CHAP 1808. 56. which that gallant monarch declined to accept*-to return forthwith to England, to form a further reinforcement of the armies in the Peninsula. Though the direction of the Cork expedition, however, was intrusted to Sir Arthur, yet a senior officer, Sir Harry Strange sub- Burrard, was appointed to supersede him in the command stitution of shortly after he landed in Portugal; who again was to commanders retain the supreme direction only until Sir Hew Dalexpedition. rymple arrived from Gibraltar. Thus, in the most successive to the British momentous period of the campaign, that in which the British troops were first to be engaged with the enemy, and when they were exposed to all the difficulty incident to a first landing on a hostile shore, they were to be intrusted successively to the command of three different generals; an arrangement as characteristic of the happy ignorance of military affairs which at that period prevailed in the British government, as the cheerful acquiescence of their first commander in the appointment of 1 Well. Desp. any officer, how unknown soever to fame, over his head, was of the single-hearted feeling and patriotic devotion which, in every age, has been found to be the accompaniment of real greatness.1+ by Gurwood, iv. 1, 3, 21, 22, 43. The expedition, under the command of Sir Arthur, *The particulars of this expedition, and the causes of the disagreement with the Swedish monarch, will be found below, chap. lxx. which treats of the war between Sweden and Russia. + When Sir A. Wellesley received the command of the expedition at Cork, government gave him no reason to believe that he was to be superseded in the supreme direction of it. The first intimation he received of that intention was by a letter from Lord Castlereagh, dated 15th July 1808, which reached him when at sea, off Mondego Bay. Many officers, who had held the situations and achieved the victories which he had in India, would have at once resigned the command in which he was now reduced to so subordinate a station; but Sir Arthur acted otherwise. In answer to Lord Castlereagh, he said-" Pole and Burghersh have apprised me of the arrangements for the future command of the army. All that I can say on this subject is, that whether I am to command the army or not, or am to quit it, I shall do my best to insure its success; and you may depend on it that I shall not hurry the operations, or commence them one moment sooner than they ought to be commenced, in order that I may acquire the credit of the success. The government will determine for me in what way they will employ me hereafter, either here or elsewhere." When asked by an intimate friend, after his return, how he, who had commanded armies of 40,000 men, received the Order of the Bath and the thanks of parliament, could thus submit to be reduced to the rank of a brigadier of infantry, he replied "For this reason-I was nimuk-wallah, as we say in the East; I have ate of the King's salt; and therefore I consider it my duty to serve with zeal and promptitude when or wherever the King or his government may think proper to employ me." Nor was this disinterested and high-minded patriotism and sense of duty without its final reward. Inferior men would probably have thrown up the command, and rested on the laurels of Seringapatam and Assaye; but Wellington pursued the path of duty under every slight, and he lived to strike down Napoleon on the field of Waterloo.-See GURWOOD'S Despatches, August 1, 1808, vol. iv 43; and Blackwood's Magazine, xli. 714. CHAP. LIV. 1808. 57. Sir A. Wel the command arrives off Bay. sailed from Cork on the 12th July, but the General himself preceded them in a fast-sailing frigate, and arrived at Corunna on the 20th. He immediately entered into communication with the Junta of Galicia, from whom he received the distressing intelligence of the defeat at Rio lesley takes Seco; and was also made acquainted with the desire of the of the expedi Spaniards in that quarter to receive no succours, except in tion, and arms, stores, and money, from England-a resolution of Mondego which it is hard to say, after such a disaster, whether it savoured more of magnanimous resolution or presumptuous confidence.