The embarkation of the troops from Walcheren was conducted under circumstances of great difficulty. The weather was unfavourable, and for many days after the men were on board, the wind was so adverse as to prevent the ships from sailing. A rear-guard had been left on shore to guard against any attack from the enemy, whose vessels had been accumulating for some weeks in the neighbourhood; and the troops on board the English ships were held in readiness for immediate disembarkation, should the expected attack take place. Some reinforcements which reached the island from England during the embarkation, including two companies of Artillery under Lieut.-Colonel Gold and Major Carncross, were not required to land, but their arrival had a moral effect in ensuring a peaceable evacuation of the place. From Colonel Gold, who landed for a few hours, a graphic description of the state of Walcheren was forwarded to General Macleod in Woolwich. Major Dixon had previously boasted of the thoroughness of his measures in destroying [Sidenote: Major Dixon to D.-A.-Gen., 4 Dec. 1809.] the fortifications. “I am most happy,” he wrote, “to say that not an article in point of honour or value will be found in the island when the enemy again takes possession: never was there a clearer sweep (I mean in a military point of view); and I am satisfied that he will not for years be enabled to use the Bason for the purposes of the navy. All the parapets are also thrown down, and not a vestige is to be seen of gun, ammunition, or store throughout the island.” This picture was confirmed and completed by [Sidenote: Colonel Gold to D.-A.-Gen., 10 Dec. 1809.] Colonel Gold, who wrote as follows: “I arrived just in time to witness the destruction of the Arsenal, which is completely effected; the entrance to the Bason, in which the French navy were sheltered last winter, is entirely choked up by blowing up the pieces of the flood-gates. Never was a scene of greater _public mischief_. On putting foot on shore I found Macartney in the midst of a wreck of carriages, and, at Flushing, Pilkington and Dixon surrounded by their own conflagrations; while Middleburg presented the most pacific appearance, and even at a church in Flushing, immediately opposite to the scene of destruction, divine service going on as if nothing unusual had occurred.... I have been across the island to-day, and although, from the many good descriptions I had heard, I was fully prepared, I could not have conceived any country so intolerably bad for military operations; and that you (General Macleod) made your batteries and got your guns into them is surprising.”