claiming his privilege as commander-in-chief at the time the event took place, signed a commission, promoting Lieutenant Maitland, who had accompanied him home, to the rank of Commander in the Camelion sloop of war, which vessel our officer joined off El Arish, in time to be present at the signing of a convention between the commissioners appointed by General Kleber and the Grand Vizier, having for its object the evacuation of Egypt by the French republican army[1].
This treaty was acceded to by Sir W. Sidney Smith, and a copy thereof brought home overland by Captain Maitland[2], who soon after rejoined his sloop in the Mediterranean, where he made several captures; and on the 10th Dec. 1800, was appointed by Lord Keith to the Waassenaar 64, armed en flute; but as that ship was lying at Malta, unfit for service, he obtained his Lordship’s permission to accompany the expedition then preparing against the French in Egypt, where his conduct in command of the armed launches employed to cover the landing of Sir Ralph Abercromby’s army, and in the subsequent battles of March 13 and 21, 1801, obtained him the thanks of the naval and military commanders-in-chief.
An account of the debarkation will be found in our memoir of the Hon. Sir Alexander Cochrane[3]: the following is an outline of what followed:
After the defeat of the enemy on the 8th, Sir Ralph Abercromby advanced three miles on the neck of sand lying between the sea and the lake of Aboukir, leaving a distance of about four miles between the British and French camps. In this position the hostile forces remained till the 13th, when the republicans were attacked find driven back to their lines before Alexandria. On this occasion the flotilla under the command of Captains Maitland and Hillyar accompanied the
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 312.
- ↑ Captain Maitland having conveyed the intelligence to Lord Keith, then at Malta, was ordered by his Lordship to proceed home overland, in company with Major Douglas of the marines. In the mean time General Kleber, rendered desperate by the refusal of Lord Keith to ratify the treaty, re-commenced hostilities, defeated the Turks, and regained many important posts which he had either evacuated or left in an unguarded state, and from whence his troops were not expelled until the arrival of a British army in the following year.
- ↑ See Vol. I. note † at p. 259.
