The army being on shore, the British general repaired to Montemor Velho to confer with don Bernardim Freire de Andrada, the Portuguese commander-in-chief. The latter proposed that the troops of the two nations should relinquish all communication with the coast, and throwing themselves into the heart of Beira, commence an offensive campaign; he promised ample stores of provisions; but sir Arthur having already discovered the weakness of the insurrection, placed no reliance on those promises. He supplied Freire with five thousand stand of arms and ammunition, but refused to separate from his ships; and seeing clearly that the insurgents were unable to give any real assistance, he resolved to act with reference to the probability of their deserting him in danger. The Portuguese general, disappointed at this refusal, reluctantly consented to join the British army, but he pressed sir Arthur to hasten to Leria, lest a large magazine filled, as he affirmed, with provisions for the use of the British army, should fall into the enemy’s hands. After this the two generals separated, and the necessary preparations for a march being completed, the advanced guard of the English army quitted the banks of the Mondego on the 9th, taking the road to Leria. The 10th sir Arthur Wellesley followed with the main body, and thus commenced the FIRST CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL. His plan embraced three principal objects: 1º. To hold on by the sea coast, as well for the sake of his supplies as to avoid the drain upon his weak army, which the protection of magazines on shore would occasion, and also to cover the disembarkation of the reinforcements expected from England. 2º. To keep his troops in a mass, that he might strike an important blow. 3º. To strike that blow as near Lisbon as possible, that the affairs of Portugal might be quickly brought to a crisis. [Sidenote: Sir A. Wellesley’s Narrative. Court of Inquiry.] He possessed very good military surveys of the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of Lisbon, and he was anxious to carry on his operations in a part of the country where he could avail himself of this resource; but the utter inexperience of his commissariat staff, and the want of cavalry, rendered his movements slow, and obliged him to be extremely circumspect, especially as the insurrection, although a generous, was but a feeble effort, and its prolongation rather the result of terror than of hope. The blow had been hastily struck in the moment of suffering, and the patriots, conscious of weakness, trembled when they reflected on their own temerity. [Sidenote: Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry.]