LETTER FROM GENERAL LEITE TO SIR HEW DALRYMPLE.
MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIR,
Strength is the result of union, and those who have reason to be grateful should be most urgent in their endeavours to promote it. I therefore feel it to be my duty to have recourse to your excellency to know how I should act without disturbing the union so advantageous to my country. The supreme junta of the Portuguese government established at Oporto, which I have hitherto obeyed as the representatives of my sovereign, have sent me orders by an officer, dated the 1st instant, to take possession of the fortress of Elvas as soon as it shall be evacuated. After having seen those same Spaniards who got possession of our strong places as friends, take so much upon themselves as even to prevent the march of the garrison which I had ordered to replace the losses sustained in the battle of Evora, which deprived me of the little obedience that was shown by the city of Beja, always favoured by the Spanish authorities; after having seen the Portuguese artillery which was saved after the said battle taken possession of by those same Spaniards, who had lost their own, without being willing even to lend me two three-pounders to enable me to join his excellency the Monteiro Mor; after having the arms which were saved from the destructive grasp of the common enemy made use of by those same Spaniards, who promised much and did nothing; after having seen a Spanish brigadier dispute my authority at Campo Mayor, where I was president of the junta, and from whence his predecessor had taken away 60,000 crowns without rendering any account; in a word, after having seen the march of these Spaniards marked by the devastation of our fields, and the country deserted to avoid the plunder of their light troops, I cannot for a moment mistake the cause of the orders given by the supreme junta of Oporto. A corps of English troops having yesterday passed Estremos, on their road to Elvas, knowing that in a combined army no officer should undertake any operation which may be intended for others, thereby counteracting each other, I consulted lieutenant-general Herre (Hope), who has referred me to your excellency, to whom in consequence I send lieut.-colonel the marquis of Terney, my quarter-master-general, that he may deliver you this letter, and explain verbally every thing you may wish to know which relates to my sovereign and the good of my country, already so much indebted to the English nation.
God preserve your excellency many years.
(Signed) Francisco de Paulo Leite, lieut.-general.
(Dated) Estremos, 16th September, 1808.
To the most illustrious and most excellent
sir Hew Dalrymple.
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM SIR HEW DALRYMPLE TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR JOHN HOPE.
Head-quarters, Benefico, 25th Sept. 1808.
SIR,