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aiding toward the general to aim a blow at him, and being without ball, thrust his ramrod into his piece, and with it shot the dragoon. Soon after, Sir Ralph was seen without his horse, the animal having been shot under him; when Sir Sidney Smith coming up, supplied him with that whereon he was mounted. It was on this occasion that Sir Ralph presented to Sir Sidney the sabre he had wrested from the dragoon.* Soon after, our venerable commander received, in the hour of con quest, the fatal shot in his thigh, of which he afterward expired,

Victory now declared itself for the English; and it may be said to date from the moment when Abercrombie received his mortal wound. Five French generals were killed. Menou's horse was shot under him. It was reported, that he wept when he beheld the fate of the day, and exerted himself in vain endeavours to rally his retreating army. Among the wounded, on our side, were Generals Oakes, Moore, Hope, and Sir Sid ney Smith. The loss sustained by the French was not less than four thousand. Eleven hundred of their dead, as before stated, were buried by our own troops. After the action, both armies maintained the positions they had occupied before the battle

After the twenty-first of March, the affairs in Egypt remained for a considerable time at a stand. We joined the fleet, as before mentioned, upon the seventeenth of April. The death of Sir Ralph Abercrombie had then thrown a gloom over every thing; and to its dissipation, neither the splendid talents nor the acknowledged popularity of his successor were in any degree adequate. Although General, now Lord, Hutchinson, received as members of his council all those persons whose advice or assistance was esteemed by the late commander in chief, and im plicitly adopted every measure to which it had been his intention to adhere, the regret of the army and navy in the loss of their beloved veteran was expressed only by murmur and discontent. A less enviable situation could not have been sought than that which General Hutchinson was called upon to fill. There is now, indeed, both satisfaction and pleasure in dwel

Sir Sidney has since placed this sabre upon the monument of Sir Ralph Abercrombie.

The French army upon this occasion consisted, according to their own statement, of nine thousand seven hundred men, including fifteen hundred cavalry, with forty-six pieces of cannon. The British force, reduced by their losses in the actions of the eighth and thirteenth, &c. did not yield an effective strength of ten thousand men, including three hundred cavalry. As the battle was fought by the right of the English army only, half that number resisted the concentrated attack of all the French force. See Hist, of the Exped. p. 43.

ling upon the difficulties of his arduous station; because the result has proved; that no one could either have been better qua lified for the undertaking, or could have devised a scheme more wisely for the ultimate success of the enterprise, than the very system he pursued, and accomplished, for the final delivery of Égypt. Profiting by the moral inference contained in the an cient fable of "the four bulls aud the lion," he directed the operations of the army successively to the different stations held by the dispersed forces of the enemy: subduing these, one after another, instead of allowing them to combine their strength, he was enabled to effect what no other plan of carrying on the campaign could possibly have brought to pass. It is true, matters did not proceed so rapidly as before, but they advanced with greater certainty. A mere spectator in the fleet would have heard continual complaint of the tardiness and torpor seeming to prevail. Even the French, from their advanced posts, conversing with our officers, were known to indulge their sarcasm at the slowness of our operation, by expressing pretended impatience for better quarters, and by occasionally remarking, "Messieurs, vous vous hâter très lentement." The sentiments, however, of their own generals might now be cited, if it were necessary, to prove that a more soldier-like undertaking was never brought to issue, nor one more characterized by sound military science, than the plan for the expulsion of the French, which the successor of Abercrombie adopted.

To accomplish this desirable object, the first effort was, to prevent all communication between the garrison of Alexandria and the rest of Egypt. This was effected by destroying the canal of Alexandria, and thereby not only preventing a supply of fresh water, but also causing the waters of the lake of Aboukir to fall into the ancient bed of the the lake Mareotis. We were present during this operation. The canal was cut through in two places: the torrent rushing vehemently down a steep of eight feet, soon carried away the intervening mound, and produced an inundation extending to such a prodigious distance, over all the desert to the east and south of Alexandria, that before the middle of May, the French, than whom no people show more alertness in converting even disaster to some advan ́tage, had a flotilla of gun boats upon this new created sea.

About this time, Fort Julien, upon the Rosetta branch of the Nile, was taken by the English and Turks; which was followed by the evacuation of Rosetta. Rachmanie, an important ført, was then attacked and carried: by the capture of this

place, all communication with Alexandria was said to be inter rupted. Immediately after the capture of Rachmanie, the Eng lish army began its march to Cairo. Their route was along the banks of the Nile. They proceeded about ten miles a day, suffering much from the heat, as well as from the drenching dew and the mosquitoes during the night. Berelos aud Damiata, upon the coast, were moreover abandoned by the French and Maltese, and taken possession of by the Turks. The Maltese deserted to us, and the French, putting to sea, were captured by our fleet.

