I cannot guess the good success which may attend my holding our present position; for Bonaparte writes his distress for stores, artillery, things for their hospitals, &c.  All useful communication is at an end, between Alexandria and Cairo.  You may be assured, I shall remain here as long as possible.  Bonaparte had never yet to contend with an English officer, and I shall endeavour to make him respect us.  This is all I have to communicate.  I am confident, every precaution will be taken to prevent, in future, any vessels going to Suez, which may be able to carry troops to India.  If my letter is not so correct as might be expected, I trust for your excuse; when I tell you, that my brain is so shook with the wound in my head, that I am sensible I am not always so clear as could be wished:  But, while a ray of reason remains, my heart and my hand shall ever be exerted for the benefit of our king and country.  I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

     “Horatio Nelson.

     “The officer, Lieutenant Duval, who carries this dispatch
     voluntarily to you, will—­I trust—­be immediately sent to England,
     with such recommendations as his conduct will deserve.”

The importance of thus sending this information to India, which few other naval commanders would have thought necessary, proved prodigiously great.  Expensive preparations were at that moment making, by the East India Company, for a most powerful armament to oppose any force which the French might be enabled to send against their possessions, in conjunction with Tippoo Saib:  and this timely intelligence, by instantly quieting every apprehension of that sort, suddenly arrested the progress of all extraordinary warlike operations, and consequently saved a vast sum of money to the company; which, without the wonderful circumspection of this great man, must necessarily have been expended.

The dispatches to England, however, were unable to be forwarded, for several days.  In the mean time, on the morning of the 11th, the Swiftsure brought into the fleet a captured French corvette of eighteen guns, and seventy men, called La Fortune.  On the 12th, Sir James Saumarez, captain of the Orion, was directed to take the Bellerophon, Minotaur, Defence, Audacious, Theseus, and Majestic, under his command; and proceed with the prizes, Le Souverain Peuple, Conquerant, Spartiate, Aquilon, Franklin, and Tonnant, for Gibraltar:  where, if he found no orders, he was to join the commander in chief off Cadiz, or go to Lisbon.  Sir James sailed, accordingly, on the 15th; and Admiral Nelson having, on this very day, received secret orders and letters from the Earl of St. Vincent, found it requisite to destroy the other French prizes.  The necessity of this measure is explained in the following letter of the succeeding day, addressed to Evan Nepean, Esq. for the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

     “SIR,