erroneous in their calculations at sea. The success of the CHAP. IX. voyage surpassed our most sanguine expectations. A landbreeze 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 Vigilance of the English continued only five days, the most surprising vigilance was cruizers. manifested by our cruizers, who had 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 occured, which Extraordina ry Instance of may convey notions of the propagation of sound by means the Propagaof water, greater than will perhaps be credited. I can tion of Sound. 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 invervals during the whole day. He said it was caused by an engagment at sea, and believed the enemy had attacked our fleet off Alexandria. No such event had, however, taken place; and it was afterwards 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, towards sun-set, we first made the fleet off Alexandria from the mast head of the

1

CHAP. IX. 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 Column 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 surprising 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.

Astonishing

appearance presented by the British Fleet.

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 thander, in three monosyllables, easier for the reader to

imagine than for me to express. Soon after, the Quarter- CHAP. IX. master of the Braakel came alongside in the jolly-boat; my brother, who expected us, having surmised, as he afterwards informed us, from our pitiful appearance and wavering track, that we were his visitors, and in want of a pilot. Having reached his comfortable cabin, we were soon introduced both to the officers 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 wellinformed 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 gallant Spectacle caused by the officers, mutilated, hacked, or wounded by shot in different Ravages of parts of their bodies, and of others brought off from the war. 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, towards 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 upwards to reveal. Such sights became afterwards frequent, hardly a day passing without ushering the dead to the contemplation of the living, 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 (259). If we number those who have fallen since the first arrival of the French upon the coast, in their battles with the

TT

CHAP. IX. Turks (260), Arabs, and English, we shall find no part of their own ensanguined territory so steeped with 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 hulks of our transports, ships that had been sunk (261), with all the encumbering bodies of men and carcases of animals, sent through the waves a fearful exhalation.

State of

the Authors'

Arrival.

At the time of our arrival, the French had been defeated Affairs upon, 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. There had been a skirmish on the twelfth, in which Colonel Arehdale, of the twelfth dragoons, lost an arm, and Captain Butler of the same regiment was taken prisoner. In the action of the twenty-first, the French lost five thousand men, eleven hundred of whom the English themselves buried before their own lines, and in different parts of their camp. We saw the trenches wherein they were deposited. ›

Obstacles en

countered by

under Sir

Ralph Abercrombie.

It is a subject of wonder, that our troops should have, the Expedition succeeded in this instance so well as they did. They landed under every possible circumstance of disadvantage, and yet drove from their posts, with the bayonet, the veteran legions of Buonaparté's army; a mode of fighting in which the French were supposed, at that time, to be superior to every other nation. It was there manifested, as it has since been so decidedly proved, that, man to man, they have no chance of success when opposed to British soldiers. The laurels acquired by our army in Egypt can never fade. Posterity will relate the heroism, which, on these remote and almost unknown deserts, enabled an inexperienced army to vanquish an enemy, not only in possession of the territory, but also inured to the climate, and well acquainted with the country. The obstacles encountered by our troops were greater than have ever been described. The most

powerful originated in their want of information. Never CHAP. IX. did so much ignorance accompany an expedition. The maps they brought with them would have disgraced a Chinese atlas. The instruction they had received was a mere mass of error; and their guides were unable to direct them. It is said, Sir Ralph Abercrombie lamented, in his last moments, the false notions he had been taught to entertain of Egypt, and of the situation in which the French were there placed. In fact, every one possessed more information than the conductors of the British armament. There was not a clerk in the factory of Constantinople or Smyrna who was not better informed. Instead of the flat sands they expected to find between Aboukir and Alexandria, they discovered a country full of eminences and advantageous posts; so that the French, when defeated, had only to fall back from one strong position to another. Once having effected a landing, our troops were told, and they believed the tale, that they might march without interruption to the walls of Alexandria. It may be important to the interests of our empire to state the truth at this distance of time; and to afford a brief record of this memorable campaign, as far as it can be communicated by a writer destitute of any military science: it will be given as he received it, from the most impartial among the French, as well as the most candid of his own countrymen.

Smith.

The divisions and cabals among the Chiefs on both Sir Sidney sides, were productive, often of failure, and sometimes of disaster. The rare military talents and valour of Sir Sidney Smith, beloved too as he was by the soldiers and sailors of the expedition, could not be viewed without jealousy by the commanding officers both of the army and navy. The most unpardonable resistance was therefore opposed to his measures, and to his suggestions. His situation was, in truth, singular. Certain of the Captains in the fleet felt umbrage because one of their profession associated so much with landsmen, and was so often on shore; while the generals of the army could ill brook counsel, or even assistance, from a naval officer. On this account, the important project, recommended by him, of sending gunboats into the Lake of Aboukir(262), previous to the action of the thirteenth of March, and the voluntary offer he made