At first, La Peña’s march pointed to Medina Sidonia, his vanguard stormed Casa Viejas on the 2d of March, and the troops from Algesiras, amounting to sixteen hundred infantry, besides several hundreds of irregular cavalry, came in to him; encreasing his force to twelve thousand infantry, eight hundred horsemen, and twenty-four guns. The 3d he resumed his march, but hearing that Medina Sidonia was entrenched, turned towards the coast, and drove the French from Vejer de la Frontera. The following evening he continued his movement, and at nine o’clock on the morning of the 5th, after a skirmish, in which his advanced guard of cavalry was routed by a French squadron, he reached the Cerro de Puerco, called by the English, the heights of Barosa; being then only four miles from the sea mouth of the Santi Petri. Barosa is a low ridge, creeping in from the coast, about one mile and a half, and overlooking a high and broken plain of small extent. This plain was bounded on the left by the coast clifts, on the right by the forest of Chiclana, and in front by a pine-wood, beyond which rose the narrow height of Bermeja, filling the space between the Almanza creek and the sea. The Bermeja hill, could be reached either by moving through the wood in front, or along the beach under the clifts. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. IX. Section 1.] At Tarifa, Graham, judging that Victor would surely come out of his lines to fight, had obtained from La Peña a promise to make short marches; to keep the troops fresh for battle; and not to approach the enemy except in a concentrated mass. Nevertheless, the day’s march from Casa Vieja, being made through bad roads, with ignorant guides, had occupied fifteen hours, and the night march to Barosa had been still more fatiguing. The troops came up in a straggling manner, and ere they had all arrived, La Peña, as if in contempt of his colleague, without either disclosing his own plans, or communicating by signal or otherwise with Zayas, sent the vanguard, reinforced by a squadron and three guns, straight against the mouth of the Santi Petri. Zayas had, indeed, cast his bridge there on the 2d, and commenced an entrenchment; but, in the following night, being surprised by the French, was driven again into the Isla: hence the movement of the vanguard was exceedingly dangerous. Lardizabal, however, after a sharp skirmish, in which he lost nearly three hundred men, forced the enemy’s posts between the Almanza creek and the sea, and effected a junction with Zayas.