Being chief engineer I was attached to Captain Hoste and Colonel M’Leod, so that my situation was as pleasant as possible; for neither of the commanders treating me with the least Big-wig, we carried on the war like three jolly fellows.
A carriage waited each day at the Marina for our coming on shore, and a good dinner was prepared for all the officers.
The first day we dined at the house of a baron whose family had during the stay of the French been in the most terrible alarm, as the house was just in the range of fire between the vessels and the fortress.
One daughter was very beautiful, and I asked her if she was glad that the French were gone; she looked pensive and pale, and answered “Ma quanto.”
There was something gratifying though melancholy to me in the way these people clung to us in all their fears—for the French being gone, their alarm as to the depredations of the native masses was equally oppressive.
During dinner, some of the savage chiefs entered upon business with Colonel M’Leod, and this young creature showing evident signs of inquietude, I asked if she were afraid? “Con voi—no,” with much softness of expression, replied the beautiful Italian.
The British authorities, however, with very laudable solicitude, by threats and promises ensured to the town tranquillity, and quite calmed the fears of the inhabitants.
Yet I was shocked at some of the misery which I saw; alas! human misery can attain a very high pitch.
Colonel M’Leod desired me to give him a report upon Cotrona.
Now, reports are very ticklish sort of things, it being no difficult matter to get the wrong side, and then you are subscribed a fool in black and white to the end of your days—and this was the first time I had been called upon to act by myself. I obeyed orders with much trepidation, but as I afterwards found that Colonel M’Leod, in a despatch to Sir T. Stuart, called my paper “an able report, the ideas in which coincide with his own,” I am well satisfied, and indeed I have had a most pleasant expedition.