TO EGYPT. 333 
the name of Cleopatra s Needle. A stiff gale chat. 
coming on, we steered along the coast for v ..,■ ^ 
Aboukir. About nine o'clock a.m. we made 
Nelsons Island; and presently saw the whole 
fleet of troop ships, transports, with all the 
Turkish frigates, merchant vessels, and other 
craft, belonging to the Expedition. It was the Astonish- 
grandest naval sight we had ever beheld ; and a"iSe pre-"^' 
much more surprising in its appearance than the*Bndsh 
the famous Russian armament, prepared at ^^^^*' 
Portsmouth during a former war. Innumerable 
masts, like an immense forest, covering the 
sea; swarms of sailing-boats and cutters, plying 
about in all directions between the larger 
vessels; presented a scene which it is not 
possible to describe. We stood on, for a con- 
siderable distance, to the eastward of Nelsons 
Island, in order to avoid the shoal where the 
Culloden struck before the action of the Nile; 
our course being precisely the same pursued by 
the British fleet previous to that memorable 
engagement; and the fleet of transports lying 
at anchor, afforded a correct representation of 
the position of the French armament upon that 
occasion. 
Bearing down at last upon the fleet, we 
passed under the stern of the Delft frigate ; 
when, being unmindful of the temerity of our 
