hearing from my own pen the various incidents which have occurred since that time, I proceed to give you the substance of them.  You will have seen in the public prints that the 49th embarked among the first regiments under Sir Ralph Abercromby, and that the army, amounting to about 10,000 men, after beating the seas from the 8th to the 27th of August, effected a landing near the Helder; that the enemy most unaccountably offered no opposition to our landing; and that, after a well-contested fight of ten hours, he retreated, and left us in quiet possession of the Heights, extending the whole length of the Peninsula.  The 4th Brigade, under General Moore,[9] consisting of the Royals, 25th, 49th, 79th, and 92d, landed to the left, where the greatest opposition was expected, as it was natural to suppose that so essential an object as the Helder would be defended to the last, but, to our utter astonishment, the enemy gave us no annoyance; on the contrary, soon after the affair on the right had terminated, he evacuated the town, which we took quiet possession of the following morning, and with it the whole of the fleet.  The garrison, consisting of 1,600 men, could easily have been intercepted had it not been for a large body of cavalry and a number of cannon, which completely commanded a plain of a mile and a half in breadth, necessary to be crossed to get to them:  as we had neither the one nor the other, it would have been the height of folly to attempt it.  The regiments which distinguished themselves most on this occasion were the 23d, 27th, and 55th.  The evening of our landing, a reinforcement of 5,000 men arrived, but could not disembark until two days after, owing to the badness of the weather.  During all this time the troops lay exposed on the sand hills, without the least shelter to cover them against the wind and rain.  At length the army moved forward eleven miles, and got into cantonments along a canal extending the whole breadth of the country, from the Zuyder sea on the one side to the main ocean on the other, protected by an amazingly strong dyke, running half a mile in front of the line.  In this position we remained unmolested until the 10th of September, on which day the enemy made a most desperate attack in three columns, two on the right and one on the centre of the line:  he could not avoid being beaten, as it was the most injudicious step imaginable, and his loss was in proportion very great.  The Guards, 20th, and 40th, acted conspicuous parts in this affair.  The 49th was here again out of the way, with the exception indeed of Savery, whom nothing could keep from going to see what was doing on the right, and as it happened he proved of great use to Colonel Smith,[10] whom he assisted from the field after being wounded.  The French soldier was taught to consider the British troops as the most undisciplined rabble in the world, and he advanced confident of conquest; but this affair, and others which followed, made him very soon