* He found the opinion of all classes so unanimous in hatred of the French, "that no one dared to show that he was a friend to them." Having supplied the Junta, therefore, with two hundred thousand pounds in money, and assured them of the speedy arrival of extensive military stores, which in a great measure elevated their spirits after their late misfortunes, he proceeded to the southward to secure the main objects of the expedition, which were, in the first instance, an attack upon the Tagus; and afterwards, the detachment of such a force to the southward as might effectually secure Cadiz from any attack by the French under Dupont. As the whole force of the expedition, when joined by the reinforcements from England, the corps of Sir John Moore, and that under General Spencer, which was off Cadiz, was estimated by government at thirty thousand men, it was thought that ample means existed to achieve both these objects. And as the primary condition of all successful military efforts, by a transmarine power, is the securing strong seaports as a base for the army, and a point of refuge in case of disaster, it is evident that the attainment of one or both of these objects was an indispensable preliminary to future operations. It was fortunate, however, that subsequent events rendered the 1 Gurw. iv. dispersion of the English force, and the formation of a 20, 33. Lond. double base of operations unnecessary. The British army Nap. i. 187. was thereby concentrated in Portugal,1 where it had a *"Notwithstanding the recent defeat of the Galician army, the junta here have not expressed any wish to receive the assistance of British troops; and they again repeated, this morning, that they could put any number of men into the field if they were provided with arms and money; and I think this disinclination to receive the assistance of British troops, is founded in a great degree on the objection to give the command of their troops to British officers."-WELLINGTON to LORD CASTLEREAGH, Corunna, July 21, 1808, GURWOOD, iv. 27. i. 114, 116. LIV. CHAP. strong country to defend, a docile population to work upon, and a central position in the flank of the French armies in Spain to maintain. 1808. 58. Arrival of the British troops at Mondego Bay, and by Sir A. Wellesley. Sir Arthur Wellesley arrived at Oporto on the 26th, and proceeded on with the expedition to Mondego Bay, where he arrived on the 30th July. Having there received intelligence of the surrender of Dupont, he deemed all operations in Andalusia unnecessary; and proclamation having sent orders to General Spencer to come round from the Bay of Cadiz and join him, he determined upon an immediate landing-a bold and decisive resolution, considering that his own force did not exceed ten thousand men, and Junot had fifteen thousand at Lisbon. He accordingly issued a proclamation to the people of Portugal, eminently descriptive of the principles of that glorious struggle which was now about to commence, and which his own talents and constancy, and the resolution of the three nations, now banded together, ultimately brought to so glorious a termination. At first Sir Arthur thought of landing on the small peninsula of Peniche, about seventy miles to the north of the Rock of Lisbon; but though the anchorage was safe and practicable, it was commanded by the guns of the fort at its extremity, which was still in the hands of the enemy. He therefore, by the advice of Sir Charles Cotton, selected in preference Mondego Bay, where the whole fleet was assembled on the 31st July.1 1 Gurw. iv. 190. Na i. Lond. i. 190, 191. On the following morning the disembarkation commenced; and notwithstanding the obstacles arising from a strong west wind and heavy surf, which occasioned the swamping of several boats, and the loss of many lives, it * The exact number was 9280 sabres and bayonets-about 10,000 men, including subalterns and officers. Spencer's corps was 4793 strong-about 5000 men. -GURWOOD, iv. 20. "The English soldiers who land upon your shores do so with every sentiment of friendship, faith, and honour. The glorious struggle in which you are engaged is for all that is dear to man-the protection of your wives and children, the restoration of your lawful prince, the independence, nay, the existence of your kingdom, the preservation of your holy religion. Objects like these can only be attained by distinguished examples of fortitude and constancy. The noble struggle against the tyranny and usurpation of France will be jointly maintained by Portugal, Spain, and England; and, in contributing to the success of a cause so just and glorious, the views of his Britannic Majesty are the same as those by which you yourselves are animated."-A. WELLESLEY'S Letter. It is seldom that a proclamation in the outset of a struggle so faithfully represents the real objects at issue in it; still seldomer that it so prophetically and truly describes its ultimate result after many and long-continued disasters.-See GURWOOD, iv. 46. CHAP. LIV. 1808. 