On the reception of this, Mehemet Ali said he should consider the war at an end, and should order Ibrahim to retire on Marash. That he hoped the Allies would be satisfied; and as soon as everything was settled, he would proceed to Constantinople to do homage to his sovereign. That should Achmet Pacha wish to deliver up the fleet, he would not accept it, but send it back to Constantinople; and that as for the post of vakeel, he would rather remain in his present position. All this seemed very well; but we shall shortly see how he acted.
On the 14th of July the Turkish fleet arrived off Alexandria, and, as no doubt had been previously arranged, formed a junction with the Egyptian fleet. The following morning, the Nile steamer, bearing the flag of the Capudan Pacha, arrived in the harbour, and the traitor was well received by Mehemet Ali[[9]].
So secret was all this kept on board the Capudan Pacha’s ship, that Captain Walker, who was with him, had no notion of what the Turkish Admiral was about, until he sent a steamer to direct two ships, who, being bad sailers, were left astern, to rendezvous off Alexandria. On speaking to the Capudan Pacha, he was assured that Mehemet Ali had put the Egyptian fleet under his orders, and that he was proceeding to Egypt to confer with Mehemet Ali on what were the best steps to be taken for the good of the Turkish empire. When the Turkish fleet anchored, Captain Walker landed, and left Alexandria for Constantinople on the 20th, much to the annoyance of the Capudan Pacha, who wished him to remain.
The Allied Consuls used all their endeavours in vain to advise Mehemet Ali to send back the fleet. He said he would have nothing to do with Hosrew, who was his bitter foe; and that he had written to him to send in his resignation; and should Hosrew do so, all would be right.
Mehemet Ali’s enmity to Hosrew was much strengthened by the latter having sent, through the hands of the French Consul, letters to the General and inferior Admirals of the Turkish fleet, calling upon them to return to their allegiance. These letters M. Cochelet gave to Mehemet Ali, who delivered them to the Admirals, when, as might have been expected from the position they were in, they tore them up with indignation.
On the 16th about sixty of the principal officers of the Turkish fleet came on shore, and were presented to the Pacha, who received them in a gracious manner. By the 28th the whole of the Turkish and Egyptian fleets had entered the port of Alexandria, so that had the Commander-in-Chief proceeded off there immediately after the Rhadamanthus had joined him, or even had he proceeded after his receipt of the despatch of the 25th of June which I believe arrived by the Hydra, there would have been ample time to have secured them. This would have completely anticipated Lord Palmerston’s instructions of the 7th of August[[10]], which directed the Admiral to use his utmost efforts to prevent the Turkish fleet going into Alexandria, and to endeavour to oblige them to return under the authority of the Sultan.
The Commander-in-Chief, however, may have had other instructions, which do not appear in the Levant Papers, for the guidance of his conduct, or he might have thought that the force under his orders, without the co-operation of the French squadron, was not sufficient to have enforced his demand on the Capudan Pacha to return to his allegiance if supported in his treason by the Egyptian fleet. But, nevertheless, I think the experiment might have been tried, and probably would have succeeded to a certain extent, because the entrance into the harbour of Alexandria is so difficult and so shallow that large ships must be considerably lightened before they can enter, and neither the Egyptian nor Turkish Admiral would have ventured to weaken their squadron by either entering in detail or lightening the ships in the presence of a British squadron hostile to their measures. The Commander-in-Chief, however, as I have before said, may have had other instructions, or he took a different view of the case, for instead of going off Alexandria he repaired to Besika Bay, where he was joined the same evening by the Powerful, Ganges, and Implacable. At this point, then, my history of the War in Syria commences.
[1]. Egypt under Mohammed Ali, vol. ii., pp. 493-496.
[2]. Letters from the Holy Land, vol. ii.