ten in the first instance by Lady De
Lancey for the information of her brother, Captain Basil Hall, R.N.
The original manuscript has been lost sight of. An early copy, which
was made by Mrs Basil Hall, is now in the possession of their
grand-daughter, Lady Parsons. Copies would appear to have been made by
members of the family at various times; but the existence of the
narrative was apparently not known to Edward Floyd De Lancey, the
historian of the family in Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_. Besides the copy
of the narrative made by Mrs Basil Hall, another copy came into the
possession of the poet Rogers. This copy is now owned by W. Arthur
Sharpe, Esq., Highgate, N. Both the above versions--which contain only
slight variations--have been consulted in the present edition of the
narrative.

Captain Basil Hall, R.N. (vide _Dictionary of National Biography_,
vol. xxiv., p. 58), was a well-known author in his day, his best known
work being _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, published in three
series between 1831 and 1833, and frequently reprinted since.

In Volume II. of the first series, Captain Hall alludes to his first
meeting with De Lancey. It occurred on board H.M.S. _Endymion_ on the
morning of the 18th January 1809, when the British troops had all been
safely embarked on the transports, the second day after the battle of
Corunna.

Basil Hall--then a lieutenant in the navy--and De Lancey[26] struck up
a great friendship on the _Endymion_, and the former introduced his
soldier friend after the voyage home to his family in Scotland. The
marriage of De Lancey six years afterwards to Basil Hall's sister
Magdalene was a result of this introduction.

[Footnote 26: De Lancey was at this time a lieutenant-colonel and
permanent assistant in the quartermaster-general's department (Army
List, 1809, p. 323).

His first commission as a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons bore the
date 7th July 1792 (Army List, 1793, p. 50), when he was only eleven
years old.

He was gazetted lieutenant in the same regiment on the 26th February
1793, and was subsequently transferred to the 80th Foot.

On the 20th October 1796 he was gazetted captain in the 17th Light
Dragoons, of which regiment his uncle, General Oliver De Lancey, was
then colonel.

He obtained a majority in the 45th (or Nottinghamshire) Regiment of
Foot on the 17th October 1799. He was by this time eighteen years of
age, and up to this date had probably no connection with the