The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence

kable 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

ival 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 comf

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 ba

l 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

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

s 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

ent 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 a

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 embarke

ever, 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 torren

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

ut 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 spen