On the 2nd of October, we entered Abrantes. This ancient city crowns the summit of a hill, two sides of which, the south and the east, are extremely steep and difficult of access. The base of the eminence on these sides, and part of the west, is washed by the Tagus, over which there was then a bridge of boats, by which all reinforcements and stores for the army, proceeding from Lisbon by Abrantes, crossed to the left bank, up which, those intended for General Hill's corps, ascended as far as Alpalhao, and turned to the right; and those for the main army, as high as Villa-Velha, where they again crossed the noble stream by a similar conveyance, and then proceeded to their destination by Castello-Branco. The claims of Abrantes to rank high as a military station, will be taken into consideration, along with those of Elvas and Castello-Branco.
Having rested our limbs on the 3rd, we advanced to Gavao on the 4th. Crossing by the bridge before mentioned, our route led us two leagues over a sandy plain, studded with cork trees; and then a similar distance over a heath as barren and uninteresting as any spot I had ever before traversed. In a morning when a little fog is skimming along the surface of the ground, the country around Gavao, when viewed from the spire of the village church, or any other building of equal height, presents a singular appearance—its natural undulations giving to the whole surrounding space, as far as the eye can reach, all the appearance of the mountain waves of a watery expanse, when violently agitated by a dreadful gale of wind.
At Alpalhao, on the 5th, the people complained bitterly of their poverty; but when they found that we required nothing from them, they praised the English and cursed the French, as roundly as the greatest enemy of the latter could have wished.
Early on the following morning we quitted Alpalhao, and moved forward to Portalegre, then the head-quarters of General Hill, as well as of our first battalion. Our march was a very dreary one; but the warm reception which we met with from our friends, who on our arrival hastened to welcome us to share their dangers and their glory, soon banished all traces of it from our remembrance.
On the breaking up of the allied army from its encampment in the vicinity of Estremoz, on the 1st of August, the main body under Lord Wellington, proceeded towards Almeida, and the remaining portion of it was formed into a corps of observation, which, at the date of our arrival at head-quarters, was composed of the following brigades of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-General Rowland Hill.
Allied Artillery.
Three Brigades, British and Portuguese.
Allied Cavalry.
Commanded by Lieutenant General Sir William Erskine.
British Brigade.—Major-General Long.