164 
clarke’s travels. 
There had been a skirmish on the twelfth, in which Colonel 
Archdale, of the twelfth dragoons, lost an ann, and Captain 
Butler of the same regiment was taken prisoner. In the action 
of the twenty-first, the French lost five thousand men, eleven 
hundred of whom the Engiish themselve buried before their 
own lines, and in different parts of their camp. We saw the 
trenches wherein they were deposited. 
It is a subject of wonder, that our troops should have succeed¬ 
ed in this instance so well as they did. They landed under 
every possible circumstance of disadvantage, and yet drove 
from their posts, with the bayonet, the veteran legions of Buona¬ 
parte’s army; a mode of fighting in which the French were 
supposed, at that time, to be superior to every other nation. It 
was there manifested, as it has since been so decidedly proved, 
that, mao to man, they have no chance of success when opposed 
to British soldiers. Tile laurels acquired by our army in Egypt 
can never fade. Posterity will relate the heroism, which, on 
these remote and almost unknown deserts, enabled an inex¬ 
perienced army to vanquish an enemy, not only in possession 
of the territory, but also inured to the climate, and well ac¬ 
quainted with the country. The obstacles encountered by our 
troops were greater than have ever been described. The most 
powerful originated in their want of information. Kever did 
so much ignorance accompany an expedition. The maps they 
brought with them would have disgraced a Chinese atlas. The 
instruction they had received was a mere mass of error: and 
their guides were unable to direct them. It is said, Sir Ralph 
Abercrombie lamented, in his last moments, the false notions he 
had been taught to entertain of Egypt, and of the situation in 
which the French were there placed. In fact every one possessed 
more information than the conductors of the British armament. 
There was not a clerk in the factory of Constantinople or 
Smyrna who was not better informed. Instead of the fiat sands 
they expected to find between Aboukir and Alexandria, they 
discovered a country full of eminences, and advantageous 
posts ; so that the French, when defeated, had only to fall back 
from one strong position to another. Once having effected a 
landing, our troops were told, and they believed the tale, that 
they might march without interruption to the walls of Alexan¬ 
dria. It may be important to the interest of our empire to 
state the truth at this distance of time ; and to afford a brief 
record of this memorable campaign, as far as it can be com¬ 
municated by a writer destitute of any military science: It will 
