598 SWABEY DIARY. 
51st May.—The army assembled at day-light on the banks of the river 
to pass the ford of Abnendra; having the day before seen the enemy’s 
vedettes on the opposite side, opposition was expected. Arrange- 
ments were therefore made to force the way over; whether the enemy 
had intended to dispute the passage of the Hsla I know not, but of 
this I am certain, that they deemed the ford of Abnendra imprac- 
ticable, not only from its depth, the rapidity of the current, and the 
badness of the bottom, but from its being commanded by heights on 
which a few guns placed would effectually stop a whole army. The 
passage being up the stream and very broad each individual would be 
at least a quarter of an hour passing. The advance, consisting of the 
Slst light infantry regiment and the brigade of hussars, dashed in 
and got over with the loss of a few drowned. By their rapidity the 
picket of cavalry, which was all the force the enemy had, were taken 
prisoners, as it was never conceived that such an attempt would be made. 
It soon became our turn to pass. I never saw anything so truly 
dangerous; we did indeed by great care get over safely with the 
exception of one of Newland’s baggage-mules which was carried off 
its legs down the stream and shamefully abandoned by his servant. 
At last it was brought up against an island, and seeing nobody would 
start I swam my horse there, and landing was enabled to hold the 
animal till some of the men took courage, came and finally rescued his 
things. We marched to Val de Perdices where for the first time we 
encamped, took off our harness and turned out our horses to graze. 
They were scarcely loose when an alarm of two regiments of the 
enemy’s cavalry being given, we had to harness and turn out. It was 
a beautiful scramble. 
Ist June.—We crawled along the road with our infantry division 
lamenting our bad success in not being able to leave it till we got to 
the basin of the Valderaduey, a river which runs close to Zamora and 
there joins the Douro. We had scarcely drunk Lord Howe’s! health 
when what should come but an order for us to join the Hussars.? All 
was life and we were soon put to, the troop to go to Fresno de la Ribeira 
to join the brigade, and I to go to Zamora and apply to the Com- 
missary-General to let us take the mules attached for our transport. I 
spared neither spurs nor horse and flew to Zamora; it was not however 
till two hours after dark that I could find Sir R. Kennedy,’ and then 
he was a long time unwilling to accede to my wishes. I used every 
argument I could think of and at last succeeded in obtaining my re- 
quest. It was then too late and too dark to undertake a road I had 
never before seen or heard of; in consequence I determined to remain 
all night with Harding. 
1 To commemorate his victory on June 1st, 1794, over the French fleet off Ushant. 
2 HEAD-QUARTERS, 
ZAMORA, Ist June, 1818. 
Major Gardiner’s troop of Horse Artillery will move this evening to Fresno Ribera and con- 
tinue until further orders with the Brigade of Hussars. Licut.-General the Harl of Dalhousie will 
be so good as to forward this order by Major Gardiner to the hussar brigade. 
(Signed.) GrorGE Murray, 
Quarter-Master-General. 
3 The Commissary-General. 
