“The most vague and conflicting accounts were arriving daily as to the intentions of Ibrahim Pacha. He had concentrated his forces about Damascus, and the general belief was that he would immediately commence his retreat to Egypt.
“General Jochmus, notwithstanding his nearer approach to Damascus, has been still kept in doubt as to what is going on there; but he seems to be fully of opinion that Ibrahim Pacha is about to move, and that he will, if possible, retreat on Gaza. His proposal, therefore, is to cause the Egyptian Army to be harassed on its flanks and rear by the mountain levies, and having assembled the regular Turkish troops at points along the coast, to operate with them as occasions may offer, in the defiles between the Jordan and the coast. In the mean time General Jochmus has been very desirous of attacking Gaza, and of capturing or destroying the provisions which are said to be in store there for the Egyptian army, and he has repeatedly urged my co-operation for this purpose with men-of-war or steamers on the coast. There have been, however, and are still, many difficulties opposed to such an undertaking. The whole of the fleet had taken shelter at Marmorice, leaving only one steamer to watch the wreck of the Zebra in the Bay of Acre, besides the Hecate, which brought me to Beyrout; yet three French vessels, a corvette, and two brigs of war, remained upon the coast and were generally at anchor near Beyrout. I took the earliest opportunity of making this known to the Admiral, Sir Robert Stopford, and he most kindly and promptly sent Captain Houston Stewart with the Benbow, seventy-two, and the Hazard sloop. They arrived on the 24th of December, but the heavy surf prevented their communication with the shore, and it was not until the 27th that I could get the detachments of artillery and sappers, which came from England in the Hecate, disembarked at Acre. In the mean time, however, Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun of the Artillery, and Lieutenant-Colonel Alderson of the Engineers, had made a visit to that fortress, and likewise to Tyre and Sidon.
“The Admiral, while he sent me this naval aid, expressed a great unwillingness to have it employed against Gaza or in any offensive operations; first, on account of the storms prevailing at this season; secondly, because the negotiations opened by Captain Fanshawe were still pending, and he had consented to a request, made by the Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, that Egyptian steamers might go off Gaza to embark the sick, the women, and the children, of Ibrahim Pacha’s army, for Alexandria.
“Captain Houston Stewart had instructions from the Admiral based upon these reasons; and they of course weighed also with me as to any operations against Gaza; besides I had received information of the Egyptian force there, and at El-Arish, having been largely reinforced.
“Nothing has been seen of the Egyptian steamers from Alexandria, to receive the sick of Ibrahim Pacha’s army. When that permission was given by Captain Fanshawe, it was supposed the army was already on its march to Gaza, and not likely to linger at Damascus. Probably Ibrahim Pacha delays his movement from that city, now, in consequence of the Convention commenced with his father by Captain Fanshawe. Our situation will be very embarrassing until the negotiations are terminated, since any act of hostility on our part may be construed into a breach of faith, and may disturb arrangements half concluded. I am, therefore, anxiously expecting orders from Lord Ponsonby upon the subject. In the meantime his Excellency’s latest instructions to General Jochmus, and upon which he is prepared and resolved to act with energy, dictate a continuance of offensive operations.”
As I have before stated, we now see the Commander-in-Chief of the allied force by sea and land giving directions to his officers to facilitate the retreat of Ibrahim Pacha, and the Austrian Ambassador declaring he would disavow any attack upon him, thereby maintaining good faith with Mehemet Ali; and the Ambassador at Constantinople giving orders to his general to continue offensive operations, thereby compromising not only the honour of England but of the Allied Powers.
M. Steindl, in a letter to Baron Stürmer, dated the 10th of January, writes from Jaffa[[24]],—
“General Jochmus, escorted by 100 Turkish cavalry, continued in the mean time to traverse the mountains of the Naplouse and the districts situated between the Jordan and the Haouran, in order to assemble as many mountaineers as possible. He formed several corps of them, the command of which he entrusted to M. Dumont and Count Szechenyi, his aides-de-camp, for the purpose of harassing Ibrahim Pacha during his retreat, whilst he ordered Omar Pacha, who was stationed at Ramla, with 2500 men, to form a junction with a portion of the garrisons of Jaffa and of Jerusalem, and to attempt a sudden attack upon Gaza, in order there to burn the considerable magazines of provisions which Mehemet Ali had caused to be transported thither to facilitate the retreat of his son’s army by that road.
“The English loudly disavowed this attack, less, as it appears, because they despaired of success, than because Admiral Stopford had indicated to Mehemet Ali that town as the place where the Egyptians should concentrate themselves to be embarked for Alexandria, in case an arrangement could be brought about between the Sultan and his vassal. For this purpose, Rechid Mehemed Pacha, appointed Chief of the Staff at head-quarters, was sent on the 5th instant from St. Jean d’Acre to Tiberias to General Jochmus, with orders to invite him to proceed to Jaffa to be present at a great council of war, whilst the same order was sent by Tatar to Omar Pacha, with a prohibition against attacking Gaza. General Jochmus arrived here in the course of yesterday, still leaving his aides-de-camp at the head of the armed peasantry.”
On the 17th of January Captain Stewart again writes to the Commander-in-Chief from Jaffa[[25]]:—