Copies of Original Letters from the Army of General Bonaparte in Egypt Volume 1-2; Intercepted by the Fleet Under the Command of Admiral Lord Nelson, with an English Translation (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TRANSLATION. Gizeh, July 24. Emmanuel Perre'e, General of Division, to Vice- Admlral Brueys, Commander in Chief of the Naval Force stationed before Alexandria. Citizen General, Oince our separation, I have lost no opportunity of recalling to the mind of the Commander in Chief, the situation in which I left you. He takes a lively interest in it, and has seized the first opportunity which offered, of sending you 58 vessels laden with different articles. As for us, our position has not been the most agreeable since we parted. On the I3th of July we fell in with the enemy's army, at break of day. I had then with me 3 gun boats, the galley, and the Ccrf. The enemy had 7 gun boats, carrying from 24 to 36 pounders. The action began at nine; two of my gun boats, and the galley were run on shore, and quitted by the crews, on account of the terrible fire which the enemy opened upon us from their boats, and from the banks of the river. The enemy were already in possession of them, but the brisk fire from the Cerf, and the remaining gua boats obliged them to abandon their prey. I sunk the vessel which carried their flag; confusion immediately took place, and they had only time to make their escape. Had not three of my best vessels been obliged to give way, I should certainly have destroyed the whole of their flotilla. I had twenty of my men wounded and several killed. A ball struck my sword out of my hand, and carried away a piece of my left arm. I do not think, however, that it will be attended with any bad consequences; indeed, it is already nearly well. I cannot describe to you what we suffered in this expedition. We were reduced fpr several days to subsist entirely on water-melons; during which we were constantly exposed to the fire of the Arabs, although, vit...