صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ed a beautiful little uninhabited island, lying in the mouth of the bay. It consists of a single mountain covered with an exuberant vegetation, and full of mosquitoes, "wheeling their droning flight," sole tenants of the wilderness, with the excep tion of a few rabbits. The aromatic odour exhaled from the shrubs and herbs whereby it is completely mantled, is full as powerful as is the scented atmosphere of Rhodes. A few solitary graves of unknown persons appeared near the shore; containing, probably, the bodies of British seamen, who had fallen victims to the pestilential air of the gulph, during their station here. We added to the number of the animals found upon it, by losing four out of the fourteen sheep put on shore by our crew, to graze while we remained at anchor. Neither ancient nor modern geographers have bestowed any name upon this island: this is the more remarkable, as it affords a very important landmark for vessels entering the gulph. Its lofty conical form, resembling those sepulchral mounds erected by ancient. nations as monuments of departed heroes, together with its situation, surrounded by colossal monuments of the dead, not ill befits it for a natural cenotaph. It may therefore bear the name of ABERCROMBIE, whose deathless glory, green as the perennial foliage by which it is invested, will flourish to the end

scrophularia canina. We have called it SCROPHULARIA SILAIFOLIA. Scrophularia glabra, foliis tripinnatifidis laciniis angustis acutis: panicula terminali longissimo. II. A non des ript species of laserpitium, the lower leaves of which are from eight inches to a foot or more in length, and from two to three inches across where they are broadest, having nearly the general outline of an ostrich feather, except in being less flattened, and more attenuated upward; their segments repeatedly subdivided, till they become as fine as threads; the leaves on the stem have the same outline, but their segments are more distant from each other. The stems are smooth; and vary, in the specimens we saw, from a foot to more than two feet in height. The umbels have from eight to twelve rays, and measure from two to four inches over; their partial umbels are small, and crowded with flowers: the petals yellow. We have called this very beautiful plant LASERPITIUM ELEGANS. Laserpitium foliis decompositis circumscriptions oblongo plumiformibus, laciniis subsetaceis mucronatis glabris: petiolis glabris striatis: involucri laciniis elongatis apice tenuissimis: umbellis hemisphæricis.

III. ALO-descript species of verbascum, from five to six feet high, the stem erect, shrubby, and a little cottony, as well as the leaves, which are from an inch and a half to two inches or more in length; the lowermost attenuated downward into long footstalks, the uppermost sessile. The bunches of flowers on the smaller plants eight to ten inches long, nearly simple, on large plants eighteen inches or more in length, very much branched, and twiggy; the flowers yellow, about an inch in diameter; the filaments woolly toward the base, and one of them always shorter than the rest. We have named this species VERBASCUM STRICTUM. Verbasum caule fruticoso erecto, foliis inferioribus spatulato-ovatis petiolatis, superioribus ovato-lanceolatis obsoletissimè dentalis integerrimisve sessilibus: omnibus pilis stellatis canescentibus, muticis : racemo elongato: pedicellis calyce longioribus divaricatis, IV. A non-descript shrubby species of hypericum, with upright stems, from one to two feet high; the largest leaves little more than an inch in length; the flowers of a golden yellow, small, with petals double the length of the calyx. We have called it HYPERICUM VIRGATUM. Hypericum fruticosum floribus trigynis, calycibus obtusis, glanduloso-ciliatis: racemis caulibus gracilibus quintuplo brevioribus, terminalibus: foliis internodiis, longioribus erectopatulis, punctatis, nudis, subtus glaucis: inferioriðus spatulato-oblongis: superioribus linearibus margine revolutis,

of time, while the boasted renown of every howling soothsayer of Telmessus is hushed in oblivion.

CHAP. IX.

FROM ASIA MINOR TO EGYPT.

