confidence of the people we were amongst. To give efficacy to these qualifications, he was gifted with talents and resources which it is a thousand pities should not have found higher exercise in the service of his country, than in this inglorious campaign of Corcubion. It was of the greatest importance, however, to the cause, to have one man amongst us whom all parties esteemed and were quite willing to follow; and who likewise understood the language and habits of the natives so thoroughly, that no misapprehension of their meaning was ever likely to arise.
“Before these patriotic bands had called us in to assist them, they had been sorely distracted amongst themselves as to the nomination of a commander-in-chief. About 2000 men, the Junta informed us, were assembled at Bernun. Only a few of these were properly armed with fire-locks, while some carried pikes or swords, and the rest brought nothing to the cause but boundless zeal and much talk. Amongst these people were several old soldiers, who, having seen a little service in their day, knew the value of discipline; and had learned in the course of their campaigning, that the chief element of good order is a well-grounded reliance on the skill of the commander. These men naturally wished to appoint as their chief a person named Camaño, who, from having served twelve years in the regular army, it was reasonable to think, knew something of military manners. The priest of the parish, however, had the voice of the peasantry with him. This worthy and gallant pastor, whose name was Lapido, possessed the entire confidence of the villagers and neighbours who formed his congregation, and who were naturally prompted to nominate him their leader by the very same motives which induced the soldiers to call out for Camano. * * * It would have been a troublesome addition to our responsibilities, to have been called upon to decide between the rival pretensions of the sword and the gown. The proverb carried the day, however, and the soldier yielded to the churchman. The good sense and experience of the veteran, indeed, shewed him, that he might be more useful as a second, acting under one whom the great mass of the people cheerfully obeyed, than he could possibly be as commander-in-Chief, with the church secretly, if not avowedly, against him, and, of course, the body of the congregation jealous of his authority. Camaño, also, by his influence succeeded in prevailing upon the whole of his own party to adopt the same course; wisely remarking, that since, in such times, unanimity is the life and soul of enterprise, it would ill become old soldiers to be wrangling about precedence, when the enemy was at their gates.
“Things being thus amicably adjusted, the reconciled rivals set about their task of disciplining their troops. the worthy padre, however, having heretofore taken charge only of the souls of his flock, was entirely adrift when he came to the details of arranging their external operations; and Camaño, whose knowledge of the art of war was confined pretty much to the handling of a musket, was equally thrown out when busied with the
