[Sidenote: Lieut.-Col. Robe to Brig.-Gen. Macleod.] “I now deem it my duty (which were I to neglect I should be highly culpable) to point out to you in the strongest manner the impolicy of sending Artillery to a foreign country without horses. Even the horses we have now, old, blind, and casts from the Cavalry as they are, we find superior to what we can obtain from the country. The latter are good of their kind, but small, and not of sufficient weight for our carriages. Three hundred good horses would have cost the country no more for transport than as many bad ones, and what we shall do for the brigade now to be landed remains to be decided.... I must also mention the proportion of general stores which you, sir, know Artillery cannot do without, and which ought to be sent out with every embarkation. Had I been made acquainted with what was to have been embarked, I should not have gone on board ship till the proper proportion had been furnished. _I did everything in my power to obtain the information from the Board, and was referred to Mr. ----, who himself at the time was not furnished with any information._ I did at hazard request Mr. Spencer to put on board one hundred sets of horse-shoes and some nails, thinking them an addition to what would be provided for us. _These are all I have had for the horses of three brigades_; and had I not obtained some more from the Commissary-General, belonging to the horses delivered to us, the horses must have taken the field _barefoot_. I have made demands for some, and for such things as are most immediately required, and what may be wanted in the meantime must be purchased here. “I write this to you officially, and must not be considered as individually complaining or making difficulties. My people of all classes exert themselves, and I am determined to get on; but I know that, engaged in a department where much is expected, I am doing my country greater service by pointing out what may render that department as complete as it is supposed to be, than if I were to remain for ever silent on the subject.”