Chapter I: Preface

Long prefaces to Narratives have seldom, I believe, the honour of being read through. If the Narrative possess interest, a tedious recommendation only detains the reader from his enjoyment; and if it possess none, it aggravates his disappointment.--I shall, therefore, be very brief.

The subject of the following Memoir has been connected with the church under my pastoral care, nearly since its formation, in the year 1803:--and, from this, as well as from a circumstance in his religious history, which the reader will discover towards the close of the narrative, it may perhaps be thought, that my recommendations are, in some degree, dictated by feelings of partiality. I hope I shall never be so dead to Christian sensibility, as to feel nothing of the peculiar interest which the circumstance alluded to, is fitted to produce. Yet I may say with truth, that the very consciousness of this interest has made me the more jealous and scrupulous in giving the advice to publish; an advice which I never should have given, unless from a sincere conviction, that the Narrative is fitted both to please and to profit; to gratify curiosity, and, through the blessing of God, to impart instruction and spiritual benefit.

The remarks of a private in the ranks, when he is a man of any shrewdness and observation, on the incidents that come within his notice, in the campaigns in which he is engaged, have in them a particular interest.--Whilst we are pleased with the degree of intelligence which they discover, we at the same time feel a satisfying confidence, that they contain 'a plain unvarnished tale;' unaffected by any temptation, either 'in aught to extenuate,' or 'to set down aught in malice.'

The _religious experience_ of the writer, I consider as especially instructive.--It sets before us, I believe, in honest simplicity, the workings of a sensible and thoughtful mind, and of a conscience, which had never entirely lost its early impressions;--the convictions, and distresses, and reasonings,--the self-righteous and self confident resolutions, and the necessary failures and inconsistencies, of an awakened but unrenewed state;--the natural reluctance of man to part with _self_, to plead guilty, and to depend on grace; and yet the entire inefficacy of every thing but this grace either to impart satisfactory and steadfast peace to the conscience, or to produce in the heart a principle of vigorous and cheerful, consistent and persevering obedience.

Of this grace, although, like every other good thing, it has been too often perverted and abused by the self-deceiver and the hypocrite, the native tendency is, to "teach" all who receive it, to "deny ungodliness, and worldly desires, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world,"--I feel the delicacy of saying any thing in praise of one, whose living eye the commendation is to meet, and who is still, like all others, the subject of remaining corruption, and in danger of injury from its evil propensities; yet, as it is not _himself_ I commend, but the _grace_ that has made him what he is, and to which he owns himself an entire and humble debtor, I feel at liberty to say, that the subject of the following Narrative, since he was led to embrace the doctrine of the cross, has been enabled,--amidst imperfections and failures no doubt, of which he himself has been much more sensible than others have been observant,--to "walk in newness of life," and to show, that "the gospel of the grace of God" has been "the power of God unto salvation," when every thing else had failed, and had led only to despair.

With the exception of occasional corrections in the use of words and in the structure of sentences, unavoidable in revising for the press the manuscript of one unaccustomed to composition, the _style_ is the writer's own; the work, throughout, having been printed from his autograph, without transcription:--and I pledge my word to the reader, that a single additional _sentiment_ has not been introduced.

I commend the little volume to the candour of the reader, and to the blessing of God;--not without a pleasing hope, that while it may benefit, in a temporal view, the family of one, whose wound received in the service of his country, confined him again, even very recently, from his daily occupation, for nearly four months; it may, at the same time, produce higher and more valuable effects, in the instruction, admonition, and salvation, of those who peruse it.

RALPH WARDLAW.

_GLASGOW, June 14th, 1819._

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The very kind reception which the public have given to the first edition, has encouraged the Author to improve and enlarge the second. The additions chiefly consist of a more detailed and combined account of the Insurrection in Ireland, and the Expeditions to Holland and Egypt. These additions, he hopes, will make the reading of the Narrative more pleasant, particularly to young persons. He has divided it into chapters, and inserted the number of the regiment he served in; but his name can be of no consequence to the reader.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Cause and design of writing the Narrative. Author attends the Sabbath School of Dr. Balfour in Glasgow, in 1790. Enlists into the 92d foot, in 1796, and joins the regiment in Gibraltar in 1797. Behaviour while there. Returns to England in 1798.

CHAPTER II.

