38 SWABEY DIARY. 
IME vd ay) SS, 
Cuaprter I. 
Voyage to Portugal. Sacavem. Some account of Lisbon. Changes in 
troop equipment. 
July 27th, 1811.—Having been on board the Benjamin and Mary, 
transport “ K.I.,”1 since July the 38rd, we sailed from Stokes Bay under 
convoy of the Mercur y, Captain Tancock, and the Hawke, brig, Hon?! 
Captain Gordon, but our wind failing us we came to ananchor in Yar- 
mouth Roads, much to our disappointment. As we lay here the beauty 
of the coast of the Isle of Wight and of Hampshire, might have pleased 
the imagination at any other time, but served now only to remind us of 
the happy scenes we had left, a thought which not all the air y dreams 
of glory could extinguish. 
28th July.—Passed without any of ‘ihe ceremonies ae Telieions The 
cruelty of the foul wind still occupied our thoughts, and the surrounding 
scenes, with the ball-room at Lymington, so often the scene of eae 
actually in view, awakened the same ideas as yesterday. 
29th July.—Weighed anchor in company with the Quebec and West 
India convoy with a fair wind. Passed through the Needles with eyes 
fixed for a last view on the various well-known spots of Christchurch 
and its vicinity, where lived those particular friends whose society had 
always so great a charm for me, and the remembrance of past pleasant 
days formed a melancholy barrier against the high spirits I might 
otherwise have felt at the prospect of a favourable passage. 0 
30th July.—We found in the morning that our progress during the 
night had been rapid, and we now saw the coast of Devonshire, at too 
great a distance, however, to discern its romantic beauties. ‘Towards 
mid-day our wind failed, and left us to the tossing of the waves, many 
of the people in consequence of the motion were sick. If this is 
* soothing with its lullaby,” I hope lullaby will be good enough to leave 
me to the chance of my own slumbers. I, however, felt no inclination 
to be sick. Towards night the breeze, still fair, freshened, and we saw 
the last of England. I should not omit that I hemmed the whole side 
of a silk handkerchief to-day, and that we dined off two mackerel that 
we had previously caught with our lines. 
31st July.—We had a fair breeze during the aight Bat fe dle again 
saw us becalmed with the same swell as yesterday acting as a 
stomachic. I begun now to regret that my stock of books was gone 
1 Compared with the merchant vessel of the present day, ships of this period were very small. 
*¢ Those trading ’’ between Great Britain and the United States averaged from 200 to 250 tons ; 
those to the West Indies and the Baltic about 250; to Germany, to Italy, and the Western Medi- 
terranean, 150 ; to the Levant, 250 to 300, with some of 500 tons. The Hast India Company’s 
ships were larger, © averaging 500 tons 3” (Mahan, “ Influence of Sea Power, 1793 to 1812,”’ page 
225, Vol. 11). Transports for carrying troops on the expeditions at the beginning of the century 
were of the former class, usually under 250 tons, and consequently very numerous. In the official 
lists they were always quoted with their tonnage, ads so to avoid confusion, were mostly distin- 
guished by letters in preference to numbers.—F'.A 
