Note 16 — HISTORICAL RECORD

The proceedings of the Spanish Government were somewhat sudden; and it is stated by Colonel John Drinkwater, of the late Seventy-second regiment, or Royal Manchester Volunteers, in his popular History of the Siege of Gibraltar, that “those officers whose curiosity had led them into the interior parts of the country were positively refused liberty to return to the garrison; they were therefore conducted to Cadiz, and had passports granted them to leave the kingdom by other routes. Brevet-Colonel Charles Ross and Captain John Vignoles, of the Thirty-ninth, with Captain Henry Lefanue, of the Fifty-sixth regiment, nevertheless contrived to join their corps, by assuming disguises, and risking the passage in a row-boat from Faro (a port in Portugal) to Gibraltar: others also attempted, but unfortunately were intercepted in their voyage.”