Regiment lands at Dublin, in June, 1798. State of that city during the insurrection. Conveyed in coaches to Arklow. Surprises the insurgents on the White Heaps, 5th July. Particulars of the pursuit and arrival at Gorey. Instances of the ferocity of civil war. Kind behaviour of the regiment to the inhabitants. Deserted state of Gorey, where the Author is much in want of provisions. Distressing state of the surrounding country. March to Blessington, and join the brigade of Sir John Moore, and encamp in the glen of Eimal. Orders against swearing. State of the insurgents in the Wicklow Mountains. March to oppose the French who had landed at Killala. Lie in Athlone during the winter. The Author's religious experience while there. March to Cork, and embark for England, June, 1799.

CHAPTER III.

Join the expedition under Sir R. Abercrombie, and sail for Holland, 6th August. Land near the Helder on the 27th. Action among the sand-hills, and capture of Helder. Surrender of the Dutch fleet. Advance to the long dyke; with a description of it, and the surrounding country. Dutch method of churning butter. Action on the long dyke, 10th Sept. Repulse of the Duke of York and the Russians on the 19th. Action on the 2d October, near Egmont. Lord Huntly wounded. Sir J. Moore wounded. Singular action of cavalry. Spectacle of the dead, and severe loss of the regiment. Singular death of a Highlander and Frenchman. March to Alkmaar. Action of the 6th. Author escorts prisoners on the 7th. Army retreats to the long dyke on the 8th. Armistice and convention for leaving Holland. Author takes the ague. Regiment arrives in England, and goes into Chelmsford Barracks. Religious experience of the Author while there.

CHAPTER IV.

Regiment embarks at Cowes on board the Diadem, 64, and Inconstant frigate, 27th May, 1800; and sails for the coast of France. Anchors at the Isle of Houet, 2d June. Singular occurrence on the 4th. Intended attack on Belleisle. Religious seamen on board the Terrible, 74. Sails for the Mediterranean. Arrival at Minorca on the 21st July. Regiment leaves Minorca on board the Stately, 64. Intended attack upon Cadiz, 6th October.--Dangerous storm in Tetuan bay. Touches at Minorca and Malta. The fleet anchors in Marmorice Bay, preparatory to landing in Egypt. Some account of that bay and the surrounding country. Author's state of mind during the passage. He is seized with an infectious fever. His religious experience during his sickness, and after his recovery. Sails for Egypt. Objection against the truth of the Scriptures.

CHAPTER V.

Account of the landing in Egypt, 8th March, 1801. Author seized with night-blindness. Action of the 13th. Scarcity of water. Account of the position of the army and Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's Needles. Battle of the 21st, at which the Author is wounded and sent on board an hospital ship. Condition and behaviour of the wounded. Author removed to an hospital at Aboukir. Lord Hutchison goes with a part of the army to Cairo. Author's wound gets worse. Troublesomeness of flies and vermin. Sirocco, or hot wind, and rapid increase of the plague. Account of several interesting cases. Behaviour of the wounded in Aboukir hospital, and the Author's religious experience.

CHAPTER VI.

Author embarks for Rosetta. Dangerous passage of the bar at the mouth of the Nile. Rosetta hospital. Author dangerously ill. Death of his comrade, &c. Inundation of the Nile. Skin bottles. Surrender of Alexandria. Dress of the Sepoys and Egyptian peasants. Manner of eating their meals. Mahomedan mosques. Gun fired at mid-day in Cairo by the rays of the sun. Explosion of a powder chest kills several of the 13th foot. Remarks on the state of mind in which many died. Produce and manner of cultivating the Delta. Immense heaps of grain. Wretchedness of the peasantry. Extracts from Sir R. Wilson and Dr. Clarke, on the diseases and plagues of Egypt. The unavoidable evils of War. Author leaves Rosetta, and sails for England.

CHAPTER VII.

Arrival at Cork. Marches to Kilkenny. Proceeds to London and admitted an out-pensioner of Chelsea. Arrives in Glasgow. Retrospect of his military life. Distressing state of mind. Obtains peace of conscience by hearing the gospel in Albion-street Chapel, and joins the church under the care of Dr. Wardlaw.

POSTSCRIPT.

Consists of an Address to readers in general, and to those in the army in particular, of what the Author wishes them to learn from the Narrative.