DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0376
346 TRAVELS IN UPPER
journey along the coast, we arrived at Aboukir
at one o'clock in the afternoon.
This is now nothing more than a village, with
a castle built upon the point of a cape, which ad-
vances pretty far into the sea. Some shelves, de-
tached in front of the cape, contain, in the large
bay which the coast forms in this place, a little
port, where the vessels are in safety, even at the
very foot of the castle, and in front of which there
is a very good road. This was the usual anchor-
ing-place for French frigates when they cruised
in those latitudes. It was equally resorted to by
merchant-ships, which were obliged by stormy
weather to shun the new, the little frequented and
dangerous port of Alexandria, as well as by the
gennes of the country, when they could not gain
Alexandria, nor get clear of the Boghass of the
Nile, at the mouth of the branch of Rossetta.
It was in this same sand, but at too great a dis-
tance from the coast, that the fleet of the republic,
commanded by the brave and unfortunate Brueys,
sustained a combat so disadvantageous, against
the English fleet, under the command of Nelson ;
an engagement which it would have been easy
and prudent to avoid, and the unsuccessful issue
of which has spread a new brilliancy of glory
over French valour.
We
journey along the coast, we arrived at Aboukir
at one o'clock in the afternoon.
This is now nothing more than a village, with
a castle built upon the point of a cape, which ad-
vances pretty far into the sea. Some shelves, de-
tached in front of the cape, contain, in the large
bay which the coast forms in this place, a little
port, where the vessels are in safety, even at the
very foot of the castle, and in front of which there
is a very good road. This was the usual anchor-
ing-place for French frigates when they cruised
in those latitudes. It was equally resorted to by
merchant-ships, which were obliged by stormy
weather to shun the new, the little frequented and
dangerous port of Alexandria, as well as by the
gennes of the country, when they could not gain
Alexandria, nor get clear of the Boghass of the
Nile, at the mouth of the branch of Rossetta.
It was in this same sand, but at too great a dis-
tance from the coast, that the fleet of the republic,
commanded by the brave and unfortunate Brueys,
sustained a combat so disadvantageous, against
the English fleet, under the command of Nelson ;
an engagement which it would have been easy
and prudent to avoid, and the unsuccessful issue
of which has spread a new brilliancy of glory
over French valour.
We