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312 brackish water to drink, gained them the admiration of the whole Ottoman army.

Wearied with the hopeless contest, General Kleber, who, after the departure of Buonaparte, had assumed the command of the French forces, entered into a convention with the Grand Vizier, Jan. 24, 1800, for the evacuation of Egypt; to which Sir W. Sidney Smith, as auxiliary commander on the part of Great Britain acceded. The French army was to be collected, with its arms, baggage, and effects, at Alexandria, Rosetta, and Aboukir, and thence be transported to France, partly in its own vessels, and partly in those to be furnished by the Sublime Porte.

This treaty was not carried into execution. The British government had been informed that a negociation with the Grand Vizier for the evacuation of Egypt by the French army was in progress, and instructions were sent to the British Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean to accede; but with this main difference in the conditions, that the French army should be detained as prisoners of war till regularly exchanged. These instructions were received by Lord Keith in February, and he immediately informed General Kleber of their purport.

On the 20th March, hostilities recommenced in the neighbourhood of Cairo, when the French, rendered desperate by their situation, obtained a signal victory over the Turks, upwards of 8,000 of whom were left on the field, killed and wounded, at Elhanka.

Notwithstanding this advantage, the enemy being much harassed by the Beys, General Kleber proposed a renewal of the terms agreed to by the Grand Vizier and Sir W. Sidney Smith for the evacuation of Egypt, and Lord Keith was now authorised by the British Cabinet to accede to them; when the execution of the treaty was again frustrated by the assassination of the French Commander-in-Chief, on the 15th June, 1800, and the determination of his successor, Menou, not to withdraw from that country.

What could no longer be obtained by treaty was now to be effected by arms. Sir Ralph Abercromby, who had been sent to supersede Sir James Pulteney in the command of the army acting in the Mediterranean, having carried out 