| Naval History of Great Britain - Vol III |
1800 |
General Pulteney at Ferrol |
25 |
After a long search, a suspected individual was taken, named Soleyman-el-Halebi, a native of Syria, aged 24 years, and by profession a clerk or writer. When accused of the crime, he stoutly denied it; but the bastinado, applied to the soles of the poor wretch's feet produced a confession. Let us hasten to relate the horrid business that followed. The man was evidently a religious fanatic: indeed he is so described in the French accounts ;* and no greater proof of the fact is required, than that, although tortured to death in a manner which might have shaken the constancy of a North-American Indian, Soleyman died singing, in a loud and steady voice, the creed of his faith.
A few days before the French army, now under the command of General Aballah-Jacques Menou, assisted at this most disgraceful exhibition, their late commander-in-chief was buried with military honours in the suburbs of Cairo; and we must do him the justice to say, that General Kléber, among his enemies, no less than among his friends, bore the character of a brave officer and an honourable man. The character of his successor will be sufficiently developed, as in our next year's account we proceed in bringing to a close the French Egyptian campaign.
British and Spanish Fleets - Atlantic.
Some account has already been given of the operations, along the south-west coast of France, of a British squadron under the command of Captain Sir Edward Pellew. Early in the month of August Rear-admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, who commanded another detached squadron cruising in the bay of Biscay, taking Sir Edward under his command, made sail for, and on the 25th arrived in the bay of Playa-de-Dominos on the coast of Spain, with the:
Gun |
Ship |
|
98 |
London |
Captain John Child Purvis. |
74 |
Renown |
Rear-admiral (b.) Sir J. B. Warren, bart., K.B.
Captain Thomas Eyles. |
74 |
Impétueux |
Captain Sir Edward Pellew, bart. |
74 |
Courageux |
Captain Samuel Hood |
74 |
Captain |
Captain Sir Richard John Strachan, bt. |
There were also four or five frigates and sloops besides a fleet of transports containing a strong body of troops, commanded by Lieutenant-general Sir James Pulteney ; and which troops in conjunction with the ships of war, were to attack the defences that protected the following Spanish squadron, lying ready for sea in the harbour of Ferrol:
Gun |
Ship |
Gun |
Ship |
112 |
Real-Carlos |
80 |
Argonauta |
112 |
San-Hermenegildo |
74 |
San-Antonio |
96 |
San-Fernando |
74 |
San-Augustin |
* Victoires et Conquêtes, tome xii., p. 268.
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