Diary Of Campaigns In The Peninsula For The Years 1811, 1812 And 1813

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Text originally published in 1895 under the same title.

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DIARY OF CAMPAIGNS IN THE PENINSULA

FOR THE YEARS 1811, 1812 AND 1813

BY

LIEUTENANT WILLIAM SWABEY,

an Officer of E Troop (present E Battery), Royal Horse Artillery

EDITED BY COLONEL F. A. WHINYATES, late R.H.A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

INTRODUCTION 6

PART I.—THE LATTER PERIOD OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1811, TOGETHER WITH THE 3RD SIEGE OF BADAJOZ. 8

Summary of the Peninsular Campaign, from September, 1811, to April, 1812. 8

DIARY 9

CHAPTER I.—Voyage to Portugal. Sacavém. Some account of Lisbon. Changes in troop equipment. 9

CHAPTER II.—March to join the Army. Attached to the 7th Division. French Movements to Victual Ciudad Rodrigo. Actions of El Boden and Aldea de Ponte. 24

CHAPTER III.—Change of Quarters. Life at Salgueiro. A Visit to I Troop, the Light Division and A Troop. 37

CHAPTER IV.—Alarms. Difficulties as to forage. March to the front. Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. Return to cantonments. 51

CHAPTER V.—E Troop joins the covering army for the 3rd siege of Badajoz. Affair at Llerena. Siege and storm of Badajoz. Return to Portugal. 68

PART II.—THE CAMPAIGN FROM APRIL TO NOVEMBER 1812. 83

Summary of the Peninsular Campaign from April to November 1812. 83

DIARY 85

CHAPTER I.—Lieutenant Swabey is attached to, and joins D Troop. Skirmishes. Defeat of General Slade’s Brigade. Flag of Truce. Gallant affair of Lieut. Strenowitz. 85

CHAPTER II.—The troops take up position at Albuera. French and Spanish Cavalry. Constant skirmishes. Affair at Ribera. Battle of Salamanca. Sickness. Affair at Majalahonda. 100

CHAPTER III.—D Troop march to the North. Bull-fights. Truxillo. Cordial reception on the march. Toledo. Aranjuez. 118

CHAPTER IV.—Retreat from Madrid. Scenes at Valdemoro. Destruction of the Retiro. Spanish cruelty. Salamanca. Retreat continued to Ciudad Rodrigo. Affair at San Muñoz. The Army returns to Portugal. 136

PART III.—THE CAMPAIGN FROM MAY TO SEPTEMBER 1813. 148

Summary of the Peninsular Campaign from April to September 1813. 148

DIARY 149

CHAPTER I.—E troop occupies cantonments at San Payo. Defective arrangement for the side. Lord Wellington’s strictures on the Retreat. Lieutenant Craster. The troop moves to Mello. Captain MacDonald goes home. Methods of procuring forage. 149

CHAPTER II.—Complaints from Headquarters about foraging. Lieut.-Colonel Downman inspects E troop. Coursing. Major Gardiner exchanges with Captain MacDonald. Idle days. 158

CHAPTER III.—Opening of the Campaign of 1813. Passage of the Douro. Action at Salamanca. F troop R.H.A. joins the army. Passage of the Esla. E troop joins the Hussar Brigade. Action at Morales de Toro. Smart affair at Cellada del Camino. 167

CHAPTER IV.—Battle of Vitoria. In the pursuit the French lose their last guns. Movement against General Clausel. Siege of St. Sebastian. Promotions for the battle of Vitoria. Arrest and release of Captain Norman Ramsay. Battles in the Pyrenees. Conclusion. 179

END OF DIARY 194

CONCLUSION 195

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 196

INTRODUCTION

THE favourable reception accorded to the recently published Diary of a Cavalry Officer, induces the belief that the narrative of his services during the campaign in the Peninsula, under Lord Wellington, by Lieutenant W. Swabey, Royal Horse Artillery, may be found equally instructive and entertaining.

Through the kindness of Lady Bowman, daughter of Lieutenant Swabey, who served in E Troop from 1807 to 1820, I have been lent and authorised to arrange for publication, the diary kept by her father during a portion of his service in the Peninsula. It embraces the period between July, 1811, and August, 1813.

Lieutenant Swabey, in after years, appears to have written his reminiscences of some of the events in which he was concerned, adding amusing accounts of adventures not touched on in his diary; I have introduced these in their chronological order, placing them between brackets, so that the recollections of later years may not be confused with the daily record.

