Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1819 edition. Excerpt: ... NARRATIVE, Sfc. fyc. Being in London in the month of July, 1817, and hearing of the liberal offers held out to young men whose enthusiasm or necessities might tempt them to join the standard of Liberty then unfurled in the plains of the New World, in an unlucky hour I resolved to contribute my feeble efforts towards the emancipation of an oppressed, and, as I then imagined, a deserving people. I had the good fortune to meet with a very able British officer, who was then exerting himself in forming a brigade of foot artillery, to consist of five light six-pounders, one 5 inch howitzer, a suitable number of officers, and ninety men, including non-commissioned officers. I was admitted into this establishment with the rank of second lieutenant, and received orders to hold myself in readiness to embark at a week's notice. The interval before sailing was sufficiently employed in endeavouring to qualify myself for the" scientific and respectable post of an artillery officer, which, with the equipment I was directed to procure, led me into considerable expense. We embarked at Gravesend, on the 2d of December, on board the ship Britannia, Captain Sharp. As the events of the voyage, together with many other particulars, have been related by my brother officer, Lieutenant Halkett, and a recapitulation of thenTwould belinnecessary, I shall proceed to a detail of those that occurred after he relinquished the expedition. The brigade having been disbanded, because our dispatches to General Bolivar were not acknowledged, though forwarded at considerable danger and expense, to the patriot army, then about eight hundred miles up the river Orinoco, I was left destitute in a part of the world to which I was an utter stranger; and my only resource was..."
