From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 147-162.
TRANSLATION.
Grand Cairo, July 28th.
My dear Parents,
OUR entrance into this city furnishes me with an opportunity of writing to you(1); and as my design is to make you fully acquainted with an expedition no less singular than astonishing, I shall take the liberty of recapitulating our achievements since the day we left Toulon.
The land army, composed of 30,000 men, embarked at Marseilles, Toulon, Genoa, and Civita Vecchia, set sail on the 19th of May, under the convoy of 15 sail of the line (two of which were armed en flute[2]) 14 frigates, and several smaller ships of war. The convoy altogether formed a total of more than 400 sail; and never perhaps, since the Crusades, has so large an armament appeared in the Mediterranean.
Without calculating the dangers of the element on which we were embarked, or those which we had to apprehend from an enemy formidable at sea, we steered with a favourable wind for Malta, where we arrived on the 10th of June. The conquest of this important place cost us but a few men. It capitulated on the 12th—the Order was abolished, and the Grand Master packed off to Germany with a budget of fine promises; in a word, every thing succeeded to our wish. Time, however, was precious—we had no leisure to amuse ourselves with calculating the advantages to be derived from the possession of Malta; for an English squadron of 13 sail of the line, commanded by Nelson, was at anchor in the Bay of Naples(3), and watched all our motions. Bonaparte, informed of this, scarce gave us time to take in water: he ordered the fleet to weight immediately, and, on the 18th of June, we were already in full sail for the second object of our expedition. We fell in with Candia on the 25th, and on the 30th our light vessels made Alexandria.
Admiral Nelson had been off the city on the noon of this very day; and proposed to the Turks to anchor in the port, by way of securing it against us; but as his proposal was not accepted, he stood on for Cyprus; while we, profiting by his errors, and turning even his stupidity to our own advantage, made good our landing on the 2d of July, at Marabou. The whole army was on shore by break of day, and Bonaparte putting himself at their head, marched straight to Alexandria, across a desert of three leagues, which did not even afford a drop of water, in a climate where the heat is insupportable.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties, we reached the town, which was defended by a garrison of near 500 Janizaries. Of the rest of the inhabitants, some had thrown themselves into the forts, and others got on the tops of their houses. In this situation they waited our attack. The charge is sounded—our soldiers fly to the ramparts, which they scale, in spite of the obstinate defence of the besieged: many Generals are wounded, amongst the rest Kleber—we lose near 150 men, but courage, at length, subdues the obstinacy of the Turks! Repulsed on every side, they betake themselves to God and their Prophet, and fill their mosques—men, women, old, young, children at the breast, ALL are massacred(4). At the end of four hours, the fury of our troops ceases—tranquility revives in the city—several forts capitulate—I myself reduce one into which 700 Turks had fled—confidence springs up—and, by the next day, all is quiet.
It will not be amiss, I think, to make a short digression just here—for the sake of informing you of the object of this expedition, and of the causes which have induced Bonaparte to take possession of Egypt.
France, by the different events of the war and the Revolution, having lost her colonies and her factories, must inevitably see her commerce decline, and her industrious inhabitants compelled to procure at second hand the most essential articles of their trade. Many weighty reasons must compel her to look upon the recovery of those colonies, if not impossible, yet altogether unlikely to produce any of the advantages which were derived from them before they became a scene of devastation and horror; especially, if we may add to this, the decree for abolishing the slave trade.
To indemnify itself, therefore, for this loss, which may be considered as realized, the Government turned its views towards Egypt and Syria; countries which, by their climate and their fertility, are capable of being made the storehouses of France, and, in process of time, the mart of her commerce with India. It is certain, that by seizing and organizing these countries, we shall be enabled to extend our views still further; to annihilate, by degrees, the English East India trade, enter into it with advantage ourselves; and, finally, get into our hands the whole commerce of Africa and of Asia.
These, I think, are the considerations which have induced the Government to undertake the present expedition against Egypt.
This part of the Ottoman dominion has been for many ages governed by a species of men called Mameloucs, who, having a number of Beys at their head, disavow the authority of the Grand Seignior, and rule despotically and tyrannically, a people and a country, which, in the hands of a civilized nation, would become a mine of wealth.
To gain possession of Egypt, then, it is necessary to subdue these Mameloucs(5); they are in number about 8000—al cavalry—under the command of 24 Beys. It is of consequence to give you some idea of these people, their manner of making war, their arms, defensive and offensive, and their origin.
Every Mamelouc is purchased—they are all from Georgia and Mount Caucasus—there are a great number of Germans and Russians amongst them, and even some French. Their religion is Mahometanism: exercised from their infancy in the military art, they acquire an extraordinary degree of dexterity in the management of their horses, in shooting with the carabine and pistol, in throwing the lance, and in wielding the sabre; there have been instances of their severing, at one blow, a head of wet cotton.
Every Mamelouc has two, three, and sometimes four servants, who follow him on foot wherever he goes; nay, even to the field. The arms of a Mamelouc on horseback, are two carabines, carried by his servants—these are never fired but once—two pair of pistols stuck in his girdle; eight light lances in a kind of quiver, which he flings with admirable dexterity; and an iron headed mace. When all these are discharged, he comes to his last resource—his two sabers: putting, then, the bridle of his horse between his teeth, he takes one of them in each hand, and rushes full speed upon the foe, cutting and slashing to right and left. Woe be to those who cannot parry his blows! For some of them have been known to cleave a man down the middle. Such are the people with whom we are at war! I shall now proceed with my narrative.
Having organized a government at Alexandria, and secured a communication(6) with the read of our army, Bonaparte ordered every man to furnish himself with five day’s provisions, and made preparations for passing a desert of twenty leagues in extent, in order to arrive at the mouth of the Nile, and ascend that celebrated stream to Grand Cairo—the prime object of his expedition. We began our march on the 5th of July, and reached the river by easy stages, falling in, on our route, with some detached parties of the Mameloucs, who retired as we advanced. It was not till the 12th, that General Bonaparte learned that the Beys were marching to meet him, with their united forces, and that he might expect to be attacked the next day: he marched therefore in order of battle, and took the necessary precautions.
Bonaparte sent me forward to gain intelligence, with three armed sloops; with this little flotilla I advanced about three leagues in front of the army. I landed at every village on both sides of the Nile, to gain what information I could respecting the Mameloucs; in some I was fired at, in others received with kindness, and offered provisions. In one of them I met with an adventure as laughable(7) as it is singular: the Cheik of the place having collected all his people to meet me, came forward from the rest, and demanded to know by what right the Christians were come to seize a country which belonged to the Grand Seignior. I answered him, that it was the will of God and his Prophet to bring us there. But, rejoined he, the King of France ought at least to have informed the Sultan of this step. I assured him that this had been done; and he then asked me how our King did? I replied, very well; upon which he swore by his turban and his beard, that he would always look on me as his friend. I took advantage of the kindness of these good people, collected all the information I could, and continuing my route up the Nile, came to anchor for the night opposite a village called Chebriki, where the Mameloucs were collected in force, and where the first action took place.
I sent off my dispatches to the Commander in Chief that night; in these I gave him all the information I had been able to obtain respecting the Mameloucs.
As soon as the day broke, I clambered up the mast of my vessel, and discovered six Turkish shalops bearing down upon me; at the same time I was reinforced by a demi-galley. I drew out my little fleet to meet them, and at half after four a cannonade began between us, which lasted five hours; in spite of the enemy’s superiority, I made head against them, they continued nevertheless to advance upon me, and I lost for a moment the demi-galley, and one of the gun-boats. Yielding, however, was out of the question, it was absolutely necessary to conquer;--in this dreadful moment our army came up, and I was disengaged. One of the enemy’s vessels blew up. Such was the termination of our naval combat.
While this was passing, the Mameloucs advanced upon our army; they rode round and round it, without finding any point where an impression might be made, and, indeed, without any attempt at it. I presume, that, astonished at the manner in which our columns were drawn up, they were induced to put off to a future day the decision of their fortune and their empire. This affair was trifling enough in itself, the Mameloucs only lost about 20 men, but we reaped a considerable advantage from it, that of having given an extraordinary idea of our tactics to an enemy acquainted with any; who knows of no other superiority in arms than that of sleight and agility; without order to firmness, unable even to march in platoons, advancing in confused groups, and falling upon the enemy in sudden starts of wild and savage fury.
