TRUE FRIENDSHIP KNOWS NO BOUNDS: Extensive Correspondence of Matthew Flinders and Thomi Pitot (1804-1814)

HISTORY  Mauritius Australiana Maritime

True Friendship knows no bounds’ – a collection of the extensive correspondence of Matthew Flinders, celebrated navigator, hydrographer, and cartographer in the 1800s with Thomi Pitot during the time that Flinders was imprisoned here and thereafter. The letters exchanged between the two reveal a great deal about the culture and socio-economic activities of our society just before and just after the take-over by the British in December 1803 – an important era in the history of Mauritius.

The extensive correspondence of Matthew Flinders and Thomi Pitot demonstrates that true friendship can and should bypass national, communal, political, and military differences and prejudices.

When Flinders eventually returned to London after being imprisoned seven years, Thomi Pitot kept him informed and updated on the Battle of Grand-Port (September 1810) and the capture of Isle de France which Thomi witnessed on the ground having taken part in the defence under Decaen alongside Edouard, his brother, a celebrated artist. So, we find in two letters which shed light on highly significant historical tuning points in the History of Mauritius as observed at first hand and narrated in a style that would make a modern Mauritian reporter proud! (Letters 54 and 54).

Such comments, narrations and observations add considerably to our knowledge of the History of Mauritius. Pitot evokes the tense atmosphere as well as the mood of suspicion among “colons”, so that we can relive this crucial decade after the fall of Isle de France. Remember that the letters were not meant to be published; they are frank, factual, and complete accounts through the prism of two men: one a patriot and cultured citizen of Isle de France, and the other branded “a prisoner of the State”.

Flinders was never to go to sea again. Struggling with financial problems arising from the high costs of residing in London from 1810, onwards and coping with increasing physical pain, Flinders continued to devote all his physical and mental energy to the completion of his great narrative ‘A Voyage to Terra Australia’. We owe a debt of gratitude to Flinders for literally having put Mauritius on the map, for having given its name to Australia, for the invaluable scientific work and explorations of the Australian coasts in 1799-1803, for which I keep discovering new monuments.

pp. xvi 233 illusts First Edition SCARCE #291123