Note 8 — Chapter I · MONTE VIDEO AND BUENOS AYRES. 1806-7.
Reading edition
The following extracts from Hughes and Clark’s Life of Adam Sedgwick (i. p. 76, etc.) refer to this time—
“Sedgwick went on December 17, 1804, to spend Christmas with Ainger at his father’s house at Whittlesea.... He never forgot the simple pleasures which he there enjoyed.... It was on this occasion that he made the acquaintance of Henry Smith, son to the surgeon of Whittlesea, then a boy of sixteen. Sedgwick watched his career with affectionate interest.
“In 1807 he wrote to Ainger—
“‘Pray has Henry Smith escaped the fate which many of our brave countrymen have met in Egypt? I believe his Regiment was in the expedition.’
“W. Ainger replies—
“‘Whittlesea, August 3, 1807.
“‘Henry Smith, after whom you inquired, did not go into Egypt, but to Buenos Ayres. His father had a letter from him after the engagement. His Captain was killed by his side in the outset; the command of the Company then of course devolved to Henry, who, I believe, acquitted himself very creditably, and did not, to use his own expression, get a single scratch. Last week brought his friends another letter from Monte Video, which acquainted them that he was then (in April) just recovering from the attack of a fever, which appears, Sedgwick, to have been not less formidable than yours was. He says he has lost all his flesh; but I find he retains all his spirit.’”