“His object had evidently been to delay our junction with head-quarters, and having effected this purpose, he was at present retiring unmolested by the south of the Dead Sea.
“I now proposed to make a diagonal movement by Mount Hebron to try and cut him off in that direction, as we heard that General Jochmus had already advanced on Gaza, which, ere this, we concluded must have been captured.
“Notwithstanding my urgent entreaties for expedition, two days elapsed ere we reached Hebron, a distance of about twenty-two miles!
“The Osmanlis, I plainly saw, still feared their old conqueror; and, on our arrival at Hebron,—meeting there Major Wilbraham and Lieutenant Loring, R.N., the bearers of your Convention to Ibrahim Pacha,—the exuberant joy of the Turkish Chiefs, at the termination of hostilities, led them, in some slight degree, to infringe the injunction of the Prophet.
“E. Napier.”
“To Commodore Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B.”
CHAPTER XII.
Conduct of Mr. Wood—His Letter to the Seraskier examined—His Advice disregarded by the British Officers—Mission of Colonel Alderson to Gaza—Colonel Rose’s Account of the State of Ibrahim’s Army—Colonel Alderson’s Character of Ibrahim Pacha—Death of General Michell.
I do not think blame can be attached to General Jochmus for having done all he could to cripple Ibrahim, if he was acting under proper authority; but whether his orders were from the English Ambassador or the Sultan is not clear: both General Michell and Captain Stewart speak of the Ambassador’s orders[[53]]. If so, I do not think he was justified in obeying them; on the other hand, if his orders were from the Sultan’s minister, or from the the Seraskier, he was quite right. I think, however, he put too much reliance in the reports that were made to him of numerous loss inflicted on the Egyptian army, which he speaks of with much complacency, and which I hope and believe was very much exaggerated.
As to Mr. Wood, he was quite in a different capacity, and what right he had, as a British subject, to put the interpretation he did on Sir Robert Stopford’s orders, I do not know.