For the better comprehension of the narrative, I have divided it into separate parts and chapters, prefacing each part with a brief outline of the general military situation at the time, as gathered from the Wellington despatches, Napier’s history, and other authorities, and have appended footnotes explanatory of the history and services of officers incidentally mentioned in Lieutenant Swabey’s pages. A summary of the principal events of his life has been kindly sent me by his son, the Rev. Maurice Swabey, and is as follows:—

* * * * *

William Swabey was born in Doctors Commons, London, on the 13th of June, 1789. He was the third and youngest son of Maurice Swabey, of Langley Marish, Bucks, D.C.L., Fellow of the College of Advocates, and Chancellor of the Diocese of Rochester. His early education was received at Westminster School and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. On the 1st of July, 1806, at the age of 16 years, he received a commission in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and, in 1807, was present with Captain Cockburn’s No. 7 Company, 1st Battalion, in the land force which cooperated with Admiral Lord Gambier at the bombardment of Copenhagen. He was ordered in July, 1811, to the Peninsula, with E Troop, R.H.A., and served in it during a considerable portion of the war. He was severely wounded at the battle of Vitoria and invalided home, but rejoined the army before the close of the war. He was present at the battle of Toulouse, and, marching through France to Calais, returned home in 1814 with the troop, which the following year he accompanied to Belgium and was within the retreat from Quatre Bras, and at the battle of Waterloo. He received the Peninsular and Waterloo medals. Shortly after promotion to the rank of 2nd Captain, he retired, in March, 1825, from the service and settled down in Buckinghamshire, where he became J.P. and D.L., and captain of a troop of Bucks Yeomanry Cavalry.

In 1840, he emigrated with nearly all his family to Prince Edward’s Island, of which his friend, Sir Charles Fitzroy (an old Waterloo officer), was then Lieut.-Governor. Captain Swabey continued in the colony till 1861, and developed such capacity for the management of public affairs that he became, successively, a member of Her Majesty’s Legislative and Executive Councils, Registrar of Deeds, Commissioner of Crown lands, and member of the Board of Education, besides undertaking latterly the duties of Lieut.-Colonel and Adjutant-General of the local Militia. It is scarcely too much to say that the Statute book of the Island is full of useful measures which he either initiated or promoted in his adopted home. When the Prince of Wales visited the Colony in 1860, Colonel Swabey was one of the two Military Aides-de-Camp to the Lieut.-Governor, who received from his Royal Highness’s own hand a fine portrait of himself, in recognition of their services. Colonel Swabey was entertained at a public banquet in the Colony and presented with a flattering address, signed by the heads of departments and many other prominent inhabitants, on his return to England in 1861. He was also allowed to retain for life the prefix of Honourable, which was a privilege limited to those members of Council who (prior to the Union, about 1867, of the North American Colonies) had received their appointments under the sign manual of Her Majesty the Queen.

Captain Swabey married, in 1820, Marianne, third daughter of Edward Hobson, of Somerly, Hants, and Hope Hall, Lancashire, Esquire, and had a family of eleven children. He died on the 6th of February, 1872, having, towards the close of his life, resided for some years at Wavenden House, Bucks, a county endeared to him by family ties and early associations..............

* * * * *

A few words as to E Troop, R.H.A., may not be amiss here. It was formed on the 1st of November, 1794, and in 1811 was stationed at Christchurch, under the command of Captain Robert MacDonald, in July of that year it was ordered on its first active service, and embarked at Portsmouth to join the army under Lord Wellington in the Peninsula. The establishment was as follows:—2nd Captain Thomas Dyneley, Lieutenants Robert Newland, Robert Harding, and William Swabey, Assistant-Surgeon A. MacDonald, M.D., 104 non-commissioned officers and men,{1} with 175 horses. The armament was light 6-pr. guns.

In 1816, after the termination of the long continental wars, various reductions and changes took place in the Royal Artillery, and E Troop became D, when the troop that had hitherto been so-named was reduced. It retained this letter till a reorganization in 1859, called the Brigade System, changed the designation of all units in the Regiment; further alterations followed, until at the present time, 1st of January, 1395, it exists as E Battery, Royal Horse Artillery, commanded by Major J. McDonnell.

PART I.—THE LATTER PERIOD OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1811, TOGETHER WITH THE 3RD SIEGE OF BADAJOZ.

