The third and last division of Nelson’s boats which succeeded in reaching the enemy attacked with the same gallantry, and were repulsed as decidedly. They had five killed and twenty-nine wounded. Grand total, 44 killed, and 126 wounded. In addition the English had to leave behind them not a few of their boats; and the affair was in every respect a triumph for the French, in spite of the master mind which conceived it.
COPENHAGEN. A.D. 1801.
In the year 1800 the surrender of Malta to the English fleet gave it the mastery in the Mediterranean; and General Abercrombie, with a British force, landing at Aboukir Bay, defeated the French army which Bonaparte had left in Egypt, and which soon after found itself forced to surrender.
By the evacuation of Egypt, India was secured, and Turkey was prevented from becoming a dependency of France.
England now turned her attention to the Northern coalition.
The treaty of Luneville had left her alone in the struggle against France.
The Northern powers, wishing to secure their commerce from insult and capture by the always increasing naval power of England, had formed a coalition, headed by the Czar Peter, and revived the claim that a neutral flag should cover even contraband of war.
Denmark, which had been very active in the combination, was the first to feel the weight of the anger of the British Cabinet.
The Danish naval force consisted of about ten sail of seventy-fours and sixty-fours, in fair order, and of about as many more which were unserviceable. The Russians had about twenty sail available, and the Swedes eleven sail.