necessity of assisting your brethren Mussulmans in this general cause of religion as well as of co-operating towards the above precious province being delivered from the hands of your enemy, your Majesty will employ every means which your natural zeal will point out to assist the common cause, and to corroborate by that means, the ancient good understanding so happily existing between our empires.

"(A true copy.)

N. B. EDMINSTONE,

"Persian Translator to Government."

How Tippoo responded to this appeal we shall see hereafter the arrival of Buonaparte on the Egyptian soil appears to have inspired him with the highest hopes, and to have strengthened him in all his antipathies to the British.

CHAPTER XI.

Landing of the French Army in Egypt.-Designs of the Directory of France on British India.-Effect of the Intelligence in India.-Buonaparte's Projects for the Invasion of British India.-Circumstances favourable to them.-Proposes to cross the Euphrates and the Indus.Alexander, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah.-Friendly Disposition of Persia.Zemaun Shah prepared to co-operate with Tippoo Sultaun and Buonaparte.-Buonaparte's Letters to the Sheriffe of Mecca and Tippoo Sultaun. Bourrienne's Account of Buonaparte's Plans.-Conversations in St. Helena.-Battle of the Nile and Defeat of Acre.-Buonaparte's Proposals to the Emperor Paul.-The Marches of Generals Lord Keane, Nott, Sale, and Pollock through Affghanistan.—Boland and Kyber Passes.-Tippoo's Correspondence with Zemaun Shah.Account of Zemaun Shah.-His Power and Hostility to the British.Remarks of Lord Mornington and General Sir J. H. Craig, respecting Zemaun Shah.-Effects of the Victory of the Nile.-Lord Mornington's Plans for annoying the French in Egypt.-Letter to Lord Nelson.-Precautions in Scinde against Zemaun Shah.-Memorandum relating to Scinde.

ON the 18th of October the Governor-General received intelligence of the landing of the French army under Buonaparte in Egypt; in less than a fortnight from that time the particulars of Nelson's victory at the Nile were brought to Fort William by one of the Admiral's lieutenants.

Notwithstanding the destruction of the French fleet in the Mediterranean, Lord Mornington did not relax any part of the naval and military preparations which had been commenced under his orders, being still ignorant of the fate of the French army and uncertain

whether the Directory had smuggled out ships singly and unobserved, with water and provisions from France to Suez,-whether they had sent orders to the authorities at the Isle of France to forward the frigates at that station, and the numerous privateers and other armed vessels belonging to the island, to meet Buonaparte's army on the shores of the Red Sea,-or whether any shipping or small craft might be found at Suez, or Cosier, or any other of the ports, sufficient to transport a few regiments to the coast of Malabar. Lord Mornington, in this instance too, completely anticipated the wishes of the Court of Directors, as we find it expressed in a letter from the India House to his Lordship, dated 26th of November, 1798:"Since the date of our letter of June last, above alluded to, the landing of Buonaparte in Egypt has been fully confirmed; and although, by the glorious victory of Admiral Nelson over the French fleet near Alexandria, and the opposition made to their progress through Egypt by the Arabs under the authority of the Porte, the designs of the French have been considerably impeded; yet if, contrary to our hopes and expectations, he should be able to establish himself in Egypt, we cannot but still be under apprehensions for the safety of our Indian possessions. These apprehensions are considerably increased in consequence of some hints lately suggested by the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, that if the French should be able to subdue Egypt, and to establish their authority in that country, it is likely their next progressive measure would be to secure the communication of the Red Sea with the Gulph of Cambay, at the narrow Straits of Babelmandel;

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and, if in their power, to detach a sufficient force to take possession of the Island of Perim, situate between the two points which include those straits."

Buonaparte, in projecting the invasion of Egypt, hoped to have been able to strike a blow at the heart of the British empire in India, and to have emulated the renown of the most mighty conquerors of Asia. The Roman eagle had spread dismay on the banks of the Euphrates; Alexander the Great, Tamerlane, and, nearer our own times, Nadir Shah, had swept over Persia, overcome the obstacles presented by the snows, crags, defiles, and deserts of the inhospitable region now so celebrated under the name of Affghanistan, and crossing the Indus had penetrated into Hindostan. Such an enterprise seemed worthy of the gigantic ambition and romantic courage of the conqueror of Italy; and it appeared to present the most feasible means of humbling the proud antagonist of France. The French Directory were accurately informed of the precise state of every portion of British India: republican agents were scattered over all parts of the peninsula French officers and engineers were to be found in the armies of all the native powers; and by Tippoo Sultaun, the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, as we have seen, French corps of considerable strength were maintained. Beside, the Government of France had the opportunity of obtaining intelligence affecting the territories of the East India Company and the native powers, through the Portuguese settlement of Goa, dangerous from its vicinity to the island and city of Bombay, as well as from the Danish factories of Serampore and Tranquebar,-the one confronting the Gover

nor-General's house on the river Hoogley, the other affording a convenient station for watching the proceedings of the Presidency of Madras. French ships of the line, frigates, and privateers were in the Indian Seas. The Isles of France and Bourbon,-now the Mauritius, not only enabled the Republican Government to menace British supremacy in the East, but afforded great facilities for the transmission of political information to Europe. When Buonaparte, therefore, steered his course for Alexandria, he was well aware both of the strength and the weakness of the British : and it must be admitted that circumstances appeared highly favourable to a descent upon India. The Government of Madras was in a state of absolute feebleness; and, notwithstanding the vigilance of the British cruizers, French ships captured our merchantmen off the mouths of the Ganges.. Tippoo Sultaun, to whom the historian of Lord Wellesley's policy is obliged to devote so considerable a degree of attention, was a brave, energetic, wealthy and powerful sovereign, as has been sufficiently demonstrated, breathing forth vengeance against the English name, and anxious to hail the victorious leader of the eagles of France as the deliverer of India! The Nizam was an uncertain ally of the British Government,-incapable of rendering any useful aid, and formidable to his friends in consequence of the Gallic corps in his service. The Mahratta empire was disaffected and turbulent, and was deeply engaged in intrigues with powers hostile to Great Britain; the Burmese menaced the irruption which afterwards took place during the progress of the war in Mysore; and Zemaun Shah, the bold Affghan