IV 



My Log 375 



are excellent and cheap. I have a feeling that if 

 I were to go to Cintra again I should like it, 

 particularly if I went in the spring ; but even then 

 the view can be nothing worth except for its 

 extent, and the excellent idea it gives one of what 

 these mysterious lines of Torres Vedras were. 

 From what I can make out they seem to have 

 consisted of a vast semicircle, one end resting on 

 the sea, and the other somewhere else, the Tagus 

 perhaps, with deep and steep ravines forming 

 natural ditches, and numbers of montecules or 

 little hills admirably adapted for permitting big 

 guns to have a good look over the country. 



Turned out in the dark at half-past four to go a 

 snipe-shooting. Decks covered with water ; men 

 swishing and swashing and brooming about by the 

 light of dips and lanthorns ; midshipman of the watch 

 paddling about without shoes or stockings, and his 

 trousers tucked up to his knees. 



Wandering and stumbling about disconsolately in 

 the dark, I stumbled on the first lieutenant, who 

 proposed hot cocoa out of the ship's coppers and 

 ship's bread, most gratefully accepted. What 

 admirable tackle for those who rise up early in the 

 morning and have work before them ; and such a 

 lot of it, — no nonsensical cups, but a mighty jug ! 

 At six o'clock appeared Jack Fish, boatman of the 

 Portuguese nation, much patronised by the midship- 

 men because he stuck another Portuguese, as the 

 easiest way of deciding who was to carry a member 



