On the 28th of December the first division of the fleet arrived, and was at once ordered to proceed to Marmorice, the _Tigress_ sailing ahead to show the way. The second division arrived four days later. Tents were at once erected ashore. The sick were landed and encamped; whole regiments were also put under canvas, while the ships which carried them were careened and cleaned. Sir Sidney Smith had already returned with the news that there was practically nothing that could be called an army in Syria, and his report was so discouraging that General Abercrombie and Lord Keith resolved that it would be far better to land the army in Egypt than to disembark at Jaffa and take the long and fatiguing march across the desert, merely in order to gain the aid of a few thousand useless Turkish troops.