694 '« ^^rden's Letters on Napoleon. 



iniuied lately ^ikcd wlictlier I was lo uii> 

 dcistand lUiix llicre were no more ilinn 

 seven. — " I perceive," lie replied, " ilmt 

 yvu liftve heard a dilTereni account." — 

 *« Most assuredly, General, Sir Kcibeit 

 WiUon states lilty-seven or seventy- 

 seven ; and, speakmj; inyrc collectively 

 —your hIidIc '•ick and tvooiuled." — lie 

 tlien proceeiied. — " Tl»e Tuiks were nu- 

 luerons ;iiid pnwerful, and ilitir cruelty 

 proverbial throughout the army. Their 

 practice of mutilating and harburously 

 treating their Christian pribonerit in par- 

 ticular, was wtll known amonn my 

 troops, and had a preservative iidluence 

 vn my mind and conduct ; and 1 do 

 Bfiirm, that there were only seven suf- 

 ferers wlioin circunisiaticts compelled me 

 to leave as short-lived sufterers at Jafta< 

 They were m that stage of the dibcase 

 which rendered their removal utterly im- 

 practicalile, exclusive of the dissemina- 

 tion of the disease amnn^ tlie liealthy 

 troops. Situated as I was, I could not 

 place them under the protection of the 

 English: 1, therefore, desired to see the 

 senior medical otiicer; and, observing to 

 him, that the atiliciions of their disease 

 would be cruelly at;gravalcd by the con- 

 duct of the Turks towards ihcm, and 

 Uiat it was impossible to continue in pos- 

 session i>f the town, I desned him to give 

 loe his best advice on the occasion. I 

 said, Tell ine vvhat is to be done! He 

 hesitated for some tune, and then re- 

 peated, that these men, who weie the 

 objects of my very pninlul solicitude, 

 could not ^urvive forty eight hours, — I 



then sugpcsied, («vhai appeared to be his 

 opinion, though he might nut chu^c.to 

 (Jeclnre it, but wait with the trembling 

 liope to rective it from ine,) the pro- 

 priety, becanse I felt it would be liuma- 



jiity, to shorten the surteriiigs of these 



seven vien by'adniiniatering ci/^ii"n. Such 



a relief, I added, in a similar situation, I 



%liould anxiously solicit for myself. But, 



rather conuary to my expectntidn, the 



piopo&ition was opposed, and conse- 

 quently abandoned. I accordingly halted 



the army one d;iy longer ihiiii I intended ; 



and, on my quitting Jaffa, left a strong 



rear-giiard, who continued in that city 



till the third day. At the expiration of 



that period, an officer's report reached 



me, ihat-tlie men were dead." — "Then, 



Ciener»V' i could not resist exclaiming, 



" no opium was given." The emphaitc 



answer I received was—'" No; none !— 



4l report ^its brought me that the men 



cjled before the rearguard Jiad evacuated 



llie city.'' 



1 a'Miiii interrupted uim hy meiuioning 



that Sir Sydney Smith, when he lifter* 

 wards entered Jatl'a, fuunti one or two 

 Frenchmen alive. — "Well," he an. 

 swered, " that, after all, may be possi- 

 ble !'' — It was, I tliink, at this period of 

 the conversation, that he slated his being 

 in possession of a letter lr<Mn Sir Sydney 

 Smith, written in very coiuplimtiitary 

 language, which expressed the writer'it 

 asioiiishment as well as praise, on ti>« 

 accomiiiodaiiuns which were contrived 

 and executed to transport the French 

 sick and wounded from Acre to Jutfa, 

 and thence across the Desart. 



I here took occasimi to observe, " that 

 a late English traveller, a distinguishet) 

 scholar and learned professor of ilia 

 University of Camliridgr, had excited a 

 very general doubt respecting the accu> 

 racy of iliis particular part of Sir Robert 

 Wilson's narrative. Doctor Clark, ih« 

 person to whom I alluded, had," I saidf 

 *• travelled through Turkey, ami, as I 

 believed, by the route of Aleppo and Da* 

 inascus to Jerusalem, and from ihencv 

 to Jiifla, where he remained some time. 

 This gentleman, whose character stands 

 high in the world, may be said to contra* 

 diet the testimony of his countryman Sir 

 Hohert, respecting the cliarge which tha 

 former may be said to have brought for- 

 ward against you. Though he merely 

 stales that he never heard of the cruel 

 transaction ; yet very naturally observes, 

 that, if such an extraordinary event had 

 occurred as the murder ol such a number 

 of Frenchmen by their own general, 

 some traces or recollection of so horrid 

 an event, and of such recent occurrence, 

 must have transpired and been coinmuni- 

 cated to him during his residence there." 

 A question instantaneously followed.-^ 

 " lias this tiaveller said any thing of Fi 

 Arishf" — My memory did not serve in« 

 sufficiently to give an answer. '* Well," 

 he continued, *' you shall also hear the 

 particulars of £l Arish and the garrisot) 

 of Jada. You have read, without doubt, 

 of my having ordered the Turks to b^ 

 shot at Ja(V.i." " Yes, indeed," I re- 

 plied, " I have often heard of that mas- 

 sacre ill England : it was a general topia 

 Ht the time, and treated asa British mind 

 never fails to consider subjects of that 

 description." — He then proceeded i — 

 " At tlie period in question, General Des- 

 saix was left in Upper Egypt, and Kleber 

 in the vicinity of Damietta. I left 

 Cairo and traversed the Arabian Desart, 

 in order to unite my force with that of 

 the latter at El Arisli. The town w>>» 

 attacked, and a capitulation succeeded. 

 Many of the prisoners were found, on 

 exaiainatiou. 



