Bonaparte sailed from Toulon on May 19, intending to take Malta, conquer Egypt, despoil England of her power and commerce in the east, and gain for France exclusive possession of the Red sea. He had with him 35,000 troops, and a fleet, which finally amounted to thirteen ships of the line, fourteen frigates, and a vast number of smaller vessels, under the subordinate command of Admiral Brueys. Malta was surrendered by the knights of St. John. Bonaparte took Alexandria on July 2, and defeated the Mamelukes in the battle of the Pyramids on the 21st. Lower Egypt was conquered. As the port of Alexandria was unsuitable for his fleet, Brueys stationed it in Abukir bay, near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, in order to guard the rear of the army. So far Bonaparte's schemes were successful. But they had been formed without taking the British navy into account. Nelson again entered the Mediterranean. Acting on orders from the admiralty, St. Vincent sent him thither, and by June 7 he was in command of thirteen ships of seventy-four, and the Leander of fifty guns. He at once began a long search for the French fleet, in which he was hindered through lack of frigates to do scouting work. He anchored off Naples on the 17th, and believing that the enemy would attack Sicily, passed through the straits of Messina, and sailed along the east of the island. He was off Alexandria on the 28th, two days before the French arrived there, then he searched the Levant, and returned to Sicily for supplies on July 19. On the 25th he put to sea again, sailed along the coast of the Morea, and finally on August 1 discovered the enemy in Abukir bay. The French fleet was anchored in line on the western side of the bay, with wide shoals between it and the shore. It was sheltered by Abukir (now Nelson's) island and its rocks, and its leading ship was pretty close to the shoal off the island. It was composed of thirteen ships of the line and four frigates, and was much superior to Nelson's in the size of the ships and weight of metal. Some of the ships, however, were worn out, and many of their crews were not seamen.
BATTLE OF THE NILE.
Though Troubridge's ship, the Culloden, and two others were not with the main body, Nelson would not delay his attack, and at 5.30 P.M. formed his line of battle, the wind being N.N.W. and blowing down the French line. Very skilfully the British ships were taken round the island and the shoals. They then swept round, and steering to the south-west headed for the French van about 6.30, led by the Goliath under Captain Foley. Near as the leading French ship, the Guerrier (74), was to the shoal, Foley passed across her bows, and engaged the next ship, the Conquérant (74), on the inshore side. Hood followed with the Zealous, and anchored by the Guerrier, and three more engaged on the enemy's port side, Nelson's ship, the Vanguard, and the two next attacking on the outside. Eight British ships set on the five of the French van, the two others engaged two Frenchmen of much larger size in the centre, and one of them, the Bellerophon, was dismasted and drifted off. Later two of the missing ships of Nelson's squadron and the Leander came into action; the Culloden having struck on a rock off the island, remained aground. By that time the French van was crushed, and the battle raged round the centre. Brueys fell, and soon afterwards his ship, the Orient (120), caught fire. Her assailants poured so fierce a storm of shot upon her that her crew could not get the fire under. The summer night was lightened by the sheet of flame which wrapped her from the water-line to the mast-heads. The fire reached her magazine, and the great ship blew up with a terrific explosion. During the fight Nelson was badly wounded in the forehead. He was soon on deck again, and sent boats to pick up the survivors of the crew of the Orient. The British victory was completed in the morning, and never was victory so complete. Of seventeen French ships two were burnt besides the Orient, one sank, nine were taken, and only two ships of the line and two frigates escaped.[288] Great was the rejoicing in England at the news of the battle of the Nile. Nelson was raised to the peerage as Baron Nelson of the Nile and Burnham Thorpe; other honours were conferred on him both at home and by foreign sovereigns, and parliament voted him a pension of £2,000 a year for two lives.
The king's speech on November 20 described the victory as foiling an enterprise against the most valuable interests of the British empire, and as likely to lead other powers to combine for the general deliverance of Europe. Let us trace its effects under these two headings. Bonaparte's conquest of Egypt was designed to be a step towards the overthrow of British power and commerce in the east. He found himself shut up in his conquest. Great ideas presented themselves to him. He would take Constantinople, and conquer Europe by a flank attack. He would be a second Alexander, and after another Issos would drive the English from India. Already French envoys were inciting Tipú Sultán to war. From the shores of the Red sea Bonaparte wrote to bid him expect his army. The letter was seized by a British ship. Nelson's victory encouraged the sultan, Selim III., the nominal lord of Egypt, to declare war. A Turkish army and fleet were assembled at Rhodes, and another army in Syria. Bonaparte did not wait to be attacked in Egypt. The conquest of Syria would deprive the British fleet of its source of supplies in the Levant, and would open the way to a conquest either of Constantinople or Delhi.[289] On February 15, 1799, he captured El Arish, and on March 6 took Jaffa by storm. Then with an army weakened by disease and fighting, he marched on Acre. There he again had to meet a British sea-captain.
DEFENCE OF ACRE.
