To his Excellency the

Minister of the marine and colonies

of France.

The memorial of Matthew Flinders Esq.

Prisoner in the Isle of France.

May it please Your Excellency

Your memorialist was commander of His Britannic Majesty's ship the
Investigator, despatched by the Admiralty of England to complete the
discovery of New Holland and New South Wales, which had been begun by the
early Dutch navigators, and continued at different periods by Cook,
D'Entrecasteaux, Vancouver, and your memorialist. He was furnished with a
passport by order of His Imperial and Royal Majesty, then first Consul of
France; and signed by the marine minister Forfait the 4th Prarial, year
9; which passport permitted the Investigator to touch at French ports in
any part of the world, in cases of distress, and promised assistance and
protection to the commander and company, provided they should not have
unnecessarily deviated from their route, or have done, or announced the
intention of doing any thing injurious to the French nation or its
allies: Your memorialist sailed from England in July 1801, and in April
1802, whilst pursuing the discovery of the unknown part of the south
coast of New South Wales, he met with the commandant Baudin, who being
furnished with a passport by the Admiralty of Great Britain, had been
sent by the French government with the ships Geographe and Naturaliste