_FRENCH FLEET--Conflicting Statements of Buonaparte and Admiral Gantheaume--BATTLE OF ABOUKIR on 1st August, 1798--The French Admiral, Brueyes, killed, and his Ship, L'Orient, blown up--The Victory complete--Effects of this disaster--Means by which Napoleon proposed to establish himself in Egypt--His Administration, in many respects, praiseworthy--in others, his Conduct absurd--He aspires to be regarded an Envoy of the Deity--His endeavours to propitiate the Porte--The Fort of El Arish falls into his hands--Massacre of Jaffa--Admitted by Buonaparte himself--His Arguments in its defence--Replies to them--General Conclusions--Plague in the French Army--Napoleon's Humanity and Courage upon this occasion--Proceeds against Acre to attack Djezzar Pacha--Sir Sidney Smith--His Character--Captures a French Convoy, and throws himself into Acre--French arrive before Acre on 17th March, 1799, and effect a breach on the 28th, but are driven back--Assaulted by an Army of Moslems assembled without the Walls of Acre, whom they defeat and disperse--Personal Misunderstanding and Hostility betwixt Napoleon and Sir Sidney Smith--Explained--Buonaparte is finally compelled to raise the Siege._ [Sidenote: FRENCH FLEET.] When Buonaparte and his army were safely landed in Egypt, policy seemed to demand that the naval squadron, by which they had been escorted, should have been sent back to France as soon as possible. The French leader accordingly repeatedly asserts, that he had positively commanded Admiral Brueyes, an excellent officer, for whom he himself entertained particular respect,[385] either to carry his squadron of men-of-war into the harbour of Alexandria, or, that being found impossible, instantly to set sail for Corfu. The harbour, by report of the Turkish pilots, was greatly too shallow to admit without danger vessels of such a deep draught of water; and it scarce can be questioned that Admiral Brueyes would have embraced the alternative of setting sail for Corfu, had such been in reality permitted by his orders. But the assertion of Buonaparte is pointedly contradicted by the report of Vice-Admiral Gantheaume, who was himself in the battle of Aboukir, escaped from the slaughter with difficulty, and was intrusted by Buonaparte with drawing up the account of the disaster, which he transmitted to the minister of war. "Perhaps it may be said," so the despatch bears, "that it would have been advisable to have quitted the coast as soon as the disembarkation had taken place. But, _considering the orders of the commander-in-chief_, and the incalculable force afforded to the land-army by the presence of the squadron, the admiral thought it was his duty not to quit these seas."[386]