part of my original fair charts, and I am desirous to have them principally for the purpose of making an abridgment of my discoveries upon a single sheet.  With all due consideration, I am

Your Excellency’s prisoner,

Matthew Flinders.

This letter was no more fortunate than the last, and it seemed that general De Caen had determined upon giving me no answer to any thing.