without lessening the difficulty or the danger of the entrance. These were so great, that the enemy at this time relied on them. They had the Sappho corvette anchored so as to flank an inundation which protected the right of their intrenched camp; they had many armed boats on the Adour, above the town, to protect the convoys of provision which came down the river, and sometimes succeeded in getting in; the mountain guns of the allies, which were the only ones that could be removed, now and then exchanged shots with these: below Bayonne they had some gun-boats in the bend of the river, by the village of Boucaut, stationed there, as it seemed, to strengthen their intrenched camp by a flanking fire; but the only precaution that the enemy had taken to impede the passage, was that of removing the signal-staff on the left bank, which marked the line for vessels to steer by, in making for the mouth of the river. ♦PASSAGE OF THE ADOUR.♦ A number of Spanish _chasse-marées_ had been collected at Socoa for forming a bridge; materials also were ready for a boom to protect it. The naval part of the operation was under Admiral Penrose’s direction, and the 21st was the day appointed for the attempt; but the weather proved unfavourable, and it was not possible for the vessels and their convoy to get out of Socoa. Sir John Hope, however, would not delay his movement, and resolved to attempt the passage without naval co-operation; the troops, it was thought, might be towed over upon rafts formed of pontoons, and carrying about 100 men each. On the evening of the 22nd, the troops were ordered to be in readiness for marching at midnight; they had with them a brigade of 18-pounders, and a rocket detachment which had arrived at Passages a few days after the passage of the Nive. There was a prejudice in the army against this weapon, which had hitherto not been used in the field; the opinion seems to have been, that if it had been an efficient means of destruction, it would sooner have been borrowed from the East Indian nations. Lord Wellington, however, was willing that they should be tried; and some experiments which were made at Fontarabia gave reason for supposing that they might be found useful on the Adour. The direction of this new arm was assigned to Sir Augustus Fraser, but the trial was to be made under all the disadvantages of inexperience; for the corps was composed of men hastily brought together, and entirely ignorant of the arm they were to use; and the rockets themselves were equipped in five different ways, and consequently liable to as many failures. Altogether the enterprise was one of no ordinary hazard; the entrance of the river was frequently impracticable, and always perilous; its width where it was to be bridged was 270 yards, and the tide and the ripple were there so formidable as to preclude the use of anything smaller than decked vessels of twenty or thirty tons burthen; the navigation from Socoa was uncertain; and there were the corvette