Marched into Campo Mayor, and remained there three months. Our General treated us occasionally with a field day. Numbers of the finest men in the Division were carried off by disease, typhus fever being alarmingly prevalent through the greater part of the British army. Headquarters at Badajoz. The cavalry in advance at Merida and Albuquerque. Estremoz and adjacent towns and villages were filled with our troops. [Sidenote: Sept.-Dec. 10th] The river Guadiana passes for a great way through a flat country, whose banks in the rainy season are overflowed; consequently when the river diminishes from dryness and the heat of the weather, its banks become impregnated with myriads of vermin and also with vegetable matter in a state of putrefaction. In every stagnant pool these exhalations poison the surrounding atmosphere with pestilential vapours. The people of the country leave it for some months at this season, and a common observation among them is that strangers who come here at this season seldom leave it again, _i.e._ they die. The town of Campo Mayor is fortified, and has also a citadel. It stands on a plain abounding with corn. At about the distance of a league a small river named the Caya flows. This river forms the boundary line between the two countries. Campo Mayor was besieged by the Spaniards in 1801, and fell in nineteen days. I got a bad typhus fever here, and the priest wanted to confess me and save me from everlasting perdition! I recovered very slowly until the order for leaving this part of the country arrived. In a few days, even on the line of march, I became well. My brother, in the 34th Regiment, also suffered from the effects of this contagion. Badajoz is the frontier Spanish fortification, and is of much more importance, being very strong and upon the left bank of the Guadiana, over which is a fine strong Roman bridge in good preservation, 700 paces long and 14 wide. This place is the capital of Estremadura, and a Bishop's See. Fort San Christoval is an outwork upon the right bank of the river, and commands the town. Elvas is a fortified town of Portugal, of considerable importance, and about four leagues from Badajoz. It is placed upon a rising piece of ground about a league from the Guadiana, and has two outworks to support the town. Fort de Lippe is placed upon a high hill and justly called a masterpiece in fortification. The other fort, Santa Lucia, stands upon a smaller hill, and communicates with the town by a covered way. Elvas is supplied with water by an aqueduct. The water is brought a considerable distance. If the place was invested regularly the aqueduct might easily be destroyed, which would be a most serious inconvenience to the inhabitants. The general hospital was at this place. Above 4000 British soldiers were buried here during our stay in cantonments.