Gantheaume sailed from Brest the 25th of January; he passed the Straits the 6th of February: had he continued his route, he would have been at Alexandria on the 20th of February, where he would have found only the two ordinary cruisers; he might have landed 5000 men whom he carried with him, and 1000 men forming the crews of three frigates or corvettes which he would have left at Alexandria; in seventy-two hours he might have landed all his charge, and then returned to Toulon: there was no squadron in the Mediterranean but that of Admiral Keith, of nine ships of war, which was in the bay of Maire, incumbered with the charge of a convoy of 180 sail. Rear-admiral Warren was at Gibraltar, with some dismantled ships; he was not able to put to sea till a long time afterwards. Admiral Calder, with seven sail, had gone in pursuit of Gantheaume to America; so ably had the English spies been imposed upon. In fact the agents of administration for Guadaloupe and Saint-Domingo, with a great number of inhabitants, both men and women, embarked at Brest, intending to go to America. The frigate La Régénérée sailed from Rochefort, passed the Straits the 19th of February, and arrived at Alexandria the 1st of March; which is a

sufficient proof that Admiral Gantheaume, who had passed the Straits on the 6th of February, would have arrived before that time: and it was not till the 1st of March that Admiral Keith anchored at Alexandria and landed Abercrombie's army. General Friant, who commanded at Alexandria, would therefore have had 8000 men to oppose the landing of the English, who must have failed, and thus Egypt would have been saved. The English army and fleets were, divided by the war which France and Spain were carrying on against Portugal, and by the quadruple alliance, which required a fleet in the Baltic. After having succeeded in deceiving Admiral Calder, there was nothing more to fear in the Mediterranean.

The French admiral's resolution having thus failed him, he anchored, about the middle of February, in the port of Toulon; after having taken an English frigate and sloop of war: the First Consul was extremely dissatisfied; he ordered him to sail again, but he could not put to sea until the 19th of March. On the coast of Sardinia he fell in with Admiral Warren's squadron, which had been equipped at Gibraltar it was inferior to his own; but, as it was not his object to fight, he manœuvred with great skill, and during the night altered Miscellanies. VOL. 1.

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his course, and escaped. Warren, finding at daybreak that the French admiral had disappeared, steered for Alexandria, to join Admiral Keith. Gantheaume ought to have made for Alexandria likewise, reconnoitring Mount Carmel or Mount Cassins, and landed his little army at Damietta: instead of which he returned once more to Toulon. The First Consul was still dissatisfied: he made him sail again, with orders to land his troops at Damietta, if he should keep the Syrian coast, or at El Baratoun, in case he should coast the African shore. El Baratoun is a good port, with plenty of water. From thence to Alexandria water and pastures are every day met with; and the admiral would have landed with the 5000 men, two months provisions, clothes, and money. In five or six days march these 5000 men would have arrived at Alexandria. This third time, Gantheaume reached the Egyptian shore on the 8th of June: these 5000 men would therefore have arrived towards the 15th or 20th of June, at the most propitious moment; the reinforcements from England not having reached the English army. In June, General Coote had but 4000 men at the Roman camp opposite Alexandria: Hutchinson, with 5000 men, was

near Gesch. General Menou, strengthened by this reinforcement, could have attacked General Coote with 10,000 men, would have defeated him, and disengaged Belliard from Cairo; the victory was certain. Thus the French admiral had three opportunities of saving Egypt; but he suffered himself to be imposed on by false reports: had he possessed the decision of Nelson, his squadron being light, very fast sailers, and well manned, he might have despised Keith's squadron; he could not have defeated, but he might have escaped it. Gantheaume was perfectly acquainted with the coasts of Syria and Egypt; and the circumstances were unprecedented. All the English fleets were required in the Baltic. A little squadron of light, fast-sailing, well-manned vessels might have undertaken any thing. Three frigates, commanded by Rear-admiral Peréé, traversed all the seas between Rhodes and Acre, during the siege of Saint-Jeand'Acre, frequently communicated within two leagues of Sir Sidney Smith, behind Mount Carmel, and intercepted several ships of the army of Rhodes, on their way to Acre, laden with provisions, guns, and ammunition for the besieged army; nevertheless L'Alceste, La Courageuse, and La Junon, were very ordinary

sailers: if the rear-admiral had had three such frigates as La Justice and La Diane, he would have manœuvred much more boldly; he would have run races with the Tiger and the Theseus, Sir Sidney Smith's two eighty-gun ships.

To resume: the expedition to Egypt was completely successful. Napoleon landed at Alexandria on the 1st of July 1798; on the 1st of August he was master of Cairo, and of all lower Egypt; on the 1st of January 1799, he had conquered the whole of Egypt; on the 1st of July 1799, he had destroyed the Turkish army of Syria, and taken its train of 42 field-pieces and 150 ammunition waggons. At length, in the month of August, he destroyed the select troops of the army of the Porte, and at Aboukir took its train of 32 field-pieces. Kleber allowed himself to be intimidated by the Grand Vizier; he surrendered all the fortresses to him, and consented to a most extraordinary convention, that of El-Arisch. But Colonel Latour Maubourg, arriving on the 1st of March 1800, before Cairo had been surrendered, defeated the Grand Vizier, drove him into the Desert, and reconquered Egypt. In March 1801, the English landed an army of 18,000 men, without horses for the artillery, or cavalry: this army