that
it is now one year since my arrestation. This is the anniversary of that
day on which you transferred me from liberty and my peaceful occupations
to the misery of a close confinement.

"Be pleased, sir, to consider that the great occupations of the French
Government may leave neither time nor inclination to attend to the
situation of an Englishman in a distant colony, and that the chance of
war may render abortive for a considerable time at least any attempts to
send out despatches to this island. The lapse of one year shows that one
or other of these circumstances has already taken place, and the
consequence of my detainer until orders are received from France will
most probably be, that a second year will be cut out of my life and
devoted to the same listless inaction as the last, to the destruction of
my health and happiness, and the probable ruin of all my further
prospects. I cannot expect, however, that my private misfortunes should
have any influence upon Your Excellency's public conduct. It is from
being engaged in a service calculated for the benefit of all maritime
nations; from my passport; the inoffensiveness of my conduct; and the
probable delay of orders from France. Upon these considerations it is
that my present hope of receiving liberty must be founded.

"But should a complete liberation be so far incompatible with Your
Excellency's plan of conduct concerning me as that no arguments will
induce you to grant it; I beg of you, General, to reflect whether every
purpose of the most severe justice will not be answered by sending me to
France; since it is to that Government, as I am informed, that my case is
referred for decision.

"If neither of these requests be complied with, I must prepare to endure
still longer this anxious tormenting state of suspense, this exclusion
from my favourite and, I will add, useful employment, and from all that I
have looked forward to attain by it. Perhaps also I ought to prepare my
mind for a continuance of close imprisonment. If so, I will endeavour to
bear it and its consequences with firmness, and may God support my heart
through the trial. My hopes, however, tell me more agreeable things, that
either this petition to be fully released with my people, books and
papers will be accorded, or that we shall be sent to France, where, if
the decision of the Government should be favourable, we can immediately
return to our country, our families and friends, and my report o