Cylchgronau Cymru

108 NOTABLE MEN OF WALES. fleet to Coron, returned with the intelligence that the French fleet had been seen about four weeks before on the Coast of Candia, steering S. E. South east was then steered by the British, and a fresh breeze astern, with a heavy following sea, •drove them rapidly towards the goal of their hopes. On the 1st of August, at 10 a.m., the towers and minarets of Alexandria, the Pharos and Pompey's Pillar made their welcome appearance, the port displayed a forest of masts, and the French flag waved upon the walls. The two British look-out ships signalled, however, that all but eight were transports and merchantmen, but the Zealous, a little before 1 p.m., signalled that seventeen ships of war, thirteen or fourteen of them formed in line of battle, lay at anchor in a bay upon her larboard bow. Instantly the British fleet hauled up, steering to the eastward under top¬ gallant sails, with a fine breeze from north by west to north north west. The Bay of Aboukir, or Bay of Shoals, as it is also called, commences about twenty miles E. N. E. of Alexandria, and extends from the Castle of Aboukir in a semi-circular direction to the westernmost, or Rosetta, mouth of the Nile, distant from the castle about six miles. Aboukir Bay has no depth of water for line of battle ships nearer than three miles from the shore, a sandbank on which there is not anywhere more than four fathoms of water running out to that distance. Owing also to the width of its opening, the bay affords very little shelter .except on its W.N.W. side (that from which the wind on this coast commonly blows), by a small island, situate about two miles from the castle point, and connected with it by a chain of sandbanks and rocks, with a passage between for small craft. Aboukir Island is surrounded by a continuation of the shoal that runs along the bottom of the bay, and which extends from the island nearly a mile in a N.E. direction. The French fleet was formed in line ahead in the following order:—Guerrier, seventy-four; Conquerant, seventy-four; JSpartiate, seventy-four; Aquilon, seventy-four; Peuple Souverain, seventy-four; Franklin, eighty; Orient, one hundred and twenty; Tonnant, eighty; Heureux, seventy- four ; Minerve, seventy-four; Guillaume Tell, eighty; Genereux, seventy-four; Tlmoleon, seventy-four; within an inner line, and about midway between that and the shoal, the Serieuse frigate nearly abreast of the opening between the Conquerant and Spartiate; the Artemise abreast of the Heureux, and the Diane of the Guillaume Tell. The van ship bore from Aboukir Island S.E., distant about two thousand four hundred and twenty yards, or one and seven- eighths of a mile, which is rather more than double the extent of the shoal in the same direction. Between the Guerrier and her second astern, and between all the other line