[7]. I quote these words from Sir R. Wilson's history, which contains a degree of knowledge that I could not pretend to. The statements which I give of the strength of the enemy, the number of cannon they had on the field on the different days, and what we took from them, I also state upon his authority. The account of the losses of the army I take from the statements in the gazettes, which I believe to be pretty correct, for I have found that they gave a true account of the loss of my own regiment, and I have heard soldiers of other regiments say the same of the gazette accounts of the loss of theirs.
[8]. The boats had gradually verged to the left during their progress, so that this height, which before appeared to be opposite their centre, was now opposite their right.
[9]. It was afterwards said that it was the dromedary corps.
[10]. He was taken on board one of the ships in the fleet, and had one of his legs amputated, but he died in a few days, and was buried on shore, at Aboukir.
[11]. For the information of such readers as have not access to large works, I will take the liberty of inserting an account of the dimensions of these celebrated and ancient monuments, from Sir R. Wilson's history.
"Pompey's Pillar is of the Corinthian order, and eighty-eight feet six inches in height; the shaft formed of a single block of granite, retaining the finest polish, except where the wind on the north-east front has chafed the surface a little; it is sixty-four feet in height, and eight feet four inches in diameter.
"About thirty yards in the rear of the French intrenchments, stands Cleopatra's Needle, and one of equal magnitude is lying close by, horizontally. The form of these obelisks is of considerable elegance, and their magnitude is enormous, considering that each is only one piece of granite; their height is sixty-eight feet three inches, and their base seven feet seven inches by seven feet square; their sides are covered with hieroglyphics, which, on the eastern front of the one that is upright, are much effaced by the wind.
"Tradition affirms that they ornamented the gate of Cleopatra's palace. From the quantity of marble, &c. &c. found near the spot, probably the residence of the sovereigns of Egypt was placed there."—History of the Expedition, 2d vol. pp. 156, 158, 159.
Dr. E. D. Clark, the traveller, who has paid great attention to the study of the age and design of ancient monuments, thinks that the shaft of Pompey's Pillar "is of much earlier antiquity than either the capital or the pedestal." He gives probable reasons to believe that the shaft was made in the time of Alexander the Great, the founder of Alexandria, and who was buried there, to be a sepulchral pillar to the memory of that monarch; but that Julius Caesar had set it upon a pedestal, and had put a capital upon it in honour of Pompey, whose head he caused to be burnt with funeral honours, and the ashes put into an urn, and placed on the top of the pillar: but that the pillar had likely fallen afterwards, and had been restored by the emperor Hadrian.—Clarke's Travels, 4th Edit. 8vo. vol. v. ch. vii. p. 361, &c.
[12]. Or Sed; "sometimes called the Lake of Aboukir. The passage into it at Aboukir, is about two hundred yards wide, and was made about the year 1782, by the sea breaking down the dyke, which had been built ages back, to recover from the ocean that part of the country which now is Lake Maadie." History of the Expedition to Egypt, p. 27.