Miguel was soon discovered by the officers in command of the batteries on the southern bank of the river. The British authorities at Oporto*, and in the Douro, were also much displeased at the deception by which the blockade had been so openly violated; the senior officer within the bar instantly communicated with the General in command at Villa Nova, and strongly expressed his disapprobation of the affair.

This subject, so important to the neutral position of the British Flag, gave rise to much discussion in Oporto, and it was with great difficulty that Commander Glascock exonerated himself with General Viscount Santa Martha, from the suspicion of having in any way participated in this bold and dashing but illegal occurrence.

In contradiction, however, to any connivance on the part of the British authorities, the enemy found that a heavy fine had been imposed on the Lord of the Isles, and an official report on the subject transmitted to the owners of the transgressing bark; not, however, satisfied with these stringent measures, the offended and defeated foe vowed vengeance against her, and protested that she should be sunk, so soon as she was clear of the British squadron, alongside which she had wisely anchored. Notwithstanding a sharp look out was kept by the watchful enemy on the doomed steamer, she was towed out with muffled oars during the night, not, however, wholly escaping the vigilance of the batteries, all of which blazed away upon the occasion, but in consequence of the darkness of the night their aim was defective, and the vessel got over the bar without having sustained much injury.

So great was the scarcity of ammunition, for some time previous to the arrival of the Lord of the Isles, that the batteries of the besieged were unable to answer the enemy's guns, or march out musket in hand, A few hours after the entrance of the delinquent steamer, three prizes, captured by the Admiral Sartorius' cruizers, viz., a Portuguese brig with money and stores for Don Miguel, and a schooner with artillery and ammunition, as also a French brigantine, were sunk by the Sampaio battery in attempting to enter the Douro.

During the whole of the day and night of the 7th December, the enemy continued to bombard Oporto, which city sustained much injury, and the French hospital was set on fire, and the flames burst forth in several places at once; the scene was terrific, and the efforts to escape made by the dying, the wounded, and the delirious, baffles description.

The entrance and escape of the Lord of the Isles greatly incensed the enemy, who instantly renewed the order to clear the river of all vessels of every nation, save and except the British squadron, which was only required to shift its position. The enemy henceforth became, if possible, more and more vigorous in their display of animosity towards the besieged, and enforced the stringent mandate of a complete blockade, by continually firing into the peaceful merchant ships as they lay quietly at anchor, without a single gun to answer their numerous forts. Against this conduct on the part of the enemy the British authorities remonstrated, but in vain; even boys, whilst in the rigging and shrouds, were fired at with muskets from the enemy's picquets at

• The British authorities in Oporto, were Colonel Sorrell (consul) and Lieut.Colonel Lovel Badcock (commissioner). In the Douro (within the bar) ComVilla Nova; all this was done on the plea of forcing the ships to expedite their departure. As soon as the vessels were ready to quit the Douro, a flag of truce was sent to the enemy, requesting that they might depart without being fired into. To this the enemy acceded; but as soon as the ships got under weigh the batteries played upon their hulls, and volleys of musketry were poured into their rigging and shrouds, shells and hand-grenades alighted on the decks; yet notwithstanding this warm demonstration, many of the devoted barks escaped with comparatively little injury, but the Fulminance* (barque), having on board discharged men and invalids for England, was sunk; the first shot, (24 pounder) entered between decks, and killed three men who were playing cards. The enemy then boarded the sinking vessel, captured the crew and passengers, and marched them off as prisoners of war; landed them at Villa Nova, whence they were dispatched under a strong military escort to Braga, for the decision of Don Miguel to their further disposal.

At the headquarters of the besieging army much discussion took place on the subject of the disposal of the passengers and crew of the Fulminance. Don Miguel was for their immediate execution, without even the form of a drum-head court martial; but to this prompt measure great objection was made by the several senior officers on the staff, and at the heads of departments. General Sir John Campbellt, General Count Barbacena, and others who had served during the Peninsular war, all argued in favour of the prisoners, pointing out that they had been regularly invalided and duly discharged, and were taken from on board a merchant vessel belonging to a neutral state; therefore their situation and alleged crime differed materially from persons taken in action with arms in their hands; under these circumstances, it was further argued that they were entitled to a free passport, and to be considered as the subjects of a foreign ally, preparing to return to their native land. It was with much difficulty, however, that Don Miguel could be induced to adhere to the law of nations, and the civilised usage of modern warfare.

