Page:Authentic account of the important battle of the Nile.pdf/3

(3) board, the name of the place is Faro Meſſina: A vaſt concourſe of people came along-ſide of our ſhips in boats, and expreſſed great ſurpriſe at ſeeing ſuch a fleet of large ſhips, for it was never known in the memory of any perſon living at this time, for a fleet of men of war to be ſeen there; they were overjoyed when they underſtood we were in ſearch of the French fleet, and informed us, that they were ſeen off, a few days before we arrived, and had gone to Malta;we fell in with a brig, and ſhe gave us intelligence that the French fleet had ſailed for Egypt. Our Admiral being determined to find them, if poſſible, ſteered his courſe for Alexandria, in Egypt; but to his great ſurpriſe and mortification the French fleet had not been there at all: we then ſteered our courſe down again, and coaſted round the Iſland of Candia, and then put in to the Iſland of Syracuſe in Sicily, where we wooded and watered, being much in want of the ſame, alſo we took a good ſtock of Freſh Beef to ſea with us;—and during the time we were laying there we gained freſh intelligence that the French fleet, after having captured Malta, and garriſoned the iſland with French troops, had ſailed for