SWABEY DIARY. 85 
Lisbon. When we got to Punhete, I was ordered on to Abrantes to 
prepare for our arrival there. 
“The march from Abrantes to Castello Branco is over difficult 
mountains; to have repaired the roads between these places 
would have been more useful to the enemy than to the allies, as 
facilitating a passage for superior numbers to penetrate by the 
shortest line to Lisbon. But Lord Wellington, after throwing 
boat-bridges over the Zezere [at Punhete] and the Tagus and 
fortifying Abrantes, established between the latter and Castello 
Branco a line of communication by the left bank of the Tagus, 
through Nisa, to the pass of Villa Velha, where, by a flying 
bridge, the river was re-crossed, and from thence a good road led 
to Castello Branco. Now the pass of Villa Velha is prodigi- 
ously strong for defence, and the distance from Abrantes to 
Castello Branco being nearly the same by Nisa as by the other 
bank of the river, the march of troops was yet much acceler- 
ated, the road near Villa Velha being reconstructed by the 
Engineers.” Napier, Vol. III., p. 263.—See Map I. 
This trip on a hot day, with the thermometer at 90°, I did not 
admire. I did not arrive at Abrantes till it was nearly dark, Taylor 
and Maxwell in company; our billet was drawn from the English Com- 
mandant, nor was I ever in a dirtier hole! We all slept in a room 
10 feet square, filthy in the extreme. I proposed in preference taking 
shelter under the canopy of Heaven in the fields, but could not carry 
my point. 
19th September.—Was up early in the morning to draw provisions, 
&c. for the troop. We were obliged on their arrival to have them 
picketed, the stabling being occupied by the R.I.D.G.! Abranteg has 
a castle of no consequence, but if its bridge of boats were removed, the 
passage of the T’agus would be stopped. 
Here is the grand depot of the army, and the mirror in which the 
Commissariat department may be seen.” All the stores are forwarded 
to the army by mules, which are pressed and become regularly the pro- 
perty of Government. The pay for a mule which carries about 320]bs. 
of corn, or 28 gallons of wine or spirits in casks, or 280 lbs. of 
biscuits is one dollar per diem. To keep up the communication with 
the army many thousands of mules are employed. The owners take 
them in charge, and receive, besides the pay per mule, 18 dollars a 
month for themselves. A sub-commissary is generally attached to each 
regiment, who collects what supplies he can from the district he is in, 
and there are flying magazines at the head-quarters of divisions, &c., 
and stationary ones on the routes from Lisbon, &c. Commanding 
Officers of cavalry send detachments over the country for forage, and 
the receipt is given on the regimental, district, or divisional Commis- 
Sary, as it may happen to be. 
1 The 4th, or Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. 
2 Lord Wellington’s experience of supplying the troops by means of the Brinjarries during his 
Indian campaigns in the Deccan, no doubt stood him in good stead in organizing his commissariat 
supply and transport in the Peninsula. See his memo. on the subject of this Indian system of 
transport and supply. ‘‘ Wellington Despatches,” Vol. III., p, 535. 
