the road that leads to Cape Town, and, having ascended the summit of the Blaw-berg or Blue mountain, and dislodged a party of the enemy's light troops there stationed, discovered the Dutch main body, supposed to consist of about 5000 men, chiefly cavalry, with 23 pieces of cannon, under the command of Lieutenant-general Janssens. These, after giving and returning a few rounds of cannon and musketry, retired from before the British bayonet; suffering a loss in killed and wounded, as represented, of 700 men, while the loss on the part of the British amounted to no more than 15 killed, 189 wounded, and eight missing.

On the 9th General Baird reached Salt river, where he proposed encamping to await the arrival of his battering-train; but a flag of truce arriving from the commanding officer of the town with offers to capitulate, the British troops, as agreed upon, took possession of Fort Knocke. On the following morning, the 10th, articles of capitulation were signed, in due form, by Lieutenant-colonel Van Prophalow on the part of the Dutch, and by the general and commodore on the part of the British; and on the 12th the latter took possession of Cape Town and its dependencies, on the several batteries of which were mounted 113 pieces of brass, and 343 pieces of iron ordnance. General Janssens, who after the battle of the 8th had retired to Hottentot Holland's Kloof, a pass leading to the district of Zwellendam, was at length induced to surrender upon terms, by which the conquest of the colony was completed, and its internal tranquillity secured; the British agreeing that the Dutch general and his army should not be considered as prisoners of war, and should be conveyed to Holland at the former's expense.

As is customary in combined operations of the army and navy, a detachment of seamen and marines, under the appropriate designation of marine battalion, served on shore. The hardy seamen rendered themselves particularly useful in forwarding the supplies, and would have been still more so had the batteringtrain accompanied the troops. The whole force thus employed was commanded by Captain Byng; who had under him Captain George Nicholas Hardinge, a passenger on board the Belliqueux, on his way to join his ship, the new teak-built 36-gun frigate Salsette, and Lieutenants "Pigot, Graham, Sutherland, Mingay, and Pearce." Among those who rendered themselves extremely

1 When to the omission of the Christian names, is added that of the ship to which

the officer belongs, it is next to impossible to supply the deficiency.

useful in the operations going on, were the following captains of the Honourable Company's ships: William Edmeades, of the William Pitt, John Cameron, of the Duchess of Gordon, Henry Christopher, of the Sir William Pulteney, and James Moring, of the Comet.

On the 4th of March the French 40-gun frigate Volontaire, Captain Bretel, whom we have already mentioned as one of the squadron of Rear-admiral Willaumez, on its way to the Cape,1 deceived by the Dutch colours on the forts and shipping, entered Table bay, and was captured by the British squadron, to the great joy of the 217 men of the Queen's and 54th regiments, whom the frigate had on board as prisoners. The Volontaire, a fine frigate of 1084 tons, was immediately added to the British navy by the same name.

Having, between the 9th and 13th of April, been informed by, among others, the master of an American merchant-vessel, that the inhabitants of Monte Video and Buenos Ayres were "so ridden by their government" that they would offer no resistance to a British army, Commodore Sir Home Popham took upon himself, with the concurrence of Major-general Sir David Baird, to plan an expedition against those places. On that or the following day Sir Home, with the Diadem, Raisonable, Diomede, Narcissus, and Encounter, vessels of war, and five sail of transports, having on board the 71st regiment, a small detachment of artillery, and a few dismounted dragoons, under the command of Major-general Beresford, set sail from Table bay. On the 20th the squadron bore away for St. Helena, and, upon arriving there, received on board a detachment of troops and artillery amounting to 286 officers and men; making the whole force of regulars embarked about 1200, including officers of every description. On the 2nd of May the expedition quitted St. Helena, and on the 27th, being anxious to obtain the earliest local information, Sir Home sailed for Rio de la Plata, in the Narcissus, leaving the squadron and transports in charge of Captain Rowley of the Raisonable. On the 8th of June the Narcissus anchored near the island of Flores, and on the 13th was joined by the Raisonable and squadron.

It being deemed preferable, after a consultation between the two chiefs, to make the first attempt upon Buenos Ayres, the marine battalion, consisting, including officers, of 340 marines and 100 seamen, under the command of Captain William King, of the Diadem (who had succeeded Captain Downman, sent 1 See p. 90.

home with despatches announcing the surrender of the Cape), was placed on board the Narcissus and Encounter. On the 16th these vessels, with the transports and troops, moved up the river; while the Diadem blockaded the port of Monte Video, and the Raisonable and Diomede, by way of demonstration, cruised near Maldonado and other assailable points in that vicinity. Owing to adverse winds and currents, the foggy state of the weather, and the intricacy of the navigation, it was not until the afternoon of the 25th that the Narcissus and transports anchored off Point Quelmey à Pouichin, about 12 miles from Buenos Ayres, and not more than 90 from the spot they had quitted nine days before. No opposition being offered, the British troops, numbering, with the marine battalion, about 1630 men, in the course of the evening and night of the 25th, effected a landing without the slightest casualty.

