all our running rigging was condemned and we had very
little spare rope on board, her rope-makers made sufficient for our
wants. The greater part of our bread, being found in a damaged state from
leaks, was surveyed and condemned.

Captain Flinders' account of Mauritius appears to have been drawn up with
much correctness and judgment, and is, even at the present day, so
descriptive of the island as to be considered, both by the English and
French residents of Port Louis, as the best that has yet been given to
the world. Many alterations and considerable improvements have however
taken place since his departure, and among the latter the improved system
of the culture of the sugar cane, and the introduction of modern
machinery into their mills, may be particularly mentioned. These have
been effected entirely by the political changes that have, since Captain
Flinders' captivity, taken place in the government of the island; and by
the example and exertions of the English, who possess very large
plantations, and indeed may be considered now as the principal
proprietors of the land.

(*Footnote. It afforded me very great pleasure to hear the high terms in
which my late friend and predecessor Captain Flinders was spoken of by
the inhabitants of this island, and their general regret at his infamous
detention. His friend M. Pitot had lately died, but I met many French
gentlemen who were acquainted with him. General Decaen, the governor, was
so much disliked by the inhabitants that Captain Flinders gained many
friends at his expense who would not otherwise have troubled themselves
about him; and this circumstance probably went far towards increasing the
severity of the treatment he so unjustly received. An anecdote of him was
related to me by a resident of Port Louis, which, as it redounds to his
honour, I cannot lose the gratification of recording.

When Captain Flinders was at the house of Madame d'Arifat in the district
of Plains Wilhelms, in which he was latterly permitted to reside upon his
parole, an opportunity of escaping from the island was offered to him by
the commander of a ship bound to India: it was urged to him by his
friends that, from the tyrannical treatment he had received and the
unjustifiable detention he was enduring, no parole to such a man as
General Decaen ought to be thought binding or prevent him from regaining
his liberty and embracing any opportunity of returning to his friends and
country. The esc