While the blockade of Cadiz proceeded, Seville scarcely required a garrison, and in March, six hundred infantry, under colonel Remond, and two hundred cavalry, commanded by the duke D’Aremberg, were despatched from thence, against the viscount De Gand, who was still at Ayamonte, vainly demanding refuge in Portugal. He had four thousand troops, but declining an engagement, passed by his left through Gibraleon into the Sierra de Aroche, bordering on the Condado de Niebla. The French then occupied Moguer and Huelva, towns situated at the mouths of the Odiel and Tinto rivers, from whence Cadiz had hitherto drawn supplies, and the viscount returning to Ayamonte, sailed with his troops to Cadiz, being replaced by general Copons, who came with two thousand men to gather provisions on the lower Guadiana, and in the Tinto and Odiel districts. On the other side of Seville, Sebastiani had an uneasy task. The vicinity of Gibraltar and of the Murcian army, the continued descents on the coast, and the fierceness of the Moorish blood, rendered Grenada the most disturbed portion of Andalusia, and a great part of that fine province, visited by the horrors of insurrectional war, was ravaged and laid waste. In the northern parts of Andalusia, about Jaen and Cordoba, Dessolles reduced the struggle to a trifling Guerilla warfare; but it was not so in La Mancha, where the Partidas became so numerous and the war so onerous, that one of Joseph’s ministers, writing to a friend, described that province as peopled with beggars and brigands. Meanwhile Estremadura was the scene of various complicated movements and combats, producing no great results, indeed, but important as being connected with and bearing on the defence of Portugal. The Spanish and Portuguese line of frontier, south of the Tagus, may be divided into three parts. 1º. From the Tagus to Badajos, on the Guadiana. 2º. From Badajos to the Morena. 3º. From the Morena to the sea. Each of these divisions is about sixty miles. Along the first, two-thirds of which is mountainous and one-third undulating plains and thick woods, a double chain of fortresses guard the respective frontiers. Alcantara, Valencia de Alcantara, Albuquerque, and Badajos are the Spanish; Montalvao, Castello de Vide, Marvao, Aronches, Campo Mayor, and Elvas, the Portuguese places. The three first on either side are in the mountains, the others in the open country, which spreads from the Guadiana to Portalegre, a central point, from whence roads lead to all the above-named fortresses. From Badajos to the Morena, forms the second division of the country, it is rugged and the chain of fortresses continued. On the Portuguese side, Juramenha, Mourao and Moura; on the Spanish, Olivenza (formerly Portuguese), Xeres de los Cavalleros, and Aroche.