after our arrival in the West Indies, and yielded its cheering influence to wide-spread gloom and dissatisfaction. The real cha

racter of the service into which we had been inveigled soon became but too manifest, and there were few who would not most gladly have retraced their passage to Europe had any opportunities occurred of which they could avail themselves.

The Artillery Brigade, referred to in the second article, could only have been that which proceeded from England, under the command of Colonel Gilmore, as no other regular organized corps, of a similar nature, was raised in this country for the South American service. The incorrectness of the newspaper accounts of its having actually landed on the Main cannot require refutation, the fate of this body having been already fully unfolded in the preceding part of this narrative; and I can, with confidence, assert that of Colonel G.'s late brigade, none ever actually landed on the Continent, with the exception of two officers, and about fifteen or twenty men, who joined Colonel Wilson's

corps, on the disembodying of that to which they had themselves been originally attached.

In numerous other respects the intelligence conveyed through the daily papers, of the proceedings of the British Auxiliary corps, 'is equally unfounded and absurd; but it cannot be necessary to particularize more minutely the gross impositions which have been practised by both sides on the Editors, and consequently through them, on the public credulity. The instances already enumerated are sufficient to prove the extreme caution which should be observed in perusing the conflicting statements of the opposite parties, and their respective literary supporters.

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To return from this long digressionThe ultimate fate of Colonel C—corps was particularly distressing; and this officer, whose exertions in support of the cause had been indefatigable, was (I have been informed by a friend just arrived from the West Indies) preparing to return to Europe, having resigned the command of his brigade; and in addition to his nu

merous disappointments and perplexities, sustained the irreparable loss of his eldest son, who had fallen a victim to the fever at Saint Bartholomew's. He was a young man of most amiable and gentlemanly manners, and universally respected and esteemed by his brother officers. This corps, originally the strongest and most effective, was, on my friend's departure, reduced by fever and resignation to ten officers and a proportionate number of men ; which small remnant intended proceeding for Angustura, under the command of Major P——t.

Shortly after the return of the Victory to Five Islands, a premeditated mutiny on board that vessel was discovered, on the forenoon of the day on which it was intended to be carried into effect. The plan of the mutineers was to murder Brion and his officers, take possession of the ship, and afterwards carry her into a Royalist port. This project, with the intended hour of attack, were intimated to the Admiral in an anonymous paper which had been put into his hands by a black boy at Saint Bartholomew's.

Brion, on receiving this alarming intelligence, forwarded the particulars to Captain Cowie; who immediately piped all hands upon deck, and began to single out the suspected mutineers, two of whom, finding their plot discovered, rushed through the guard of marines, and throwing themselves overboard were drowned; eleven others, having been fully convicted of the conspiracy, received sentence of death, and their execution was expected to take place on the day of my informant's departure.

Brion is a creole of Curazoa, rather advanced in years, of a commanding and stern deportment, dark penetrating eyes, and remarkably long black mustachios, which turn up behind his ears, giving him an air of much fierceness. He is said to be a steady, resolute character, well calculated for the peculiar duties of his command; in the execution of which, however rigorous and afflictive, he has been known on many occasions to exhibit proofs of a mind not destitute of feeling and generosity.

It is a melancholy truth, that the sanguinary and ferocious character of the war

fare, which has reflected lasting disgrace on the contending parties on the Continent of South America, also governs the proceedings of the hostile navies; the indiscriminate destruction of prisoners, is most generally accomplished by compelling the illfated captives, to pass through the ceremony, which is technically called Walking the Plank. For this purpose, a plank · is made fast on the gang-way of the ship, with one end projecting some feet beyond the side; the wretched victims are then forced, in succession, to proceed along the fatal board, and precipitate themselves from its extremity into the ocean; whilst those who instinctively clinging to life hesitate prompt obedience to the brutal mandate, are soon compelled at the point of a spear to resign themselves to a watery grave, to avoid the aggravated cruelties of their inhuman conquerors.

The Independents, who (as has been before observed) impute the origin of this barbarous mode of warfare to the Royalists, resort for their justification in adopting a similar course of proceeding, to the necessity