red funds,
and the Earl of Peterborough was obliged to borrow considerable sums
of money, and to involve himself in serious pecuniary embarrassments to
remedy the defects, and to supply as far as possible the munition and
stores necessary for the efficiency of the little force he had been
appointed to command. It consisted of some three thousand English
troops, who were nearly all raw and undisciplined, and a brigade, two
thousand strong, of Dutch soldiers.

Early in May the regiment to which Jack Stilwell belonged marched
for Portsmouth, where the rest of the expedition were assembled, and
embarked on board the transports lying at Spithead, and on the 22d
of the month set sail for St. Helens, where they were joined on the
following day by their general, who embarked with his suit on board the
admiral's ship. On the 24th the fleet sailed for Lisbon.

Fond as Jack was of the sea, he did not find the change an agreeable
one. On shore the constant drill and steady work had fully occupied
the men, and had left them but little time for grumbling. On board ship
things were different. In those days there was but little of the strict
discipline which is now maintained on board a troop ship. It was true
that the vessels in which the expedition was being carried belonged to
the royal navy; but even here the discipline was but lax. There were
many good sailors on board; but the bulk of the crew had been pressed
into the service as harshly and tyrannically as were the soldiers
themselves, and the grumblers of one class found ready sympathizers
among the others.

The captain was a young man of good family who had obtained his
appointment solely by interest, and who, although he would have fought
his ship bravely in an action with the enemy, took but little interest
in the regular work, leaving such matters entirely in the hands of his
first lieutenant. The military officers were all new to their work.
On shore they had had the support which the presence of a considerable
number of veteran troops in garrison in the castle gave them; but they
now ceased to struggle against the difficulty of keeping up discipline
among a large number of raw and insubordinate recruits, relying upon
bringing them into order and discipline when they got them ashore in a
foreign country. Beyond, therefore, a daily parade, and half an hour's
drill in the handling of their firelocks, they interfered but little
with the men.

Sergeant Edwards with twenty