The repeated acts of barbarity which characterized the enemy towards all prisoners, more especially foreigners, caused much uneasiness for the safety of the party captured in the vessel above named. It will be necessary to state that upon all occasions foreigners taken in action were instantly put to death, and afterwards shamefully mutilated, then unburied, left on the ensanguined spot, or thrown into some adjacent quarry, to be gorged upon by the various birds of prey; such as were allowed to survive were forced to perform the most filthy and degrading offices by day, and at night consigned to some loathsome cell, in the town jail, inundated with water, and infested with rats and other vermin.

After the decision of the council at war at Braga, the captives were ordered to proceed to Lisbon. The pilgrimage to the capital was of the most fatiguing and harassing description; the "guard of honour," would not allow the worthy and "inquisitive travellers" much time to admire the beauties of nature, but hurried them along at the point of

* The Fulminance was an American-built barque, of 500 tons.

† This Officer formerly belonged to the brigade of Guards, and retired as a Captain and Lieut.-Colonel in the army.

the bayonet; this movement was anything but agreeable to the reluctant growers of corn (corns), as also to others labouring under the effects of recent wounds; added to which the roads were exceedingly heavy, and the rain descended in torrents. Among this party there were two or three English women, one of whom gave birth to twins on the line of march; she, however, received much humanity from the escort, and great kindness from the good people of Leiria; indeed, with the exception of the forced march, the captives fared considerably better than when at Oporto or in the Douro; their quarters were not certainly of the most comfortable description, varying occasionally from a flagged cell in the town jail, to the softest plank on a guard bed; however they received the same rations as the escort, who occasionally divided with them their tobacco and pay.

The treatment received on the route to Lisbon varied, but, upon all occasions, was better on the part of the troops of the line than that of the militia, and their situation was always made more comfortable when consigned to the charge of a subaltern, than under that of a non-commissioned officer. On arriving in Lisbon, the weary captives were first lodged in the "main-guard," whence they were removed in a few hours to the castle of St. George, where they received but very indifferent treatment. After about six weeks' incarceration, however, they were sent to their respective homes at the expense of Don Miguel's government, upon the condition that they did not again take up arms against his cause.

Shortly after the capture of the individuals above referred to, every description of craft quitted the Douro, except a few neglected and dismantled ships connected with the Brazilian trade, which repaired further up the river; and no other vessel, but such as bore the pennant of His Britannic Majesty, was to be seen in the waters of the Douro, nor did a single bark ripple its silver bosom, save and except some boat of the British squadron, duly displaying the union jack.

The rigid enforcement of the blockade much distressed the garrison and inhabitants of Oporto, and the commercial business of the city suffered materially from the disorganized state of public affairs, combined with the effects produced by the blockade of the port. Several of the partisans of Don Pedro at first imagined that Oporto was about to be besieged by a band of armed rabble, they however soon found out their mistake. The awful situation of the besieged now demanded every exertion on the part of the military and civil authorities within the leaguered city; councils of war were daily held, and the municipal functionaries assembled in committee; proclamations were enacting the heaviest and severest penalties on all merchants, tradesmen, and small vendors of comestibles, who should conceal their stock of provision for the purpose of enhancing its value; they were also prohibited from disposing of more than a limited quantity to any one individual, on pain of forfeiting their stock.

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Recourse was therefore obliged to be had to the condemned stores in the government granaries, thus damaged bachaloá and mouldy biscuit, in scanty proportions, became the ration for the troops, whilst the provender for the cattle had also been so reduced in quantity that the horses of the cavalry, the mules of the artillery, as likewise the oxen kept for the transport of the ordnance stores, were so out of working condition, that they could scarcely perform the most ordinary duties. All the hay, oats, barley, and wheat, brought to Oporto during the summer and autumn, was quite consumed; chopped straw, Indian corn, peas, beans, and acorns, as likewise various descriptions of vegetables, consequently became the general food for the four-footed portion of the animal fraternity within the leaguered city; but alas, these commodities quickly disappeared, when recourse was had to the leaves and bark of trees, and particles of the sugar cane which supported the vine. Straw latterly became so scarce that it was only occasionally to be had, and then in the smallest portions; indeed to such a state of semi-starvation were the various beasts of burthen reduced, that they resembled living skeletons*. Day after day the horrors of war increased, aud the fast approach of every description of privation stared the besieged full in the face.

