LETTERS FROM SPAIN. 335 LETTER LVI. ENTRANCE OF THE FRENCH INTO ST. MARY’S —• MILITARY NARRATIVES LIMITED VIEWS OF THE JUNTA OF CADIZ. CADIZ, FEB. l8l0. The French have at length made their appearance in consider able force. On the 5th, they entered Port St. Mary’s, at noon; and as they were expected, those inhabitants who were afloat in boats in the river, as soon as the head of the column was visible on the hill above that city, moved down, and the approach of the enemy was made known here by the crowds of small craft which were standing across the bay; the arrival of which announced the intelligence more decidedly. As it was of the utmost importance that every boat should be removed from the opposite shore, and no means left for the enemy to construct a flotilla, encouragement had been held out to the owners of these small vessels, to repair hither when they did arrive : so little attention had been paid to the former professions that considerable difficulties and delays occurred, before the people who had escaped in them could obtain permission to land even on the wharfs, and they Were under the necessity of remaining in the open boats, exposed to 3 n