282 INCAPACITY. 



appearance of the men, or the hearty vo- 

 ciferation of our cheers. Transports and 

 men-of-war were at Spithead to receive 

 them, and I believe a finer or a larger 

 armament never left the shores of Britain 

 prior to that time. In the Downs they 

 were joined by the remainder of the ex- 

 pedition, under the Earl of Chatham, 

 General Commander-in-Chief, and sailed 

 away towards the point of their destina- 

 tion. 



The result of that unfortunate expedi- 

 tion is too well known for me to dilate 

 upon : that fine army, a great portion of 

 which 1 had but a short time be- 

 fore almost daily visited in camp, was 

 suffered, either from the incapa- 

 city of their general, or some egre- 

 gious blunder, to become, from inactivity, 

 the victims of the pestilential swamps of 

 the Scheldt. When the veteran com- 

 mander of the naval part of the expedi- 

 tion, Sir Richard J. Strachan, was asked, 



