I.

Aboukir.

CHAP. following morning, being the first of August, at seven A. M. weighed, and made sail. At four Arrival at P. M. saw the fleet off Aboukir, and plainly observed the Admiral's ship. The same evening, at eight o'clock, we came to anchor nearly in the station held by the Romulus previous to her sailing for the coast of SYRIA. Here we received the joyful intelligence of the surrender of Caïro, reports of which had reached us in SYRIA. Presently after, Captain Clarke came alongside, in the Braakel's barge; when, taking leave of our kind friends, we regained once more a comfortable birth within his cabin.

kel receives

convoy a

to Mar

seilles.

We had not been here many days, before The Braa- the Braakel received orders from the Admiral, orders to Lord Keith, to convoy the French prisoners Squadron captured at Rachmanie and the different forts upon the Nile, including the garrison of Caïro, to Marseilles; and, at the same time, to take in, with as many of those prisoners as possible, their artillery, arms, baggage, &c. and to sail with all possible expedition. So rapid were the measures adopted by Captain Clarke for this purpose, that he was ready before any of the other vessels appointed to convey the prisoners had obtained their cargo; and, making the signal for sailing to all the convoy, he was ordered to proceed on

I.

Prisoners.

his voyage, without waiting for the other ships. The scene which ensued on board the Braakel, upon the arrival of the French prisoners, baffles French every effort of description. Strolling players, collected in a barn, never exhibited more ludicrous dresses, or a better burlesque of the military character. Voltaire, dressed in his pasteboard helmet, with his laced coat and long dirty ruffles, to represent, in one of his own plays, the person of Alexander the Great, was a hero, compared with some of the soldiers of the French army. There were many who made their appearance with the most ghastly visages, beneath helmets of all colours, covered with horses' tails pending over their wrinkled cheeks and shrugged-up shoulders. Every one imagined he should testify a proper degree of spirit, and perhaps ingratiate himself with a British crew, by the ejaculation of some English oath, as soon as he set his foot upon the quarter-deck. When they were all drawn up, in three lines, to be reviewed, and their respective births were assigned to them, some of the new comers were found to be abandoned women, wretchedly dressed in the tattered habits of French soldiers. Other females, more pitiable, came also in men's clothes; but these were Georgian and Circassian girls, once the secluded pride of Turkish Charems,

CHAP. but afterwards the more lamentable slaves of

I,

the lowest rabble of the French army. They were desirous of going anywhere, rather than to remain in EGYPT, where they were sure of being immolated by the first Moslem they might

encounter.

As soon as matters were somewhat adjusted, and the wounded men taken care of (among whom there were a few in so terrible a condition that they died upon the following day), a deputation, from all the prisoners, waited upon the Captain, to offer him a band of music every day during dinner; and requesting his permission to exhibit a club-d'armes, for fencing, every morning; and a comédie every evening. Never was there any thing to equal the gaiety and good-humour of these poor Frenchmen. All animosity was laid aside; singing, dancing, fencing, and acting, became the order of the day; even the wounded, when able to come upon deck, shewed signs of the joy which animated their comrades in the thoughts of returning to France. They would do any thing to gratify the English officers and men. Sometimes, when their band played God save the King," the members of the theatrical party, in the forecastle, sang out, in broken English, "Send him victorious!"

I.

The moment came, however, which was to CHAP. create a pause in all this mirth. The Braakel got under weigh; and a stiff gale causing more motion than suited either the club-d'armes or the comédie, every Frenchman was indisposed. Nothing was then heard but groans and curses. All the instruments were out of tune; and the deck was soon abandoned to the active sailors belonging to the ship's crew. It had been Captain Clarke's intention, in tacking out of Aboukir Roads, to put us on board the Sultan Selim, commanded by the Capudan Pasha, with whom we were acquainted; but this proved to be impracticable. To our very great consternation, we found ourselves, upon the morning of the seventh of August, so far advanced in the voyage to France, that we were already out of sight of the fleet. The Captain told us there was only this alternative; either to go with him to Author Marseilles, or to accept of a small boat, which he escapes would willingly give us, and, in this, run before being coilthe wind to the Mouth of the Nile. The turbu- France lent appearance of the sea did not at all tempt us to try so hazardous an experiment as the last; for if we had so done, and had escaped the consequences of our own ignorance among mountainous waves, we should inevitably have perished in the surf upon the coast. We therefore could only lament the loss of our intended.

narrowly

veyed to

CHAP. journey in Egypt, and retire into the cabin with I. General La Grange, to whom we made known

our very embarrassing situation. While we were thus ruminating upon the unexpected change in all our plans, a cry upon deck an nounced that a sail was in sight, standing towards Aboukir. This proved to be the Diadem, of 64 guns, Captain Larmour, from Cyprus, with wood and water, which presently drew near to us, and was hailed from the Braakel. We requested a passage to the fleet: this was granted, and with some difficulty we got on board. Here we found Colonel Capper, the bearer of overland despatches from India to the British army in Egypt. He gave us an account of his very arduous expedition; and communicated some interesting particulars, concerning the existence of antient Worship of Pagan superstitions in Mount Libanus, particu

Astaroth

upon Mount

larly those of Venus or Astaroth. These were Libanus. alluded to in the preceding Volume'; and as a renewal of the subject here might be deemed irrelevant, the author has reserved his observations upon Colonel Capper's discovery for the Appendix: it relates to a very interesting relique of the antient mythology of SYRIA.

(1) See Vol. IV. p. 204. Note 1.

(2) See the Appendix to this Volume, No. I.