444. 

 MILITARY TOPOGRAPHY OF OPORTO. 



Posto fora de Brazil vem Pedro avantureiro 

 A roubar-nos, com estrangeiros sem pao e denheiro 

 Mas logo Mostraremos a este ex Emperador de Maucacos 

 Que poco caso fazemos d'elle et dos seus Polacos. 

 Marchamos Luzitanos e no campo da gloria 

 Vengaremos, o altar, o trono, e a patna, 

 A devisa nossa es esta Morra infame Pedro 

 E vera el Hey Senhor Don Miguel primeiro. 



Miguelite War Song. 



THE City of Oporto, upon which the eyes of all Europe are at pre- 

 sent fixed, is situated near the mouth of the river Douro, and contains 

 about seventy thousand inhabitants. It is built on the declivity of a 

 mountain, the height of which is from thirty-five to forty toises, and 

 occupies the inclined plane that extends from the summit to the very 

 edge of the water. The Douro is both deep and rapid, and about 

 three hundred yards wide; a bridge of boats connect it with the 

 suburb of Villa Nova. The city, from its locale, is extremely narrow. 

 A convent (de Terra), which commands the Faubourg and the city, 

 occupies a mountain equal in height to that on which Oporto is 

 built. Three routes branch off from the city : one northwards, to 

 Broja ; a second to Amarante, eastwards ; and the third to the south- 

 ward, through Coimbra, to the capital. All these are bad, hilly and 

 rocky, and unfavourable to the evolutions of cavalry and artillery. 



Oporto is undefended on the north and east sides. On the south 

 it is covered by the Douro, and on the west by the ocean and by 

 the forts constructed at the mouth of the river. In 1809, the Por- 

 tuguese endeavoured to defend the city against the advance of Soult 

 and his army : for this purpose they threw up a line of entrench- 

 ments, and redoubts placed upon a chain of rounded hills, on the 

 north side, and when the hills failed, the defences were continued 

 by earthen ramparts, loop-holed houses, and felled trees. This line 

 rested on the right on the Seminario, and was carried over the crest of 

 the mountain to the mouth of the river on the left. 



The Portuguese, led by their bishop, had collected in this entrenched 

 camp upwards of forty thousand men, among whom were many regular 

 troops. The French, however, carried the place, with immense loss to 

 the defenders. Soult having, on the evening of the 28th of March, 

 discovered, by a feint attack, the weakest part of the Portuguese posi- 

 tion, boldly resolved to attack the strongest point, force his way through 

 the city, and seize the bridge, in order to secure the passage of the 

 river. Dividing his army into three columns, he commenced the attack 

 by the wings, reserving his centre until the enemy, believing the whole 

 attack was developed, had weakened their own centre to strengthen 

 their flanks. Then the French, held in reserve, stormed the entrench- 

 ments and the two principal forts. The Portuguese army thus cut in 

 two, the French carried in succession nearly all the forts, and drove the 

 enemy back on the city with great slaughter. The victory was certain, 

 but the battle continued within the town ; for two battalions having 

 burst the barricades at the entrance of the streets, had penetrated to 



