satisfied, soporific Junta solemnly assured us, that these precautions were carefully taken, and that they received daily, indeed almost hourly, the most exact information of all the enemy were doing. Yet it so happoned that they would never let us see any of these accredited agents of their’s, either before they set out, or when they returned; and it soon became but too manifest, that the only sources of this boasted information were the popular rumours of the peasantry. * * * *
“Under these circumstances, we felt much at a loss, not only what to advise, but what to do ourselves. * * *. We reiterated our advice to the Junta, that they would take some more systematic precautions than any they had yet adopted, against a sudden incursion of the enemy’s troops. They replied, that they had secretly done so, and that every pass was watched and guarded, except one, which, they said, it was not in their power to put in a proper state of defence without our help. The captain begged to know what kind of assistance they required; for he was not much disposed to allow his marines to act in such company. He was not a little relieved, therefore, by their saying, that what they wanted was not soldiers or sailors, but a couple of the frigate’s quarter-deck guns, to plant in one of the passes of the mountains. They described this pass as being so narrow, that, if it were once fortified in this way, the whole of the French might be kept in check, until the necessary measures could be taken to bring up the patriot forces from Corcubion to complete the victory. I was accordingly despatched to the pass, with orders to make a survey of the ground, and to report my opinion as to the practicability of its being effectually defended against the French army, by a couple of 32-pounder carronades.
“The place pointed out lay about fifteen miles from Corcubion; and I set off under the guidance of peasants provided by the Junta, with an escort of half-a-dozen soldiers from the camp, the whole party being very respectably mounted on mules. This was on the 8th of April, and we reached our destination in the course of the day. My imagination had pictured to itself a narrow gorge, or cleft in the hills, like one of those Swiss passes in which the Burgundian invaders were demolished by the rocks and trunks of trees rolled down upon them by the natives. Much was my disappointment, therefore, when I came to the spot designated by this most precious of Juntas as one capable of being defended by a couple of guns against 10,000 French troops. It was an open, cultivated valley, at least a league wide, formed by ranges of hills, not rugged and inaccessible, but quite smooth, and easily to be traversed by any description of troops, artillery inclusive. * * *
“On returning from the interior, April 9th, I found the Endymion still lying in Finisterre bay, where she had been joined by H.M. ship Loire[1],- ↑ Commanded by Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Alex. W. Schomberg.