After his distinguished service at Toulon, and some later employment, Sir Sidney Smith, in 1795, was appointed to the command of some small vessels with which he did much damage to the enemy off the Norman coast. He was taken prisoner in 1796 and kept in France for eighteen months. He escaped in 1798 with the help of a royalist officer of engineers, Colonel Phélypeaux, was sent to Constantinople as joint-plenipotentiary with his brother, and, Nelson being at Naples, became senior naval officer in the Levant. Acre, as the best harbour on the Syrian coast, was specially important to British maritime supremacy in those waters. So long as it remained uncaptured, Bonaparte could not advance, for the door would be left open to an attack on his rear. If he took the place, he believed that Syria would rise against Djezzar, its Turkish ruler. The fortifications were weak, but Nelson's victory deprived him of the power of investing it by sea. Smith sent his friend, Phélypeaux, in the Theseus (74) to teach the Turks how to strengthen the place, and followed himself in the Tigre (74). On March 18 he intercepted a French flotilla with the artillery, ammunition, and stores on which Bonaparte depended for the siege. They were brought into Acre; the French were left only with field-pieces, and it was not until April 25 that they could bring up heavy guns from Jaffa. Much fierce fighting took place between the Turks and the French; and the British ships kept up a constant fire on the French in their lines and whenever they advanced to attack. Smith, who was given to vapouring, was offended by some communication from Bonaparte, and sent him a challenge to which Bonaparte replied that he would fight when the English sent a Marlborough to meet him.
Bonaparte's victory over the Turks at Mount Tabor seemed a great step towards conquest. All depended on the fate of Acre. At last on May 7 the Turkish fleet from Rhodes hove in sight. It was becalmed, and the French made a desperate attempt to storm the place before the reinforcements could arrive. They effected a lodgment, but Smith landed his seamen who helped to drive them out with their pikes, and they fell back with heavy loss. On the 20th Bonaparte raised the siege which had cost him nearly 5,000 men by war and sickness. Smith received the thanks of parliament and a pension of £1,000 a year. Though vainglorious and arrogant, he conducted the defence of Acre with sound judgment as well as with energy and courage. By weary marches through the desert, Bonaparte led his army back to Egypt, where he defeated an invasion of Turks. Smith sent him a bundle of newspapers, and from them he received tidings which determined him to leave his army and return to France. Before we enter on the European events which chiefly led to his return, let us see how the ruin of his plan of eastern conquest, the fruit of Nelson's victory, affected the British rule in India.
By reducing the resources of Tipú in 1792 Cornwallis believed that he was establishing a balance of power in India which would enable the English to adopt a policy of nonintervention. This policy was pursued both by him and his successor, Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth. It was defeated through the revival of French influence. The nizám put his army under French officers who held a large part of his territories and paid their troops out of their revenues. Daulat Ráo Sindhia, the strongest of the Maráthá lords, also employed French officers and was inclined to help Tipú rather than the English. From neither of these powers, which were in alliance with the company in Cornwallis's war with Tipú, could any help be expected in a fresh struggle with him; and as in 1797 Tipú proposed an alliance with France against the English, a struggle could not be far off. In October of that year Pitt's friend, Lord Mornington, was appointed governor-general. On the day that he reached Madras, in April, 1798, Tipú received a French force from Mauritius. Mornington at once persuaded the nizám to enter into a subsidiary treaty by which he agreed to dismiss his French officers and to form a close alliance with the company. The Frenchmen were made prisoners and his army was placed under British officers. Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt encouraged Tipú in his hostility, for he expected that a French army would shortly appear in India. This hope was frustrated by Nelson's victory. Nevertheless, he believed that the time would come when he would be able to co-operate with a French invasion; he tried to play a waiting game, and evaded the British attempts at pacification. Mornington determined to put an end to his subterfuges, and, in February, 1799, ordered an invasion of Mysore under General Harris, the governor of Madras. Harris's army was joined by the army of the nizám, and, on March 27, routed Tipú at Malvalli, the left wing of the British, which consisted mainly of the nizám's contingent, being under the command of Mornington's brother, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. Seringapatam was taken by storm and Tipú was slain. Mornington, who was created Marquis Wellesley, partitioned Mysore, set up a youthful rájá, and placed him under British protection.
A NEW COALITION PROPOSED.
While Nelson's victory enabled Englishmen to uphold the power and interests of their country in the east, it led also to a second coalition against France. Already mistress of the Batavian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics, France occupied Rome in February, 1798, drove out Pius VI., and founded a Roman republic. In August, the Helvetic republic, established partly by intrigue and partly by force, in place of the Swiss confederation, became her dependent ally. The German empire was hopelessly divided, Piedmont was in process of annexation, Naples was threatened. Yet the power of France was not so great as it seemed. Among the peoples of the new republics many resented the destruction of their old independent governments. Pitt poured money from the secret service funds into the hands of agents, who in every country of Europe recruited for the interest of England. He seems generally to have received a good return, except in Holland, where the democratic party remained strong. In other lands the rising feeling against France was of no small importance in the coming struggle.