The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence by William Lawrence (fiction novels to read TXT) 📖

"I'll fetch him out; you stand at one end to stop him with your bayonet while I drive him out." So Paddy went round with his sword, and after a little exercise behind, "Look out comrade," he sang out, "he's coming;" and sure enough I skewered him to the wall by driving my bayonet right through his body, while Paddy came out and finished him by splitting his head nearly in two with his heavy sword, remarking as he did it, "Bad luck to ye, I don't think ye'll ever shoot another Englishman, or Irishman either." The other man had meanwhile made off.

We had taken amongst other things about twenty barrels of gunpowder and a quantity of cigars, which latter, owing to the carelessness of one man, proved to be more plague than profit; for whilst most of us were smoking, one of the company, going near the powder, happened to let a spark fall from his cigar, which resulted in twelve men being blown into the air: and though none were killed on the spot, they were so frightfully burnt that several died on reaching Colonia. I believe all that we lost actually killed by the enemy's hand were the two men who fell in crossing the river. We gave ten dollars to each of the widows of the men killed, and the rest of the prize-money was divided.

CHAPTER V.

Return to Colonia — General Whitelock assumes the command of the army in the Plate, and a movement is made on Buenos Ayres — Studied insolence on the part of certain Indian natives — Remarkable value attached by them to a British head — Their eventual punishment — The troops effect an easy entrance into Buenos Ayres, but, for reasons unknown to the narrator, retreat almost immediately and not very creditably — Return to Monte Video and final departure from the Plate — Terrific storm on the way home — Inconvenient mishap to a soldier — Christmas in Cork Cove.

As we had effected all that was wanted at San Pedro, which was the name of the place where we had been carrying on these operations, we returned to Colonia, dragging back the guns laden with our wounded, and taking with us the prisoners, who had to walk along barefooted, as we had availed ourselves of their boots. On our arrival at Colonia our sailors saluted us when they saw the number of our prisoners and the three pieces of cannon we had taken, giving "three cheers for the brave soldiers." The prisoners were then sent on board a ship that was lying in the river, and an outlying picket having been posted as usual, the rest of us remained comfortably in the town. Next day the colonel gave orders for everything belonging to the prisoners, such as clothes, &c., to be brought out, offering a fair price for them to be returned to their proper owners, which showed of what a good disposition he really was: only he had allowed us to take the things before as an example.

We remained here about a month this time, when General Whitelock came out with a reinforcement and took the command from Sir Samuel Auchmuty, and soon afterwards, some troops being left in charge of Monte Video, the rest proceeded to Buenos Ayres, calling at Colonia on the way to pick up our little squad. We landed some miles before coming to Buenos Ayres, intending, if possible, to storm the back of the town, as it was strongly fortified on the side towards the coast. We were thus obliged to march inland and form encampments, the first of which was situated a little way from where we landed.

An incident took place here, which was attended by the death of two men, a corporal and a private, and likewise the very narrow escape of a second private. They were engaged in plundering one of the Indian huts, when the inhabitants fell on them armed, and, catching the corporal round the neck with a lasso, soon dragged him away, at the same time knocking the private down and stabbing him; the other private only escaped back to the regiment after receiving a sabre-wound which carried the skin and hair off the back of his head. This was a great glory to the natives; they stuck the corporal's head on a pole and carried it in front of their little band when on the march. They also made use of the rifle and ammunition they had taken from him to fire at times into our camp, but fortunately it was a very harmless sort of practice.

Next day we again resumed our march, encamping again at night. I remember that night was very foggy, and an officer and some men having gone out in search of bullocks for the supply of the army, the officer was very nearly lassoed by an Indian who came on him suddenly in the darkness. Fortunately he had the presence of mind to ride after him, which saved his life, for so the Indian could not pull him over; and then he managed to cut the lasso with his sword.

