In the month of May, after due preparations, Captain Home Popham, with a small squadron, having on board a body of troops commanded by Colonel Coote, set sail for the purpose of destroying the sluices, gates, and basin of the Bruges canal at Ostend. This town was bombarded, and the sluices were blown up; but on returning to the beach to re-embark, the soldiers were hemmed in by a superior force, and Coote found himself under the necessity of surrendering.
EXPEDITION TO MINORCA.
An expedition to Minorca was more successful. In the autumn Admiral Duckworth’s squadron landed in Addaya Bay in that island a land-force of about eight hundred men, under General Sir Charles Stuart, which compelled the Spanish governor to surrender the whole of the island by capitulation.
BATTLE OF THE NILE, ETC.
The grand aim of the French directory this year was the seizing and colonizing of Egypt. This idea had been suggested by Vergennes to the French government during the monarchy, and it had for some time been entertained by Napoleon. The blow was chiefly aimed at England; for the project was to gain possession of Egypt, with a two-fold design of obtaining the riches of the Nile, and extending their sway to the banks of the Ganges, so that the empires of Turkey and Hindustan might become annexed to the French republic. It was to these ends that Napoleon proposed an expedition to Egypt; and the directory were well pleased with it, because if its great object should fail, they hoped thereby to rid themselves of a dangerous and troublesome rival. But funds were wanting to carry this design into effect; for though Italy and other countries had been pillaged by the French soldiery, with a defiance of all principle or political honesty, yet was the government poverty-stricken: however, the French directory looked around for some weak ally or neutral to plunder, and their cupidity was directed towards free Switzerland. Berne had a well-replenished treasury; and on the flimsy pretext of its having publicly enrolled emigrants and given shelter to deserters, a French army, under General Breme, was sent on the marauding errand of demanding the public purse of its citizens. Success attended this armed banditti; the ruling families of Berne were displaced; the government changed; the most respectable senators were banished; the treasury was confiscated; and large contributions likewise exacted for the supply of the invading army. The money thus fraudulently obtained enabled Napoleon to set sail for Egypt. His expedition counted thirteen ships of the line, with seven frigates and smaller vessels, making in the whole forty-four sail. The fleet was commanded by Bear-admiral Brueys, and the transports had on board about 20,000 men, with a proportionable number of horses and artillery, provisions and military stores, as well as a lai-ge body of scientific men, who joined the armament in order to make researches into the antiquities and productions of Egypt. The capture of Malta was included in the plan of the French directory, and Napoleon arrived there on the 9th of June; and Hompesch, the Grand Master, terrified by the threats of some of the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in the French interest, capitulated on a summons to surrender. Having plundered the churches, and the Alberghi, and other establishments of the order, and having left General Vaubois to take care of the island, Buonaparte re-embarked for Egypt. He came in sight of Alexandria on the 29th of June, and on the next day the troops landed within three miles of that city. Alexandria was captured, and from its walls Napoleon issued a proclamation, telling the inhabitants that he came as the friend of the Sultan, to deliver them from the Mamelukes, and that he and his soldiers respected God, his prophet Mohammed, and the Koran. On the 7th of July Napoleon moved from Alexandria to Cairo, and on the 21st, on arriving in sight of the great pyramids, he discovered the whole Mameluke force, under Murad Bey and Ibraham Bey, ready to meet him. Battle was soon joined, and was easily won by the French. Such of the Mamelukes as escaped destruction retreated towards Egypt. The conqueror took possession of Grand Cairo, sending Desaix against Murad Bey in Upper Egypt.