Summary of the Peninsular Campaign, from September, 1811, to April, 1812.

It was at the latter end of September, 1811, that E Troop joined Lord Wellington’s army, which then lay in the vicinity of Ciudad Rodrigo, for the reduction of which place secret preparations had long been in progress. The French army under Marmont lay at Salamanca, and it was from this point that interruption was principally to be apprehended. But in December the welcome news arrived that Marmont had detached three of his division to assist Marshal Suchet before Valencia, and the favourable opportunity for commencing operations was at once seized. The siege was begun on the 8th of January, 1812, and on the 19th Ciudad Rodrigo was carried by storm.

This successful attack was followed by the yet more daring attempt in the south, to reduce Badajoz. By a rapid movement, therefore, the main body of the army crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha, and marched on Elvas. Soult, on learning this, advanced towards Badajoz, upon which Generals Hill and Graham were pushed forward to oppose him. As on the previous occasion at Rodrigo, the siege was hurried on, ground was broken on the 17th of March, and to the mortification of Marshal Soult, who was within two marches and ready to fight an action for its relief, Badajoz was taken on the 6th of April. On the news of its fall, he at once returned to Seville, which in his absence had been blockaded by a Spanish force.

A few days after these events, Lord Wellington heard that Marmont was committing great depredations in the northern provinces of Portugal, he, therefore, at once marched back with the bulk of the army. The French, who had been stoutly withstood by the Portuguese Militia, on his approach withdrew from Portugal.

DIARY

CHAPTER I.—Voyage to Portugal. Sacavém. Some account of Lisbon. Changes in troop equipment.

July 27th, 1811.—Having been on board the Benjamin and Mary, transport K.I.,{2} since July the 3rd, we sailed from Stokes Bay under convoy of the Mercury, Captain Tancock, and the Hawke, brig, Honble Captain Gordon, but our wind failing us we came to an anchor in Yarmouth Roads, much to our disappointment. As we lay here the beauty of the coast of the Isle of Wight and of Hampshire, might have pleased the imagination at any other time, but served now only to remind us of the happy scenes we had left, a thought which not all the airy dreams of glory could extinguish................

28th July.—Passed without any of the ceremonies of religion. The cruelty of the foul wind still occupied our thoughts, and the surrounding scenes, with the ball-room at Lymington, so often the scene of pleasure, actually in view, awakened the same ideas as yesterday.....

29th July.—Weighed anchor in company with the Quebec and West India convoy with a fair wind. Passed through the Needles with eyes fixed for a last view on the various well-known spots of Christchurch and its vicinity, where lived those particular friends whose society had always so great a charm for me, and the remembrance of past pleasant days formed a melancholy barrier against the high spirits I might otherwise have felt at the prospect of a favourable passage....

30th July.—We found in the morning that our progress during the night had been rapid, and we now saw the coast of Devonshire, at too great a distance, however, to discern its romantic beauties. Towards midday our wind failed, and left us to the tossing of the waves, many of the people in consequence of the motion were sick. If this is soothing with its lullaby, I hope lullaby will be good enough to leave me to the chance of my own slumbers. I, however, felt no inclination to be sick. Towards night the breeze, still fair, freshened, and we saw the last of England. I should not omit that I hemmed the whole side of a silk handkerchief today, and that we dined off two mackerel that we had previously caught with our lines............

31st July.—We had a fair breeze during the night, but the day again saw us becalmed with the same swell as yesterday acting as a stomachic. I begun now to regret that my stock of books was gone through whilst we lay at Stokes Bay. I amused myself, however, by making up silk handkerchiefs. The calm continuing in the evening, we began to apprehend a tedious passage................

1st August.—This day passed with the usual sameness on board ship, it began, however, to get rough, and the wind blew from an unfavourable quarter. We spoke a convoy from Lisbon, who informed us that the armies had gone into cantonments, an unpleasant piece of news, as we now suppose operations are concluded for the present. Wind towards evening still more foul. We were today under the necessity of giving up tea because the water was bad. The Sergeant-Major reported many sick, and almost all squeamish; little burgoo{3} eaten amongst them................

2nd August.—A great deal of motion this morning, with a contrary wind, and we found on getting up that the Commodore had made the signal for putting about and retracing our steps to Falmouth, a very mortifying sort of business.

"But, hark! the signal bids us trace again

Oar steps to England, and the adverse wind,

Controlling e’en the mighty-swelling main,

Compels once more the nearest port to find.

