Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/183

This page needs to be proofread.

CHAPTER X

Tour in the Upper Provinces

Rest for a Governor-General can only lie in change of occupation. A few days of escape may be granted in extreme cases. So, as a temporary and preliminary respite, we find Lord Amherst and his family embarking on June 10, 1826, on board the Government yacht. On the 14th, they anchor for the night at Diamond Harbour, where the other vessels salute them as they pass. On the 22nd, the whole party proceeds by land to Calcutta. But a longer and a more auspicious journey lay before them. At last the important letters arrive from England, letters written after the news of the armistice. This and the firm support of Government seem to have set the question of his recall at rest. Lady Amherst also adds, 'that the solicitations of the authorities of the Upper Provinces of India for Lord Amherst to visit them have induced him to decide upon going there.'

The reason of the 'solicitations of the authorities of Upper India' needs no elucidation. But this journey of pacification and settlement which—had the Court