COAST OF EGYPT. 31 
'The moment came, however, which was to chap. 
create a pause in all this mirth. The Braakel • 
got micler weigh ; and a stiff gale causing more 
motion than suited either the dub-cT annes or 
the comcdie, every Frenchman was indisposed. 
Nothing was then heard but groans and curses, 
AH the instruments were out of tune; and the 
deck was soon abandoned to the active sailors 
belonging to the ship's crew. It had been Cap- 
tain darkens intention, in tacking out of Abouhir 
Roads, to put us on board the Sultan Selim^ 
commanded by the Capudan Pasha, with whom 
we were acquainted ; but this proved to be 
impracticable. To our very great consterna- 
tion, we found ourselves, upon the morning of 
the seventh of August, so far advanced in the 
voyage to France, that we were already out of 
sight of the fleet. The Captain told us there was 
only this alternative ; either to go with him to AuUior 
Marseilles, or to accept of a small boat, which he "s^clpes^ 
would willingly give us, and, in this, run before vTyedt^"" 
the wind to the Mouth of the Nile. The turbu- -''«"''• 
lent appearance of the sea did not at all tempt 
us to try so hazardous an experiment as the last; 
for if we had so done, and had escaped the con- 
sequences of our own ignorance among moun- 
tainous waves, vv^e should inevitably have 
perished in the surf upon the coast. We therefore 
could only lament the loss of our intended 