After the retreat of the Mameloucs, we advanced upon Cairo, where the decisive action took place. It was, in fine, on the 22d of July, that the army found itself at daybreak about three leagues from Cairo, and give from the so much celebrated Pyramids. Here the Mameloucs, commanded by the famous Mourad, the most powerful of the Beys, awaited us: till three in the afternoon the day was wasted in skirmishes; at length the hour arrived! Our army, flanked on the right by the Pyramids, and on the left by the Nile, perceived the enemy was making a movement. Two thousand Mameloucs advanced against our right, commanded by General Desaix and Regnier. Never did I see so furious a charge! Giving their horse the rein, they rushed on the divisions like a torrent, and pushed in between them. Our soldiers, firm and immoveable, let them come within ten paces, and then began a running fire, accompanied with some discharges of artillery; in the twinkling of an eye more than 150 of them fell, the rest sought their safety in flight. They returned, however, to the charge, and were received in the same manner. Wearied out at length by our resistance, they turned, and attacked out left wing, to see if fortune would there be more favorable to them.
The success of our right encouraged Bonaparte. The Mameloucs had thrown up a hasty entrenchment in the village of Embabet, on the left bank of the Nile, in which they had placed thirty pieces of cannon, with their valets, and a small number of Janizaries to defend their approaches—this entrenchment the General gave orders to force; two divisions undertook it, in spite of a terrible cannonade. At the instant our soldiers were rapidly advancing towards it, six hundred Mameloucs sallied from the works, surrounded our platoons, and endeavoured to cut them down;--but, instead of succeeding, met their own deaths. Three hundred of them dropt on the spot; and the rest, in their attempt to escape, threw themselves into the Nile, where they all perished. Despairing now of any success, the Mameloucs fled on all sides; set fire to their fleet, which soon after blew up, and abandoned their camp to us, with more than four hundred camels loaded with baggage.
Thus ended the day, to the confusion of an enemy who were possessed with the belief that they should cut us in pieces; and who had boasted that it was as easy to cut off the heads of a thousand Frenchmen, as to divide a gourd or a melon(8).
The army marched on that night to Gizeh; the residence of Murat, the Chief of the Mameloucs. The next day we crossed the Nile in flat-bottomed boats, and entered Cairo without resistance.
Here ends the narrative of our military operations. I propose now to give you some account of the miseries we underwent in our march, together with a brief description of the country we have traversed, and of the inhabitants.
Let us return to Alexandria.—This city has nothing of its antiquity but the name—if there be any other relicks(9) of it, they remain utterly unregarded and unknown, among a people, who appear to be scarce conscious of their own existence. Figure to yourself being incapable of feeling, taking events just as they occur, and surprised at nothing; who with a pipe in his mouth, has no other occupation than that of squatting on his breech before his own door, or that of some great man, and dreaming away the day, without a thought of his wife or family. Figure to yourself too, a number of mothers strolling about, wrapped up in a dirty black rage, and offering to sell their children to every one they meet;--Men half naked, of the colour of copper, and of a most disgusting appearance, raking in the puddles and kennels like hogs, and devouring every thing they find there;--houses of twenty feet in height at the most, of which the roof is flat, the interior a stable, and the exterior four mud walls.—Figure to yourself all this, I day,and you will have a pretty correct idea of the city of Alexandria. Add, that around this mass of misery and horror, lie the ruins of the most celebrated city of the ancient world, the most precious monuments of the arts.
Leaving this city to ascend the Nile, you cross a desert, bare as my hand, where every three or four leagues you find a paltry well of brackish water. Imagine yourself the situation of an army obliged to pass these arid plains, which do not afford the slightest shelter against the intolerable heat which prevails there! The soldier, loaded with provisions, finds himself, before he has marched an hour, overcome by the heat, and the weight of what he carries, and throws away every thing that adds to his fatigue, without thinking of tomorrow. Thirst attacks him! He has not a drop of water; hunger!—he has not a bit of bread. It was thus that amidst the horrors which this faithful picture presents, we beheld several of the soldiers die of thirst, of hunger, and of heat; others, seeing the sufferings of their comrades, blew out their own brains; others threw themselves, loaded as they were, into the Nile, and perished in the water.
Every day of our march renewed these dreadful scenes; and, what was never heard of before—what will stagger all belief; the army, during a march of seventeen days, never tasted bread—the soldiers lived during the whole of this time on gourds, melons, poultry, and such vegetables as they found on their route. Such as the food of all, from the General to the common soldier,--nay, the General was often obliged to fast for eighteen to twenty hours, because the privates generally arriving first, plundered the villages of every article of subsistence, and frequently reduced him to the necessity of satisfying himself with the refuse of their hunger, or of their imtemperance!
It is useless to speak of our drink. We all live here under the law of Mahomet, which forbids the use of wine; but, by way of indemnity, allows us as much Nile water as we can drink.
Shall I give you some account of the country between the two branches of the Nile? To do this properly, I must lay before you a topographical chart of the course and direction of the river.
Two leagues below Cairo it divides itself into two branches; one of which falls into sea at Rosetta; the other at Damietta: the intermediate country is called the Delta, and is extremely fertile. Along the outer sides of the two branches, runs a slip of cultivated land, broader in some places than in others, but no where more than a league: beyond this are the Deserts, extending on the left to Lybia, and on the right to the Red Sea. From Rosetta to Cairo, the country is well peopled, and produces a good deal of wheat, rice, lentils &c. The villages are crowded together-their construction is execrable, being little more than heaps of mud trodden into some consistency, hollowed out within; and resembling, in every feature, the snow heaps of our children. If you recollect the shape of those oven-like piles, you have a perfect idea of the palaces of the Egyptians!
The husbandmen, commonly called Fellas, are extremely laborious; they live on little, and in a state of filth and degradation that excites horror. I have seen them swallow the residue of the water which my camels and horses happened to leave in their troughs.
Such is this Egypt, so celebrated by travelers and historians! In despite, however, of all these horrors, of the hardships we endure, and of the miseries the army is condemned to suffer, I am still inclined to think that it is a country calculated above all others to give us a colony which may be productive of the highest advantages(10); but for this, time and hands are necessary. I have seen enough to be convinced, that it is not with soldiers as ours! They are terrible in the field, terrible after victory(11), and, without contradiction, the most intrepid troops in the world: but they are not formed for distant expeditions. A word dropt at random, will dishearten them—they are lazy, capricious, and exceedingly turbulent and licentious in their conversation—they have been heard to say, as their officers passed by, “there go the Jack Ketches of the French!” and a thousand other things of the same kind.
The cup of bitterness is poured out, and I will drain it to the dregs. I have on my side firmness, health, and a spirit which I trust will never flag: with these I will persevere to the end.
I have yet said nothing of Grand Cairo. This city, the capital of a kingdom, which, to borrow the language of the Savans of the country, has no bounds, contains about 400,000 souls. Its form is that of a long shaft or tunnel, crowded with houses piled one upon another, without order, distribution, or method of any kind. Its inhabitants, like those of Alexandria, are plunged in the most brutal ignorance, and regard with astonishment the prodigy who is able to read and write! This city, however, such as I have described it, is the centre of a considerable commerce, and the spot where the caravans of Mecca and India terminate their respective journies (My next will give you some account of these caravans).
I went yesterday to see the installation of the Divan, which Bonaparte has formed. It consists of nine persons(12). And such a sight! I was introduced to nine bearded automatons, dressed in long robes, and turbans; and whose mien and appearance altogether, put me strongly in mind of the figures of the twelve apostles in my grandfather’s little cabinet. I shall say nothing to you of their talents, knowledge, genius, wit, &c.—this is always a blank chapter in Turkey. No where is there to be found such a deplorable ignorance as in every part of that country—no where such wealth, and no where so vile and sordid is a misuse of the blessing.
Enough of this. I have now, I think, fulfilled my intentions: many topics have been doubtless overlooked; but these deficiencies will be well supplied by the dispatches of General Bonaparte.
Do not entertain any uneasiness on my account. I suffer, it is true, but the whole army suffers with me. My baggage has reached me in safety; I have, therefore, in the general distress, all the advantages of fortune. Once again, be easy; I am in good health.
Take care of your healths; in less than a year I hope to have the happiness of embracing you. I know how to appreciate that happiness in advance, as I will one day shew you.
I embrace my sisters with the sincerest affection, and am with respect,
Your most obedient son,
BOYER.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)This letter has embarrassed us considerably. It bears the same signature as the preceding; and yet we can with difficulty persuade ourselves that it was written by the same person. The letter which the reader has just seen, is from a master hand, confident of knowledge, and deciding on facts without periphrasis, or affectation. The present, which is also well written, and with a sufficient knowledge of the transaction it records, is very inferior to it in simplicity, and manly decision.
