On the return of the brig Nelson instantly stood away with his squadron towards the north-east.
But for a delay which our convoy from Civita Vecchia occasioned, we should have been on this coast at the same time as Nelson.
It appeared that Nelson supposed us to be already at Alexandria when he arrived there.

He had reason to suppose so, seeing that we left Malta on the 19th of June, whilst he did not sail from Messina till the 21st.
Not finding us where he expected, and being persuaded we ought to have arrived there had Alexandria been the place of our destination; he sailed for Alexandretta in Syria, whither he imagined we had gone to effect a landing.

This error saved the expedition a second time.
Bonaparte, on hearing the details which the French Consul communicated, resolved to disembark immediately.

Admiral Brueys represented the difficulties and dangers of a disembarkation--the violence of the surge, the distance from the coast,--a coast, too, lined with reefs of rocks, the approaching night, and our perfect ignorance of the points suitable for landing.

The Admiral, therefore, urged the necessity of waiting till next morning; that is to say, to delay the landing twelve hours.