59. the army, was completed by the 5th, at which time General Spencer with his division came up, and was immediately put on shore. He had not received Sir Arthur's orders to join ; but with great presence of mind, and the true military spirit, the moment he heard of Dupont's surrender he Landing of made sail for the Tagus, from whence he was sent for- Aug. 1. Aug. 5. ward by Sir Charles Cotton to the general point of disembarkation. On the evening of the 8th the united Aug. 8. forces, thirteen thousand strong, bivouacked on the beach, and on the following morning the advanced guard moved 66, 67. Nap. forward, and commenced that memorable march which, i 190, 191. though deeply checkered with disaster, was destined to be 125. never finally arrested till the British cavalry passed in triumph from Bayonne to Calais.1 1 Gurw. iv. The troops took the field in the highest spirits, and the most perfect state of discipline and equipment, confident in their leader, and not less confident in themselves; for even at this early period of the war it was the habit of the British soldiers, the habit bequeathed by centuries of glory, to admit of no doubt as to the issue of a combat. The Portuguese generals, who had six thousand men, were at first most extravagant in their demands, and would only consent to join the English upon condition that their troops should all be maintained from the British commissariat: a proposition so utterly unreasonable, when made by the natives of the country to their allies, just landed from their ships, that it thus early evinced, what the future progress of the war so clearly demonstrated, that jealousy of foreign co-operation, and aversion to foreign command, were nearly as strongly imprinted on their minds as hatred at the invaders. At length they consented to let General Freyre, with one brigade of infantry, fourteen hundred strong, and two hundred and fifty horse, remain with Sir Arthur; but the main body was positively prohibited to advance beyond Leira on the road to Lisbon. The truth was, that they entertained a secret dread of the French troops, and, deeming the English totally inadequate to contend with them, they were unwilling to commit themselves by their side in a decisive affair. This defection of the native troops threw a chill over the British army, not from any doubt as to its ability i. Lond. 124, CHAP. LIV. 1808. Aug. 15. 1 Gurw. iv. 71, 80. Nap. i. 198, 198, 199. Lond. i. 128, 130. 61. to contend, single-handed, with the forces of Junot, but from the apprehensions which it inspired regarding the sincerity of their allies' professions of zeal against the common enemy. Sir Arthur, notwithstanding, continued his advance, and was received every where by the people with rapturous enthusiasm. His route lay by Alcobaca to Caldas, which latter place he reached on the evening of the 15th; Laborde, who commanded a division of five thousand French, which Junot, on the first alarm, had sent down to the coast, retiring as he advanced. A trifling skirmish occurred on the same day at Obidos, in which a few men were killed and wounded on both sides-memorable as the scene where British blood first flowed in the Peninsular war.1 Meanwhile, Junot despatched orders in all directions to call in his detached columns, and concentrate all his Advance of forces for the protection of Lisbon: and Laborde, to give the British to him time to complete his arrangements, resolved to French there. stand firm at ROLIÇA—a little village situated at the attack the southern extremity of a large oblong valley, running nearly north and south in the bosom of the Monte Junta, in the centre of which the little village and Moorish tower of Obidos are situated. His force, five thousand strong, including five hundred horse and five guns, was stationed on a small elevated plateau in front of Roliça, at the upper end of the valley; and the hills on either side which shut it in were occupied by detachments, who, from amidst the rocky thickets and close underwood of myrtles and gum-cistus with which they were covered, threatened to keep up a heavy fire on the assailants. Sir Arthur divided his force into three columns; the right, consisting of the Portuguese infantry, and fifty horse under Colonel Trant, was directed to turn the mountains in the rear; while the centre, under Sir Arthur in person, attacked the plateau in front; and the left, under General Ferguson, was ordered to ascend the hills abreast of Obidos, and menace the French right by 2 Gurw. iv. turning it in the mountains. As the centre advanced, preceded by nine guns, the corps on the right and left moved simultaneously forward in the hills, and the aspect of the body in the plain, nine thousand strong,2 moving majestically forward at a slow pace, in the finest order, 81, 84. Thib. 174, 180. Foy, iv. 304, 315. Lond. i. 130, 137. |