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  • Before May 1803
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Imprisonment in Mauritius and return to Spithead15 December 1803 - 24 October 1810

Flinders departs Wreck Reef in the Cumberland. The schooner soon proves leaky and the water pumps start to fail. He steers for the French colony of Mauritius. Upon arrival there is an issue with his French passport. General Charles De Caen accuses Flinders of being an imposter and a spy, and imprisons him. After three months in seclusion he is transferred to a garden prison inland. Later permitted to reside at the plantation of Madame D’Arifat, he passes the time studying French and working on charts, journals and letters. Captain Flinders is finally released from island captivity in June 1810 and departs for England. He arrives home at Spithead on 24 October after an absence of over nine years.

Flinders

  • Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen (1769-1832), général de division et comte de l'Empire
    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Ile de France — Vue des Trois Mamelles
    Artist Jacques Milbert
    Muséum d’histoire naturelle, Le Havre—15045

  • Monument to Matthew Flinders in Vacoas, Mauritius
    Photograph by Gillian Dooley

  • Portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN, 1774-1814, oil on canvas
    Artist Antoine Toussaint de Chazal
    Art Gallery of South Australia—20005P22
    Image via Wikimedia Commons