As we marched along on our next day's journey, about two hundred Indians kept following us, the foremost of them wearing our dead corporal's jacket, and carrying his head—I do not exactly know for what reason, but perhaps they thought a good deal more of a dead man's head than we should feel disposed to do. We went on for some distance through a great many orange-gardens, till we came to a lane thickly hedged in on both sides, which was entered by a gate, and there, after the body of our army had passed through, some few men, including myself, waited in ambush for the Indians, having a reserve placed a short distance down the lane in case of a combat. The Indians soon approached, but seemed to have some misgivings, though we could not exactly understand what they said. There being only a few of us, not quite twenty in all, I rather shook in my shoes on seeing their number; but we soon found there was very little occasion for this, for on our firing directly the front party had passed the gate, killing two of them and wounding and capturing their chief, who was the one who was so proud of his head, the rest fled for their lives, not liking the smell and much less the taste of our gunpowder. We picked up the wounded man and carried him, and left him, more dead than alive, in a neighbouring village.

On nearing Buenos Ayres the Light Brigade was ordered on in front, under the command of Colonel Pack, who soon succeeded in taking the Bull Ring battery; for Buenos Ayres was much more easy to take than Monte Video, as it was very slightly fortified towards the country. There were some cannons placed at the end of each street, but they proved a very small difficulty to be overcome, as there seemed nobody efficient to work them, and after passing these, our soldiers were soon in possession of the city. Then they hoisted the King's flag on a convent and waited, expecting every minute that the body of our army would come up; but instead of this, General Whitelock encamped about a mile out of the town and remained there. If he had attended properly to his business he would have followed up and relieved the brigade; but as it was, the Spaniards rallied and overpowered it. I was with the main body, and so was not able to enter the city to see what was going on. We all fell under arms when we heard the muskets at work, waiting for the general's orders to advance: but there we lay the whole night, not doing a stroke, and next day we re-embarked for Monte Video, having come to some terms, though we were ignorant of that at the time.

We remained at Monte Video some two months longer, during which interval the ships taken in the harbour were offered for sale, but the inhabitants refusing to buy them, we loaded some ourselves with hides, tallow, and cocoa, and the rest, which were not worth bringing home, were towed out to the mouth of the harbour and set on fire. The Spaniards had previously blown up a very fine frigate to prevent it falling into our hands. Part of our army was then embarked for the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope, whilst we others went on an expedition about a hundred miles up the Rio de la Plata to get fresh water, and when we returned proceeded on our way homewards from that part of the world.

The first part of our voyage was very pleasant, the troops in general keeping very healthy; but when we had sailed some distance, we had a dead calm for a considerable time, which made us much longer on our voyage than we had thought for, and consequently our water supply ran very short, and had to be served out in allowances of half a pint a day. A small supply, however, fortunately came before long. Our captain, seeing a cloud in the distance, foretold that we were going to have a thunderstorm, and ordered the scupper-holes to be stopped, and all except the watch to remain below. I happened to be one of the watch at the time, and well I remember how it very shortly after began to thunder and lighten, the rain falling in torrents for two or three hours; it was the heaviest thunderstorm I had ever witnessed. We baled up some twenty or more casks of water, which was none the better, perhaps, for there being pigs, fowls, geese, and turkeys all over the deck, but still was very acceptable to us in our parched state, as till that we had had to cook our food and wash ourselves in salt water only.

During the storm our mainmast was struck by the lightning, which split a piece off it from top to bottom, but fortunately did not disable it; but a sad mishap befell one of our men while sitting at mess at the time, for he was struck dead, his shirt being burnt in places like tinder, and his mess-tin being likewise turned black, while the top of a bayonet that was standing close to the unfortunate man was melted like lead. The blow had shaken our little bark so terribly that the captain ordered the pumps to be tried; fortunately there was no leakage to be found, but the lightning must have got well down below, for on opening the main hatchway the sulphur came up enough to suffocate any one.

After the storm, the calm still continued, and we had to amuse ourselves as best we could with fishing; a few days after a breeze sprang up, but it was foul for England, and we had to knock about till a more favourable one blew up, which finally landed us in the Cove of Cork. We spent the Christmas of 1807 on board, sending on shore for raisins, flour, fat, and beer, and so being enabled to enjoy ourselves very comfortably.

CHAPTER VI.

The troops kept in Ireland — Ordered to Spain to fight new opponents in behalf of their late ones — Land in Mondego Bay and advance to Vimeira — A light repast interrupted by a heavy battle — Battle of Vimeira — Preliminary skirmishing — Lawrence's first experience in fighting the French — A good front-rank man — Defeat of the French and advance on Lisbon — The French evacuate the city — Lawrence's