Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/132

 COA!! O1 AIJTRALIA. rl 1 pairs; but, from her being put into quarantine, ism, and other unforeseen delays, they were not cora. pieted for nearly a month: our sails were re* paired by the Mellai's sailmakers; slid, as our running rigging was condemned, and we had very little spare rope on board, her rope'makers made sutcient for our wants, The greater part of our bread being found in a damaged state from leaks, was surveyed and condemned. Captain Flinders's* account of Mauritius which my late friend and prodecover Captain Flindere was spoken  by* the inhabitants of this island, and their general regret at his infamous detention. His friend M. Pitot had lately died, but l met many French gentlemen who were acquainted with him. (ene- ral Decaen, the governor, was so much disliked by the inhabitants, that Captain Flinders gained many friends at his expense, who would not otherwile have troubled themselves about him; and �t! circumstance, probably, went far towards increasing the seve- rity of the treatment he so unjustly'received. An anecdote ofhlm w* related to me by a resident of Port Louis, which, as it re- dmmd to hi honor, I cannot !oe the gratiRcatiou of recording. When Captain Flinders was at the house of Madame d*Arifat, in !he district of Plains Willterns, in which he was latterly permitted to *side upon his parole, an opportunity of escaping from the islaod w offered to him by the commander of a ship bound to India: it was urged to him by his friends that, from the tyrannical treat* sent he had received, and the unjustl�e .de?sties he was en- dating, no parole to such a man as Oeneral Decnon ought to be thought binding, or prevent him from regaining his liberty, and bracing any opportunity of returning to his friends and country. The ecope was well planned, and no chance of discovery likely to hoppen: the hip nailed from Port Louis, and at night, bringing to
 * It afforded me very geat pleasure to hear the high terms in

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