Chapter 6 Summary

Diane arrives at Batavia (now Jakarta, Java) and Aubrey, Maturin, and especially Fox enthusiastically are greeted by Governor Raffles. Although the reception is happy, Raffles delivers the unsettling news that the French delegation, including Ledward and Wray, have already arrived in Pulo Prabang where they have been enthusiastically greeted. Maturin makes various banking arrangements for Pulo Prabang; he clearly intends to draw vast sums of money to use as bribes and gifts. Fox believes that the French entourage must be countered in quantity as well as quality and he thus enlists an entire troupe of British diplomats to accompany him. The new men are boring, conceited, and generally obnoxious—perfect diplomats, in Maturin's opinion. Aubrey finds them irritating in an abstract sort of way, especially as they are completely ignorant of maritime practice and precedent. In Batavia, Aubrey and Maturin learn that...