Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/28

 take to the boats, and row with infinite toil and discomfort towards Batavia. where, to their relief, they found a hospitable welcome on hoard an English ship which happened to be in the roads. 'I was overjoyed.' says the patriotic Envoy, 'to find that although the island was given up to the Dutch, the principal English authorities were still at Ryswyck.' The succeeding entries give a suggestive picture of the straits to which a shipwrecked Embassy may be reduced in the human matter of a passage home. At last, all was happily arranged. But when the vessel on which Lord Amherst had again embarked had arrived within 150 miles of the Mauritius, a second calamity ensued in the shape of a fire.

After this there are no more disasters to record.

Stopping at St. Helena, Lord Amherst enjoyed the privilege which sometimes fell to the lot of less distinguished callers at the island. He was admitted to an interview with the captive Napoleon, from whom he heard much that even to-day it is interesting to read. But we can only give the remarks that were personal to Lord Amherst.

'He began by showing me that he had acquainted himself, even minutely, with what related to myself: asked me why I bore the name of Pitt, and if I had not had a démélé with the Queen whom he called an Intriguante.'

On August 16, 1817, the much-travelled Envoy had 'once more the satisfaction of setting foot on old England,' and so ends the diary.