Thus ‘tis in life, few certain blessings shine,

And those but rarely, fully, understood.

Oh man! in vain thy choice, thy best design

Vain, as the Bark opposing Nature’s flood.

We now sail at nine knots an hour, and arrived off the romantic coast, near Falmouth, at 7 o’clock a.m. As we looked from the sea, Pendennis Castle, on an elevated promontory, commanded the harbour. A fort below it, some height above the water’s edge, with one on the opposite side, facing each other, command the entrance. The appearance of the cliffs is black, with ravines in every direction; the crops at this time of the year, various in colour, alone bespeak it an English coast. In several places on each side of the harbour the sea runs beautifully between the hills and forms various lakes. Altogether, it is as striking a scene as I ever beheld, and though not wild enough for Swiss or American scenery, it partakes of their beauties in a more polished form. As the Trusty, Captain MacDonald’s transport, was bringing to, a Bombardier Cochrane, being on the anchor, unfortunately fell over and was drowned. He swam for some time, but the ship being under weigh, a boat could not be lowered with sufficient expedition. This poor fellow’s fate is the more to be lamented as he had recently purchased his discharge, but on hearing the troop was for service, immediately joined us again; as a soldier, he is a great loss.

3rd August.—Remained on board, not being able to procure a boat, though we much wanted to get some fresh meat. The funeral of poor Cochrane took place at Falmouth Church today, we attribute his death to the erroneous way of treating him when taken out of the water. The men who were in the boat held him up with his head down for the water to run out, the most effectual method of smothering, perhaps, ever contrived.{4} This observation is worth recording, as the hurry of people in their charitable endeavours is very often a bar to their reasoning on the best way of making them effectual. Sergeant Wightman,{5} who was very active in getting ready and in lowering the boat, was so haunted by the scene that in the night, fancying himself still in it, he was seen pulling in his cot, and calling to everybody to pull.........

4th August.—This morning went on shore to Falmouth. I was much disappointed on nearer acquaintance. Its white, or rather brown, brick houses, and the fact of its being built on the side of the hill, had given it from the ships a too favourable appearance, for its streets are both narrow and dirty. I should say, however, that for poultry and all sea stock, particularly goats, it is the best and cheapest place I ever heard of. I walked up to Pendennis which commands a noble prospect of the sea, and opposite, the old castle and village of St. Mawes and the surrounding country. There appear to be few gentlemen’s seats in this part of Cornwall. Pendennis Castle is famous for its having successfully opposed Oliver Cromwell, for which service some of the neighbouring Cornish boroughs received their charters, and elective franchises. It appears, however, that the safety of the garrison was owing more to a singular accident than to their resolution, for, having despaired of holding out longer, they were preparing to retreat to their boats on the sea side, and out of bravado flung over the walls two quarters of beef. The besiegers bad supposed them to be nearly starved, as in fact they were, for this was all the provision they had; but now, believing their supplies were good, immediately raised the siege.{6} This story I take to be traditional. As to the present importance of the Castle, it is a good defence against the entrance of hostile shipping, for it has on its works, as nearly as I can remember, having no memorandum book, 20 long, heavy 24-prs., four ditto carronades, and three 42-pr. carronades. There is below, a fort mounting nine 24-prs., which faces the fort of St. Mawes on the opposite side. In the present improved state of military knowledge, the Castle would be an easy conquest from the land, as the ditch from its narrowness, and the fact of its being dry, might be easily passed by escalade, and could from the nature and rapid fall of the ground be approached nearly under cover. To batter it en brèche would never be attempted, as its great height would render such an attack useless. It might, therefore, be tenable with a good garrison well provisioned: its intention at this present time is, of course, to keep off invading ships........

5th August.—Still a foul wind. Went on shore, hired a horse and rode to see one of the copper mines not more than eight miles distant from Falmouth. The way was hilly and the roads rocky and bad, the country, however, extremely wild and beautiful; and as we rode along we several times had occasion to say Well, the views at least recompense us for our trouble if the mines will not. We passed no gentlemen’s seats worth remembering, and there appeared to be few large farms—at least, few houses I should think suitable for a dignified gentleman of that class if nearer London. The face of the country was fertile, and though covered with rocks and large pieces of stone, was not stony, and the soil was rich. There is much slate and many quarries. The names of the places are all Welsh. The people here, as at Falmouth, are uncommonly ugly, and the cottages mean and wretched. They carry their geese, etc. to market on a pack-horse. On our arrival at the mines, through a village called Comfort, I suppose to express the delightful insides of the houses, we found a captain of the mine, an intelligent man, who was to be our bear leader.

