Transcriber’s Note
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UNDER ENGLAND’S FLAG
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
A PRISONER OF FRANCE, theMemoirs, Diary, and Correspondence ofCharles Boothby, Captain Royal Engineers,during his last Campaign. Square Crown8vo. Cloth. Price 6s. Containing FrontispiecePortrait of the Author, and several Pen-and-inkSketches.
“We cordially recommend this charming bit of autobiography.”—DailyChronicle.
“Should be in the hands of all young soldiers, for it is amanual of soldierly kindness and fine humanity.”—VanityFair.
A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.
AGENTS IN AMERICA
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
66 Fifth Avenue, New York
Captain Charles Boothby, R.E.
Born 1786. Died 1846.
UNDER
ENGLAND’S FLAG
From 1804 to 1809
THE MEMOIRS, DIARY, AND CORRESPONDENCE
OF CHARLES BOOTHBY, CAPTAIN OF
ROYAL ENGINEERS, COMPILED BY
THE LAST SURVIVORS
OF HIS FAMILY,
M. S. B.
&
C. E. B.
SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH VARIOUS PEN-AND-INK SKETCHES FROM
THE AUTHOR’S DIARY
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1900
All rights reserved
· UBIQUE ·
QUO · FAS · ET · GLORIA · DUCUNT
INTRODUCTION
Why should I now write my life, or retrace themore adventurous part of it? I have no materialto afford instruction or impart knowledge even tothe humblest class of readers.
I have been an unobservant and an unintelligenttraveller. The exclusive occupation of an arduousprofession may indeed excuse this, but cannotobviate its sterilising consequences.
I have no new events, no unknown regions, nowonderful discoveries to unfold. Reader, thereare a great many good reasons for not troublingthee with a book, and thou mayest well inquirewhy I have not attended to them.
The fact is, they have had considerable weightwith me, and for these fourteen or fifteen yearshave served to keep my manuscripts quiet in mydesk, and they would have kept them there forever if, by reflection and consideration of thevitimes, I had not conceived a hope that their publicationmight be useful to my countrymen.
Another motive I have, which I mention last,because it is the most serious, and this