the answer from France were waved; and after passing six weeks in the town of Port Louis and five on board a ship in the harbour, from which I had before been debarred, he suffered me to depart in a cartel bound to the place where the attack was publicly said to be in meditation.  This is the sole motive which, upon a review of the general’s conduct, I can assign for being set at liberty so unexpectedly, and without any restriction upon my communications; and if such a result to an attack upon Mauritius were foreseen by the present count De Caen, captain-general of Catalonia, events have proved that he was no mean calculator.  But perhaps this, as well as the preceding conjectures on his motives may be erroneous; if so, possibly the count himself, or some one on the part of the French government may give a more correct statement—­one which may not only reconcile the facts here brought together, but explain many lesser incidents which have been omitted from fear of tiring the patience of the reader.

[CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.]

I thought it a happy concurrence of circumstances, that on the same day we quitted Port Louis in the cartel, the arrival of a frigate from India should require commodore Rowley to despatch the Otter to the Cape of Good Hope.  Captain Tomkinson took his departure on the 14th at nine in the evening, from Cape Brabant, with a fresh trade wind and squally weather; at noon next day the island Bourbon was in sight, and the breakers on the south-east end distinguishable from the deck; but thick clouds obscured all the hills.  The winds from south-east and north-east carried us to the latitude 27 deg. and longitude 49 deg.; they were afterwards variable, and sometimes foul for days together, and we did not make the coast of Africa until the 3rd of July [JULY 1810].  Being then in latitude 34 deg. 52’ and longitude 251/2 deg., the hills were descried at the distance of twenty leagues to the northward; and the water being remarkably smooth, the lead was hove, but no bottom found at 200 fathoms.  A continuance of western winds obliged us to work along the greater part of the coast, and Cape Agulhas was not seen before the 10th; we then had a strong breeze at S. E., and Cape Hanglip being distinguished at dusk, captain Tomkinson steered up False Bay, and anchored at eleven at night in 22 fathoms, sandy bottom.  In this passage of twenty-six days from Mauritius, the error in dead reckoning amounted to 1 deg. 18’ south and 2 deg. 21’ west, which might be reasonably attributed to the current.

On the 11th we ran into Simon’s Bay, and captain Tomkinson set off immediately for Cape Town with his despatches to vice-admiral Bertie and His Excellency the earl of Caledon; he took also a letter from me to the admiral, making application, conformably to my instructions, for the earliest passage to England; and requesting, if any circumstance should place general De Caen within his power, that he would be pleased to demand my journal from him, and cause it to be