The first operation was to strip entirely, and put on a flannel dress and pair of shoes for the expedition. We then descended, carrying candles in our hands, by a perpendicular ladder through a hole just big enough to admit our bodies upright.

This was the shaft of the steam-engine, which is the largest but one in England, its force being 500 horses, with a 63-inch cylinder; it raises the water from a depth of 70 fathoms, and has several stages to facilitate repairs in this length. When we arrived at this level we descended by a rope, about 30 feet lower, into an excavation little bigger than our bodies, from which some of the copper ore was being dug. We then branched off into some of the road drifts or passages driven to cross the veins of ore above the water-level. They are scarcely high enough to stand upright in, and in several places we crawled on our hands and knees. The whole sight of a copper mine consists in these passages, there being no large excavations as in coal and other mines. From three adits{7} in various places there are holes to the surface of the ground, through which whims or windlasses, worked by two horses, lower alternately two baskets capable of containing each 3 cwt. of ore, which is thus got rid of when dry. The deepest adit of the mine is 140 fathoms, and extends, from a centre about a mile, every way. The engine raises a hogshead of water at every second or vibration. In the adits, and in the descent by the steam-engine, the damp drops on you like rain, and in several places you have to walk through channels that convey the water, which runs very rapidly and is up to your knees, from different parts to the engine. Owing to this perpetual damp and the stagnation of air, miners are consumptive, and, as they told me with great coolness, few live to more than 40 years old; occasionally the damp{8} strikes and immediately kills them, if it does not actually do so, it incapacitates the person from holding on to the pump-rods{9} in the descents, when they fall to the bottom, and their fate is inevitable death. I had been led to suppose that miners were the most uncouth wretches on earth: these were not so, and in general the Cornish tongue appeared to have less of the provincial than is usual in distant counties. The names are certainly original. The great curiosity of the mine was the steam-engine, which is certainly one of the most wonderful products of mechanical knowledge, in the rest I was disappointed.

The mine is called the United Mine, and was worked constantly for 80 years, then closed for nine, and was reopened two years ago. Its return is £5000 per month; much money is sunk however, in clearing the water; till that is effected it cannot be so profitable. It employs 300 people; when the water is gone they tell you it will employ 5000. The men work only six hours a day, that being as much as the constitution can bear.

We had excellent hacks from Falmouth. The party consisted of the two Lyon’s, Taylor, and myself, and the day passed pleasantly enough; indeed, it was a sort of release from prison. We got to Falmouth for supper at 10 o’clock. The time passed so quickly at the mines that, though intending to be back to dinner, we stayed there till half-past eight; we all brought specimens of the different ores. Tin is likewise found. The metal is not prepared here, but sent by land to some place, of which I forget the name, in South Wales.

[When we left Hampshire a gentleman, about my own age, attached himself to us as a volunteer. Alas! poor fellow. Having run through a handsome fortune, he has been long dead. He was a gallant spirit; his father used to say that there was nothing by day or by night that he and I were not ready to undertake. He would run all over the rigging with the sailors, and he maintained (he was an excellent scholar as well as a Brasen-nose man) sometimes very strange opinions concerning various things. I do not know now whether he supported his opinions mathematically or no. He would have it that a man could get his whole body through any place into which he could put his head. To illustrate this, we persuaded him to put his head into a round hole in the upper bulwarks of the transport, designed for some 3-pr. swivels; this he did with good success, but not finding the diameter of his head equal to that of his body, he could get no further, and strange to say, he could not get back again, for his nose was compressed as he went through, but could not be brought to consent to his return, and there he might have remained, ever and anon swallowing a briny draught as the vessel stooped to leeward and threw up the foaming spray, had not he been most scientifically sawn out by the ship’s carpenter, but not till he had undergone a salutary lesson in patience, and promised all the engagements which the man chose to exact from him!

It was rather singular that he was not the only volunteer with us. Two gentlemen, brothers, with whom I had been at school, and who had an intimate friend amongst us likewise, came to Lisbon, intending to accompany our steps. The eldest went out of his mind, and the younger one got him back to England as soon as he could. It was thought well to let the latter follow his own bent, and a commission was procured for him in a Dragoon regiment. The very first skirmish the poor fellow was present at, only a few days after joining the regiment, he was killed!{10} I have often thought his friends owed us little gratitude, though they always took a lively interest ever after in our concerns.]

