“It is besides of no small disadvantage that the deputies from the Asturias and Gallicia having left Spain at so early a period are really not competent to furnish information or advice upon the more advanced state of things in that country.”——“I have already stated to you that in applications for succours, there is an under-ground appearance of rivalry, which with every disposition to do every thing that can be done for Spain, imposes a necessity of perpetual caution with respect to the particular demands of each province. The Asturians having been rebuked by their constituents for not having applied for pecuniary aid as quickly as the Gallicians are bent upon repairing this fault, and the Gallician having been commended for promptitude, is ambitious of acquiring new credit by increasing the amount of his demand. Whatever the ulterior demands, these several provinces have to make, will be made with infinitely more effect through you and Mr. Hunter respectively, as they will then come accompanied with some detailed and intelligible exposition of the grounds and objects of each particular application.”
Mr. Stuart’s despatches to Mr. Canning.
Coruna, July 22, 1808.
“Accounts of advantages in the quarters, which from the present state of things can have little or no communication with this place, appear to be numerous in proportion as the north of Spain is barren of events agreeable to the existing government; and I am disposed to consider unauthenticated reports of success in Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, and Andalusia, to be a mode of concealing or palliating disasters in Leon, Castile, and the Montaña.”
July 24, 1808.
“One thousand men, under de Ponte, is the utmost force the Asturias have yet organized or sent into the field, and the contingents of Leon are very trifling.
“Thirty thousand men, of which twenty thousand are regular troops under Blake, were united to ten thousand Castilian recruits under Cuesta. They went to Rio Seco to march against Burgos, and cut off Bessieres’ retreat to France, but they lost seven thousand men at Rio Seco.
“The Estremadura army under Gallegos is at Almaraz, consisting of twenty-four thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, but the battle of Rio Seco has cut the communication which had been before kept up to Andalusia.”
Abstract of information sent to Mr. Canning by Mr. Stuart.
July 26, 1808.