Talavera rendent nécessaire quelque mouvement de ce côtéci, plutôt qu'à l'heure ci-dessus indiquée, j'ordonnerai au Général Cotton de vous le communiquer tout de suite, et de prier le Général Loy de se porter sur Olivença par Valverde jusqu'à ce qu'il puisse recevoir les ordres de votre Excellence.

'Je resterai ici jusqu'à vers 2 heures de l'après midi; et j'irai d'ici au camp du Général Hill, où je resterai vers la nuit; et j'irai coucher à la Quinta de Granicha, de l'autre côté de la Guadiana.

J'ai fait marcher le Général Giron, sur Villa Real, près Jurumenha, ce matin; pour qu'il puisse être en mesure de se joindre avec vous sur la marche de demain.

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J'ai l'honneur d'être, &c.

'Le Capitaine Général

Don Joaquin Blake.'

• WELLINGTON.

MEMORANDUM

For Major Generals Campbell and Slade.

'Quinta de Granicha, 17th June, 1811, 6 A. M.

I wish the 6th division, and General Pack's brigade, to cross the Tagus to-morrow, the 18th instant, and to move to Niza, and next day, the 19th, to Portalegre.

If this order should reach the rear of these troops so late that they cannot reach Niza on the 18th, they must remain either on the Tagus on the left bank, or on the stream between the Niza and the Tagus, and march on the 19th to Alpalhão, and on the 20th to Portalegre.

I wish Major General Slade's brigade to march to-morrow, the 18th, to Sarnadas and neighborhood from Castello Branco, on the 19th to cross the Tagus and march to Niza, and on the 20th to march to Portalegre.

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When the troops cross at Villa Velha they must march on, each regiment of infantry, and each troop of cavalry, as soon as it shall have crossed, and not wait for the others.

Major General Campbell is requested to forward this memorandum to Brig. General Pack without loss of time. • WELLINGTON.'

To Captain General Don Joaquin Blake.

'Elvas, ce 17 Juin, 1811.

'MONSIEUR LE GÉNÉRAL, 'J'ai l'honneur de faire savoir à votre Excellence que les troupes sous mes ordres ont fait ce matin le mouvement indiqué dans la lettre que je vous ai écrite hier d'Albuera.

Je n'ai pas encore des nouvelles positives de l'ennemi. Il y a un bruit que le Général Regnier s'est porté sur Medellin au lieu de sur Merida. Une grande partie de la force ennemie a passé le Tage; et toutes leurs troupes sont en mouvement sur Almaraz, selon les nouvelles que j'ai reçues dans la nuit, de Coria, du 15.

'J'ose recommander à votre Excellence de continuer votre marche demain pour arriver bien vite en Andalousie. L'ennemi ne s'attendra pas à ce mouvement; et il est probable qu'il n'en apprendra rien de quelques jours, pendant lesquels vous pourrez avoir le tems de faire un beaucoup. 'J'ai l'honneur d'être, &c.

'Le Capitaine Général Don Joaquin Blake.'

To Lieut. General Sir Brent Spencer, K.B.

MY DEAR SPENCER,

'Quinta de Granicha, 17th June, 1811. I send with this orders addressed to Major General Campbell and General Pack, to march to Niza to-morrow, the 18th, and to Portalegre the 19th; and to Major General Slade to march to Sarnadas the 18th, to Niza the 19th, and to Portalegre the 20th. It is important that these orders should reach them without loss of time, and I shall be obliged to you if you will send them copies of this letter by an Officer, besides my memorandum addressed to each by the guide, who must not be delayed a moment.

'Lieut. General

Believe me, &c.

• WELLINGTON.

Sir B. Spencer, K.B.'

To Marshal Sir W. C. Beresford, K.B,

'MY DEAR Beresford, Elvas, 17th June, 1811, 8 P. M. Campo Mayor must of course at present be supplied from hence; and, as that place is in the first instance of primary importance, I have desired Mr. Kennedy to settle

with the Superintendent of Viveres, to send there to-morrow morning 20,000 rations, which will last the garrison about a month, which is all we want of them. 14,000 rations were sent to Jurumenha this afternoon at 4 o'clock upon forty mules; and if you will let Mr. Kennedy know immediately what ammunition you wish to have back, he will bring it back upon these mules as far as they will go. Our ammunition has already been brought here, I understand from Colonel Framingham.

