heavy sword, remarking as he did it, "Bad luck to ye, I don't think
ye'll ever shoot another Englishman, or Irishman either." The other
man had meanwhile made off.

We had taken amongst other things about twenty barrels of gunpowder
and a quantity of cigars, which latter, owing to the carelessness of
one man, proved to be more plague than profit; for whilst most of us
were smoking, one of the company, going near the powder, happened to
let a spark fall from his cigar, which resulted in twelve men being
blown into the air: and though none were killed on the spot, they were
so frightfully burnt that several died on reaching Colonia. I believe
all that we lost actually killed by the enemy's hand were the two men
who fell in crossing the river. We gave ten dollars to each of the
widows of the men killed, and the rest of the prize-money was divided.

CHAPTER V.

Return to Colonia -- General Whitelock assumes the command of the
army in the Plate, and a movement is made on Buenos Ayres --
Studied insolence on the part of certain Indian natives --
Remarkable value attached by them to a British head -- Their
eventual punishment -- The troops effect an easy entrance into
Buenos Ayres, but, for reasons unknown to the narrator, retreat
almost immediately and not very creditably -- Return to Monte
Video and final departure from the Plate -- Terrific storm on the
way home -- Inconvenient mishap to a soldier -- Christmas in
Cork Cove.

As we had effected all that was wanted at San Pedro, which was the
name of the place where we had been carrying on these operations, we
returned to Colonia, dragging back the guns laden with our wounded,
and taking with us the prisoners, who had to walk along barefooted, as
we had availed ourselves of their boots. On our arrival at Colonia our
sailors saluted us when they saw the number of our prisoners and the
three pieces of cannon we had taken, giving "three cheers for the
brave soldiers." The prisoners were then sent on board a ship that was
lying in the river, and an outlying picket having been posted as
usual, the rest of us remained comfortably in the town. Next day the
colonel gave orders for everything belonging to the prisoners, such as
clothes, &c., to be brought out, offering a fair price for them to be
returned to their proper owners, which showed of what a good
disposition he really was: only he had allowed us to take the thing