Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/530

 On the afternoon of the 7th Dec, a brig captured by the Pedroite cruisers, a schooner said to have had on board artillery from the Western Islands, and a French brigantine, were destroyed by the Miguelite batteries, when attempting to force the passage of the bar. On the 10th Commander Glascock wrote to the Visconde de Santa Martha as follows:

“Excellent Sir,– I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt ot your communication of the 8th inst,, and to return my acknowledgments for the prompt manner in which, through your Excellency’s medium, a contract for fresh beef has been effected for his Britannic Majesty’s squadron. I take the opportunity to inclose your Excellency a copy of a memorandum forwarded to me yesterday from an officer signing himself Ioao Pigott, Cheffe d’Estado Maior.

“To prevent any future mistake, I must take leave to apprise your Excellency that, as H.B.M. Government have decided that the British vessels of war in the Douro are to continue here for the protection of British persons and property, it becomes a matter of necessity that they be from time to time supplied with provisions from H.B.M. ships or transports without the bar; To effect this object, it may be sometimes necessary, particularly with so uncertain a bar, to use every means in my power to promote the utmost despatch in the transport of these supplies. I therefore must impress upon the mind of your Excellency, that the means afforded me to effect the above object, or any other on H.B. Majesty’s service, must be in no ways limited. Any impediment offered on your Excellency’s part, or on the part of any of your Excellency’s officers, will only tend to disturb the reciprocal relations which now exist between H.B. Majesty’s Government and the Government of Portugal; and I am sure your Excellency will agree with me in opinion, that at the present crisis, any unguarded step to affect the neutral position now existing between the two nations, would by no means tend to ameliorate the condition of the Government of Portugal. I have now to assure your Excellency, and I do so advisedly, that British forbearance has been carried to its utmost limit. I am the more induced to make this remark, from the perusal of the minutes of the court-martial which your Excellency had the goodness to transmit to me. Not one iota of truth appears in evidence relative to the statements made respecting H.B.M. ships under my command having fired artillery in the first instance, and musketry some hours subsequent. No artillery had been fired on the occasion alluded to, but a blank cartridge to enforce the signal for a pilot; and the fire of musketry was that which, at stated periods, namely, sunset, sunrise, and at eight o’clock at night, had always before been fired; a practice which will be continued, according to the custom of H.B.M. service, during the stay of the British vessels of war in the Douro. I 