Ds us; and it was with still greater delight that in a short time we
were able to discern the flags of Sir Alexander Cochrane and Admiral
Malcolm floating in the breeze. By and bye the Tonnant and Royal Oak
showed their hulls in the offing; and a short while afterwards, these
ships, followed by a large fleet of troopers and transports,
majestically entered the bay. As may be imagined, our curiosity was
strongly excited to learn what reinforcements they contained, and what
intelligence they brought; insomuch, that they had scarcely dropped
anchor when they were boarded from almost every one of the ships which
they came to join. NEGRIL BAY. It appeared that this powerful
reinforcement consisted of the following corps:--the 93rd regiment, a
fine battalion of Highlanders, mustering nine hundred bayonets; six
companies of the 95th rifle corps; two West India regiments, each eight
hundred strong; two squadrons of the 14th Dragoons dismounted;
detachments of artillery, rockets, sappers, and engineers; recruits for
the different corps already in this part of the world; and though last,
not least, Major-General Keane to take upon himself the command of the
whole. The intelligence brought was likewise interesting, for it
informed us of the point whither we were to proceed; and it was soon
known throughout the fleet, that the conquest of New Orleans was the
object in view. But before I pursue my narrative further, having
arrived, as it were, at a second commencement, it may be well if I state
in full the number of men of which the army now consisted. In the first
place, then, there were the 4th, 44th, and 85th regiments, originally
dispatched from Bordeaux, and the 21st, which joined the expedition at
Bermuda. These battalions, being considerably reduced by past service,
could not at present muster conjunctly above two thousand two hundred
men; and being likewise deprived of the Marine battalion, which had
fought beside them in the Chesapeake, they reta