DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4372#0030
14
in chief would regard the Mamaluke cause, he thought it prudent
to retire, as we continued to advance. AVe wrote to him as soon
as we discovered his error; but it was not until Ave arrived at Es
Suan, whence he had retired only the preceding evening, that we
could come to an explanation.
During our stay here, he received letters from his friends at
Gizeh, containing a circumstantial account of the massacre and
other events which had taken place at Alexandria. We appre-
hended an immediate rupture between the Turks and our army
below ; and as the Grand Vezir's troops were already in possession
of the principal towns on the Nile, had even advanced so near
to us as Edl'u, and would probably be glad of any pretence
to plunder us, Ave thought ourselves fortunate in being able to
form an alliance Avith Elli. While Ave thus secured to ourselves
a retreat in his camp, if the Turks should approach in too for-
midable a body, avc resolved in the first instance, in case Ave
could not contend with them from our vessels at Es Suan, to se-
cure our arms and effects in the island of lmihe: here they could
not approach by water on account of the Cataracts, and Ave
might eventually have stood a siege, while the Bey's cavalry
would act in the Desert. We could judge of the facility of ac-
complishing this manoeuvre by the lengthened opposition made
to general Belliard, from the same spot, by a party of helpless
natives.
The Turkish troops, disappointed in their expectations of plun-
dering Cairo, by which hope alone they had been allured to fol-
low the Grand Vezir across the Syrian Desert* had spread them-
selves along the banks of the river above, south of the capital.
Here, without any authority from the Vezir, they were plundering
the towns in the Sultan's name, and extorting the last para from
the
in chief would regard the Mamaluke cause, he thought it prudent
to retire, as we continued to advance. AVe wrote to him as soon
as we discovered his error; but it was not until Ave arrived at Es
Suan, whence he had retired only the preceding evening, that we
could come to an explanation.
During our stay here, he received letters from his friends at
Gizeh, containing a circumstantial account of the massacre and
other events which had taken place at Alexandria. We appre-
hended an immediate rupture between the Turks and our army
below ; and as the Grand Vezir's troops were already in possession
of the principal towns on the Nile, had even advanced so near
to us as Edl'u, and would probably be glad of any pretence
to plunder us, Ave thought ourselves fortunate in being able to
form an alliance Avith Elli. While Ave thus secured to ourselves
a retreat in his camp, if the Turks should approach in too for-
midable a body, avc resolved in the first instance, in case Ave
could not contend with them from our vessels at Es Suan, to se-
cure our arms and effects in the island of lmihe: here they could
not approach by water on account of the Cataracts, and Ave
might eventually have stood a siege, while the Bey's cavalry
would act in the Desert. We could judge of the facility of ac-
complishing this manoeuvre by the lengthened opposition made
to general Belliard, from the same spot, by a party of helpless
natives.
The Turkish troops, disappointed in their expectations of plun-
dering Cairo, by which hope alone they had been allured to fol-
low the Grand Vezir across the Syrian Desert* had spread them-
selves along the banks of the river above, south of the capital.
Here, without any authority from the Vezir, they were plundering
the towns in the Sultan's name, and extorting the last para from
the