He harangued the Mohammedans upon the
beautiful and truthful character of their religion and upon the
advantages which they would derive from free trade with France. He
encouraged the close study of Egyptian antiquities. [Footnote: It was
an army officer on this Egyptian expedition who discovered the famous
Rosetta Stone, by the aid of which hieroglyphics could be deciphered.]
But his actual victories did not measure up to the excessively colored
reports that he sent home. He was checked in Syria, and a great naval
victory won by the celebrated English admiral, Lord Nelson, near the
mouth of the Nile, effectually prevented the arrival of reinforcements.
[Sidenote: Embarrassments of the Directory during Bonaparte's Absence
from France]
Thereupon, General Bonaparte, luckily eluding the British warships,
returned to France. It was believed by Frenchmen that his last
expedition had been eminently successful: but that in the meantime the
work of the Directory had been disastrous, no one doubted.
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