MEMORANDUM.

Since writing the above chapter upon the subject of breaking the blockade of the river Douro, by the Lord of the Isles (merchant steamer), the narrator has seen the gallant officer who so dashingly accomplished that dangerous achievement, and who requests him to correct the error in Commander Glascock's (R.N.) official report of that affairt, in which it is stated, that the steamer in question displayed a British ensign and pennant at her mast-head; such Captain Massey declares not to have been the case, but, that the Lord of the Isles only showed a merchant's red ensign at the gaff, together with the usual signal for a pilot at the fore; consequently, the British pennant was not usurped by the vessel under his temporary guidance on the 7th December, 1832; he is, however, inclined to think that the display of the usual British colours alone enabled the steamer to enter the Douro; had he been guided by the opinion of the regular skipper of the Lord of the Isles, and thereby hoisted Portuguese or French colours, the vessel would have been sunk at the river mouth.

The English horses first lost their condition when deprived of their usual food, but the Portuguese and Flemish horses kept up their flesh almost to the latest period of the siege, upon nothing but straw.

† See Marshall's Naval Biography.

TWELVE MONTHS' SERVICE IN WESTERN AFRICA.

BY CAPTAIN L. SMYTH O'CONNOR, IST WEST INDIA REGIMENT.

CHAPTER I.

SIERRA LEONE-the bug-a-boo of Englishmen, the least sought after and least known of our colonies, the terror of insurance offices, the dernier ressort to get rid of and provide for the mauvais sujets of large families, and the last station for which soldiers volunteer to get a dose of glory, in olden times the El Dorado of reckless speculators, and the head-quarters of slave dealers, and in modern days charitably and cheeringly designated the White Man's Grave-was most unluckily established by the British Government in 1786, under the direction of Captain Tomson, of the Royal Navy. With some four hundred destitute negroes and sixty dissolute whites, he commenced to clear and cultivate a small portion of a fragment of country ceded by His sable Majesty, King Tom, for a consideration; in a short time, this embryo colony failed, and Mr. Thornton and Mr. Wilberforce undertook the project on a more liberal and widely extended scale, wisely considering that there was little use in abolishing the slave trade, without the natives were instructed in religion, and in the customs of civilized life. The gigantic mind and great experience of Wilberforce suggested a more judicious mode of action, and accordingly in 1792 a fresh body of colonists proceeded to Sierra Leone, an eligible site was speedily selected, from three to four hundred houses were erected, and a residence for a Governor commenced; scarcely had the seat for the representative of Royalty been completed, when a French fleet appeared in the harbour of the infant colony, and having disembarked a large body of troops one fine morning in 1794, they gallantly seized upon the deserted houses, appropriating to themselves what stores remained, and almost levelled everything with the ground. The British and African forces, such as they were, deeming "discretion to be the better part of valour," retreated to an island classically named Tasso, in the Ritomba river, where they lay snug and comfortable until the enemy withdrew, and then returned to their ruined habitations and plundered capital. Since this period the settlers have had no enemies to contend with, saving a pestilential climate, the regular periodical and unwelcome visits of endemics, and local differences of opinion.

To the Englishman the term "Africa" conjures up a vision of barren sands, burning suns, roaring lions, chains and slavery, and speculations in ivory and gold dust; but that peculiar portion of this vast continent called Sierra Leone, embodies in his mind, in addition to the above catalogue of agrémens, fevers, plagues, a country studded with graves, the bones of Europeans whitening the surface of the land, a spot where hope itself withers, and from whence there is no return, but should he ever be compelled by unforeseen circumstances, or tempted by amor nummi to visit the dreaded region, he will be, so far as relates to external appearances, most agreeably disappointed. As he approaches the shores of Western Africa, and nears the Ritomba river, on one side a promontory runs out to the north-east, covered with interminable forests, dense jungle, and the richest, rankest vegetation, lovely to behold, but pregnant