Chapter XXXIII: Section 2: Catalonia

_Extract of a Letter from Don Antonio Rocca._

(Translated.)

“_Reus, January 20, 1811._

“While we have venal men, ignorant men, and perfidious men in our government, no good can befal us. He must be mad who can expect our condition to ameliorate. The venal are those who, without being called, seemingly abandon their own affairs, and introduce themselves into the different branches of administration with no other view than to enrich themselves at the public expense. The ignorant are those who think themselves wise, and who either obtain by intrigue or accept without reluctance employments the duties of which they are not capable of discharging. The perfidious are all those who are indifferent spectators of this bloody struggle, and who care not for the issue, as they will equally submit to any master. Place no confidence, my friend, in these sort of persons, nothing can be expected from them, and yet by an inconceivable fatality which is attached to us, to the ruin of all parties, it would appear that the provinces employ none but these very people. Those who commend us are either venal or ignorant, or indifferent; at least the more we search for the remedy, the more our evil increases.”

_Captain Codrington to sir Charles Cotton._

“_April 24, 1811._

.... “With respect to the proposed plan of admitting supplies of grain in neutral vessels from the ports of the enemy, &c., I have no hesitation in saying I do not see sufficient reason to justify it in the present circumstances of this part of the Peninsula, as I have always found bread for sale at the different places on the coast, at the rate of about _two pounds and three quarters for the quarter of a dollar_, at which price I yesterday bought it at Escala. And as there has been of late more corn at Taragona than money to purchase, I presume the latter has been the greater desideratum of the two.”

.... “The difficulty of allowing a free passage of provisions from one part of the coast to the other would be lessened by being limited to vessels above the size of common fishing-boats, in which I have reason to believe considerable quantities have been carried to Barcelona; and captain Bullen, I understand, found even a mortar in a boat of this description.”

_General C. Doyle to captain Bullen._

“_Ripol, April, 1811._

“Can you believe that in this town, _the only fabric of arms, six months_ have passed without a firelock being made!!! They begin to-morrow, and give me two hundred and fifty every week, &c.”

[Note. The italics and notes of admiration are in the original.]

_Admiral Freemantle to captain Codrington._

“_Mahon, May 19, 1811._

“The uncertainty of every thing connected with Spanish affairs is such, that I am tired of writing and explaining all that arises from their inconsistency and want of energy.

“Until eight o’clock I had understood that the intendant had procured one thousand quintals of biscuit for the army at Taragona, which number I find on inquiry has dwindled to fifty-seven bags. I have therefore been under the necessity of sending five hundred bags, which we can very ill spare, from our own stores, with a proportion of rice. I cannot tell you how much I have been worried and annoyed the last three days, particularly as I feel the very great importance Taragona is to the Spaniards, and how much this island is connected with the event of the fall of that fortress. The intendant here has wrote that he has sent two hundred and thirty-two bags of bread. You will have the goodness to explain that only fifty-seven were procured by him, which I have engaged to pay for, and that all the rest comes immediately from our own stores, and are consequently at the disposal of the British authorities at Taragona.”

_Extract of a Letter from Sir Edward Pellew to captain
Codrington._

“_H.M. Ship Caledonia, July 22, 1811._

“The indecision, inactivity, and apparent disunion amongst the Spanish leaders has been the great cause of failure throughout the whole of this arduous contest, and is especially observable in the late events in Catalonia; nor until the patriots are directed by pure military councils and more energy and decision, can I permit myself to think that any effectual stand can be made against the invaders.”

_Sir Edward Pellew to captain Codrington._

“_August 2, 1811._

“I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, &c. The information therein conveyed affords me a very melancholy view of the affairs of the patriots, and gives me little reason to hope better things from their future exertions.”....“A despatch which reached me by the same opportunity from the superior junta of Catalonia contains a proposal for occupying a position on the coast as a naval depôt, and the selection of Palamos is presented to my choice. It does not appear to me that the junta possesses at present resources for defending any such position, and from the measures being submitted to my determination, it seems to be expected that I should provide means of defending them while employed in securing themselves in their new station.” “Yet whilst the noble spirit of this ill-fated people remains unsubdued, it would not be just to expect a total failure, although the loss of all confidence between them and the privileged orders, and the want of leaders among themselves who possess either skill or competency to guide them, afford but a very precarious prospect of their doing anything effectual to stop the invaders.”

