Obidos, a town with a Moorish castle, built on a gentle eminence in the
middle of a valley.

Leaving a detachment here, he retired to Rolica, six miles to the south of
it. At this point several roads met, and he at once covered all the
approaches to Torres Vedras, and the important port of Peniche, and could
be joined by Loison marching down from Santarem.

The advanced brigade of the British force remained in quiet possession of
Leirya during the next day, and on the following, the 11th of August, the
main body of the army arrived, having taken two days on the march. The
Portuguese force also came in under Friere. That general at once took
possession of the magazines there, and although he had promised the
English general that their contents should be entirely devoted to the
maintenance of the English army, he divided them among his own force.
Disgusted as the British commander was at this barefaced dishonesty, he
was not in a position to quarrel with the Portuguese. It was essential to
him that they should accompany him, not for the sake of the assistance
that they would give, for he knew that none was to be expected from them,
but from a political point of view. It was most important that the people
at large should feel that their own troops were acting with the British,
and that no feelings of jealousy or suspicion of the latter should arise.
Friere was acting under the orders of the Bishop and Junta of Oporto,
whose great object was to keep the Portuguese army together and not to
risk a defeat, as they desired to keep this body intact in order that, if
the British were defeated, they should be able to make favourable terms
for themselves. Consequently, even after appropriating the whole of the
stores and provisions found at Leirya, Friere continued to make exorbitant
demands, and to offer a vigorous opposition to any further advance.