The Tauride sails for Egypt-Vigilance of the English Crui sers-Extraordinary Instance of the Propagation of Sound -Astonishing Appearance presented by the British FleetSpectacle caused by the Ravages of War-State of Affairs upon the Author's Arrival-Obstacles encountered by the Expedition under Sir Ralph Abercrombie-Sir Sidney SmithAccount of the Campaign-Causes of the Delay in landing. the Troops-Death of Major M'Arras-Descent of the Army-Battle, and Victory, of the Eighth of March-General Menou-Affair of the Tae fih-Action of the Thirteenth ---Battle of the Twenty first-Sensation caused by the Death of Abercrombie-Measures pursued by his Successor―The Author's View of the Country-Journey to Rosetta.

THE impatience of our captain to get forward with his cargo to the fleet, added to the weak state of my health, made us cager to leave Macri. Having got in our stock of water, and our sheep from Abercrombie's, isle a contrary wind prevailing, we beat out of the gulph, and made our course for Egypt. The wide surface of the Lybian sea was before us. We entertained anxious thoughts concerning the safety of our little bark, deeply laden and ill suited, either in her complement of mari ners or style of construction, to encounter the deadly gales and the calms of the Mediterranean. Landsmen, however, are gene rally erroneous in their calculations at sea. The success of the voyage surpassed our most sanguine expectations. A land breeze came on soon after we had cleared the gulph: the sea was unruffled: we stole along almost imperceptibly, with hardly wind or sensible motion, over a surface so tranquil that a glass full of water might have remained upon deck without spilling a drop. During this voyage, which continued only five days, the most surprising vigilance was manifested by our cruizers, who had

[ocr errors]

the guardianship of the coast of Egypt. Over an expanse comprehending six degrees of latitude, it might have been supposed a vessel lying so low in the water, and so small as that wherein we sailed, would escape observation; but we were spoken to at least half a dozen times; and the master of one of the ships actually boarded the Tauride, believing, from her French aspect, that he should take possession of her as a prize. A very remarkable circumstance occurred, which may convey notions of the propagation of sound by means of water, greater than will perhaps be credited. I can appeal to the testimony of those who with me were witnesses of the fact, for the truth of what I now relate. By observation of latitude, we were an hundred miles from the Egyptian coast: the sea was perfectly calm, with little or no swell, and scarcely a breath of wind stirring: suddenly, captain Castle called our attention to the sound as of distant artillery, vibrating in a low, gentle murmur upon the water, and distinctly heard at intervals during the whole day. He said it was caused by an engagement at sea, and believed the enemy had attacked our fleet off Alexandria. No such event had, however, taken place; and it was afterward known, that the sounds we then heard proceeded from an attack made by our troops against the fortress of Rachmanie upon the Nile, beyond Rosetta: this had commenced upon that day, and hence alone the noise of guns could have originated. The distance of Rachmanie from the coast, in a direct line, is about ten leagues; allowing a distance of one hundred and thirty miles for the space through which the sound had been propagated when it reached our ears.

On the sixteenth of April, toward sunset, we first made the fleet off Alexandria from the masthead of the Tauride. Our captain, being out of his course, mistook it for the fleet of troop ships and other transports. Evening coming on, we steered for the harbour of Alexandria, believing it to be Aboukir Bay, and wishing to get in before it grew dark; an intention which would soon have been interrupted by the guns of our fleet, if we had persevered; but the boatswain at length perceiving our error, we luffed up, and lay to all night. In the morning of April the seventeenth, we saw Alexandria very distinctly, with the French ships lying in the harbour; and had a fine view of the famous columu of Diocletian, then called Pompey's pillar, as well as of the obelisk, to which mariners give the name of Cleopatra's needle. A stiff gale coming on, we steered along the coast for Aboukir. About nine o'clock A. M. we made

Nelson's island, and presently saw the whole fleet of troop ships, transports, with all the Turkish frigates, merchant vessels, and other craft belonging to the expedition. It was the grandest naval sight I had ever beheld; much more suprising in its appearance than the famous Russian armament, prepared during a former war. Innumerable masts like an immense forest covering the sea; swarms of sailing boats and cutters, plying about in all directions between the larger vessels; presented a scene which it is not possible to describe. We stood on, for a considerable distance, to the eastward of Nelson's island, in order to avoid the shoal where the Culloden struck before the action of the Nile; our course being precisely the same pursued by the British fleet previous to that memorable engagement; and the fleet of transports lying at anchor afforded a correct representation of the position of the French armament upon that occasion.

