86 SWABEY DIARY. 
Forage is served out in straw, Indian corn, oats, barley, and even 
rye. Spirits, wine, beef, biscuit, bread or flour, sometimes rice, and 
occasionally a proportion of salt, are delivered to the troops. I have 
generally drawn the provisions and forage ; the Portuguese commonly 
preside at the minor stores, and are rigorously exact in weight, measure, 
&c., and will cheat youif they can. I found much difficulty in compre- 
hending their weights and measures. 
“Portugal owes much to its poverty. The impossibility of sub- 
sisting a large army for a length of time on the resources of any 
limited portion of it formed the pivot on which the military 
operations for its defence invariably turned. ‘The French were 
at no time sufficiently masters of the country to establish maga- 
zines ; but subsisted on the daily contributions they levied, and 
never therefore could remain long united in a large body. The 
British and Portuguese, on the contrary, had their floating maga- 
zines on the T'agus and on the Douro, everything was drawn 
from theirrear; and provided theline of supply wasnot materially 
lengthened, so as to require a great increase of animals which 
brought up the provisions, they could act as well in one part of 
the country as another, and for any length of time. The enemy 
during the whole of 1811, possessed a great numerical superi- 
ority, and could alone have been prevented deriving some 
advantage therefrom, by every movement of the allies being 
conducted with a happy reference to the difference of the com- 
missariat of the two armies.” “ War in Spain and Portugal,” 
by Lieut.-Col. J. T. Jones, R.E., p. 216. 
This night we slept, for the first time, under canvas, in which I found 
no hardship. Our dinner was spread on a tarpaulin, and but for the 
faces of friends that should have sat round it, I could have despised the 
wish for mahogany claws. I bathed in the Tagus, the current is ex- 
(CENSORS eam ey as ed ae aun, eo ens Mee ee eae NC a a | 3 
20th September.—Was employed the whole day in drawing corn and 
provisions for three days, during which occupation I was witness of a 
circumstance which might have been of serious consequence. A soldier 
of the 47th regiment, who was left with some meat that had been drawn, 
was attacked and overpowered by some hungry Portuguese. What 
was the origin of the quarrel I never could discover, but multitudes 
had the man down and were stoning him, when two or three of his 
comrades came to his rescue, and soon chased away the Portuguese, 
‘some of whom got most heartily drubbed with no other instruments 
however than fists; being in sight, I ran up with all possible speed to 
prevent a disturbance, and got to the butcher’s shop just in time to 
overturn a Portuguese in the act of priming his musket to take revenge 
for the licking he had received, and on my walking out with it in my 
hand, the people soon dispersed, for they have great respect for an 
officer ; though at Abrantes we seem to be less popular than where we 
have been before. 
This night whilst we were all snug in our tent, and the men under 
the guns, there came on what is called a “ Portuguese shower,” 