_Captain Codrington to sir E. Pellew._

“_November 1, 1811._

“By a letter from captain Strong it seems the people of Cadagues in the early part of October openly refused assistance to the governor of the Medas islands, declaring that they only acknowledged the strongest party, and therefore paid their subscriptions to the French; and that upon the Bustard’s going with a party of Spanish troops to enforce obedience, they rang the alarm-bell as the signal for the approach of an enemy, and sent to Rosas for assistance.”

_Extract of a Letter from captain Codrington to
E. H. Locker, esq._

“_February 7, 1812._

“Whilst the French pay the poor, who serve their purpose, at the expense of the rich, the Spaniards deal out severity to the lower classes, and oblige them to serve without pay and without clothes; and the debauched and profligate of higher life are in many instances rewarded, for imbecility, ignorance, and indifference to the fate of their country never yet exceeded, without one single example being made of the many traitors which have been discovered in the persons of priests, officers of rank, or what are termed gentlemen.”

_Captain Codrington to general Lacy._

“_February 18, 1812._

“Being an eye-witness of the discontent of the people, which has arisen from their being partially disarmed, and knowing how fatal have been the consequences which have followed these practices on former occasions, I must own I cannot offer to the admiral my conviction of all that benefit arising from his good intentions in which I should otherwise have confided. The officers and men of the French army are walking about this part of the coast unarmed, because _the juntas and justices have concealed the muskets they had_ at their disposal, and refused the people permission to attack the enemy. In the mean time the poor people, whose hearts are burning with patriotism, are starving for want of bread, and the richer citizens of this devoted country are supplying the enemy with corn and other species of provisions.”

_Captain Codrington to sir E. Pellew._

“_Villa Nueva, February 22, 1812._

“I fear things are going on very ill in this principality from the sudden change in the system of general Lacy, and the consequent destruction of that confidence on the part of the people which was certainly the cause of his former successes. Nor can there be any doubt of the sound reason which guides the conduct of the Catalans on this occasion; for the mode in which general Lacy effected the dishonourable breach of faith of which they complain, bespeaks a mind practised in deception. He ordered the patriotic companies to be sent to particular points in subdivisions, at which points general Sarsfield was to take forcible possession of them, and attach them to different corps of the regular army. And the discovery of this treachery was made by the letter to general Sarsfield falling by mistake, into the hands of the officer who commanded the whole division of patriotic companies. In the meantime the discontent of the people gains ground with their sufferings, and instead of the Spanish army being increased by the late arbitrary mandate according to its avowed object, and not less probably in consequence of the late extraordinary conduct of general Sarsfield, many of the Catalan soldiers have actually passed over to the enemy.”

“The letter of the baron de Eroles in the gazette No. 10, shews that he was again deceived in the promised support of general Sarsfield on the 24th, and I am told he says publicly it was part of a settled plan to sacrifice him and his whole division.”

_Captain Codrington to sir E. Pellew._

“_Villa Nueva de Sitjes, February 22, 1812._

“Nothing but a total change can produce permanent good; for the villanies of the intendant and commissary departments are so thoroughly organized, that not one link of the chain can be left with safety. I have good reason to think that even the money furnished by England is so employed in the traffic of corn, by the individuals through whose hands it passes, as to be the direct means of supplying the enemy.”

_Captain Codrington to Mr. H. Wellesley._

“_March 1, 1812._

“The change of the regency will I trust produce a radical change of that diabolical system by which plunder has been openly licensed, and despotism and injustice towards the people, and even treachery itself, in those of a higher class, have hitherto passed with impunity.”