[112] Mr. Campbell, writing to Mr. Strachey, who accompanied Lord Clive in his rapid journey to Benares the preceding year, gives a lively idea of the speed of the travellers. "You complain of my silence, but without reason. There are four or five letters on their way to you. But how should the dawks, or the devil himself, overtake you travelling at such a rate? Besides, you are everywhere and nowhere, sometimes travelling by land, sometimes by water. How, or where, am I to address you? The facetious Dean Swift tells Lord Peterborough that the ministry were obliged to write at him, not to him. I must do the same. Like his Lordship, you are in perpetual motion. You are now at Benares: a week hence you will be at Allahabad; a month more will carry you to Delhi. From thence I expect you will shape your course north-east towards China, and give us the slip, by taking your passage to Europe from Canton." Letter, August 10, 1765.
[113] 8th December, 1766.
[114] Letter of the Court of Directors to Lord Clive, 17th May, 1766, pars. 2. and 11.; Third Report of Select Committee; App., No. 74.
[115] 17th October, 1766.
[116] Messrs. Russell, Rumbold, Aldersey, and Kelsall.
[117] Mr. Campbell, in a letter to Mr. Strachey, 18th August, 1765, gives an instance of Mr. Verelst's good temper. "Mr. Verelst is eternally losing by water what he gains by land. While he was at dinner with me yesterday, advice was brought that a vessel of his, worth 14,000 rupees, had foundered at sea. But he is callous to such accidents as would make me run mad. He called for a glass of wine, and said he would get up the loss. This is true philosophy."
[118] 2d October, 1766.
[119] 22d January, 1767.
[120] 25th April, 1766.
[121] Letter to Mr. Palk, 8th September, 1766.