The writer is incessantly labouring to say every thing in the finest manner, and doles out his little modicums of information in a style of gravity and self-importance, that has sometimes made us smile. With all this, however, the letter is very creditable to the author’s abilities. It furnishes, besides, many important facts, and it discovers, amidst a great solicitude to conceal it, that the French troops have been miserably duped by their government, and that they are rapidly hastening to total and irremediable distruction.
We were at first inclined to believe that the difference which we remarked in the style and manner of the two letters might originate in their being written to different persons: one an experienced commander, to whom it was necessary to represent things as they really were! The other, a parent ignorant, perhaps, of military affairs, and likely to be much better pleased with a florid narrative of extraordinary events, than with a brief relation of storming towns without walls, and gaining victories without enemies!—But on reconsidering the matter, we think the variation too considerable to be even thus accounted for. We frankly confess that we have no other solution of the difficulty to offer; and we, therefore, leave the whole to the reader: only repeating our first assertion, that the writing and the name subscribed to this and the preceding letter, are to the best of our judgment the same.
(2)These were Venitian sixty-fours. In his enumeration of the forces embarked, Boyer, omits those that were taken on board, at Ajaccio, and who amounted to several thousand: his list of ships of war is correct.
(3)It is unnecessary to say that this was not the case. Once for all, we must observe, that we have seldom thought it necessary to take notice of such geographical and historical blunders as appear in this correspondence;--the present letter, for instance, has several of both kind; but we leave them to the reader.
(4)These, then, are the triumphs of the “Hero of Italy!” of the “fond object of Mr. Wakefield’s daily and nightly solicitude!” of—but we dare not trust ourselves with the subject. On this man, and his sanguinary admirers, be the blood of this innocent people; and the ineffable contempt and abhorrence that naturally follow cruelties without motive or end, and base and abject panegyrics on their savage perpetrators!
(5)This is a better reason for declaring war against them, than the perculations of a Bey who has been dead these twenty years. But this is not the only instance in which the hypocrisy and falsehood of Bonaparte have been completely detected and exposed by the inadvertency of his agents. It is true, indeed, that we want no testimonies but those of our own eyes and our own understanding to convince us of his real motives; but still, it is not unpleasant nor unprofitable to be told of them, from time to time, by persons whose information can neither be disputed nor denied.
We recommend the three or four paragraphs preceding this, to the reader’s serious attention.
(6)We have spoken of this organization in our Introduction. The “communication that was kept up with the rear of the “army,” is almost too ridiculous to be mentioned. It never existed, it never can exist, with Bonaparte’s present numbers; and every letter, and Boyer’s among the rest, proves that before the General was out of sight of Alexandria, his communication with it was as completely cut off as if the Alps stood between them.
(7)Boyer’s ideas of humour are not extremely correct. We see nothing very facetious in a blasphemous falsehood, nor in basely availing himself of the name of his murdered King, to deceive a hospitable stranger, ignorant alike of him and his nation. This little anecdote is not, however, without its use; it proves with what truth these secluded people are represented as having injured the French; and with what justice they are delivered over in consequence of it, to pillage, murder, and utter devastation!
(8)Boyer subjoins that this is an Asiatic phrase:--the phrase may be Asiatic for ought we know, but the idea we hazard little in affirming to be Europeans. It is but changing “Frenchmen” to the “slaves of despots,” and “cutting off heads” to “biting the dust,” and the dispatches of Bonaparte himself will furnish Boyer with a thousand of those empty flourishes.
Ut nemo in sense tentat descendere, nemo;
Sed praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo!
(9)Here are two or three words obliterated in the original; these we have ventured to guess at, we know not with what success.
(10)There spoke a true Frenchman. Every circumstance proves that Egypt is wholly incapable of becoming a profitable colony to France, and Boyer himself is fully convinced of it; yet, in spite of his better knowledge, he drops the assurance of the fact, and is the fallacious expectations of future advantages, consoles himself for present disappointments!
(11)Alluding, perhaps, to the massacre at Alexandria.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
General Gives Unflattering Account of the Battle for Cairo
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 131-134.
TRANSLATION.
Grand Cairo, July 28th.
Adjutant-General BOYER, to the Commander in Chief of the Army of England(1).
My General,
OUR entrance into Grand Cairo will doubtless excite that sensation at home which every extraordinary event is calculated to produce; but when you come to know the kind of enemy we had to combat, the little art they employed against us, and the perfect nullity of all their measures, our expedition and our victories will appear to you very common things.
We began by making an assault upon a place with out any defence, and garrisoned by about 500 Janizaries, of whom scarce a man knew how to level a musket. I allude to Alexandria, a huge and wretched skeleton of a place, open on every side, and most certainly very unable to resist the efforts of 25,000 men, who attacked it at the same instant. We lost, notwithstanding, 150 men, whom we might have preserved by only summoning the town—but it was thought necessary to begin by striking terror in the enemy(2).
After this we marched against the Mameloucs; a people highly celebrated amongst the Egyptians for their bravery. This rabble (I cannot call them soldiers,) which has not the most trifling idea of tactics, and which knows nothing of war but the blood that is spilt in it, appeared for the first time opposed to our army on the 13th of July.
From the first dawn of day, they made a general display of their forces, which straggled round and round our army, like so many cattle; sometimes galloping, and sometimes pacing in groups of 10,50, 100 &c. After some time, they made several attempts, in a style equally ridiculous and curious, to break in upon us; but finding every where a resistance which they probably did not expect; they spent the day in keeping us exposed to the fury of a burning sun. Had we been a little more enterprising this day, I think their fate would have been decided; but General Bonaparte temporized, that he might make a trial of his enemy, and become acquainted with their manner of fighting.
The day ended with the retreat of the Mameloucs, who scarcely lost five-and-twenty men. We continued our march up the Nile till the 21st, which was the day that put a final termination to the power of the Mameloucs in Egypt.
Four thousand men on horseback, having each a groom or two, bore down intrepidly on a numerous army of veterans: their charge was an act of fury, rage, and despair. They attacked Desaix and Regnier first. The soldiers of these divisions received them with steadiness, and at the distance of only ten paces opened a running fire upon them, which brought down one hundred and fifty. They then fell upon Bon’s division, which received them in the same manner. In short, after a number of unavailing efforts, they made off; and, carrying with them all their treasures, took shelter in Upper Egypt. The fruit of this victory was Grand Cairo, where we have been ever since the evening of the 22d.
I should be familiar with the language of the country, and, what is of still more importance, in the confidence of the Great, to be enabled to give you an idea of the resources found in this city; but, from the complaints I hear, and the demands of several Generals who wish to return, I can easily perceive that there are vast discontents in the army. Generally speaking, it is hardly possible to conceive the miseries endured by the army, during its seventeen days’ march; finding no where a bit of bread, nor a drop of wine, we were reduced to live on melons, gourds, poultry, buffalo meat, and Nile water.
Such, my General, is the succinct account of our operations. There is talk already of our ascending the Nile as far as the Cataracts: an expedition that will make a number of officers throw up their commissions.
I beg you to present my respectful homage to Madame Kilmaine, and to believe me.
Your subordinate, BOYER.
Have the goodness to remember me to my comrades, Rivaud, D’Arbois, and Villard.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)General Kilmaine. This is the letter of an experienced officer, giving an account to his superior, whom he neither dared, nor, perhaps, wished to deceived, of such military operations as fell under his immediate inspection.
The “account” we know, from the most indisputable authority, to be as correct as it is spirited. It derogates a little, it must be confessed, from the wonderful prowess of Bonaparte and his band of heroes—but what are we to think of a General, who gravely tells of the difficulty of scaling the ramparts of a town, which has scarce a wall or a gate that might not be forced by a serjant’s guard! Or of the prodigies of valour exhibited in defeating a horde of brave but undisciplined troops, with a regular and well appointed army, of more than six times their numbers!
(2)It was a branch of this necessity, we suppose, that prompted Bonaparte, with equal judgment and humanity, to give up the inhabitants of Alexandria to indiscriminate slaughter for the space of four hours! Mr. Gilbert Wakefield tells us, that this General (with whose character he appears to be as well acquainted as he evidently is with most of those with whom he meddles,) “prefers the preservation of a single citizen from death, to the melancholy glory that could result from a thousand triumphs of a conqueror wading through floods of slaughter.” All this is doubtless very fine and very true and we must, therefore, conclude that the General had just then forgotten that the unfortunate Alexandrines were “citizens”—a circumstance the more to be wondered at, as he had not long before, termed them so in his Manifesto.
TRANSLATION.
Grand Cairo, July 28th.
Adjutant-General BOYER, to the Commander in Chief of the Army of England(1).
