ACRE, THE KEY OF PALESTINE.

79

trade and commerce. The city was occupied by the elite of the Egyptian army under Colonel
Seve (a former aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney), and was kept constantly stored with live years'
provisions and abundant ammunition. Ibrahim Pasha caused the long western sea-wall to
be almost entirely reconstructed, with stones carried away from the fortress of 'Athlit (see
page 98). The scarps of this wall are from thirty to forty feet in height; in its centre stands
the Burj el Hadid (the Iron Tower); at the northern end there is another important tower
called Burj el Kerim, while Burj Sanjak (the Flag Tower), also built by Ibrahim with stones
from 'Athlit, protects the southern extremity.

But as soon as the city had to all outward appearance recovered from the terrible effects
of the siege of the year 1832, it had to undergo another bombardment. The fleets of
England, Austria, and Turkey united to expel the Egyptian invaders from Syria and
Palestine, just when the people in the district of 'Akka were becoming somewhat reconciled
to the rigorous rule of Ibrahim Pasha. But the siege on this occasion, though most disastrous,
was of very short duration. The British fleet appeared off 'Akka on the 3rd of November,
1840, and the Egyptian colours were immediately hoisted at the Citadel and the Flag Tower,
in defiance. Admiral Stopford directed the operations of the squadron from a steamboat.
Commodore Napier, commanding the northern, and Captain Collier the southern division, led
their ships close up to the fortress, and took up their positions at two o'clock in the afternoon,
under a tremendous fire from the batteries. But the Egyptian artillery officers had not
anticipated that the fleet would venture so near to the ramparts, and they fired very much too
high. The result was that while the ships poured in their broadsides in a terrific manner, and
with great effect, the balls from the fortress flew over their hulls almost harmlessly. There
was an uninterrupted roar of guns and the atmosphere was darkened with smoke. At about
four o'clock a terrible explosion took place within the fortifications on the land side. The
whole of the arsenal and one of the principal magazines, containing five hundred barrels of
powder, were blown up, and two entire regiments (consisting of at least sixteen hundred men),
who were formed in position on the ramparts above it, were at once annihilated. An unknown
number of women and children and animals perished at the same time. Everything within
an area of sixty thousand square yards was destroyed, and masses of solid buildings, blown to a
great height in the air, descended in a shower of fragments, greatly damaging the fortifications
on the land side. This accident naturally hastened the conclusion of the contest. At sunset
the firing ceased from the ships and from the batteries; the fleet then retired into deep
water. Soon after midnight a boat put off from the shore conveying to the fleet the
startling intelligence that the Egyptian troops were hastily quitting 'Akka. An armed force
immediately landed and took possession of the city without opposition, and thus it became
once more a Turkish fortress. Daylight disclosed a terrible state of devastation—scarcely
a dwelling-house in the city had escaped injury. Ordnance stores, however, of every
description, and in extraordinary abundance, were found in excellent order ; no fortress at that
period could have been better provided with munitions of war ; but the destruction of life had