About a month after the return of the French army to Cairo, a Turkish squadron arrived at Aboukir; and in announcing this event to the people of that city, Buonaparte used the following expressions, persuasive of his adherence to the Mohammedan faith:– “On board that fleet,” said he, “there are Russians, who hold in horror all that believe in the unity of God, because, according to their lies, they believe that there are three Gods; but they will soon see that it is not in the number of Gods that strength consists. The Mussulman who embarks in a ship where the cross is flying, he who every day hears the one only God blasphemed, is worse than an infidel.”
Confident of victory over an undisciplined enemy, he commenced his preparations; and having augmented his cavalry with a number of fleet Arabian horses, set out to meet him. On the llth July the Turkish army landed at Aboukir, the fort of which they took, and put the garrison to the sword, in retaliation of the massacre at Jaffa. At six o’clock in the morning of the 25th, the French army came in sight, and a battle ensued which was obstinately maintained on the part of the Ottomans, who had partially entrenched themselves, and repulsed the French with considerable loss; when, elevated and emboldened by their prospect of success, they rushed out to cut off the heads of the wounded and slain, and thus exposed themselves to .n impetuous attack by the republican Generals Lasne and Murat; a dreadful carnage followed, which terminated in their total defeat, and the recapture of the fort of Aboukir. Buonaparte had now a stepping-stone to his final purpose. He immediately wrote home an account of his success, and four days after the receipt of that despatch by the Directory, he astonished them by his presence[1].
In October following, Sir W. Sidney Smith accompanied the Turkish Vice-Admiral Seid Ali Bey, in a second maritime expedition, destined for the recovery of Egypt; of which enterprise the following extract of a letter to Lord Nelson, dated Nov. 8, 1799, contains the melancholy recital:
- ↑ Buonaparte left Egypt on the 24th Aug., and landed at Frejus on the 7th Oct.