My General,
OUR entrance into Grand Cairo will doubtless excite that sensation at home which every extraordinary event is calculated to produce; but when you come to know the kind of enemy we had to combat, the little art they employed against us, and the perfect nullity of all their measures, our expedition and our victories will appear to you very common things.
We began by making an assault upon a place with out any defence, and garrisoned by about 500 Janizaries, of whom scarce a man knew how to level a musket. I allude to Alexandria, a huge and wretched skeleton of a place, open on every side, and most certainly very unable to resist the efforts of 25,000 men, who attacked it at the same instant. We lost, notwithstanding, 150 men, whom we might have preserved by only summoning the town—but it was thought necessary to begin by striking terror in the enemy(2).
After this we marched against the Mameloucs; a people highly celebrated amongst the Egyptians for their bravery. This rabble (I cannot call them soldiers,) which has not the most trifling idea of tactics, and which knows nothing of war but the blood that is spilt in it, appeared for the first time opposed to our army on the 13th of July.
From the first dawn of day, they made a general display of their forces, which straggled round and round our army, like so many cattle; sometimes galloping, and sometimes pacing in groups of 10,50, 100 &c. After some time, they made several attempts, in a style equally ridiculous and curious, to break in upon us; but finding every where a resistance which they probably did not expect; they spent the day in keeping us exposed to the fury of a burning sun. Had we been a little more enterprising this day, I think their fate would have been decided; but General Bonaparte temporized, that he might make a trial of his enemy, and become acquainted with their manner of fighting.
The day ended with the retreat of the Mameloucs, who scarcely lost five-and-twenty men. We continued our march up the Nile till the 21st, which was the day that put a final termination to the power of the Mameloucs in Egypt.
Four thousand men on horseback, having each a groom or two, bore down intrepidly on a numerous army of veterans: their charge was an act of fury, rage, and despair. They attacked Desaix and Regnier first. The soldiers of these divisions received them with steadiness, and at the distance of only ten paces opened a running fire upon them, which brought down one hundred and fifty. They then fell upon Bon’s division, which received them in the same manner. In short, after a number of unavailing efforts, they made off; and, carrying with them all their treasures, took shelter in Upper Egypt. The fruit of this victory was Grand Cairo, where we have been ever since the evening of the 22d.
I should be familiar with the language of the country, and, what is of still more importance, in the confidence of the Great, to be enabled to give you an idea of the resources found in this city; but, from the complaints I hear, and the demands of several Generals who wish to return, I can easily perceive that there are vast discontents in the army. Generally speaking, it is hardly possible to conceive the miseries endured by the army, during its seventeen days’ march; finding no where a bit of bread, nor a drop of wine, we were reduced to live on melons, gourds, poultry, buffalo meat, and Nile water.
Such, my General, is the succinct account of our operations. There is talk already of our ascending the Nile as far as the Cataracts: an expedition that will make a number of officers throw up their commissions.
I beg you to present my respectful homage to Madame Kilmaine, and to believe me.
Your subordinate, BOYER.
Have the goodness to remember me to my comrades, Rivaud, D’Arbois, and Villard.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)General Kilmaine. This is the letter of an experienced officer, giving an account to his superior, whom he neither dared, nor, perhaps, wished to deceived, of such military operations as fell under his immediate inspection.
The “account” we know, from the most indisputable authority, to be as correct as it is spirited. It derogates a little, it must be confessed, from the wonderful prowess of Bonaparte and his band of heroes—but what are we to think of a General, who gravely tells of the difficulty of scaling the ramparts of a town, which has scarce a wall or a gate that might not be forced by a serjant’s guard! Or of the prodigies of valour exhibited in defeating a horde of brave but undisciplined troops, with a regular and well appointed army, of more than six times their numbers!
(2)It was a branch of this necessity, we suppose, that prompted Bonaparte, with equal judgment and humanity, to give up the inhabitants of Alexandria to indiscriminate slaughter for the space of four hours! Mr. Gilbert Wakefield tells us, that this General (with whose character he appears to be as well acquainted as he evidently is with most of those with whom he meddles,) “prefers the preservation of a single citizen from death, to the melancholy glory that could result from a thousand triumphs of a conqueror wading through floods of slaughter.” All this is doubtless very fine and very true and we must, therefore, conclude that the General had just then forgotten that the unfortunate Alexandrines were “citizens”—a circumstance the more to be wondered at, as he had not long before, termed them so in his Manifesto.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Officer "Deceived" in "Expectations Respecting Egypt"
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 124-127.
TRANSLATION.
Head Quarters, Grand Cairo, July 28th.
LE TURCQ, Aid-de-Camp to General BERTHIER, Chief of the Etat-Major, and General of the Army, to Citizen Le Turcq, his father.
Dear Father,
SINCE your letter of the 12th of May last, I have not received a single line from you: judge how wretched this has made me. I have omitted no opportunity of writing to you by the different couriers which have been dispatched to Paris, from Toulon, Malta, and Alexandria; and I now send to you by this, which is just setting out from Cairo.
I shall say nothing to you of the situation in which we find ourselves in this country, but content myself with observing once for all, that we have been miserably deceived in our expectations respecting Egypt. Happily for me, I have the good fortune to enjoy a tolerable state of health,--that is to say, I have been, down to the present hour, one of the healthiest in the whole army. I long most ardently to return to you, to lay before you a faithful picture of the country; from which you will easily be enabled to comprehend how many reasons we have to be disgusted with it.
I inclose, my dear father, a narrative(1) of what befell us in our march from Alexandria to Cairo, and of the different combats we had to sustain with the Mameloucs and the Bedouins. You will form a judgment without difficulty of our situation in the Desert. The whole army would have been destroyed, but for the assistance we derived from the Nile, a branch of a river which throws itself into the Delta! I conclude with repeating my hopes that I shall speedily enjoy the happiness of recounting these extraordinary events to you in person, by our own fire-side.
I will not pretend to deny but that it is a great advantage for me, already an old soldier, to be engaged in so important, and so instructive an expedition: but, knowing what the country really is, and the privations and sufferings to which we are exposed, I am not too sure, that if it were to begin again, I should venture to undertake it. Now, however, that I have overcome the major part of the evil which awaited me, I am not ill pleased with what I have done; and have made up my mind to persevere to the end(2).
We have been at Cairo some days. It is possible that we may stay here a fortnight longer, after which I think it probable that we shall march to Syria towards Upper Egypt(3). One division is already gone to Damietta.
I have no occasion to request you to communicate my letter, and narrative, to our kinsmen and common friends, particularly to Citizen Berthe and his wife, to my brother the merchant, to my uncle Le Turcq, and in a word, to all my relations. Tell them that I embrace them with my whole heart, and flatter myself that I shall have the pleasure of seeing them within six months.
General Berthier writes by this courier to his father, so does l’Huilier, who is this day promoted to a lieutenancy in the 14th regiment of dragoons.
Let me hear from you and all the family often. Do not forget the dragoon. I hope that my prompt return will identify him for the loss which he may sustain by my long absence in this expedition, in which I am forced to persevere—but tell him that he shall lose nothing by waiting. General Berthier has promised me every thing for him; and he is surely a man to be depended upon.
I embrace you a thousand times, and ever remain,
Your son,
LE TURCQ.
Pray tell me if you have heard from Cesar Berthe; he is either at Milan, or Paris.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)This narrative we have suppressed. It is in fact a tedious and ill-written detail of the same operations which are related with infinitely more ability by Boyer (XXII.); from whom Le Turcq differs only, in his enumeration of the hardships and losses of the army; which he states to be somewhat greater than Boyer does.
(2)It is impossible to read this paragraph, in which Le Turcq states his discontent so forcibly, in descanting to his happiness; without being immediately put in mind of the professing readiness of the reluctant Bull-calf.
“Bull-calf. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth Sir, I had as life be hang’d, Sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, Sir, I do not care; but. Rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, Sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much.”
SHAKESPEARE.
(3)This “old soldier” is rather young in his geography. Upper Egypt is not precisely in the road to Syria, any more than any part of Egypt is in the road from France to England—a mistake which the whole army seem to have made, and which is in a [illegible word] way of costing them dear.
TRANSLATION.
Head Quarters, Grand Cairo, July 28th.
LE TURCQ, Aid-de-Camp to General BERTHIER, Chief of the Etat-Major, and General of the Army, to Citizen Le Turcq, his father.
Dear Father,
SINCE your letter of the 12th of May last, I have not received a single line from you: judge how wretched this has made me. I have omitted no opportunity of writing to you by the different couriers which have been dispatched to Paris, from Toulon, Malta, and Alexandria; and I now send to you by this, which is just setting out from Cairo.
