_Brookhill,--May, 1840._
[Illustration] It may be right to draw the attention of the reader to a
circumstance which, at first sight, may appear singular--that the same
letters frequently contain reports quite contradictory to each other. It
should therefore be borne in mind that such letters were probably
written at different times, as the writer found opportunity; who, being
anxious that his family should know all that passed as well in the camp
as in the field, preferred leaving each report in the way in which it
was circulated at the time of his writing it, rather than correct it
afterwards, as the truth, might turn out. Such letters shew the
situation in which an army is placed on its landing in a new country,
where no account of the movements of the inhabitants can be relied upon,
and the heavy responsibility which attaches to the officers who are
entrusted with its command.