Notes of an Interview with Napoleon Bonaparte at St Helena on 13 August 1817, written by Captain Basil Hall, Royal Navy

Captain Hall (1778-1844) was then in command of HMS 'Lyra', a small gun brig that was part of the embassy of Lord Amherst to China. The vessel stopped off at St Helena en route to Britain from Peking. Hall's father, Sir James, had been a student with Bonaparte at the military college in Brienne and when his son was introduced to the former emperor, more than 30 years afterwards, he immediately recalled his old colleague.