I shall say nothing to you of the situation in which we find ourselves in this country, but content myself with observing once for all, that we have been miserably deceived in our expectations respecting Egypt. Happily for me, I have the good fortune to enjoy a tolerable state of health,--that is to say, I have been, down to the present hour, one of the healthiest in the whole army. I long most ardently to return to you, to lay before you a faithful picture of the country; from which you will easily be enabled to comprehend how many reasons we have to be disgusted with it.
I inclose, my dear father, a narrative(1) of what befell us in our march from Alexandria to Cairo, and of the different combats we had to sustain with the Mameloucs and the Bedouins. You will form a judgment without difficulty of our situation in the Desert. The whole army would have been destroyed, but for the assistance we derived from the Nile, a branch of a river which throws itself into the Delta! I conclude with repeating my hopes that I shall speedily enjoy the happiness of recounting these extraordinary events to you in person, by our own fire-side.
I will not pretend to deny but that it is a great advantage for me, already an old soldier, to be engaged in so important, and so instructive an expedition: but, knowing what the country really is, and the privations and sufferings to which we are exposed, I am not too sure, that if it were to begin again, I should venture to undertake it. Now, however, that I have overcome the major part of the evil which awaited me, I am not ill pleased with what I have done; and have made up my mind to persevere to the end(2).
We have been at Cairo some days. It is possible that we may stay here a fortnight longer, after which I think it probable that we shall march to Syria towards Upper Egypt(3). One division is already gone to Damietta.
I have no occasion to request you to communicate my letter, and narrative, to our kinsmen and common friends, particularly to Citizen Berthe and his wife, to my brother the merchant, to my uncle Le Turcq, and in a word, to all my relations. Tell them that I embrace them with my whole heart, and flatter myself that I shall have the pleasure of seeing them within six months.
General Berthier writes by this courier to his father, so does l’Huilier, who is this day promoted to a lieutenancy in the 14th regiment of dragoons.
Let me hear from you and all the family often. Do not forget the dragoon. I hope that my prompt return will identify him for the loss which he may sustain by my long absence in this expedition, in which I am forced to persevere—but tell him that he shall lose nothing by waiting. General Berthier has promised me every thing for him; and he is surely a man to be depended upon.
I embrace you a thousand times, and ever remain,
Your son,
LE TURCQ.
Pray tell me if you have heard from Cesar Berthe; he is either at Milan, or Paris.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)This narrative we have suppressed. It is in fact a tedious and ill-written detail of the same operations which are related with infinitely more ability by Boyer (XXII.); from whom Le Turcq differs only, in his enumeration of the hardships and losses of the army; which he states to be somewhat greater than Boyer does.
(2)It is impossible to read this paragraph, in which Le Turcq states his discontent so forcibly, in descanting to his happiness; without being immediately put in mind of the professing readiness of the reluctant Bull-calf.
“Bull-calf. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth Sir, I had as life be hang’d, Sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, Sir, I do not care; but. Rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, Sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much.”
SHAKESPEARE.
(3)This “old soldier” is rather young in his geography. Upper Egypt is not precisely in the road to Syria, any more than any part of Egypt is in the road from France to England—a mistake which the whole army seem to have made, and which is in a [illegible word] way of costing them dear.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Admiral Recalls Naval Battle in the Nile
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 118-121.
TRANSLATION.
Grand Cairo, July 28th.
Rear Admiral PERRE’E, commanding the Flotilla of the Nile, to his Friend, LE JOILLE(1), Chief of Division, and Captain of the Genereux.
I TAKE the opportunity of the sailing of the Cisalpine, my dear comrade, to give thee some account of myself, as I promised to do in my last.
I arrived here the day after our army, after experiencing every degree of misery. We were six days without any thing to eat but water-melons—water-melons for our dinner, and water-melons for our desert! The peasantry of the country, commanded by Arabs or Bedouins, kept up a firing all day long about our ears. I can assure thee, that if these people knew how to level a musket, not a man of us would return alive. They have been a little more complaisant since the capture of Cairo. I now consider the Nile as open; our communication will, therefore, be more regular in future.
Thou wilt hear with pleasure that I was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral on the field of battle, immediately after the affair of the 13th. I am certain that if I had been supported by one gun-boat more, we should have seen the last of their flotilla, though they had seven and I had but six, three, of which were deserted by the crews, and in the possession of the enemy, who had the audacity to seize them within pistol-shot of my boat; it was then that I exerted myself to the utmost, sunk the flag-vessel, and compelled them to abandon my boats; which I afterwards put into a state of service. I had besides, two batteries of six field-pieces each opened upon me, at a very trifling distance; and the army was too remote to lend me any succour(2). The engagement began at a quarter before nine in the morning, and finished about half after one, when they fled on all sides.
I can assure thee that we have been miserably deceived respecting the navigation of the Nile. No vessel that draws more than five feet can ascend it at the period that I did; with respect to the fertility of the country too, great deductions must be made, or I am mightily mistaken(3). The ferocity of the inhabitants exceeds that of savages; most of them appear to be covered with reeds or straw. In a word, the country is not at all to my taste; however, after pain, pleasure, as the proverb says. At present I am tolerably well situated, both with respect to my table and my other amusements. The Beys have left us some pretty Armenian and Georgian wenches, whom we have confiscated to the profit of the nation. Do, prithee, my dear friend, send me a cask of wine; thou wilt confer an obligation on thy friend.
EM. PERE’E
Assure all my friends of my best regards
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)Le Joille escaped from the hands of Lord Nelson, and had the good fortune, in his flight to Corfou, to fall in, and after an engagement of six hours and a half, to capture the Leander, a vessel at no time of half his force, and then enfeebled by her recent engagement, and with scarce two thirds of her complement.
This is all well known:--what is not so notorious, though it well deserves to be so, is the brutal behaviour of Joille to the brave men, whose invincible courage (for they did not strike till the Leander was absolutely ungovernable) would have entitled them to the respect of a generous enemy. Would it be believed, that the wounds of the gallant commander were not suffered to be dressed for several days, and that the surgeon of the ship has his instruments taken from him while he was employed in performing an operation upon one of our unfortunate countrymen!!! Yet all this, and more than all this, is perfectly true.
We are at a loss to know on what principle of sound policy, or in conformity to what chapter in the code of candour, these and other traits of wanton barbarity, of ferocious rapacity, on the part of the French, are suppressed in our public statements. We have heard of one council abroad, in which it was taken seriously proposed to soften or conceal the insults of France, lest that country should be irritated! And we have seen one paper at home, which advised the same conduct.—Whether this was done through design or ignorance is not worth inquiry. We are surely too powerful to be insulted by the French, and we have too many means of retaliation in our hands to dread this irritation.
Let it also be considered, that the publicity for which we content, is due to the brave men who are fighting our battles—it is also due to the civilized world, of whom the French are the terror and the pest—since there cannot be a more effectual method of counteracting a nation, which derives much of its influence, and more of its power, from the base and hypocritical cant of superior justice and humanity, than unfolding every act of unnecessary cruelty, which their innate thirst of plunder, and of blood, induces them to perpetrate.
We have gone out of our way to make these remarks; but we hope the importance of them will excuse us.
To return to Joille.—We are happy to add, that he had not the satisfaction of possessing himself of the colours which Lord Nelson had put on board the Leander. They were sunk previous to the surrender of the vessel, together with the dispatches, and letters of every kind.
(2)This is not the fact: it was the appearance of the army (though it might not be actually engaged) that saved him from absolute destruction.
(3)It is curious to mark the progress of conviction amongst the French. Alexandria is universally allowed to be detestable,--there are no doubts expressed of that—“Oh! But then it will be delightful when we get to Rosetta!” “No,” say those who are stationed there, “Rosetta is not delightful at all, it is only a little less wretched than Alexandria.” “True! But then the Delta! That is surely rich and beautiful; and then there is Cairo, the wealthiest, the largest, and the most magnificent city in the world!” “As for the Delta,” says Perre’e, “I have just passed through it, and I can assure you, that it is any thing but rich and beautiful.” “And as for Cairo,” exclaim a thousand voices in concert, “it is the vilest and most miserable dog-hole on the face of the earth!” Thus delusion after delusion passes away, and the French, who are as sanguine as they are credulous, are finally resigned to disappointment and despair.
TRANSLATION.
Grand Cairo, July 28th.
Rear Admiral PERRE’E, commanding the Flotilla of the Nile, to his Friend, LE JOILLE(1), Chief of Division, and Captain of the Genereux.
I TAKE the opportunity of the sailing of the Cisalpine, my dear comrade, to give thee some account of myself, as I promised to do in my last.
