Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/297

Rh distress of the British troops who will cross the desert. I have not adverted to the supply of arms and ammunition to be given to the natives. As long as their co-operation is doubtful these supplies ought to be withheld but promised; when they will have shown their sincerity in our cause, the arms may be given to almost any extent."

On the third day after the receipt of this memorandum, viz., the 30th June, General Baird quitted Kosseir. He had calculated that it would take him ten days to concentrate all his force at Keneh. Thence, should he be able to collect a sufficient number of boats, it might be possible for him to reach Cairo in twenty days. On the other hand, the land march from Keneh to Cairo would take, he believed, thirty-five days.

The difficulties of the march, owing to the want of water, the heat, and the trying character of the soil, and the obstacles in the way of communication, were so great that General Baird, lion-hearted as he was, despaired, whilst waiting at Keneh for orders, of being able to effect anything useful to the public service. For many days he was without intelligence of, and received no orders from. General Hutchinson, Under these circumstances, and dreading lest the breaking out of the monsoon might interfere with his return to India, he, on the 9th July, addressed from Keneh to H.R.H. the Duke of York, a letter expressive of his anxiety to know whether his continuance in Egypt was likely to be productive of any beneficial results to the service.

Just at this moment intelligence reached General Baird, by a circuitous route, that General Belliard, the French Governor of Cairo, had entered into a treaty