“I dined with him a few days ago. I have had a good deal of conversation with him and Boghos Bey about abolishing the Slave Trade, and I have some hopes of carrying that point before I leave this, which will not be till after the arrival of the Liverpool on the 16th. I have made him quite understand that nothing will gain him so many friends as such a measure.
“I have, &c.,
“Charles Napier.”
“To Lord Viscount Palmerston.”
CHAPTER XIV.
Contradictory Statements as to the Numbers of the Egyptian Army—Reason for abiding by the Reports of the British Officers—Colonel Alderson’s Detail of the Retreat—General Jochmus’s Statement—Lieutenant Loring’s Mission.
It appears rather difficult to get at the exact amount of Ibrahim’s army, either when it left Damascus, or when its two divisions arrived at Gaza and Akaba. In the Levant Papers are several statements upon the subject; but they are rather contradictory[[64]]. This is not to be wondered at, as the framers of some of them must have been sorely puzzled to account for the numbers, who, in spite of famine, cold, and “the sword of the fierce and revengeful Haouranees[[65]],” unquestionably made their appearance[[66]] at the places I have named. I shall, therefore, prefer to abide by the statements of the British officers at Gaza, who had no former reports to bolster up, and who undoubtedly have described things precisely as they fell under their observation.
By Colonel Bridgeman’s report[[67]], Ibrahim brought to Gaza 15,000 infantry and 6000 or 7000 cavalry. Lieutenant Loring, who was charged by me with superintending the evacuation, gave the infantry at 23,550 men, and the cavalry 6440, independent of Souliman’s division of 5000 men, and 175 pieces of artillery[[68]] who marched from El-Mezereib to Akaba and Suez, by the way of Maan, at which latter place he provisioned himself for his march, arrived safely at Cairo, and by all the information I received at Alexandria, and what Souliman Pacha communicated to Colonel Napier at the former place, he did not lose a gun, and the Colonel was himself an eye-witness to the excellent state of his cavalry. This enumeration of Lieutenant Loring’s does not include the noncombatants.
Colonel Alderson, who was with the naval officer, carried up the amount of Ibrahim’s army to 33,000 men[[69]], besides Souliman’s force. He remarks, in a private document with which I have keen favoured:
“It appears Ibrahim commenced his retreat from Damascus on the 29th of December to El-Mezereib: at the latter place he divided his forces into five columns[[70]]: 1st, the artillery and guns[[71]], women, &c., via the Desert and Suez, under Souliman Pacha; 2nd, the cavalry, consisting of ten regiments, under Achmet Menekli Pacha; two of them (the cavalry of the Guards) were recalled to join Ibrahim, after he recrossed the Jordan, near Jericho; the 3rd and 4th, each consisting of five regiments of infantry; and lastly Ibrahim himself, with three regiments of foot guards, the two cavalry regiments of the guard as before stated, and from 300 to 400 Arnauts, Henadi, and 300 rifles. Each of these last four divisions had orders to make the best of their way to Gaza.