On the morning of the 26th a body of Spaniards, estimated at 2000 men, were discovered posted on the brow of a hill about two miles from the beach. These were attacked, and after a slight skirmish, driven from their position by the British, with a loss to the latter of only one killed, 12 wounded, and one. missing. The British then hastened on to prevent the destruction of the bridge over the Rio Chuelo, a river about eight miles from the scene of action and three from Buenos Ayres. The troops arrived too late; but on the following day, the 27th, succeeded in passing the river by boats and rafts, prepared chiefly by the seamen, under the direction of Captain King. Majorgeneral Beresford then summoned Buenos Ayres to surrender on a capitulation, and, while the articles were preparing, took quiet possession of that city, the viceroy and his troops having previously fled to Cordova. On the 2nd of July the capitulation was signed, and that upon terms highly favourable to the inhabitants. The quantity of specie captured in the place, and which was afterwards embarked on board the Narcissus frigate to be conveyed to England, amounted to 1,086,208 dollars.

The marine battalion, whose services were highly and justly extolled by the major-general, having re-embarked on board the squadron, the troops alone remained in the town of Buenos Ayres. For a while all seemed quiet; but at length the Spaniards, recovering from their panic, saw by what a handful of men they had been dispossessed of their town and its treasures. On the 31st of July Sir Home became apprised, by a despatch from the major-general, that an insurrection was forming in the city. On the 4th of August M. Liniers, a French

colonel in the Spanish service, crossed the Rio de la Plata in a fog, unobserved by the British cruisers, and landed at Conchas, above Buenos Ayres, bringing with him about 1000 men from Monte Video and Lacramento. On the 10th the insurrection burst forth; and on the 12th Major-general Beresford and his troops, after an action in which they lost 48 officers and men killed, 107 wounded, and 10 missing, were compelled to surrender; but owing to the firmness of the major-general, on terms highly favourable to the prisoners, in number about 1300. The loss on the part of the Spaniards, who are represented to have assembled in the city nearly 10,000 men, was stated at 700 in killed and wounded.

Commodore Sir Home Popham, with the squadron, remained at anchor at the entrance of the river, blockading the port, until, by the arrival of reinforcements on the 5th and 12th of October, he was enabled to recommence offensive operations. Sir Home's first attempt was upon Monte Video; but, finding the water too shallow to admit the ships to approach near enough to batter the walls with effect, the commodore, on the 28th, retired, with the intention of possessing himself of the harbour of Maldonado, formed by the island of Goretti, a strong place, defended by a battery of twenty 24-pounders. On the 29th the frigates of the squadron anchored in the harbour, and disembarked, without opposition, a detachment of troops (including sailors and marines about 1000 strong), under Brigadier-general Backhouse. Having, after a slight skirmish, obtained possession of the village of Maldonado, the commodore, on the 30th, summoned Goretti to surrender, which it immediately did; and thus matters remained in the Rio de la Plata at the close of the year 1806.

In the failure of the expedition to Buenos Ayres, not the slightest imputation attaches to the soldiers or seamen engaged in it: they had done full as much as could be expected from so small a number of men. The error lay in trusting to information, which, besides its glaring improbability, was derived from such a source as the master of an American vessel. Stories about disaffected inhabitants, and their readiness to receive foreign aid, ought always to be listened to with suspicion. They are generally traps to catch the credulous, and, when baited with mines of gold and silver, seldom fail in accomplishing their object. This was not the only score upon which Sir Home Popham was in fault. The lords of the admiralty tried him for quitting his station without orders; and a court-martial,

which sat on board the Gladiator at Portsmouth, from the 6th to the 11th of March, 1807, pronounced upon him the following sentence: "The court has agreed that the charges have been proved against the said Captain Sir Home Popham. That the withdrawing, without orders so to do, the whole of any naval force from the place where it is directed to be employed, and the employing it in distant operations against the enemy, more especially if the success of such operations should be likely to prevent its speedy return, may be attended with the most serious inconvenience to the public service, as the success of any plan formed by his majesty's ministers for operations against the enemy, in which such naval force might be included, may by such removal be entirely prevented. And the court has further agreed, that the conduct of the said Captain Sir Home Popham, in the withdrawing the whole of the naval force under his command from the Cape of Good Hope, and the proceeding with it to Rio de la Plata, is highly censurable; but, in consideration of circumstances, doth adjudge him to be only severely reprimanded, and he is hereby severely reprimanded accordingly."