Orestes, when a fire of musketry was opened from the carronade battery underneath the Torre do Marco, by some of the Pedroite troops. The officer commanding the battery was immediately made acquainted with this disgraceful conduct, but made no other reply, than that the fire was commenced by the troops on the southern side. On the following day, the piquet at the St. Antonio convent wantonly fired across the river at two little boys who were rowing in a canoe near the Orestes. In both instances. Captain Glascock made formal complaints to the belligerent Generals.
On the 24th July, Captain Glascock received a letter from the British Consul, inclosing a communication from the Marquis de Loulé, stating that a flotilla of boats was collecting on the south side, for the purpose of conveying the Miguelites, under General Lemos, across the river; and requiring H.M. squadron to change its position, and to take up an appointed anchorage, more exposed to a cross-fire than perhaps any other that could have been selected. Satisfied of the impossibility of any boats being launched in the vicinity the Marquis apprehended, and reflecting upon the very opposite conduct pursued by the Pedroite Government on the 17th Dec. 1832, when, without any intimation being given, or any anxiety manifested for the safety of H.M. vessels, the troops of the Duke of Braganza effected a landing under their immediate shelter, and thereby brought upon the Orestes and her consorts a most galling fire; Captain Glascock replied that it was not his intention to risk the lives of his officers and men by taking up any other anchorage. On the following morning, an attack was made upon the lines of Oporto; but, as the captain justly anticipated, no troops had been transported across the river. Fortunate it was that the squadron did not move. Had the anchorage under the Arabade hill, pointed out by the Marquis de Loulé, been taken up, the ships would have been directly in the face of two of the heaviest batteries the Miguelites brought to bear upon their principal points of attack, and much damage and loss of life must have been the consequent result. As it was, a considerable number of shells
