Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/56

46 /. H. Rose of Galicia and its government does [iiV] not appear to be respected by the rest of Spain ; and, placed as I am at the very extremity of the Kingdom, I fear it will be difficult to render service unless I approach the centre of the Peninsula; which I am unwilling to do without direc- tions from home. To revert to military afifairs, it may be of interest to quote from a letter written by General Blake to the president of the junta of Galicia, in which that commander expressed the hope that a British force would soon land in the north of Spain, either at Corunna or at Santander. The letter, dated August 15 at Astorga, was forwarded by Stuart to Canning. In it Blake stated that he had heard news portending the arrival of a British force of 30,000 infantry and S,ooo cavalry in the north of Spain ; and he referred to the matter in terms which marked him ofif sharply from the presumptuous civil- ians of the junta of Galicia, who scouted the thought of British help save in money and stores. Blake expected the British cavalry to land at Corunna, the infantry disembarking at Santander, where it would threaten the French communications between Burgos and the Pyrenees. On the whole, however, he preferred that the British expedition should come to Gijon, the chief port of Asturias, where it would form an imposing mass capable of undertaking very important operations, even in the event of the march of the [Spanish] army from Andalusia being retarded. . . . Your Highness will see the importance of preparing in abundance provisions for the English on the road from Corunna, and barley, oats, grass and straw for their horses, remembering that the soldiers of that nation are little sparing and accustomed to much meat at their meals, an object which it is luckily not difficult to provide in Galicia. It is equally necessary that there should not be wanting on the route all the waggons that may be requisite for transporting the baggage and effects. For all which, as for providing quarters, it is indispensable that Your Highness should send out some respectable active and con- fidential persons commissioned by you. If the winds and naval combi- nations should not allow of the infantry being conveyed to Asturias without a considerable delay, the whole disembarkation must necessarily take place at Coruna, but the reasons for preferring the former point [ji'c] are of great weight. God preserve Your Highness many years. (Signed) Jo.'^quin I?lake. In his next despatches, written at Corunna between August 9 and August 22, Stuart reported the continuance of the dispute be- tween the juntas of Leon and Galicia, while the latter body now re- fused to admit the supremacy of the junta of Seville. He added that the claim of Andalusia to take precedence arose, in part at least, from the custom of the four king-doms of Andalusia stvlinsf them-