As the French fleet was sailing towards Egypt, it passed near an English squadron, under Nelson: a thick haze sheltered it from his observation, and favoured its progress. Nelson had been despatched by Lord St. Vincent to watch the preparations at Toulon, having under him three ships of seventy-four guns and four frigates. At the time of the French fleet’s sailing he had put into the Sardinian port of San Pietro, to relit his squadron, it having been damaged by a storm. While here, he received a re-enforcement of ten line-of-battle ships, and one of fifty guns; and with this force—except the frigates, which had been separated from him during the storm, he finally set sail towards Naples. Here he learned that the enemy’s fleet had visited Malta; and being left by his commander to act upon his own judgment, he formed a plan of attacking it there. On his arrival, however, he discovered that the French had already departed eastward, and rightly judging that Alexandria was their destination, he steered thither. He arrived at Alexandria on the 28th of June, and gaining no intelligence of the enemy, he returned to Sicily. By the public voice of England, he was declared for this failure worthy of impeachment; and Earl St. Vincent was censured for sending so young an officer on so important a service. On arriving at Sicily, the Neapolitan ministry, anxious to avoid everything which could endanger their peace with the French directory, declared openly to aid him; but through Lady Hamilton’s influence at court, Nelson procured secret orders to the Sicilian governors, under which he obtained all necessary supplies from Syracuse. As soon as he had re-victualled and taken in fresh water, he turned his power again toward Egypt, asserting in a letter to his commander, that if the French were bound to the Antipodes, or if they were anywhere above water, he would discover them and bring them to action. He searched for them in vain along the coast of the Morea, and he took the resolution of again sailing towards Alexandria; and on the 1st of August, Captain Flood in the “Zealous” signalized the enemy’s fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay. No time was lost by Nelson in preparing for action: he had sought them with eagerness, and he determined to conquer them now that they were discovered. Signals were given for battle: to attack the enemy’s van and centre, as they lay at anchor. Nelson had scarcely taken rest or food for some days, but he now ordered dinner to be served up; and he observed to his officers as they rose from the table: “Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey.” The enemy’s ships were moored in compact line of battle, describing an obtuse angle, close in with the shore, flanked by gunboats, four frigates, and a battery of guns and mortars on an island in their van. This was a formidable position, and to some commanders one which would have deterred from an attack. But it was not so with Nelson. As soon as he discovered the enemy’s position, his genius dictated what should be done. Where an enemy’s ship could swing, he reasoned, there was room for a British ship to anchor. Acting upon this thought, therefore, he determined to station his ships on the inner side of the French line. In this way the two fleets joined battle. Minutely to describe this great sea-fight would require many pages, it will be sufficient therefore to say, that the victory on the part of the English was complete. Of the thirteen French ships of the line, eight surrendered, two struck on the shore and were afterwards captured, one blew up, and two only escaped. Had Nelson not received a severe wound in the head in the very hottest of the battle, it is probable that not one of the enemy’s fleet would have left Aboukir Bay. The British loss in killed and wounded was 895; the French, 8330 in killed, wounded, and captured. “Victory,” said Nelson, “is not a word strong enough for such a scene: it is a conquest.”
The effects of this battle were soon seen in Egypt. The Sultan issued an indignant manifesto, declaring war against France for invading one of his provinces in a time of peace and amity; and called upon the Pashas of Syria to collect their forces. The destruction of the French fleet was announced far and wide by fires kindled by the Arabs; and on the 22nd of September, the people of Cairo killed a great number of the French in the streets. This insurrection was put down by a dreadful massacre of the inhabitants; but the blood of the Moslems thus slain, and many of them in the great mosque of the prophet, called for vengeance, and it was easy to forsee that Napoleon, albeit he proclaimed himself to be the man of destiny foretold in the Koran, would soon be compelled to retire from Egypt.
In Europe, the effects of this battle were instantaneous and surprising. It raised the drooping spirits of the Anti-Gallican party in every country; and it filled all England with transports of joy and triumph. Nelson was raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile, and many other honours were heaped upon him. He returned to Naples, where he found that the king was collecting a numerous army, with a view of driving the French from Rome and Tuscany; that the congress at Radstadt had been virtually broken up; that the Emperor of Austria was again arming; and that a new coalition was forming against the French; their conduct at Rome, in Switzerland, and other countries, being in direct opposition to the conditions of the treaty at Oampo Formio. In November the island of Gozo, separated from Malta by a narrow channel, capitulated to a detachment of Nelson’s squadron, and Malta itself was closely blockaded.