Porto de Socca, in consequence of a message from Sir John Hope, received at a late hour the preceding night, requesting him to bring all the assistance he could, as there appeared no hope of the flotilla being able to stem the adverse current, and it had been found impracticable to get a raft across the rapid Adour. This officer informed the Rear-Admiral of the progress already made by the left division of the army, and that Major-General Stopford had been attacked by an enemy of far superior force, whose attempt to dislodge his little corps it was feared would be repeated. As the passage of the bar was an operation of great difficulty and danger, we shall here enter into a minute description thereof.
The Adour, for about two miles from its union with the sea, has to force its way through a sandy plain; the consequence of which is, a vast accumulation of sand in that part of the ocean immediately contiguous to the shore, forming a bar of not less than a mile in breadth, on which at low water there is seldom more than two feet, and at the highest tide rarely above 15. Leading marks there are none, nor can there be any permanently established; for every gale, when the wind does not blow off the land, the sand changes its position: heavy rain in the interior always produces a similar effect, by causing violent freshes to come down from the mountains; in short, no man, however perfect his knowledge of the passage may be one day, can tell how or where it will be the next. The tides run with such rapidity, between the bar and Boucaut, a distance of about three miles, that even a 6-oared gig can scarcely make way against them: this has been partly caused by the erection of a stone wall, about fifteen feet wide, on each bank of the river, for the purpose of guiding the current: on these walls strong posts are placed at intervals, to which the mooring hawsers of vessels waiting the change of the tide, and the warps of others going against the stream, are made fast. The wall on the Boucaut side is extended farther up the river than that on the other, but they both commence at about a mile from the bar.
The spring tides had not yet commenced, and the surf on the bar was very high, when Rear-Admiral Penrose arrived
