“Monte Video, 27th February 1807. “SIR, “Anxious to be immediately employed in the service of my country, I take the liberty of stating the circumstances which led me to make my escape from the enemy, trusting my conduct on the occasion will meet with your sanction, and that you will be pleased to take my wishes into consideration. “The following, I believe, will be found a correct statement of the transaction. “Immediately after the surrender of the fort of Buenos Ayres, on the 12th of August last, I understood from Brigadier-General Beresford that the conditions verbally agreed to between him and Colonel Liniers were, that the British troops were to be considered as prisoners of war, but to be immediately embarked for England or the Cape and to be exchanged for those Spanish prisoners made on the British possessing themselves of Buenos Ayres. On the 13th, in the morning, Colonel Liniers despatched a Spanish officer to Sir Home Popham, with a letter from General Beresford, to send the British transports back for the purpose of immediately carrying the treaty into execution, and a few days afterwards I was present when Colonel Liniers unequivocally affixed his name to the capitulation containing the above condition. “After the return of the transports, various delays took place; and, I believe, it was on the 26th that Colonel Liniers informed General Beresford, in presence of Major Tolly of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment and Captain Arbuthnot, the general’s aide-de-camp, (from all of whom I learned it,) that he regretted to inform him of its having been resolved, in spite of his efforts, not to embark the British troops, and at the same time, declaring _his_ (_Colonel Liniers’_) abhorrence of such a breach of faith, and offering to second General Beresford’s remonstrance on the occasion. On the 27th, in the evening, I heard that Colonel Liniers’ aide-de-camp had waited on General Beresford, stating it to be the colonel’s intention to carry the treaty into execution by privately embarking the men, and requesting the general would, for that purpose, order the British transports to a particular place. “However, on the 31st of August or the 1st of September, it was finally announced to General Beresford, in a letter printed and made public, that our surrender was at discretion, and that it was the determination of the then government of Buenos Ayres that the British troops should be sent to the interior, and the officers, on their parole, to Europe. “General Beresford, for obvious reasons, at first declined our passing a parole; but being given to understand that without it our persons were insecure, and it being determined to separate the officers from the men, he (with the concurrence of the majority of the seniors) finally acceded to it.