SWABEY DIARY. 93 
Cuavter III. 
Change of Quarters. Life at Salgueiro. A Visit to “I” Troop, 
the Light Division and “A” Troop. 
9th October.—Captain Macdonald having gained permission to 
change our quarters anywhere within the limit of the division, I was 
sent out on a two days excursion to find a fit place for the purpose, 
but was fortunate enough to find Salgueiro half a league! from Val de 
Lobo well stocked with straw and hay, and in three villages that I 
searched contiguous to that place there is sufficient of it for two 
months consumption. I therefore returned the same day in time for 
dinner. 
10th October.—Employed myself in writing up my journal and set- 
tling accounts, as well as arranging my writing-desk, an employment 
of great importance. 
11th October.—Captain Lefebure? and Assistant-Surgeon Ambrose® 
came to visit us, and stayed dinner. A report is very prevalent to-day 
that we shall all be employed in the Alemtejo, * though all operations 
seem to be suspended for the present. We have great apprehensions 
of sickness in this quarter. 
12th October.—Rather troubled with a headache, which was not 
decreased by idleness. I may however say that a conversation with a 
French enigré who passed through was not disadvantageous to me, 
many of these are employed in the commissariat department, and in 
confidential situations ; this man had in charge the military chest. 
N.B.—Apropos of Captain Lefebure, remember in coming into action, 
when cayalry is likely to come up unperceived, not to let the limbers 
of the guns turn or drive farther from the trail than to admit of the 
guns being worked without the handspike. 
13th October.—Being Sunday, part of the service was read at the 
Park. 
14th October.—Being on duty, commenced by reading the funeral 
service over a driver, William Weeks, who died of dysentery after a 
lingering illness. We are obliged to bury in the fields, for the Roman 
Catholics do not permit heretics to mingle their dust with their own 
more sacred remains. ‘The Portuguese method of interment is dis- 
gusting, the corpse is buried without a coffin, and having stripped it of 
its clothing, they then stamp on it in the most indecent manner that 
can be imagined. Funerals are familiar objects in these climes; the 
1A Portuguese league = 3°84 English miles. 
? Captain George Lefebure (Kane’s List, No. 867) served in the campaign in Flanders in 1792-4. 
In the Peninsula from 1810 to 1812, he was present at the battle of Albuera, affairs at Usagre, 
Aldea de Ponte, Ribera, and many minor combats. He died on October 22nd, 1812, at Madrid. 
3 Assistant-Surgeon James Ambrose (Kane’s List, No. 116) served with “D”’ Troop throughout 
the warin the Peninsula. He was with it in the Waterloo campaign, and in the Army of Occupa- 
tion in France. : ; 
* Alemtejo or Alentejo (beyond the Tagus), the largest and most populous province in Portugal. 