Upon the twenty-second of April, Captain Clarke conveyed us, in his cutter, to visit the English camp off Alexan dria; on which occasion we first landed in Egypt. We entered the lake of Aboukir by the block house, remaining a short time. to examine the landing place of our troops. The waters of this extensive lake broke iu from the sea in the year 1784. It is every where sballow; and so full of fishes, that they leap into the boats passing over the lake; a circumstance which greatly surprised us. The opening of the sluices for the inundation of the old bed of lake Mareotis had then drained it so low, that

boats could barely pass. We were often stranded, and every one of us obliged to get into the water, for the purpose of heav ing our bark over the mud, upon which she rested. We landed just below the English camp, and beheld the extraordinary spectacle of a desert rendered lively by the presence of a British army; admiring the singular concurrence of circumstances which had occasioned an exhibition of English soldiers and sailors, lounging about, and seemingly at home, upon the sands of Egypt. The shore was covered with palm trees in full bloom, making, at this season of the year, a splendid appearance.Arabs and Moors were seen mounted on dromedaries and camels; while the officers of our army appeared cantering upon asses, to and from the little shops established by Greeks in tents near the shore. The strong reflection of the sun's rays from the sand is painful; but the most refreshing breezes, as constant as the sun, daily cool this parched coast. We did not experience any oppressive degree of heat, but walked about two miles, from the shore to the camp, with great pleasure. The sands were covered with rare plants; and these were all in flower.

The 12th dragoons, the regiment to which our visit was prio cipally intended, had received orders to march for Rosetta the day following that on which we arrived. We dined with them in their Egyptian mess room: this consisted of a square hole

in the sand, covered with the branches of palm trees. In the evening we rode with them throughout the camp, and passed the outside of the lines. The whole front of the British army was then drawn out, and under arms, behind the breast work. We visited the 28th regiment, in which were several officers of our acquaintance: and also the artillery upon the heights opposite Alexandria. Our videttes were then going out. From this place we very distinctly saw the French cavalry descending from the works before Alexandria, to relieve their own videttes. They were so near, that we could discern the riders, and distinguish them putting on their long white cloaks for the night. The French and English videttes were then stationed within an hundred paces of each other, and often conversed; the French party coming frequently over to ours, to ask for water. At that time, the enemy occupied a lofty mound opposite to eur line, and a deep valley separated the two armies. This valley reminded me of the neutral territory in America where Major André was taken, while endeavouring to effect his escape from the enemies' works he had been so hardy as to reconnoitre. As we returned to the station occupied by the 12th, we passed the ruin where the action was hottest during the battle of the twenty-first; visiting its interior, an old soldier, one of the heroes who had there distinguished himself, pointed out the heaps of sand raised over the bodies of those who fell during the terrible conflict, and showed us the dark traces of their blood yet remaining upon the walls. Afterward we rode to examine the sluices made through the Alexandria canal, and beheld the torrent still gushing, with unabated force, from the lake of Aboukir. We had a tent allotted to us for the night; and although it was double lined, so copious are the dews of Egypt after sunset, that the water ran plentifully down the tent pole. We slept upon the sand, not without dread of scorpions, which are here very numerous, and had stung several of the soldiers.* In the morning, we discovered that our tent was the only one remaining upon that station. The 12th had marched before day light. During our return to the fleet, we had greater difficulty than before in getting our boat over Aboukir Lake.

Upon the twenty-fifth we again quitted the Braakel; and sailed for the caravanserai at the mouth of the lake Maadie, determined to visit Rosetta. As there was not sufficient depth of water in the lake, we steered along the coast, and landed at the

One of the privates received a wound from a scorpion, and lost the upper joint of is fore-finger before it could be healed.

village of Utkô, to the west of an old castle upon the shore. The surf ran very high, and is here generally dangerous. We found the sand covered with human sculls and other bones, which the sea and the sun had whitened; the jackals having previously stripped them of every particle of flesh. These were described to us as the remains of those Turks who fell in the dreadful slaughter, when Buonaparte drove a whole army into the sea.*

We had to cross a perfect specimen of the pathless African desert, in our way to Utkô. The distance, however, did not exceed three miles. High mounds of sand, shifting with every change of wind, surrounded us on all sides, and concealed the view of other objects. Yet even here were found a few rare plants, and some of these we collected; but the heat was ex tremely oppressive. We also observed in this desert an inte resting proof of the struggle maintained by man against the for bidding nature of the soil. Here and there appeared plantations of pumpkins, and a few jars and cylinders of terra cotta containing young palm trees: these were placed in holes deep in the sand; a hollow space surrounding each plant, to collect the copious dew falling every night. The vegetation of Egypt, even the redundant produce of the Delta, is not owing solely to partial inundation from the Nile, or artificial irrigation. When we hear that rain is unknown to the inhabitants, it must not be supposed the land is on that account destitute of water. From all the observations we could collect during our subsequent residence, it seemed doubtful whether any other country has so regular a supply of moisture from above. Even the sands of the desert partake largely of "the dew of heaven," and, in a certain degree, of "the fatness of the earth.” Hence it is that we meet with such frequent allusion to the copious dew distilled upon oriental territories in the sacred writings. Brotherly love is compared by David to "the dew of Hermon." The goodness of Judah is described as the dew. "The remnant of Jacob shall be," it is said, "in the midst of many people, as a dew from the Lord." And the blessings promised by the son of Beeri,** are to "be as the dew uoto Israel." In all this sandy district, palm trees are very abundant, and their presence is a never-failing indication of water below the surface: wheresoever they are found, a

*See note, page 163.

This is a part of the desert described by Savary. Letters on Egypt, vol. 1. p. cd. 2: Lond. 1787. Micah. v. 7. ** Hos. xiv. 5.

Ps. cxxxiii. 3.

Hos. vi. 4.

47.

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