198 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



tie of Aboukir, which the English fleet so gallantly 

 won, communication was cut off between France and 

 her Egyptian army, yet Napoleon kept his troops in 

 activity, winning the battle of the Pyramids against 

 the combined forces of Mamelukes, Arabs, Kopts, and 

 Bedouins. Larrey describes the Mamelukes as the 

 handsomest troopers in the world, and the best capari- 

 soned on beautiful horses. They charge with heavy 

 sabers, and smite their foes with an onset that can 

 hardly be resisted by the most experienced infantry. 

 The Arabs are good fighters, but the Kopts make in- 

 different soldiers. 



Perhaps to open Jaffa and Acre to blockade run- 

 ners, Napoleon marched his Egyptian army to Sue/, 

 and crossed the desert to Syria. This proved almost 

 disastrous to the troops. Heat and thirst were intol- 

 erable. At stagnant pools here and there, men and 

 horses sucked up the water, and their noses and fauces 

 became affected with leeches, which, increasing in 

 size, mechanically occluded the respiratory passages. 

 Victims of the leech were in the greatest distress. 

 Larrey, with polypus forceps, was able to withdraw 

 them. In crossing the Lybian desert, similar leeches 

 being found, straining the water was resorted to, and 

 porous earthen jars proved the best strainers. 



The glare of the sun, and the fine dust of the 

 desert contributed to the development of annoying 

 ophthalmias. At first there was conjunctivitis, then 

 granular lids and pterygia appeared, which in the end 

 resulted in imperfect vision or total blindness. At 

 least one-third of the Egyptian army which returned 

 to France was invalided through ocular defects. 



It required twenty days to cross the Arabian 

 desert; and then the way to Jaffa was not plentiful in 



