In sickness and in suffering, the friend and the nurse remove every object of external disquiet, and the faults of the strong are forgotten in the sufferings of the sick. But what friend, or what nurse is, or has ever been to me, so kind as the Spirit of God.
Silently then, (removing the far more disquieting subject of internal uneasiness), the mountain of recollected offences, and the anxious cloud of apprehended evils, are melted away before the steadfast beam of Christian hope, like snow before the sun of summer. Does it need, then, much learning or much study to contradict the sneer of the mocker or emancipate the spirit of his victim? I think not, and hope that in the book now offered to the public something like good fruit may be found. The seed indeed is small, but may God give the increase.
Charles Boothby (signature)
Sutterton, Lincolnshire,
1824.
NOTE
Captain Boothby’s design of publishing his journals was never carried out in his lifetime, and now, six-and-seventy years after he wrote the above introduction, they are brought out for the first time in book form. Incorporated with them are his letters to the various members of his family, which, having been written without any thought of reproduction, are perhaps even more vivid and natural than the journal itself. These carry on the narrative, and bridge over what might otherwise have been gaps in its continuity.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| Expedition to Italy and Sicily under General Sir James Craig | [9] |
| General Sir James Craig’s Farewell | [50] |
| General Sir John Stuart in command | [51] |
| The Battle of Maida | [69] |
| The Siege of Scylla | [85] |
| General Sir John Moore arrives at Messina | [98] |
| Captain Boothby returns to England | [112] |
| Expedition to Sweden under General Sir John Moore | [114] |
| Departure of General Sir John Moore for England | [120] |
| Captain Boothby ordered to survey Isle of Sproe | [123] |
| Captain Boothby ordered to England to rejoin General Sir John Moore | [129] |
| Expedition to Spain and Portugal under General Sir John Moore | [130] |
| Captain Boothby ordered to Elvas | [144] |
| Captain Boothby ordered to make Reconnaissance on Frontier | [161] |
| Captain Boothby ordered to make Reconnaissance towards Orense | [202] |
| The Battle of Corunna | [211] |
| Captain Boothby returns Home | [228] |
| Expedition to Portugal and Spain | [232] |
| Captain Boothby in General Sherbrooke’s Division, and attached to the Brigades of Guards and Infantry under General Harry Campbell and General A. Campbell | [248] |
| APPENDIX | |
| Two Letters from Captain Boothby on the Battle of Maida, 1806 | [266] |
| Two Letters from Captain Boothby during the Expedition to Sweden in 1808 | [273] |
| Buonaparte’s Plan of Action against Sir John Moore and his Opinion of that General | [275] |
| Letter from Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird to Lord Viscount Castlereagh, Secretary of State | [276] |
| Letter from Lieutenant-General Hope to Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird, containing the Report on the Battle of Corunna, 16th January 1809 | [277] |
| Last Orders given to the Army of Spain by the great General Sir John Moore, K.B. | [285] |