6th August.—We were obliged to remain on board all day again for want of a boat. Harding, and Bridges,{11} who was on his way to Cadiz in the Royal Yeoman, the very transport I sailed in down the river from Copenhagen, dined with us..............

7th August.—We went to Falmouth this day, where we met Captain Deacon of the East Kent, formerly of the 1st Battalion, R.A. We dined at the inn.....................

8th August.—Dined on board S.K., Dyneley on shore.

9th August.—Left Falmouth early this morning. In getting under weigh, being to windward of No. 15 transport, we ran foul of her and carried away her quarter-piece and sprung her mizzen-mast. She, however, put to sea. We lay-to off the harbour for some hours for the rest of the fleet to come out, wind N.W. and very rough: though not dangerous, the motion was very unpleasant, and the noise kept me awake the greater part of the night; we found we were ourselves the only landsmen not sick. N.B.—Wrote a letter to Maurice, but having no pilot could not send it. The Fame, brig, in which my horses are embarked, sprang a leak at sea before we put back to Falmouth, which detained us from sailing once before when the wind was fair....

10th August.—Today we were obliged to breakfast on deck, holding fast by the ropes, and nothing would stand on the table at dinner. Newland having been in bed all day, we attempted to dine in the cabin. The first ceremony was that the whole dinner, with the two servants and myself, went bodily to leeward on the floor. I kept fast hold of a chicken by the leg, and we fell-to without knives and forks! Newland all the time in his cot. I think I have not laughed so much since I left Christchurch. Being at sea in such weather is to some people perfect misery, but a little difficulty is always to me more seasonable than a life of ease, unless I can choose how to pass it. Every soul was desperately sick, except ourselves and Sutton{12}—so much so, that Burgoo was not cooked, the men had not stomach to eat it. We waived tea this evening, not because we were not hungry, but because the kettle got upset in the caboose and put the fire out..............

11th August.—The night passed in rolling and pitching in a violent manner, in the morning the wind was more moderate, and towards evening became almost calm, so we began to doubt the quickness of our passage, with the expectation of which we had hitherto consoled ourselves. A brig, one of the convoy, had her main-top-gallant-mast carried away this morning.......................

12th August.—A dead calm, which is not the pleasantest state of weather for impatient people. In the evening, being near the Trusty, rowed to her in the boat and drank tea: found even that bold campaigner, the Doctor, had been sick. Whilst we were there we saw large shoals of a small sort of fish jump, or rather fly, out of the water, pursued by some larger species. We took them, from the length of their serial excursions, to be flying-fish, but the sailors, though inclined to think the same, called them skipjack. I should not have doubted their being flying-fish, but could perceive no wings...........

13th August.—Lay in all the dullness of a calm, not motionless, but without wind. Rowed in the evening to S.K. and drank tea, and in the evening took a lesson in surgery, in consequence of young Lyon putting out his shoulder in getting up the rigging; fortunately the Dominique was near, and a surgeon was procured without much difficulty.

In the morning read many of Lord Chesterfield’s letters, apropos of which I have only to remark that I am glad my passion for fashionable life, as a pursuit at least, is over, and I am thankful that so much pains was never taken to make me substitute the finesse of a courtier for the more honourable feelings of the heart..............

14th August.—Last night a favourable breeze sprang up and we made considerable progress, and so on through the day. We saw at some distance a grampus, but not near enough to give any idea what sort of a gentleman he was.

More of Lord Chesterfield: who would be a courtier must be a dependent, flattering knave.................

15th August.—We made the coast of Portugal, and the Jasper, with her convoy for Oporto, left us. We now expect to be at Lisbon tomorrow. Last night though not so rough certainly produced more motion in the ship than we have yet had; it blew a complete gale of wind. We were under fore and main topsails all night, and sailed at seven knots.

I read some chapters of the World, which do not go down after the Spectator, notwithstanding that Lord Chesterfield, Sir H. Walpole, and Mr. Jenyns were contributors...........

16th August.—Within 100 miles of Lisbon we are becalmed and delayed; my patience, hitherto pretty submissive, now begins to be consumptive, and I fear is very short-lived...............

17th August.—Still becalmed with varying winds. Read more of Moore’s World, from a selection of the best papers published by somebody who thought proper to prefix a very pretty frontispiece, and then very wisely