While Soult was before Chaves a party of Portugueze, under Alexandre Alberto de Serpa, crossed the Minho near its mouth, and were joined at Guardia by the peasantry; in a few days some thousand men had collected; the Mayorazgo, D. Joaquin Tenreyro, put himself at their head, and their parish priests acted as officers. The two Abbots, who had taken the title of Generals, and disputed which should be called Commander-in-chief of Galicia, compromised their difference by electing Barrios commandant-general of the province of Tuy and division of the Minho, and they set out with all the force they could muster to join one party of these insurgents who blockaded the French in Tuy, while Morillo and Acuña were directed to join the others, who, officered as they were, undisciplined and ill equipped, had proceeded to besiege the enemy’s garrison in Vigo. It had been Soult’s intention, neglecting all points of less importance, to concentrate in Tuy all the troops belonging to his army whom he had left in Galicia. But when a column of about 800 men, under the _chef d’escadron_ Chalot, bringing with it the heavy baggage of the general officers and the military chest, was on the way thither from Santiago, General Lamartiniere ordered them to Vigo, where the resources were greater both for the men and horses. ♦VIGO.♦ The town of Vigo is situated in a bay, which is one of the largest, deepest, and safest in the whole coast of the peninsula. It is built upon a rock; but, notwithstanding the severe loss which the Spaniards, during the War of the Succession, suffered in that port, no care had been taken to fortify it; it had merely a wall, a fort flanked with four bastions on the land side, and an old castle, equally dilapidated, toward the sea. The neighbourhood of Ferrol has made it neglected as a naval station, and Galicia is too poor a country for foreign commerce. There was, however, a manufactory of hats there, which were exported to America; and a fishery was carried on so extensively as to afford employment for thirty mercantile houses. It derived some importance also from being the seat of government for the province of Tuy. The population amounted to 2500. Sir John Moore had at first fixed upon this port as the place of his embarkation, and ordered the transports there; and the delay occasioned by waiting till they came round Cape Finisterre to join him at Coruña gave time for the French to come up, and for that battle, which, while it redeemed the character of the army, proved fatal to himself. ♦THE SPANIARDS APPEAR BEFORE VIGO.♦