Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/211

 daily life, describes the sights and incidents of life among the Hills, telling of mountains clothed to the summit with cedars and rhododendrons, birds of rare plume, and all the marvels of the Snows.

But there was a land dearer, if not fairer, than the Himalayan Highlands. Lord Amherst had announced his intention of returning to England. On June 15 he and his party quitted Simla. 'We could not but feel sorry to quit this peaceful abode, and the magnificent scenery of those stupendous mountains, but it was our first step towards home.' It is not accurate to say that Lord Amherst 'invented Simla.' Its claims were well understood by officers who served in the North-West, and they had carried its fame to Government House. But he was the first Governor-General who made it a place of retreat from the discomforts of the plains. He set the fashion. Not many years after a lively French traveller described Simla in terms which would not be quite inappropriate to-day. The summer capital of India may thus be said to have been founded by the same Governor-General, who carried British arms beyond the old limits of India ; and considering how great has been the effect for evil or for good of the annual exodus to the Hills, the holiday trip was a political event of no small moment.

And now begins the first stage of the homeward way. At Subáthu the Viceregal party are met by bad news. 'The cholera is raging at Náin and hundreds are dying daily. This morning the Rájá,