A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume II Part 46

Captain Parkinson and lieutenant Robb went off the same night with their despatches; and next morning we ran through the Needles and came to at Spithead, where the prize brig, from which we had been long separated, had just before dropped her anchor. I went on sh.o.r.e to wait upon admiral sir Roger Curtis, and the same evening set off for London; having been absent from England nine years and three months, and nearly four years and a half without intelligence from any part of my connexions.

The account of the Investigator's voyage, and of the events resulting from it is concluded; but there is one or two circ.u.mstances which the naval reader may probably desire to see further explained.

A regulation adopted at the Admiralty forbids any officer to be promoted whilst a prisoner, upon the principle apparently, that officers in that situation have almost always to undergo a court martial, which cannot be done until they are set at liberty. My case was made subject to this regulation, although it required no court martial; and was moreover so different to that of prisoners in general, that nothing similar perhaps ever occurred. In consequence of my French pa.s.sport, not only was the possibility of reaping any advantage from the war done away, but the liberation on parole or by exchange, granted to all others in Mauritius, was refused for years, the pa.s.sport removing me from the cla.s.s of prisoners of war; yet one of the greatest hards.h.i.+ps to officers of a state of warfare was at the same time applied to me in England, and continued throughout this protracted detention. So soon as it was known that I had been released, and was arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, a commission for post rank was issued; and on my representations to the Right Hon. Charles Yorke, first lord commissioner of the Admiralty, by whom I had the honour to be received with the condescension and feeling natural to his character, he was pleased to direct that it should take date as near to that of general De Caen's permission to quit Mauritius, as the patent which const.i.tuted the existing Board of Admiralty would allow. A more retrospective date could be given to it only by an order of the King in council; unhappily His Majesty was then incapable of exercising his royal functions; and when the Regency was established, my proposed pet.i.tion did not meet with that official encouragement which was necessary to obtain success. It was candidly acknowledged, that my services in the Investigator would have been deemed a sufficient t.i.tle to advancement in 1804, had I then arrived in England and the Admiralty been composed of the same members; but no representation could overcome the reluctance to admitting an exception to the established rule; thus the injustice of the French governor of Mauritius, besides all its other consequences, was attended with the loss of six years post rank in His Majesty's naval service.

One of my first cares was to seek the means of relieving some relations of my Mauritius friends, prisoners of war in England; and in a few months, through the indulgence of the Admiralty and of the earl of Liverpool, secretary of state for the colonies, I had the gratification of sending five young men back to the island, to families who had shown kindness to English prisoners.

The Board of Admiralty was pleased to countenance the publication of the Investigator's voyage by providing for the charts and embellishments; and a strong representation was made by its directions to the French government, upon the subjects of my detained journal, the schooner c.u.mberland, and the parole exacted on quitting Mauritius. A release from the parole was transmitted in April 1812, after three applications; but upon the other points it was answered, that "the vessel of captain Flinders was at the Isle of France at the capitulation of that colony, and returned in consequence to the power of the English government. With respect to the journal of that navigator, as it did not make part of the papers brought from the Isle of France by the prefect of that colony, a demand has been made for it to the captain-general De Caen, who is with the army. In default of an answer he will be again written to, and so soon as it shall be remitted, my first object will be to send it." The c.u.mberland had been seized in 1803, and the capitulation was made in 1810; in the interval, both vessel and stores, if not used, would be in great part rotten; but I saw the c.u.mberland employed in the French service, and believe that the stores were also. General De Caen, it appeared, still kept the log book in his own hands; although, if considered to be private property, it was undoubtedly mine, and if as a public doc.u.ment it ought to have been given up at the capitulation, or at least to have been deposited in the office of the marine minister. But the captain-general had probably his reasons for not wis.h.i.+ng even the minister to see it; and up to this time, the commencement of 1814, he has so far persevered against both public and private applications, that neither the original nor a copy has been obtained.

APPENDIX I.

ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS BY WHICH THE LONGITUDES OF PLACES ON THE EAST AND NORTH COASTS OF TERRA AUSTRALIS HAVE BEEN SETTLED.

In the Appendix to Vol. I. a statement was made of the circ.u.mstances under which the observations for settling the longitudes of places on the South Coast were taken; as also of the method used in the calculations, and the corrections applied more than what is usual in the common practice at sea. That statement is equally applicable to the following tables for the East and North Coasts, and the explanation of their different columns is the same; a reference therefore to the former Appendix will render unnecessary any further remark on these heads.

The first observations on the East Coast were taken at Port Jackson, and the results would naturally form the first table of this Appendix; but these observations being so intimately connected with those on the South Coast that the time keepers could not receive their final corrections without them, the Port-Jackson table became an indispensable conclusion to the former series; and it is thought unnecessary to repeat it in this place.

The following tables, set out in the book, are not reproduced in this text version of _A Voyage to Terra Australis_--refer to the _html_ version, available from http://gutenberg.net.

Table I. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter I.) LONGITUDE OF THE ANCHORAGE IN KEPPEL BAY.

Table II. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter III.) LONGITUDE OF UPPER HEAD, IN BROAD SOUND.

Table III. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VI.) LONGITUDE OF SWEERS' ISLAND, GULPH OF CARPENTARIA.

Table IV. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VII) LONGITUDE OF OBSERVATION ISLAND, SIR E. PELLEW'S GROUP.

Table V. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VIII.) LONGITUDE OF FINCH'S ISLAND, IN N. W. BAY--GROOTE EYLANDT.

Table VI. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter VIII.) LONGITUDE OF THE TENTS, IN CALEDON BAY.

Table VII. (Reference from BOOK II Chapter IX.) LONGITUDE OF THE ANCHORAGE IN COEPANG BAY, TIMOR.

Table VIII. (Reference from BOOK III. Chapter II.) LONGITUDE OF WRECK-REEF BANK, LYING OFF THE EAST COAST.

Table IX. (Reference from BOOK III. Chapter V.) LONGITUDE OF THE GARDEN PRISON, 1' N. E. FROM PORT LOUIS--MAURITIUS.

APPENDIX II

ON THE ERRORS OF THE COMPa.s.s ARISING FROM ATTRACTIONS WITHIN THE s.h.i.+P, AND OTHERS FROM THE MAGNETISM OF LAND; WITH PRECAUTIONS FOR OBVIATING THEIR EFFECTS IN MARINE SURVEYING.

[Not included in this ebook.]

APPENDIX III

GENERAL REMARKS, GEOGRAPHICAL AND SYSTEMATICAL, ON THE BOTANY OF TERRA AUSTRALIS. BY ROBERT BROWN, F. R. S. ACAD. REG. SCIENT. BEROLIN.

CORRESP., NATURALIST TO THE VOYAGE.

A LIST OF PLANTS NATIVE BOTH OF TERRA AUSTRALIS AND OF EUROPE.

DESCRIPTION OF PLANTS FIGURED IN THE ATLAS.

[Not included in this ebook.]

END OF VOLUME II