370 MISSION TO PORTUGAL. [1806. 



" Have you no bowels of compassion for me in this 

 place 1 I am beginning my sixth week, and Burg- 

 hersh is still here. 



"The packets are strangely irregular. We have 

 vessels from Falmouth and Cork in very short pas- 

 sages ; and no packet since the one that sailed the 



O 3 1. 



18th, though three, if not four, must have been due the 

 week before last. They should always keep a look- 

 out after our agent there, and the captains. I have the 

 clearest proofs that the man who arrived with last 

 despatches lost nearly a fortnight by waiting three 

 whole days after his time in order to get his smug- 

 gling goods, and then the wind changed. I think it 

 rather hard that ministers at home, and we poor 

 people here, should fag hard to get things ready, and 

 then such delays should be occasioned by a rascally 

 captain of a packet. The agent at Falmouth will 

 positively never interfere until Government gives 

 him a hint. If such abuses can't be prevented, the 

 despatches of importance must be sent by cutter. 

 Indeed the swarm of large Spanish privateers lately 

 gone to sea renders this advisable at any rate. Will 

 you do two empenhas for me ? One is to give me a 

 few lines of introduction to some of your Portuguese 

 or foreign friends here, for I know nobody, not even 

 the nuncio, and Strangford never has introduced 

 either Burghersh or myself to any of them, notwith- 

 standing his intimacy with both of us. Of course I 

 only give you this empenho in the unfortunate event 

 of my remaining here. 



