The Enquirer

LATEST FROM PORTUGAL

We have received files of Portuguese and Spanish Gazettes, down to the early part of April, and some private advices of the military aspect of things in that country; from which we collect the following particulars, principally derived from an officer of the British army, at Lisbon, at the period of the departure of the Wm. Penn.

The head-quarters of the British army, under lord Wellington, on the 4th of March, was at Cartaxo near Villa Franca, on the Tagus, 26 miles N. E. from Lisbon, his division, the centre consisting of 25,000 effective British troops, and two brigades of Portuguese.

The head quarters of Marshal Beresford, on the same day, was at Chamasco, 40 miles eastward of Cartaxo, and on the left of the Tagus, his force consisting of 57,000 men, principally Portuguese, with some squadrons of British cavalry and British artillery.

The left of the army under general Drummond had its headquarters at Torres Vedras, 28 miles due north of Lisbon, and about 10 miles from the sea, commanding the lower road between Lisbon and Leiria: the force consisting of 6000 British and 2000 Portuguese with some auxiliary Spaniards.

The Head Quarters of the French commander in chief was at this time and on the 5th of March at Santarem, 22 miles N. E. of the British Head-Quarters.

The reconnoitering parties of the right wing under general Beresford, had occasionally crossed to the right side of the Tagus and had made some demonstrations on that side the position of general Beresford being 20 miles above the French head quarters; but on the morning of the 5th March, it was found that the French had retired from this position having left on their out posts a number of uniformed effigies, as a deception: the next day, the 6th of March, the division of genl. Beresford crossed the Tagus, and formed a junction with the right of the division of general Wellesley at Golegã.

The whole army was now in pursuit of the French who had made very rapid forced marches Santarem from is extent may be supposed to have contained about 15,000 inhabitants, but it now exhibited a heap of ruins; only about 5 or 6 houses were habitable, the rest, without exception, unroofed and gutted nor was there a door or window to be seen some had been consumed by fire, and the ruins were still smoking on the 9th. One church only escaped, the others suffered in the general wreck, nor was there a particle of provisions nor any thing of any value to be found.

At the position of Santarem, the two great roads united, the lower leads to Leiria from which it is about 37 miles distant, in a direction something west of north ; this is the road to Coimbra, over which both armies had travelled as far as Leiria, after the battle of Buçaco : Coimbra is distant from Santarem about eighty miles.

The other or main road, called the upper road passes by a French depot of provisions and hospitals at Thomar, which was on the Zêzere river 22 miles nearly north of Santarem. The position of general Beresford, was below the confluence of the Zêzere with the Tagus, and consequently menaced the left of the French and commanded the upper road which leads through the strong mountain country towards Guarda and Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, which have been already distinguished by the military operations of the same armies.

The rear guard of the French was over-taken and some skirmishing took place, in which there were some lives lost and prisoners taken on both sides; the British light Infantry are reported as having suffered very severely, but they compelled the French to fly.

On the 7th the main body of the British halted waiting for the division from Torres Vedras to join and that day pushed their advance on, to Caldas.

The French had retired in 3 columns from Thomar : and the British light troops came up with their rear guard, and several severe conflicts took place.

On the 8th, the whole army was in motion, and it was then supposed that the French had occupied the strong position at the Pont de Murcelia, and that they meant to make a stand there A great number of prisoners were made, composed principally of persons exhausted by fatigue, and apparently much emaciated from want of food, and several deserters also came into the British.

On the 9th, the British army was forced to halt for want of provisions; the French having destroyed every thing of that description on the whole line of their march, and for several miles on every side.

The French had not reached Coimbra on the 9th.

On the 10th a dragoon of the guards, who brought despatches to an officer at Santarem, stated, that the advance of the British had come in contact the preceding day with one of the French divisions, about a stage distance from Thomar, on the Abrantes road; he said the French had been taken so much by surprize, that they were seen leaping from the windows of the houses in which they had gone to rest. The British infantry were under orders of forced marches, since the pursuit began, and it was not doubted at that time, that the whole body of the French would be compelled to fight.

The division of General Hill was pushed forward with great celerity, to intercept the French in the passage of the river.

In the British army, the sudden retreat of the French was attributed to the desertion of lieutenant Burke from the British, as he was supposed to have carried with him accounts of the large reinforcements that had lately arrived from England. Among the prisoners taken by the British in their pursuit, were some deserters from their own army.

The army of general Beresford having abandoned the left side of the Tagus, great number of people from that side crossed over and sought refuge in the ruins of Santarem.

On passing up the Tagus after the evacuation of the lines by the British army, the line of defence is seen without difficulty. and there is one deep broad entrenchment from the Tagus to Torres Vedras, and thence to the sea ; in the rear of which works the most formidable are erected at every point.

The operations thence to the 7th of April, we have received no minutes of, further than that on that date, the British head quarters were at Thomar on the Zêzere, the former depot of the French; and that the French head quarters was at Coimbra, near 60 miles apart.

The 4th regiment of infantry which had just arrived from England, had joined general Beresford's division, —and the second regiment had joined Lord Wellington's division.

The following two paragraphs, we copy literally from the minutes of a British officer—.

The appearance of the French prisoners sufficiently shew the situation they must have been in from want of provisions, quite emaciated, and broken down with hunger & fatigue.

It was suggested that Massena's game is to draw our forces from Lisbon as far as possible, to enable Soult who is coming from the neighborhood of Cadiz with a strong force to join Victor, in order to take possession of the province of Alentejo, and again bring the war as near the capital as possible."

Such is the account of the advices to the 7th of April, from the armies A vessel was to sail in three days after the William Penn, from Lisbon for this port, which may perhaps bring later advices ; the distance of the head quarters of the two armies however does not indicate any very speedy movement.—AURORA,