In respect to the wounded of the French army, I know nothing of them, as General Leite and the Portuguese departments have had charge of them from the beginning: but if we should receive any distinct account of the numbers which require carriages, and what can walk, I have no doubt but that we shall be able to remove the whole.

Elvas, 17th June, 1811.

MY DEAR SIR, I am much obliged to you for your two letters of the 15th, which I just received.

General Blake marches from Jurumenha to-morrow, and will arrive at Mertola on the 22d or 23d. He passes by Beja, where he will be on the 20th or 21st, and you will do well to communicate with him at that place.

Believe me, &c.

"WELLINGTON.

In the course of the last three months, the British army have had but few men less than 7000 wounded in the service of Portugal; and the hardships and fatigues of the service, and the season, must, of course, have occasioned some sick

ness.

I have frequently endeavored to prevail upon the Portuguese Government to allow us to establish the British hospitals in the rope walk at Belem, of which no use can, at present, or indeed ought to be made; and I find that the

convents, &c., which were used as hospitals at Lisbon by the British army heretofore, are now applied to other purposes, and all accommodation of this description is now refused.

I beg you will do me the favor to lay this letter before the Portuguese Government, and to obtain for me a decided answer, by return of post, whether they will or not supply any and what accommodation, at Lisbon, for the British soldiers wounded in fighting the battles of Portugal.

• If I should find the Government still disinclined to attend to my requests upon this subject, I propose to send an Officer express to England to apprise His Royal Highness the Prince Regent and his Ministers of this extraordinary circumstance, and I request to hear from you as soon as possible.

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His Excellency
Charles Stuart.'

MY DEAR SIR,

I have the honor to be, &c.

'WELLINGTON.

To His Excellency Charles Stuart.

'Elvas, 17th June, 1811. I have received your letters of the 12th, 13th, and 15th; but as I have been forward with the troops for some days, I have not been able to send you answers as regularly as I ought.

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I do not recollect to have written to you upon the subject of hay in Lower Beira. If I should want any article of that description, and money is to be laid out in the previous collection of it for a magazine for the British army, I shall employ a British Commissary on the service, as I know from experience what a very good thing it is to give money to have a magazine collected for the British army by the Portuguese. We can scarcely keep them out of the magazines we collect for ourselves, and we should scarcely get into one which they should collect for us.

'I shall send Dr. Somers' memorial home.

If it was not a matter of most serious importance, which may go not only to the safety of the army, but to the fate of the whole cause, I should be highly diverted by the bustle occasioned at Lisbon by the danger of Elvas. All of a sudden the utmost activity prevails, and all means are set at work, to relieve distress which ought never to have existed,

if common precautions had been taken, or if any measures had been adopted to feed General Hamilton's division, excepting to throw their consumption upon the magazines of the fortress. After all, this bustle will produce nothing in time; and if I cannot get up a sufficient supply from our magazines, I shall be obliged to fight a battle to save this place against the whole force of Andalusia, Castille, and the centre of Spain, with diminished force on my side. The enemy will be one fourth stronger than us in every arm, nearly double in cavalry, and we shall not have in the action 14,000 Portuguese troops!!

Under these circumstances I should, and shall, avoid a general action if I can; but I must put a countenance upon the state of affairs, and matters must be risked till provisions be placed in Elvas.

The Portuguese Government may depend upon my bringing this subject under the distinct consideration of the Regent's Ministers. I have long determined that I will have no discussion with them upon any subject; but I shall report the consequences of their conduct to my own Government, and leave to them to determine what shall be done. I conclude, however, that Lord Wellesley will think it necessary that our Regent should explain himself clearly to the Regent of Portugal on these subjects.

I have no objection to agricultural cattle being purchased and distributed to the districts that require them, provided the money which is to purchase them is not to come out of the military chest. I give the same answer about pipes.

I also beg that whatever is thus given in charity may be given on the ground of the wants of the several districts, and by no means in reference to the wants of the means of transport for the military operations. The Government have it in their power to collect those means of transport whenever we may require them, and ought to do their duty; and I do not think that the charity of the people of England ought to be laid out to aid in the operations of the war, or to save the Government the trouble of forcing those parts of the people who have not suffered to do their duty by their country.

The quantity of 24 pound shot, we understand, that could be sent from Lisbon, was 480, which we fired in about two hours!!! I never heard there were any at Estremoz. This