I arrived here the day after our army, after experiencing every degree of misery. We were six days without any thing to eat but water-melons—water-melons for our dinner, and water-melons for our desert! The peasantry of the country, commanded by Arabs or Bedouins, kept up a firing all day long about our ears. I can assure thee, that if these people knew how to level a musket, not a man of us would return alive. They have been a little more complaisant since the capture of Cairo. I now consider the Nile as open; our communication will, therefore, be more regular in future.
Thou wilt hear with pleasure that I was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral on the field of battle, immediately after the affair of the 13th. I am certain that if I had been supported by one gun-boat more, we should have seen the last of their flotilla, though they had seven and I had but six, three, of which were deserted by the crews, and in the possession of the enemy, who had the audacity to seize them within pistol-shot of my boat; it was then that I exerted myself to the utmost, sunk the flag-vessel, and compelled them to abandon my boats; which I afterwards put into a state of service. I had besides, two batteries of six field-pieces each opened upon me, at a very trifling distance; and the army was too remote to lend me any succour(2). The engagement began at a quarter before nine in the morning, and finished about half after one, when they fled on all sides.
I can assure thee that we have been miserably deceived respecting the navigation of the Nile. No vessel that draws more than five feet can ascend it at the period that I did; with respect to the fertility of the country too, great deductions must be made, or I am mightily mistaken(3). The ferocity of the inhabitants exceeds that of savages; most of them appear to be covered with reeds or straw. In a word, the country is not at all to my taste; however, after pain, pleasure, as the proverb says. At present I am tolerably well situated, both with respect to my table and my other amusements. The Beys have left us some pretty Armenian and Georgian wenches, whom we have confiscated to the profit of the nation. Do, prithee, my dear friend, send me a cask of wine; thou wilt confer an obligation on thy friend.
EM. PERE’E
Assure all my friends of my best regards
----------------------------------------------
[British Translators' Notes]
(1)Le Joille escaped from the hands of Lord Nelson, and had the good fortune, in his flight to Corfou, to fall in, and after an engagement of six hours and a half, to capture the Leander, a vessel at no time of half his force, and then enfeebled by her recent engagement, and with scarce two thirds of her complement.
This is all well known:--what is not so notorious, though it well deserves to be so, is the brutal behaviour of Joille to the brave men, whose invincible courage (for they did not strike till the Leander was absolutely ungovernable) would have entitled them to the respect of a generous enemy. Would it be believed, that the wounds of the gallant commander were not suffered to be dressed for several days, and that the surgeon of the ship has his instruments taken from him while he was employed in performing an operation upon one of our unfortunate countrymen!!! Yet all this, and more than all this, is perfectly true.
We are at a loss to know on what principle of sound policy, or in conformity to what chapter in the code of candour, these and other traits of wanton barbarity, of ferocious rapacity, on the part of the French, are suppressed in our public statements. We have heard of one council abroad, in which it was taken seriously proposed to soften or conceal the insults of France, lest that country should be irritated! And we have seen one paper at home, which advised the same conduct.—Whether this was done through design or ignorance is not worth inquiry. We are surely too powerful to be insulted by the French, and we have too many means of retaliation in our hands to dread this irritation.
Let it also be considered, that the publicity for which we content, is due to the brave men who are fighting our battles—it is also due to the civilized world, of whom the French are the terror and the pest—since there cannot be a more effectual method of counteracting a nation, which derives much of its influence, and more of its power, from the base and hypocritical cant of superior justice and humanity, than unfolding every act of unnecessary cruelty, which their innate thirst of plunder, and of blood, induces them to perpetrate.
We have gone out of our way to make these remarks; but we hope the importance of them will excuse us.
To return to Joille.—We are happy to add, that he had not the satisfaction of possessing himself of the colours which Lord Nelson had put on board the Leander. They were sunk previous to the surrender of the vessel, together with the dispatches, and letters of every kind.
(2)This is not the fact: it was the appearance of the army (though it might not be actually engaged) that saved him from absolute destruction.
(3)It is curious to mark the progress of conviction amongst the French. Alexandria is universally allowed to be detestable,--there are no doubts expressed of that—“Oh! But then it will be delightful when we get to Rosetta!” “No,” say those who are stationed there, “Rosetta is not delightful at all, it is only a little less wretched than Alexandria.” “True! But then the Delta! That is surely rich and beautiful; and then there is Cairo, the wealthiest, the largest, and the most magnificent city in the world!” “As for the Delta,” says Perre’e, “I have just passed through it, and I can assure you, that it is any thing but rich and beautiful.” “And as for Cairo,” exclaim a thousand voices in concert, “it is the vilest and most miserable dog-hole on the face of the earth!” Thus delusion after delusion passes away, and the French, who are as sanguine as they are credulous, are finally resigned to disappointment and despair.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Brother of Famous Novelist Writes from Aleppo
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 112-115.
TRANSLATION.
Aleppo, July 27th.
CHODERLOS(1), Consul-General of the French Republic at Aleppo and its Dependencies to the Citizen Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Citizen Minister,
IT was not till the 15th instant, that we first heard of the capture of Malta, and of the disembarkation of our troops at Alexandria. This news has since been confirmed by various letters from Cyprus, and from the ports along the coast: to the present moment, however, I have received nothing official on these important events; so that we are kept suspended, as it were, between the numerous contradictory stories which are propagated concerning this expedition; which appears to have excited a considerable degree of alarm, not only at Cyprus, but along the whole coast of Syria.
Without pretending to pry into the secrets of government, I cannot help saying I am astonished that, when the descent was once effected, the General, or at least the Consul at Alexandria, did not address a circular letter to the consuls of the neighbouring countries, to put them in a way of quieting the apprehensions of the Turks, who (as may easily be supposed) do not see so formidable an expedition without some degree of alarm.
The pacific language which I have continued to hold on this occasion has contributed greatly to calm the effervescence which was beginning to manifest itself, not only among the Turks, but even among a great majority of the French who are settled here.
“Whatever,” said I to them all, “may be the purport of this expedition, you ought to entertain no doubt but that it is undertaken with the full consent of the Porte. Let us wait for authentic intelligence from our respective governments—and till then, let us confidently repose on the knowledge we all have of the strict connection which has now subsisted so long between the two powers.”—(Precious villain!)
I then placed in the fairest point of view, the various advantages which would accrue to the Ottoman empire from our possession of Malta—and, to say the truth, this circumstance had a considerable effect in counterbalancing the disagreeable sensation, which the knowledge of having so formidable a force in the neighbourhood had already produced.
At this moment Aleppo is effectually quieted. I can see nothing to apprehend but a sudden convulsion, produced by some of those absurd and exaggerated accounts which terror frequently dictates, and which terror alone is capable of adopting.
The Pacha, and all the Grandees of the city are tranquil. If there be any explosion to dread, it is on the part of the Cheriffs, whom fanaticism may drive to violent measures—and, in that case, I should not be astonished if the Janizaries, who are fond of us, were to undertake our defence.
I take advantage, Citizen Minister, of a mode of conveyance, not altogether without suspicion, to transmit you this letter, which I have scribbled in great haste—because the only opportunity that offers is that of the courier of the ***** Consul, and because it is necessary to use every precaution, and even every article imaginable to save appearances, and prevent any obstacles being raised to is departure.
Health and respect.
J. CHODERLOS.
The reasons I have just given, prevent Citizen Beauchamp from writing to you. The packet would be too voluminous not to excite suspicion. He charges me to inform you, that he intends setting out the day after to-morrow for Latakia, where he will take measures for prosecuting his journey.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)This is the brother of the famous, or rather infamous La Clos known in this country as the author of Les Liasons Dangereuses, and in France, as one of the most active promoters of the Revolution. He was at once the agent, and the instigator, of that profligate idiot, Egalite; he was also a principal manager of the Jacobin Club, of which he was President in 1790.
His talents for intrigue made him redoubtable to Robespierre, by whom he was proscribed: he contrived, however, to escape, and, in 1795, was selected by the government (to whom his abilities and his want of principle were well known) as a fit instrument for promoting their iniquitous designs in Syria.
To return to Choderlos. He was sent to Aleppo some time after his brother (who was settled at Latakia) and one the same iniquitous errand. His letter shews that he was equally well qualified for the purpose. Much mischief would inevitably have followed, had not the presumption and folly of their rapacious masters precipitated measures, and plunged them in the abyss of misery which they were wantonly preparing for others.
They are both ere this, we truth, in the Castle of the Seven Towers: much too good a place of the imprisonment for men who, in strict justice, should long since have perished in the dungeon of Robespierre.
TRANSLATION.
Aleppo, July 27th.
