Barré was wounded at the capture of Quebec; and, under date of Oct. 1759, Knox, in his _Historical Journal_, says, "Colonel Carlton and Major Barré retired to the southward for the recovery of their wounds." From his letter to Mr. Pitt (_Chath. Corr._), we find that Barré was at New York, April 28, 1760. He appears subsequently to have joined Amherst before Montreal; and on the capture of Montreal, on Sept. 8, 1760, he was appointed to convey the despatches to England, and arrived in London on the 5th October. These are facts public and unquestioned--admitted by Mr. Britton.
Now for a fact out of the "Letter to a Brigadier." I could give you half a dozen of like character, but space is precious, and one, I think, will be sufficient. The writer quotes _in extenso_ a letter written by Townshend, published in _The Daily Advertiser_, and dated "South Audley Square, 20th June, 1760." Mr. Britton admits that the pamphlet must have been published "some time before the 5th October, as on that day a Refutation appeared;" it was, in fact, reviewed, or rather abused, in the _Critical Review_ for September. We have proof, therefore, that the "Letter to a Brigadier" was written after 20th June, and founded, in part, on facts known _in London_ only on the 21st of June at the earliest: the probabilities are that it was published in August or September, certainly before the 5th October. How then could it have been written by a man in America, serving before Montreal?
I do not know why, because a man publishes maps of Africa at Gotha, they should not be "fancy portraits," any more than why a man's book should be a good one, because it is printed on a composition which nobody but a German would have the effrontery to call paper.
I had seen Spruner's Map a few weeks after it came out, and the conclusion I came to about it at the time was, that it was certainly a fancy portrait. I shall be glad to be shown that I am in error; and, as I am more sure of the fact that I did come to this conclusion after some examination, than I am of the argument whereby I arrived at it--for my memory is singularly gifted in this way--I should be obliged by E. C. H., or any of your correspondents, informing me what grounds there are for believing Spruner, or any one else, to have produced a map or maps of the north coast of Africa between long. 5° west, and 25° east of Greenwich, or any portion of the said coast,--said map or maps being the result of actual survey. Moreover, if I further inquire when any survey whatever took place of this coast at any time, and profess my utter ignorance of the history of our present _North_ African maps, and my great doubts of their credibility, let not your correspondents imagine that this is one of a _few_ things that I ought to be acquainted with, and really know nothing whatever about.
