and his fleet victualled and watered in a few days.-EMMA HAMILTON."

On the 22nd Nelson wrote to Sir William and Lady Hamilton, "Thanks to your exertions, we have victualled and watered: and surely watering at the Fountain of Arethusa, we must have victory. We shall sail with the first breeze, and be assured I will return either crowned with laurel, or covered with cypress."1

The particulars of the harbour of Syracuse were not known to any one in the fleet, yet by great management every ship was got in, and water, and all other necessaries obtained. M. de Gravière remarks, that it was the first time that bay had ever received a squadron of 14 sail of the line.

Nelson sailed from Syracuse on the 23rd for the Morea, and the Culloden being sent into the gulf of Coron for intelligence, she returned with a French brig, a prize, and information that the French fleet were steering to the S.E. from Candia a month before. He then made sail for Alexandria, when he discovered the fleet, and on the 1st of August fought the BATTLE OF THE NILE.

1 Harrison's Life of Nelson, Vol. i. p. 256.

CHAPTER VI.

1798.

THE intensity with which Sir Horatio Nelson had studied every thing in relation to the BATTLE OF THE NILE, and the manner in which he had digested every possible or probable position in which the combatants might chance to be placed, and the opinions he entertained, with regard to the best mode of attack, had been fully laid before all the Captains of the ships composing his fleet (14 in number, 13 of 74 guns, and the Leander of 50); and nothing could exceed the animation of the Admiral and his brave companions when they found their long expected attack about to be realized.

Sir Edward Berry, in his narrative of the battle, says, "The utmost joy seemed to animate every breast on board the squadron at sight of the enemy; and the pleasure which the Admiral himself felt, was perhaps more heightened than that of any other man, as he had now a certainty by which he could regulate his future operations. The Admiral had, and it appeared most justly, the highest opinion of, and placed the firmest reliance on, the valour and conduct of every Captain in his squadron. It had been his practice, during the whole of the cruise, whenever the weather and circumstances would permit, to have his Captains on board the Vanguard, when he would fully develope to them his own ideas of the different and best modes of attack, and such plans as he proposed to execute upon falling in with the enemy, whatever their position or situation might be, by day or by night. There was no possible position in which they could be found, that he did not take into his calculation, and for the most advantageous attack of which he had not digested, and arranged the best possible disposition of the force which he commanded. With the masterly ideas of their Admiral, therefore, on the subject of naval tactics, every one of the Captains of his squadron was most thoroughly acquainted; and upon surveying the situation of the enemy, they could

ascertain with precision what were the ideas and intentions of their Commander, without the aid of any further instructions; by which means signals became almost unnecessary, much time was saved, and the attention of every Captain could almost undistractedly be paid to the conduct of his own particular ship, a circumstance from which, upon this occasion, the advantages to the general service were almost incalculable."

The history of this most celebrated Battle, which gave to Nelson his Peerage, has been ably detailed by the distinguished officer above referred to, Captain of the Admiral's ship, under the title of "An Authentic Narrative of the proceedings of his Majesty's Squadron, under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, from its sailing from Gibraltar to the conclusion of the glorious Battle of the Nile, drawn up from the minutes of an officer of rank in the squadron." The particulars therein related have been so fully detailed, and canvassed in so many different naval histories, biographies, &c. that it would be superfluous here to say any thing on the subject, further than that the battle was fought in Aboukir Bay, where the French fleet was first discovered by the Zealous, Captain Hood; the force of the respective fleets being as follows:

British Fleet opposed to the French, August 1, 1798.

French Fleet opposed to the British, August 1, 1798.

Ships.

Guns.

1. L'Orient

2. Le Franklin

80

Taken

Captain M. Gillet

Rear-Admiral Villeneuve

Captain Saulnier

Escaped

Brigs, Alerte and Railleur; Bomb vessels, Hercule, Salamine, and another. Several Gun-boats.

The position of the enemy offered most formidable points of defence, being in compact line of battle, close in with the shore, flanked by many gun-boats, and a battery of guns and mortars on an island in their van. The action was nobly sustained on both sides; it commenced at sunset, which was at 31 minutes past 6, it being completely dark at 7, and terminated at about 6, A.M. the next day, thus occupying little less than twelve hours, the whole hemisphere illuminated by the firing of the ships. At 10 minutes past 9 the French Admiral's ship, L'Orient, 120 guns, was observed to be on fire, and she blew up, forming a most terrific spectacle.

Coleridge, in his Biographical notice of Sir Alexander Ball, contained in The Friend, (Vol. iii.) has made a statement, the truth of which is denied by British officers, and is certainly contrary to the spirit and character of British warfare, namely, that he, Coleridge, was told by Ball, that at the battle of the Nile a combustible preparation had been made; 1 La Diana is stated by Captain Brenton to be 48 guns, and La Justice 44 guns. James has given them as stated above.

2 For Commodore Perrée who was appointed to command the gun-boats on the Nile.

but that the use of it was to be reserved for the last emergency. And he goes on to state, that one of the Lieutenants, without Ball's knowledge, threw in the combustible matter, and occasioned the explosion of the Orient, just as he had expected she would have struck to him. This certainly differs from all other statements made on this subject.

The cause of the explosion of L'Orient has never been satisfactorily stated. The French assigned it to have been occasioned by the wadding of our guns falling into some unused oil jars and paint buckets that had been left upon the deck of the vessel, whose sides had just been painted; whilst others ascribe it to the communication of fire to some of the combustible missiles which are known to have been on board most, if not all, of the French ships. These were of a composition which was able to burn under the water as well as out of it, and this view of the calamity appears to be supported by the statement which has been made as to the inability of the French sailors to extinguish the flames by throwing buckets of water upon the ignited parts. The loss of human life on the occasion was very great; only seventy are said to have escaped destruction, and these principally by the aid of British boats, which were actively employed in this humane exercise. So awful was the blowing up of L'Orient, that the firing on both sides was suspended for ten minutes.

In the Rev. Cooper Willyams's' voyage up the Mediterranean, it is said that in a conference held with some French officers and Captain Hallowell, on board the Swiftsure, the British were accused of having unfairly used some combustible missiles at the battle of the Nile, upon which the Captain ordered Mr. Parr, the gunner, to bring up some balls, and to tell where he had obtained them. To the confusion of the Frenchmen he stated them to have been taken from the Spartiate, one of the ships captured on the 1st of August. Experiments were now made with them. One tried was a fire-ball, the composition of which was not known; but as it did not explode, it was thrown into the water, where it continued to burn, pouring forth a black pitchy matter, until the shell in which it was contained was completely emptied. 1 This gentleman was Chaplain on board the Swiftsure.