EGYPT. 
1 75 
ling upon the difficulties of his arduous station; because the re¬ 
sult has proved, that no one could either have been better qua¬ 
lified for the undertaking, or could have devised a scheme more 
wisely for the ultimate success of the enterprise, than the very 
system he pursued, and accomplished, for the final delivery of 
Egypt. Profiting by the moral inference contained in the an¬ 
cient fable of “ the four bulls and the lion, 55 he directed the 
operations of the army successively to the different stations 
held by the dispersed forces of the enemy : subduing these, one 
after another, instead of allowing them to combine their strength, 
he was enabled to effect what no other plan of carrying on the 
campaign could possibly have brought to pass. It is true* 
matters did not proceed so rapidly as before, but they advanced 
with greater certainty. A mere spectator in the fleet would 
have heard continual complaint of the tardiness and torpor 
seeming to prevail. Even the French, from their advanced 
posts, conversing with onr officers, were known to indulge their 
sarcasm at the slowness of our operation, by expressing pre¬ 
tended impatience for better quarters, and by occasionally re* 
marking, “ Messieurs , vous vous hater ires Untemcnt .” The 
sentiments,, however, of their own generals might now be cited, 
if it w ere necessary, to prove that a more soldier-like under¬ 
taking w 7 as never brought to issue, nor one more characterized 
by sound military science, than the plan for the expulsion of 
the French, which the successor of Abercrombie adopted. 
To accomplish this desirable object, the first effort was, to 
prevent all communication between the garrison of Alexandria 
and the rest of Egypt. This was effected by destroying the 
canal of Alexandria, and thereby not only preventing a supply 
of fresh water, but also causing the waters of the lake of Abou- 
Kir to fall into the ancient bed of the the lake Mareotis. We were 
present during this operation. The canal was cut through in 
two places: the torrent rushing vehemently down a steep of 
eight feet, soon carried away the intervening mound, and pro¬ 
duced an inundation extending to such a prodigious distance, 
over all the desert to the east and south of Alexandria, that 
before the middle of May, the French, than w hom no people 
show more alertness in converting even disaster to some advan¬ 
tage, had a flotilla of gun boats upon this new created sea. 
About this time, Fort Julien, upon the Rosetta branch of the 
Dfile, was taken by the English and Turks; which was follow¬ 
ed by the evacuation of Rosetta. Rachmanie, an important 
fart* was then attacked and carried ; by the capture of th|& 