CHODERLOS(1), Consul-General of the French Republic at Aleppo and its Dependencies to the Citizen Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Citizen Minister,
IT was not till the 15th instant, that we first heard of the capture of Malta, and of the disembarkation of our troops at Alexandria. This news has since been confirmed by various letters from Cyprus, and from the ports along the coast: to the present moment, however, I have received nothing official on these important events; so that we are kept suspended, as it were, between the numerous contradictory stories which are propagated concerning this expedition; which appears to have excited a considerable degree of alarm, not only at Cyprus, but along the whole coast of Syria.
Without pretending to pry into the secrets of government, I cannot help saying I am astonished that, when the descent was once effected, the General, or at least the Consul at Alexandria, did not address a circular letter to the consuls of the neighbouring countries, to put them in a way of quieting the apprehensions of the Turks, who (as may easily be supposed) do not see so formidable an expedition without some degree of alarm.
The pacific language which I have continued to hold on this occasion has contributed greatly to calm the effervescence which was beginning to manifest itself, not only among the Turks, but even among a great majority of the French who are settled here.
“Whatever,” said I to them all, “may be the purport of this expedition, you ought to entertain no doubt but that it is undertaken with the full consent of the Porte. Let us wait for authentic intelligence from our respective governments—and till then, let us confidently repose on the knowledge we all have of the strict connection which has now subsisted so long between the two powers.”—(Precious villain!)
I then placed in the fairest point of view, the various advantages which would accrue to the Ottoman empire from our possession of Malta—and, to say the truth, this circumstance had a considerable effect in counterbalancing the disagreeable sensation, which the knowledge of having so formidable a force in the neighbourhood had already produced.
At this moment Aleppo is effectually quieted. I can see nothing to apprehend but a sudden convulsion, produced by some of those absurd and exaggerated accounts which terror frequently dictates, and which terror alone is capable of adopting.
The Pacha, and all the Grandees of the city are tranquil. If there be any explosion to dread, it is on the part of the Cheriffs, whom fanaticism may drive to violent measures—and, in that case, I should not be astonished if the Janizaries, who are fond of us, were to undertake our defence.
I take advantage, Citizen Minister, of a mode of conveyance, not altogether without suspicion, to transmit you this letter, which I have scribbled in great haste—because the only opportunity that offers is that of the courier of the ***** Consul, and because it is necessary to use every precaution, and even every article imaginable to save appearances, and prevent any obstacles being raised to is departure.
Health and respect.
J. CHODERLOS.
The reasons I have just given, prevent Citizen Beauchamp from writing to you. The packet would be too voluminous not to excite suspicion. He charges me to inform you, that he intends setting out the day after to-morrow for Latakia, where he will take measures for prosecuting his journey.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)This is the brother of the famous, or rather infamous La Clos known in this country as the author of Les Liasons Dangereuses, and in France, as one of the most active promoters of the Revolution. He was at once the agent, and the instigator, of that profligate idiot, Egalite; he was also a principal manager of the Jacobin Club, of which he was President in 1790.
His talents for intrigue made him redoubtable to Robespierre, by whom he was proscribed: he contrived, however, to escape, and, in 1795, was selected by the government (to whom his abilities and his want of principle were well known) as a fit instrument for promoting their iniquitous designs in Syria.
To return to Choderlos. He was sent to Aleppo some time after his brother (who was settled at Latakia) and one the same iniquitous errand. His letter shews that he was equally well qualified for the purpose. Much mischief would inevitably have followed, had not the presumption and folly of their rapacious masters precipitated measures, and plunged them in the abyss of misery which they were wantonly preparing for others.
They are both ere this, we truth, in the Castle of the Seven Towers: much too good a place of the imprisonment for men who, in strict justice, should long since have perished in the dungeon of Robespierre.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Life in Egypt Described as a State of "Perpetual Vexation"
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 106-109.
TRANSLATION.
Rosetta, in Egypt, July 27th.
I HOPE, child, that this letter will reach thee; I send it by a particular opportunity, and it is, perhaps, the only one of all that I have written to thee since my departure from Malta which will come safe to hand. As for me, I have not once heard from thee since I left Toulon, notwithstanding two advice boats have arrived within the last six days, and brought a vast number of letters.
I presume that thy letters were put on board the corvette which was taken by the English; in that case, I cannot hope to hear from thee for some time, an idea that distresses me almost beyond bearing. My situation is so grievous, that I shall sink under it if I am deprived of that consolation. Exert thyself, therefore, my love, and write to me so frequently, that I may at least stand a chance of hearing from thee once or twice. Thou must needs be assured that my anxiety on thy account is very great. I could send thee but a little money by Capt. Collot; at present I have not the power of transmitting a single sous. I am more than hundred miles from Citizen Magallon(1), and I foresee that I shall be able to send thee nothing before I get to Cairo.
I fear that we have all been terribly deceived with respect to this expedition, so fine, and so cried up! Nay, I am even apprehensive, that if we succeed in conquering Egypt, we shall still find prodigious difficulties in drawing from it all those advantages which we so fondly promised ourselves. We experience every where a great deal of resistance, and a greater still of treachery. It is impossible for one of us to walk out alone a musket shot from any inhabited place without running the risk of being assassinated, or of becoming the victim of a detestable passion, much in the vogue in this country, especially among the Mameloucs, and Bedouin Arabs. I know several who were seized about nightfall in the very streets of Alexandria, and compelled to undergo this shocking outrage.
Rosetta is much more tranquil than Alexandria. Its inhabitants are more civilized, and we are consequently exposed to fewer dangers: notwithstanding this, however, we maintain the greatest circumspection in our individual conduct, and the strictest police, nay even a degree of severity in our general administration.
This country, so much celebrated, is by no means worthy of the character it has obtained; the most savage and uncultivated spot in France is a thousand times more beautiful. Nothing on earth can be so gloomy, so wretched, and so unhealthy as Alexandria, the most commercial spot in Egypt! Houses of mud, with no other windows than a hole here and there, covered with a clumsy wooden lattice; no raised roofs, and doors which you must break your back to enter; briefly, figure to thyself a collection of dirty, ill built, pigeonhouses, and thou wilt have an adequate idea of Alexandria.
The streets are all narrow and crooked, and without pavement, so that one is continually incommoded by the dust, and excessive heat. When the inhabitants take it into their heads to water the streets before the doors of their hovels, the remedy is worse than the disease; the dust is instantly converted into mud, and the streets become altogether impassable. Every thing there is very scarce and very dear; add to all this, the difficulty of making ones-self understood, and the thousand other disagreeable circumstances which I have not the power to describe, and thou wilt be able to form a tolerable opinion of our situation.
I must, however, allow, that since I came here, I have been less wretched. The face of the country is a little more agreeable. The Nile produces a small quantity of verdure; and the sight of the palm-tree (though extremely monotonous, from the circumstance of its being the only tree to be found here), in some trifling degree refreshes the eye; but nothing is calculated to engage or amuse the imagination, and thou may’st easily conceive, that in a country like this, and in a situation productive of so much pain and inquietude, that faculty must needs be extremely active; as the objects around us, therefore, are dark and gloomy, the thoughts necessarily take a tinge from them, and we live in a state of perpetual spleen and vexation----
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[British Translators' Notes]
The remainder of this interesting letter has received so much injury as to be illegible. We regret it the less, as after the correct and spirited picture of the country which we have just seen, the writer probably returned to his own immediate concerns. We know not who he is; it only appears from a few words which we can make a shift to decipher towards the conclusion, that he was first clerk to Poussielgue, Comptroller of the expences of the army.
(1)Consul General at Alexandria. He was at this time with the army at Cairo.
TRANSLATION.
Rosetta, in Egypt, July 27th.
I HOPE, child, that this letter will reach thee; I send it by a particular opportunity, and it is, perhaps, the only one of all that I have written to thee since my departure from Malta which will come safe to hand. As for me, I have not once heard from thee since I left Toulon, notwithstanding two advice boats have arrived within the last six days, and brought a vast number of letters.
I presume that thy letters were put on board the corvette which was taken by the English; in that case, I cannot hope to hear from thee for some time, an idea that distresses me almost beyond bearing. My situation is so grievous, that I shall sink under it if I am deprived of that consolation. Exert thyself, therefore, my love, and write to me so frequently, that I may at least stand a chance of hearing from thee once or twice. Thou must needs be assured that my anxiety on thy account is very great. I could send thee but a little money by Capt. Collot; at present I have not the power of transmitting a single sous. I am more than hundred miles from Citizen Magallon(1), and I foresee that I shall be able to send thee nothing before I get to Cairo.
