cordingly the coast was sounded, and the pass to 1799. Damietta marked with buoys and turkish gun-boats. Oct. The attack began by the boats of the Tigre taking possession of a ruined castle, situated on the eastern side of the Bogaz; which castle the inundation of the Nile had insulated from the main land, leaving a fordable passage.

The turkish flag, displayed on the tower of this castle, was at once the signal for the turkish gunboats to advance, and for the French to open their fire in order to dislodge the little garrison within it. This the French did from a redoubt on the main land, at point-blank-shot distance, mounted with two french 36-pounders and an 8-pounder field-piece. The fire was returned from the launch's carronade, an 18 or 24 pounder, mounted in a breach in the castle, and from field-pieces in the small boats; which soon obliged the French to discontinue working at an intrenchment they were making to oppose the landing.

Lieutenant Stokes, in the mean while, had been detached, with the boats, to check a body of cavalry advancing along a neck of land; in which he succeeded, but with a loss of one man killed and one wounded. This interchange of firing continued, with little intermission, during the 29th, 30th, and 31st; when, at length, owing chiefly to the shells from the carronade at the castle, the magazine at the redoubt blew up, and one of the 36-pounders was silenced. Orders were now given to disembark; but it was not until the morning of the 1st of Nov. November, that the landing could be effected.

The delay had given time to the French to collect a force more than double that of the first division landed, and to be ready to attack it before the return of the boats with the remainder. The French advanced to the charge with bayonets. The Turks, when the former were within ten yards of them, rushed on, sabre in hand, and, in an instant, routed the first line of the french infantry. Their

Nov.

1799. impetuosity, however, carried them too far, and the fate of the day was suddenly changed. The flanking fire from the castle and boats which had hitherto been plied with effect, was now necessarily suspended by the impossibility of pointing clear of the Turks in the confusion. The latter then turned a random fire on the boats, to make the latter take them off; and the sea was presently covered with turbans. The Turks sent up piteous moans for assistance, which with difficulty and risk was afforded to them; all being brought off, except 2000 killed, and about 800, whom the French took prisoners, by wading into the water after them.

The French declare, that they had not actually engaged in this affair, in which general Verdier was the commanding officer, more then 1000 men; and that their loss was so comparatively trifling, as 30 killed and 80 wounded.

About five weeks after the departure of general Buonaparte from Egypt, general Kléber wrote the directory a very full and by no means flattering account of affairs in that country. This important letter he intrusted to the maltese chevalier Barras, (cousin to the director of that name,) who on the 4th of November sailed from Alexandria in a vessel named the Marianne, on board of which had also embarked general Vaux and several other wounded officers.

The Marianne, it appears, had a successful voyage until she gained a sight of the coast of France, when a british sloop of war fell in with and captured her. We have here so much dearth of information to complain of, that we cannot give the name of the ship, nor the date of the capture. Neither are we able to state whether the Marianne was a brig or a fore-and-aft rigged vessel: we conjecture, however, that she was the gun-vessel of that name since (as, we presume, was also the case with the Foudre) recaptured by the French.

The despatches, as is customary on such occa

sions, were thrown overboard, but not with the 1799. customary carefulness. They were wrapped up in Nov. an old silk handkerchief, through which the cannon shot intended to sink them immediately pierced, and one of the british sailors picked them up as they were floating by the side of the vessel. The captain of the sloop of war carried the important papers to the commander in chief; and vice-admiral lord Keith, who had returned to Gibraltar from England on the 6th of December, after making himself acquainted with their contents, transmitted the despatches to his government.

Shortly after the defeat of the Turks at Damietta sir Sidney Smith conveyed to general Kléber, as the commanding officer of the french army in Egypt, the reply of the Sublime Porte to Buonaparte's overtures to the sultan formerly noticed; which reply was simply to the purport, that no negotiation could be entered into without the concurrence of England and Russia. Resting on the belief that England possessed the inclination, and commodore sir Sidney Smith the power, to conclude a treaty jointly with the grand vizier, general Kléber made proposals to that effect to the latter and sir Sidney; and it was at length agreed, that general Desaix and the administrator of the finances Poussielgue should repair on board the Tigre, and there confer with the commissioners on the other side. Owing to the badness of the weather, the two french commissioners were unable to reach the Tigre, who had purposely anchored off Alexandria, until on or about the 29th of December; and almost immediately afterwards a heavy gale of wind drove the ship and the negotiators out to sea.

In the mean while the French had been dispossessed of one of their syrian fortresses, in a manner quite sudden and unexpected; nominally by the advanced body of the grand vizier's army and a detachment of british marines under major Douglas of that corps, but really by the treachery of the

1799. garrison. The army of the grand vizier, it appears, Dec. marched from Gaza to El-Arich on the 20th of December, and immediately summoned the fort to surrender. This being refused, major Douglas and some other british officers reconnoitred the defences; and on the 25th the batteries opened upon El-Arich. The firing continued, without producing any sensible effect, until the morning of the 29th; at which time the french garrison, " presque toute entière,”* revolted, and let down a rope for major Douglas to ascend into the fort.

When we read of a fortress, after a hard struggle, being carried by storm, and of the brave garrison, instead of being crowned with chaplets, put to the sword, we cannot withhold our pity, and feel a difficulty in suppressing our indignation; but the official announcement, that 300 of the garrison of El-Arich fell beneath the sabres of the mussulmans, moves us not at all. We only regret that any british officer should have been present, to reap a benefit from the crimes of a traitor, and, "by means of a rope which was let down for him,"+ to possess himself of that which can only be honourably acquired by fair fighting or fair cession. Operations carrying on in a more northern quarter now demand our attention.

An alleged change in the public mind in Holland, favourable to the views of the dethroned stadtholder, induced the british cabinet, early in the summer of the present year, to plan an expedition against that country, upon a much more enlarged scale than that which had failed in the second year of the war. On account of the unshackled state of her press, and the activity and intelligence of her journalists, England, of all countries in the world, is the least adapted for carrying into effect a secret expedition. In this instance, however, the british government had, in a most surprising manner, concealed its * Victoires et Conquêtes, tome xii. p. 43.

† See London Gazette,

designs, until the expedition, which was upon an 1799. immense scale, was on the eve of departure.

The british North-Sea fleet was still under the command of admiral lord Duncan; and a suitable detachment from it had for a long time blocked up in the Texel the following dutch squadron:

Besides the above squadron ready for sea, there were a few old ships lying in ordinary in the Nieueve Diep. But the strongest portion of the dutch navy lay at Amsterdam and in the Meuse. In the first-named port there were, in commission, if not in readiness for sea, four 74 and two 64 gun ships, and in the second, one 74 and seven 64 gun ships, besides several frigates and brigs.

For employment in this expedition to Holland troops, in large numbers, were assembled at Southampton, under lieutenant-general sir Ralph Abercromby, and others had rendezvoused at Ramsgate, Margate, Barham-Downs, and Yarmouth; the whole, amounting to about 27000 men, placed as on the former occasion under the command of his royal highness the duke of York. A treaty had also been entered into between Great Britain and Russia; wherein the latter stipulated to furnish 17593 men, also six ships of the line and five frigates, all armed en flûte, and two transports, to carry a portion of