Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice were peremptorily ordered to repair from Serampore to Calcutta. When they appeared at the Government House they were told that they must return at once to America. They asked leave to settle in some other part of India, but this was refused. They then asked if they could go to the Isle of France (Mauritius). This request was granted; but the only ship sailing at that time for that point could convey but two passengers, and, by common consent, Mr. and Mrs. Newell embarked. Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice remained behind for another vessel. After two months, they received an order to go on board one of the Company’s vessels, bound for England, and their names were even printed in the official list of passengers. But a vessel, named the _Creole_, was just about to sail for the Isle of France. They applied to the Government for a passport. This was refused. Then they asked the captain if he would take them without a passport. He said, good-naturedly, “There was his ship; they could go on board if they pleased.” They immediately embarked under cover of the night. But while sailing down the Hugli River from Calcutta to the sea, they were overtaken by a Government dispatch. The pilot was forbidden to go farther, as there were persons on board who had been ordered to England. They were put ashore on the bank of the river, and took shelter at a little tavern, while the vessel continued her course down the river without them. After three or four days, however, a letter came from Calcutta, containing the much-desired passport to sail on the _Creole_. Who procured the passport, has always remained a mystery. But now they had every reason to suppose that the vessel had got out to sea. She might, however, be anchored at Saugur, seventy miles below. With all haste they put their baggage in a boat, and sped down the river. They had to row against the tide, but arrived at Saugur before the evening of the next day, and had the happiness of finding the vessel at anchor. “I never enjoyed,” says Mrs. Judson, “a sweeter moment in my life, than that when I was sure we were in sight of the _Creole_!” After a voyage of six weeks they arrived in Port Louis, on the Isle of France, January 17, 1813. The Isle of France, or Mauritius,[6] lies in the Indian Ocean, 480 miles east of Madagascar. It is about 36 miles long and 32 wide. It had, only a few years before, been wrested from the French by the English. During the wars between the French and English it had furnished harborage for the French privateers, which, sallying forth from its ports, attacked the richly-freighted English merchantmen on their way from India.