"I was pretty constant in my correspondence with you whilst the
regiment was quartered at Portsmouth, and no opportunity
offered from thence direct to the Cape without taking letters
and newspapers from either Savery or myself, and often from
both; but the very active and busy life I have passed since put
an end to all such communications. Knowing, however, that you
will be gratified in hearing from my own pen the various
incidents which have occurred since that time, I proceed to
give you the substance of them. You will have seen in the
public prints that the 49th embarked among the first regiments
under Sir Ralph Abercromby, and that the army, amounting to
about 10,000 men, after beating the seas from the 8th to the
27th of August, effected a landing near the Helder; that the
enemy most unaccountably offered no opposition to our landing;
and that, after a well-contested fight of ten hours, he
retreated, and left us in quiet possession of the Heights,
extending the whole length of the Peninsula. The 4th Brigade,
under General Moore,[9] consisting of the Royals, 25th, 49th,
79th, and 92d, landed to the left, where the greatest
opposition was expected, as it was natural to suppose that so
essential an object as the Helder would be defended to the
last, but, to our utter astonishment, the enemy gave us no
annoyance; on the contrary, soon after the affair on the right
had terminated, he evacuated the town, which we took quiet
possession of the following morning, and with it the whole of
the fleet. The garrison, consisting of 1,600 men, could easily
have been intercepted had it not been for a large body of
cavalry and a number of cannon, which completely commanded a
plain of a mile and a half in breadth, necessary to be crossed