Q. Titurius Sabinus and L. Aurunculeius Cotta received the command of the troops left on the continent to occupy the territory of the Menapii and that of the country of the Morini which had not submitted. The lieutenant P. Sulpicius Rufus was charged with the guard of the port with a sufficient force. They had succeeded in collecting eighty transport ships, judged capable of containing the two legions of the expedition, with all their baggage, and a certain number of galleys, which were distributed among the quæstor, the lieutenants, and the prefects. Eighteen other vessels, destined for the cavalry, were detained by contrary winds in a little port (that of _Ambleteuse_) situated eight miles to the north of Boulogne.[351] (_See Plate 16._) Having made these dispositions, Cæsar, taking advantage of a favourable wind, started in the night between the 24th and 25th of August (we shall endeavour to justify this date farther on), towards midnight, after giving orders to the cavalry to proceed to the port above (_Ambleteuse_); he reached the coast of Britain at the fourth hour of the day (ten o’clock in the forenoon), opposite the cliffs of Dover. The cavalry, which had embarked but slowly, had not been able to join him. From his ship Cæsar perceived the cliffs covered with armed men. At this spot the sea was so close to these cliffs that a dart thrown from the heights could reach the beach.[352] The place appeared to him in no respect convenient for landing. This description agrees with that which Q. Cicero gave to his brother, of “coasts surmounted by immense rocks.”[353] (_See Plate 17._) Cæsar cast anchor, and waited in vain until the fifth hour (half-past three) (see the Concordance of Hours, _Appendix B_), for the arrival of the vessels which were delayed. In the interval, he called together his lieutenants and the tribunes of the soldiers, communicated to them his plans as well as the information brought by Volusenus, and urged upon them the instantaneous execution of his orders on a simple sign, as maritime war required, in which the manœuvres must be as rapid as they are varied. It is probable that Cæsar had till then kept secret the point of landing. When he had dismissed them, towards half-past three o’clock, the wind and tide having become favourable at the same time, he gave the signal for raising their anchors, and, after proceeding about seven miles to the east, as far as the extremity of the cliffs, and having, according to Dio Cassius, doubled a lofty promontory,[354] the point of the South Foreland (_see Plate 16_), he stopped before the open and level shore which extends from the castle of Walmer to Deal.