The Culloden,

In his anxiety

the line became inverted from van to rear. captain Trowbridge, was not so fortunate. to gain his station on the van of the enemy's line, he grounded on the tail of a shoal, which run out in a north-west direction from the island, on which the French batteries were erected; every effort was made to get the ship off, but without effect, while the engagement continued; and it was not till the morning of the 2d, that this was accomplished, after having lost her rudder, and having received considerable damage in other respects.

Soon after the battle became general, the sun set; and, as is the case in those latitudes, darkness spread over the sea and land; this darkness was, however, most awfully removed at intervals, by the fire of the hostile fleets. At those times, the hemisphere was illuminated, as if the most vivid lightning had burst through the clouds.

About nine o'clock, the enemy's van, as far as the fourth ship, had surrendered; a few minutes after, a fire was discovered on board the centre ship of the enemy, L'Orient, which spread with such rapidity, that she was soon in a complete blaze. As soon as this circumstance was made known to admiral Nelson, he immediately came from below, whither he had retired, in consequence of a severe wound he had received on the head, and gave orders that the boats of the Vanguard should be hoisted out, to endeavour to save the crew; the same humane measure was adopted by several other of the British ships, which saved the lives of upwards of seventy men. L'Orient continued burning till ten o'clock, when she blew up with a most appalling and tremendous explosion. For a few minutes afterwards, as if by common consent, all was silent as death. The masts and rigging of L'Orient, fell in all directions, and exposed the surrounding ships to great danger; fortunately, however, none of them suffered the least damage.

About ten minutes after the explosion, the cannonade was renewed, and continued at intervals, till three o'clock in the morning. When day broke, it was ascertained, that the greatest part of the French van were dismasted, and had struck, a French frigate was seen going down, and the Bellerophon was at anchor, some miles to the eastward, without a single mast standing. Part of the centre and rear of the enemy were still unconquered; and against them, such of the British ships as were least damaged proceeded; this caused the action to be partially renewed; but

it was soon terminated by the surrender of L'Heureux, and Mercure, and by the dismasting of Le Tonnant. Only two of the rear were in a condition to effect their escape; these were Le Guillaume Tell, and Genereux; Le Timoleon endeavoured to follow their example, but being badly manoeuvred, she ran on shore, and was set fire to by her crew. Two frigates also escaped, La Diane and La Justice. None of the British were in a condition to pursue them but the Zealous; this she did for a short time, but finding that though she gained on them, none were coming up to support her, the admiral called her back by signal.

Only one ship of the French line of battle ships remained unconquered, Le Tonnant; she was entirely dismasted, and had driven very considerably to leeward. On her surrender being demanded, her captain promised to comply, provided his crew, which he said amounted to fifteen hundred, were sent to France. He was told that he must surrender unconditionally; and as he still kept his flag flying, on the morning of the 3d of August, the Theseus and Leander were ordered to attack him, but on the approach of the former, the flag of truce was hoisted. At the commencement of this action, the French fleet consisted of thirteen sail of the line, and four frigates, having on board twelve hundred guns, and between ten and eleven thousand men. Of the ships of the line, nine sail were taken, two were burned, and two effected their escape; one of the frigates was sunk, another was burned, and two escaped. Besides admiral Brueys, two other admirals and three captains were slain. The loss of the French on the whole was estimated at between seven and eight thousand men; but the wounded and prisoners were given up, on condition that they should not fight against England, till they were regularly exchanged. The British fleet consisted, at the commencement of the action, of thirteen sail of the line and a fifty-gun ship, carrying in all a thousand guns, and having on board eight thousand men; of these, the killed and wounded amounted to nine hundred. Among the former, was captain Westcott of the Majestic, who was greatly and deservedly lamented; his own merit, which had always been conspicuous, had been the sole cause of his rising to the rank which he held at the time of his death.

The battle was fought close to the shores of Egypt, which were crowded with astonished and anxious spectators. The wing of the French army at Rosetta, though at the distance of thirty miles from Aboukir, were enabled by the help of

glasses, to gain a confused and imperfect sight of what was going on; and their anxiety was great, since, if their fleet were defeated and destroyed, all hopes were cut off of reinforcements, or of being able to return to their native land, in case they should not succeed in their conquest of Egypt. When the explosion of L'Orient took place, the earth shook even to the distance of Rosetta. As the battle terminated during the darkness of the night, the French on shore would have remained for some hours ignorant of the issue, had not the shouts and the actions of the Arabs too unequivocally pointed it out to them; for these people, either sincerely and really hostile to their invaders, or disposed to take part with the conquerors, whether British or French, committed every outrage on such of the latter as fell into their hands, in their endeavours to escape on shore from their captured and burning ships.

It is impossible to describe the exultation and joy which were manifested on every British countenance, when the intelligence of this victory reached England. Nelson was raised to the peerage, and he and his officers loaded with honours and rewards.

The Leander, which was sent home with the despatches of the victory of the Nile, fell in with a French ship of superior force, and being in some degree damaged, and her complement of men diminished during the late action, she was compelled to surrender after a gallant resistance.

Several combats between small squadrons and between single ships, occurred in this year, in which the English superiority was fully maintained.

During the year 1799, no naval action, on a large scale, or of very important consequences, occurred. A Dutch fleet of twelve sail, intended by France to be employed against England, was taken possession of by our squadron, under admiral Mitchell, in the name of the prince of Orange, who, of course, did not acknowledge the French usurpation.

SIEGE OF ACRE BY BUONAPARTE.-This year was celebrated for the siege of Acre, a Syrian fortress under the dominion of the Sultan, and which formed an obstacle to the farther progress of Buonaparte's conquests in that quarter.

Of the romantic adventures attending Sir Sidney Smith's escape from the French prisons, we shall have occasion again to speak. On hearing of Buonaparte's preparations for the