Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

106 NOTABLE MEN OF WALES. to the fleet off Cadiz. On the 2nd of May Sir Horatio quitted the fleet in the Vanguard, and steered for the Mediterranean. He was afterwards joined by two other line-of-battle ships. On the 17th, when off Cape Sicie, the Rear-Admiral received information, through a captured privateer, that there were nineteen sail of the line in Toulon harbour; that fifteen of them were ready for sea, and that Buonaparte, at the head of an immense body of troops, was expected soon to embark; but for what destination could not be ascertained. The Rear-Admiral then proceeded with his three vessels to the Sardinian harbour of St. Pietro, where we will leave them at present to attend to what was going on at Toulon. In the early months of 1798 Buonaparte submitted to the Directory a plan of a campaign in Egypt, and on the 5th of March in that year was appointed commander-in-chieL Buonaparte quitted Paris on the 3rd of May, and on the 8th arrived at Toulon. The expedition, now that it was complete, consisted of thirteen sail of the line, eight frigates, two Venetian sixty-four's, and six frigates, with other smaller description, in all seventy- two vessels of war, exclusive of four hundred sail of transports. Of this immense fleet the crews alone were computed at ten thousand men, besides which there was a body of troops amounting to about thirty-six thousand men. The fleet was commanded by Vice-Admiral Brueys, having under him Rear- Admirals Villeneuve, Blanquet and Decres, and Commodore Granteaume, as captain of the fleet. The admiral had his flag on board the one hundred and twenty gun ship Orient, as the ci-devant Sans-Ctdottes was now appropriately named, and in her Buonaparte and his suite embarked. On the 19th of May, in the morning, the, whole of the fleet, with the exception of a portion of the transports, got under weigh from Toulon Roads, with a strong wind from the N.W., and running along the coast of Provence, stopped off Genoa, to be joined by a division of transports ; and then stood straight across to Cape Corse, which was signalled on the 23rd, at day¬ break. On the 3rd of June Buonaparte received intelligence that three English ships of the line and two frigates had been seen off Cagliari. The French fleet proceeded, and on the 7th passed within gun-shot of Mazzara, in Sicily, and on the 9th sighted the islands of Malta and Grozo. On the 10th a landing was effected in seven places, and on the 12th the islands of Malta, Ofozo, and Comino surrendered by capitulation. To return to Admiral Nelson, in the harbour of St. Pietro. On the 27th of May he put to sea with his three ships and steered for Toulon. On the 5th of June the Mutine, Captain Thomas- Masterman Hardy, joined with the intelligence that she had on the 30th parted from a squadron of ten sail of the line, and a