19S TRAVELS IN 
eondary part the Diredory had referved for him, by the com- 
mand of a pretended expedition againfl their only remaining 
-enemy. In this fituation fome of his friends, it is fuppofed, fug- 
gefted to him the conqueft of Egypt, which had long been an 
objedl of the French Government under the monarchy. The 
brilliancy of fuch a conqueft was well fuited to the enterprizing 
fpirit and ambitious views of the Corfican. It is fuppofed, alfo, 
that the memoir which the philofopher Leibnitz prefented to 
Louis XlVth was put into his hands, and that the grand objeds 
held out therein took ftrong polfeflion of his mind. " The 
*' fovere'ignty of the feas — the Ea/Ieni JLmptre — the overthrow of 
" the Porte — and univerfal arbitration^^ were all to be accom- 
plifhed by the conqueft of Egypt, a conqueft that was referved 
for his mighty arm. " Soldiers," fays he, on the departure of 
the expedition, " you are about to undertake a conqueft, the 
*' effeds of which, upon commerce and civilization, will be in- 
** calculable ; and the blow it will give to England will be fol- 
** lowed up with its deftrudion." 
But vain are often the hopes of man ! The brilliancy of fuch 
a conqueft, however alluring at a diftance, feems to have faded 
on the approach. Whether his unfuccefsful attempt againft 
Acre had damped his ardour, and thrown an infurmountable 
barrier to any views he might have entertained againft India, 
or whether he meant to be fatisfied with annexing Egypt to 
the colonies of France, is ftiM matter of conjedure ; but it would 
feem from one of his letters, publifhed in the intercepted corre- 
fpondence, written at a time when he had not the leaft idea of 
being baffled in his fchemes, an4 his army finally driven out by 
the 
