you, but you were afterwards convinced that they portended nothing
extraordinary. Even in the midst of formidable armies measures
of precaution are daily used, because victory is not constant, and
reverses should be provided against. You may assure yourselves,
that the measures I am now taking, are purely precautionary, but it
is necessary to communicate them to you, because if it happens that
_we must abandon the, city_, many of you will leave it also; and I
should be responsible to the nation and to the King if I had not
forewarned you.

(Signed) IGNACIO LUIZ MADEIRA DE MELLA.

Were it dignified to allude to the cowardice imputed to me by the same
authority, it would be easy to refer to the above enumeration of
distresses caused by our two ships having captured all their provisions
in the face of thirteen, in every way better manned and equipped.

The consternation caused by my nocturnal visit, which decided the
evacuation of the city, was described as almost ludicrous. As I had been
correctly informed, the Portuguese admiral and his officers _were_ at a
ball, and information of our appearance amongst the fleet was conveyed
to him in the midst of the festivities. "What"--exclaimed he--"Lord
Cochrane's line-of-battleship in the very midst of our fleet! Impossible
--no large ship can have come up in the dark." We, however, did find our
way in the dark--and did not retire till our _reconnaissance_ was as
complete as darkness would permit.

The lamentations caused by General Madeira's proclamation were no doubt
faithfully chronicled in the Bahia newspapers, one of these declaring
"in the last few days we have witnessed in this city a most doleful