Captain Codrington to sir E. Pellew.
“29th July, 1811.
“Had colonel Green, the military agent appointed to succeed general Doyle, adopted the plan of his predecessor of continuing at the head-quarters of the army and in personal communication with the captain-general instead of retiring to Peniscola with the money and arms remaining, we should not be left as we are to the precarious source of mere accidental communications for receiving intelligence.”
Ditto to Don F. Savartes, vocal of the Junta.
“28th July, 1811.
“————Colonel Green, the British military agent, being at Peniscola, I have opened the letter from the junta to him.”——“Had I not in this instance opened the letters to the admiral and the military agent, the junta would have received no answer to them until it would have been too late to execute their object.”
Captain Thomas to captain Codrington.
(Extract.)
“H.M.S. Undaunted, off Arens, 7th Oct. 1811.
“Having observed, in the Catalonia Gazette of the 24th of September, the copy of a letter said to be written by colonel Green to his excellency general Lacy, relative to our operations on the Medas Islands, from the surrender of the castle to the period of our quitting them, I beg leave to state to you my surprise and astonishment at seeing facts so grossly misrepresented, and request you will be pleased to contradict in the most positive manner the assertions there made use of. To prove how inconsistent this letter is with real facts, it may be necessary for me only to say that colonel Green, in the presence and hearing of all the English officers, on my asking him a question relative to the practicability of keeping the island, did declare that he had nothing to do with the expedition; that my instructions pointed him out as a volunteer only. But immediately after, in the hearing of all, did declare it to be his opinion that the island was not tenable.
“As I understood it was intended to form an establishment on the larger island, I judged it proper to retire from it for a short time and destroy the remains of the castle, which might induce the enemy to withdraw from the works he had thrown up, and thereby afford our ally an opportunity whenever he chose to occupy them again, to fortify himself without molestation; and this supposition it has appeared was well grounded. But while the ruins of the castle stood, it was an object of jealousy to the French; nor would they in my opinion have quitted the ground they occupied, nor the Spaniards have been enabled to settle themselves, had this measure not been adopted. I therefore gave orders for embarking the guns and stores.