Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt. . .

This is the second of a flurry of seven prints that Gillray created in response to Horatio Nelson's stunning victory in what has become known as the Battle of the Nile which took place in Aboukir Bay at the mouth of the Nile from August 1–3, 1798. The first print Nelson's Victory, or Good-News Operating upon Loyal Feelings (October 3, 1798) had focused not upon the battle itself (which was only reported in London on the day before) but upon the presumed reactions to the extraordinary news by the most prominent Whigs. With time for a few more details to emerge from bulletins posted from Alexandria, Gilltay's second attempt, published on October 6, focuses upon Nelson and alludes to some of those details.

Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt. . .
Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt. . . [October 6, 1798]
© Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University

The image of Nelson is probably derived from the full-length mezzotint (1798) by A. Gieger which in turn was based on the portrait of Nelson (1797) by Lemuel Francis Abbott. Like Geiger, Gillray's Nelson is bareheaded, his gray hair blown back, his head turned to his right. His breeches and white waistcoat are similarly visible beneath his military jacket with epaulets, prominent star, and bands around the sleeve.

A. Geiger after Lemuel Francis Abbott (1775 - 1800)
Horatio Nelson
© National Portrait Gallery, London

In the report of the victory to his commanding officer, Earl St. Vincent, on August 3, 1798, Nelson had distinguished between between vessels he had captured, vessels he had destroyed, and vessels that managed to escape.

1. Le Guerrier, 74 guns, 700 men - Taken.
2. Le Conquerant, 74 guns, 700 men -Taken.
3. Le Spartiate, 74 guns, 700 men -Taken.
4. L'Aquilon, 74 guns, 700 men - Taken.
5. Le Souverain Peuple, 74 guns, 700 men - Taken.
6. Le Franklin, Blanquet, First Contre Admiral, 80 guns, 800 men - Taken.
7. L'Orient, Brueys, Admiral and Commander in Chief, 120 guns, 1010 men - Burnt.
8. Le Tonaut, 8o guns, 800 men - Taken.
9. L'Heureux, 74 guns, 700 men - Taken.
10. Le Timoleon, 74 guns, 700 men - Burnt.
11. Le Mercure, 74 guns, 700 men - Taken.
12. Le Guillaume Tell, Villeneuve, Second Contre Amiral, 80 guns, 800 men - Escaped.
13. Le Genereux, 74 guns, 700 men - Escaped.*

Gillray does his best to reflect these details of Nelson's report in his portrayal of the "Revolutionary Crocodiles" (in most versions of the print, appropriately tri-colored). Two ships (crocodiles) on the left are shown escaping, two more are shown being clubbed (destroyed) by Nelson's British oak. Later messages from Egypt reported that the massive flagship L'Orient with the French Commander-in-Chief aboard which appears in Nelson's report as burnt had, in fact, exploded with a blast that was heard and felt 25 miles away in Alexandria when the fires aboard reached the stores of gun powder. So Gillray shows an open mouthed crocodile on the far right exploding from within. Although mimicking the angle of Nelson's arm in the Geiger mezzotint, Gillray gives him a hook (which so far as I know he never had) and accompanying lines attached to other revolutionary crocodiles to suggest the nine French vessels captured in the French defeat.

It is not wholly surprising that Gillray's first metaphor for this decisive event is a Biblical one. In the Book of Exodus, there are 10 "plagues" suffered by the Egyptians as a punishment for their treatment of the Israelites. In this case, the plagues of Egypt were the French who invaded the country as part of Napoleon's grand plan to attack British possessions in India through a French designed Suez canal. It was a massive mistake by Napoleon, and Nelson's victory was one of the major turning points of the war.

* As reported in the London Gazette Extraordinary section of The Monthly Mirror.

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