SWABEY DIARY. 87 
Anglice, such a storm for eight hours as never was witnessed by 
Englishman before. The tent did not kecp it out half-an-hour, but I 
threw my tarpaulin over me and defied the storm. I was dressed be- 
fore daylight, and when the “‘turn-out” sounded, was soon half drowned 
in getting the troop harnessed. ‘I'he few men who had pulled off their 
boots and set them upright were fair subjects for laughter, except that 
it was too serious a matter for joking, for when they tried to pull them 
on in the dark, they were astonished to find them full of water. We 
left at the general hospital at this place 11 sick. 
21st September.—The morning turned out delightful after the rain, 
and the novelty of the scene in the altered face of the country almost 
made us forget the drowning of the night before. We now passed over 
hills and by the sides of mountains covered with arbutus and myrtle, 
beautiful heaths and other shrubs whose names, except the Hstava, I 
did not know. 
To my great mortification one of my troop horses died to-day, and 
one of Newland’s likewise on the 19th. Last night’s drenching made 
a strange alteration in our horses, but did not affect the men so much 
as I expected. At Gaviaio the troop was again picketed, and we con- 
sumed the last of the hay we drew at Abrantes. 
22nd September.—I was sent on this morning through the most 
barren, neglected district that was ever beheld. The country had a 
very strange appearance in consequence of the immense blue rocks of 
stone that were everywhere to be seen ; on these stones instead of in 
barns, the people beat out the grain from their fields, and cover it up 
with straw. When I got to Nisa, which stands high, I found our Irish 
friends again in the way, and we were once more to be on the ground. 
No forage was to be procured here, but I went out in the midst of a heavy 
rain, and discovered hid in a valley enough for four days’ consumption, 
and loaded every horse. 
Nisa is an archiepiscopal city, and its convents have been grand, but 
the iron hand of war has here left its marks in the form of ruin, poverty, 
sickness, and desolation. F 
23rd September.—Still at Nisa pene ae if Hee to he the 
Dragoon Guards, but as they marched by squadrons this plan became 
abortive. 
Maxwell was here with us, but preferred his billet, having obtained 
covering for his small number of men; our protection was the shade of 
cork trees which grow like oaks, and much resemble them, the bark 
can be pared without injury to the tree. 
24th September.—This day’s march was by far the worst we had 
encountered, the mountains we had to cross, and the sudden ascents 
and sharp turnings in coming down the hills required much labour and 
perseverance on the part of both horses and men. I was waiting as 
usual to bring up the rear, and had much to encounter. The wildness 
of the scenery y here is beyond description, so grand and mountainous, but 
between the heights the valleys though uncultivated, are luxurious in 
their way. Harly in the morning the mountain peaks are only to be 
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