Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/407

Garden Prison.]

his power; but both Mr. Aken and myself contrived to pass some months neither uselessly nor disagreeably. We associated at table with Mr. Robertson and the two young gentlemen of the Dédaigneuse, by which our society was enlivened; and between the employments of copying my bearing book and defaced journals, making some astronomical observations, reading, and the amusements of music, walking in the inclosure, and an old billiard table left in the house, the days passed along rather lightly than otherwise. A prisoner or two were occasionally added to our number from the prizes brought in; but when amounting to six or eight, they were marched off to join the other merchant officers at Flacq. The seamen there were kept closely confined; but the officers enjoyed some share of liberty, and were as happy as they could make themselves upon fourteen dollars a month, in a place where the necessaries of life were exorbitantly dear; the hospitality of the French families in the neighbourhood, however, aided them considerably, and they spoke of the kindness and attention received in high terms.

On June 1, captain Neufville, the officer commanding the guard over the Prison, demanded all the spy-glasses in our possession; at the same time promising that each should be returned when the owner had permission to quit the island, and threatening those with close confinement in the tower, by whom any glass should be concealed. There was no cause to doubt the authority captain Neufville had to make the threat, but it should seem he had none to promise the restitution of the glasses; for I saw all the officers depart, and to the best of my knowledge not one of them could obtain their own. When Mr. Robertson quitted the island, and he was one of the first, his spy-glass was not to be found. The French gentleman to whom he delegated his claim, wrote to the town major upon the subject; and the answer was, that all arms and instruments taken from prisoners of war were the lawful property of the captors, as a reward for their courage; that for himself, he had not taken