This mortifying intelligence did not relax his activity; he directed fast sailing vessels to look out for Anstruther’s armament, and to conduct it to the Mondego, and having heard of Dupont’s capitulation, resolved, without waiting for general Spencer’s arrival, to disembark his own troops and commence the campaign--a determination that marked the cool decisive vigour of his character; for, although sure that (in consequence of Dupont’s defeat) Bessieres would not enter Portugal, his information led him to estimate Junot’s own force at sixteen to eighteen thousand men, a number, indeed, below the truth, yet sufficient to make the hardiest general pause before he disembarked with only nine thousand men, and without any certainty that his fleet could remain even for a day in that dangerous offing, at a moment also when another man was coming to profit from any success that might be obtained, and when a failure would have ruined his own reputation in the estimation of the English public, always ready to deride the skill of an Indian general. It was difficult to find a good point of disembarkation, for the coast of Portugal from the Minho to the Tagus, presents, with few exceptions, a rugged and dangerous shore; all the harbours formed by the rivers have bars, that render most of them difficult of access even for boats, and with the slightest breeze from the sea-board a terrible surf breaks along the whole line of coast and forbids all approach, and when the south wind, which commonly prevails from August to the winter months, blows, a more dangerous shore is not to be found in any part of the world. [Sidenote: Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry.] The small peninsula of Peniché, about seventy miles northward of the Lisbon Rock, alone offered a safe and accessible bay, perfectly adapted for a disembarkation, but the anchorage was completely within range of the fort, which contained a hundred guns and a garrison of a thousand men. The next best place was the Mondego river, and as the little fort of Figueras, taken, as I have before related, by the student Zagalo, and now occupied by English marines, secured a free entrance, sir Arthur commenced landing his troops there on the 1st of August. The weather was calm, but the operation was so difficult that it was not completed before the 5th. At that moment, by a singular good fortune, general Spencer arrived; he had not received sir Arthur’s orders, but with great promptitude had sailed for the Tagus the moment Dupont surrendered, and by sir Charles Cotton had been directed to the Mondego. The united forces, however, only amounted to twelve thousand three hundred men, because the fourth veteran battalion being destined for Gibraltar was left on board the ships.