Bearing down at last upon the fleet, we passed under the stern of the Delft frigate. Unmindful of the temerity of such proceeding, I seized the trumpet, hailing a young officer upon the poop, and inquired for the situation of the Braakel. Captain Castle immediately warned us to beware of repeating the question; saying, that we should soon discover the immeasurable distance at which the inhabitants of those floating islands hold the master of a merchant smack: and so the answer proved, coming like thunder, in three monosyllables, easier for the reader to imagine than for me to express. Soon after, the quartermaster of the Braakel came alongside, in the jollyboat; my brother, who expected us, having surmised, as he afterward informed us, from our pitiful appearance and wavering track, that we were his visiters, and in want of a pilot. Having reached his comfortable cabin, we were soon introduced to the officers both of the army and the navy: and found, after our long absence from England, the society of our countrymen particularly grateful. We enjoyed what we had long wanted, the guidance of books and of well-informed men, concerning countries we were yet to explore. According to the promise I had made to the Capudan Pacha, I accompanied my brother on board his magnificent ship, and introduced them to each other. Several other days were employed visiting the different ships in search of friends and schoolfellows, some of whom, particularly of those belonging to the guards, I had the misfortune to find desperately wounded. The sight of many of our galJant officers, mutilated, hacked, or wounded by shot in different

parts of their bodies, and of others brought off from the shore incapable of service from the injuries of the climate, presented a revolting picture of the ravages of war. Nor was this all. One day, leaning out of the cabin window, by the side of an officer who was employed in fishing, the corpse of a man, newly sewed in a hammock, started half out of the water, and slowly continued its course, with the current, toward the shore. Nothing could be more horrible: its head and shoulders were visible, turning first to one side, then to the other, with a solemn and awful movement, as if impressed with some dreadful secret of the deep, which, from its watery grave, it came upward to reveal. Such sights became afterward frequent, hardly a day passing without ushering the dead to the contemplation of the living, until at length they passed without our observation. Orders were issued to convey as many as possible for interment upon Nelson's Island, instead of casting them overboard. The shores of Egypt may in truth be described as washed with blood. The bones of thousands yet whiten in the scorching sun, upon the sands of Aboukir.* If we number those who have fallen since the first arrival of the French upon the coast, in their battles with the Turks,† Arabs, and English, we shall find no part of their own ensanguined territory so steeped in Human gore. Add to this the streams from slaughtered horses, camels, and other animals, (the stench of whose remains was almost sufficient to raise a pestilence even before the arrival of the English,) and perhaps no part of the world ever presented so dreadful an example. When a land wind prevailed, our whole fleet felt the tainted blast: while from beneath the bulks of our transports, ships that had been suuk, with all the encumbering bodies of men and carcasses of animals, sent through the waves a fearful exhalation.

At the time of our arrival, the French had been defeated in three successive actions; that of the eighth of March, the day of landing our troops; the thirteenth, when the English drove them from the heights to which they had retreated; and the memorable battle of the twenty-first, when Abercrombie fell.

Between the village of Ulko and a place called the Caravanserai, I saw the shore entirely covered with human sculls and bones. Dogs were raking the sands for human Alesb and carrion. Nelson's Island became a complete charnel-house, where our sailors raised mounds of sand over the heaps of dead cast up after the action of the Nile.

Ten thousand Turks were drowned at once in the Bay of Aboukir; being driven into the sea by Buonaparte, after the slaughter of four thousand of their countrymen in the field of battle. See the plate, representing this deca massacre, in Denon's Voyage d'Egypte," Pl. 89. and also a narrative of the fact. p. 259.

t Part of the L'Orient, with one of her cables, was raised by the crew of the Ceres, Captain Russel, in weighing anchor.

« السابقةمتابعة »