I fear that we have all been terribly deceived with respect to this expedition, so fine, and so cried up! Nay, I am even apprehensive, that if we succeed in conquering Egypt, we shall still find prodigious difficulties in drawing from it all those advantages which we so fondly promised ourselves. We experience every where a great deal of resistance, and a greater still of treachery. It is impossible for one of us to walk out alone a musket shot from any inhabited place without running the risk of being assassinated, or of becoming the victim of a detestable passion, much in the vogue in this country, especially among the Mameloucs, and Bedouin Arabs. I know several who were seized about nightfall in the very streets of Alexandria, and compelled to undergo this shocking outrage.
Rosetta is much more tranquil than Alexandria. Its inhabitants are more civilized, and we are consequently exposed to fewer dangers: notwithstanding this, however, we maintain the greatest circumspection in our individual conduct, and the strictest police, nay even a degree of severity in our general administration.
This country, so much celebrated, is by no means worthy of the character it has obtained; the most savage and uncultivated spot in France is a thousand times more beautiful. Nothing on earth can be so gloomy, so wretched, and so unhealthy as Alexandria, the most commercial spot in Egypt! Houses of mud, with no other windows than a hole here and there, covered with a clumsy wooden lattice; no raised roofs, and doors which you must break your back to enter; briefly, figure to thyself a collection of dirty, ill built, pigeonhouses, and thou wilt have an adequate idea of Alexandria.
The streets are all narrow and crooked, and without pavement, so that one is continually incommoded by the dust, and excessive heat. When the inhabitants take it into their heads to water the streets before the doors of their hovels, the remedy is worse than the disease; the dust is instantly converted into mud, and the streets become altogether impassable. Every thing there is very scarce and very dear; add to all this, the difficulty of making ones-self understood, and the thousand other disagreeable circumstances which I have not the power to describe, and thou wilt be able to form a tolerable opinion of our situation.
I must, however, allow, that since I came here, I have been less wretched. The face of the country is a little more agreeable. The Nile produces a small quantity of verdure; and the sight of the palm-tree (though extremely monotonous, from the circumstance of its being the only tree to be found here), in some trifling degree refreshes the eye; but nothing is calculated to engage or amuse the imagination, and thou may’st easily conceive, that in a country like this, and in a situation productive of so much pain and inquietude, that faculty must needs be extremely active; as the objects around us, therefore, are dark and gloomy, the thoughts necessarily take a tinge from them, and we live in a state of perpetual spleen and vexation----
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[British Translators' Notes]
The remainder of this interesting letter has received so much injury as to be illegible. We regret it the less, as after the correct and spirited picture of the country which we have just seen, the writer probably returned to his own immediate concerns. We know not who he is; it only appears from a few words which we can make a shift to decipher towards the conclusion, that he was first clerk to Poussielgue, Comptroller of the expences of the army.
(1)Consul General at Alexandria. He was at this time with the army at Cairo.
Frenchman Writes on Encounters with Turks, Arabs
From: Copies of original letters from the army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, intercepted by the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Nelson. With an English translation (London, J. Wright, 1798-1800, 3 vols.), vol. 1, pp. 101-103.
TRANSLATION.
Army of England(1).
Grand Cairo, July 27th.
R. DESGENETTES(2) to the female Citizen DESGENETTES, Val-de-Grace, Rue St. Jacques, Paris.
I WRITE to thee, at last, my dear wife, from Cairo’ which will be, I think, the boundary of my expedition.
I wrote to thee twice on our voyage; once from Malta, and again from Alexandria. Opportunities do not often occur, and when they do, they are very unsafe. Not a single letter of thine has yet reached me, nor have I yet heard of thy arrival at Paris.
I will give thee hereafter a faithful history of all my travels; the battles which I have seen, and the dangers without number which I have shared.
My friend Sucy, first Commissary, is dangerously wounded(3) by a musket shot, as is the young Lannes.
Desnanotre, who was likewise recommended to me by La Repeded, is taken prisoner by the Arabs.
The natives of Egypt are ferocious savages: the Beys their masters, haughty oppressors. Their Mameloucs, that is to say, their best cavalry, their privileged cast, opposed nothing to our army but a blind and inconsiderate courage: they were beaten, of course.
There is something in the Turks which I cannot help admiring, and even loving—it is their predestination, which leads to results of the most philosophical nature, and which accommodates itself surprisingly to my circumstances, my nothingness, and my fates.
They have also some very singular customs here. A man may have as many as four lawful wives, besides mistresses. This I have only from hearsay; but I can vouch from my own knowledge, that they drink scarce any thing but water.
Here is a great deal of news for one letter—now to our private affairs.
We are not paid at all, my dear wife; nor have I received a single sous since I left Toulon. With all this, I am far from being the most unfortunate; for almost every body here has either been pillaged, or compelled to fling his baggage into the river and I have saved all mine.
At quitting Toulon I sent thee 700 livres, more or less. Courtal was charged to see them conveyed; which was done, I believe, by the government messengers. Do not forget to write to me about them, and in more than one letter, for they are lost, taken &c.
Citizen Girandi’s letter for Cairo was of service to me; I am lodged with the Physician in question, and I have in return placed him in the army.
The Commander in Chief has constantly treated me with kindness; and I still hope, my dear Lolotte, to be with thee at the period we fixed on.
Embrace, Julien, thy dear parents, and all our friends.
R. DESGENETTES.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)Desgenettes seems at some former period to have miscalculated his literary wants. His epistle is written on a supernumerary sheet of paper, prepared for the “Army of Italy,” which last words are very fairly printed at the head of it. These the good Doctor has carefully erased, and in their place, substituted “Army of England”—Such accuracy is above all praise!
(2)From an official document lying before us, Desgenettes appears to be first Physician to the army;--a situation for which the reader will conclude to be specially qualified, before he has gone through his letter.
(3)His arm was fractured in passing up the Nile.
TRANSLATION.
Army of England(1).
Grand Cairo, July 27th.
R. DESGENETTES(2) to the female Citizen DESGENETTES, Val-de-Grace, Rue St. Jacques, Paris.
I WRITE to thee, at last, my dear wife, from Cairo’ which will be, I think, the boundary of my expedition.
I wrote to thee twice on our voyage; once from Malta, and again from Alexandria. Opportunities do not often occur, and when they do, they are very unsafe. Not a single letter of thine has yet reached me, nor have I yet heard of thy arrival at Paris.
I will give thee hereafter a faithful history of all my travels; the battles which I have seen, and the dangers without number which I have shared.
My friend Sucy, first Commissary, is dangerously wounded(3) by a musket shot, as is the young Lannes.
Desnanotre, who was likewise recommended to me by La Repeded, is taken prisoner by the Arabs.
The natives of Egypt are ferocious savages: the Beys their masters, haughty oppressors. Their Mameloucs, that is to say, their best cavalry, their privileged cast, opposed nothing to our army but a blind and inconsiderate courage: they were beaten, of course.
There is something in the Turks which I cannot help admiring, and even loving—it is their predestination, which leads to results of the most philosophical nature, and which accommodates itself surprisingly to my circumstances, my nothingness, and my fates.
They have also some very singular customs here. A man may have as many as four lawful wives, besides mistresses. This I have only from hearsay; but I can vouch from my own knowledge, that they drink scarce any thing but water.
Here is a great deal of news for one letter—now to our private affairs.
We are not paid at all, my dear wife; nor have I received a single sous since I left Toulon. With all this, I am far from being the most unfortunate; for almost every body here has either been pillaged, or compelled to fling his baggage into the river and I have saved all mine.
At quitting Toulon I sent thee 700 livres, more or less. Courtal was charged to see them conveyed; which was done, I believe, by the government messengers. Do not forget to write to me about them, and in more than one letter, for they are lost, taken &c.
Citizen Girandi’s letter for Cairo was of service to me; I am lodged with the Physician in question, and I have in return placed him in the army.
The Commander in Chief has constantly treated me with kindness; and I still hope, my dear Lolotte, to be with thee at the period we fixed on.
Embrace, Julien, thy dear parents, and all our friends.
R. DESGENETTES.
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[British Translators' Notes]
(1)Desgenettes seems at some former period to have miscalculated his literary wants. His epistle is written on a supernumerary sheet of paper, prepared for the “Army of Italy,” which last words are very fairly printed at the head of it. These the good Doctor has carefully erased, and in their place, substituted “Army of England”—Such accuracy is above all praise!
(2)From an official document lying before us, Desgenettes appears to be first Physician to the army;--a situation for which the reader will conclude to be specially qualified, before he has gone through his letter.
(3)His arm was fractured in passing up the Nile.
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