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BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



BONAPARTE. NAPOLEON I. 



778 



to administer equal justice and protection to all classes of people, even 

 to the humblest Fellah a thing unknown in that country for ages. 

 He established an institute of sciences at Cairo ; and he endeavoured 

 to conciliate the good-will of the Ulemas and of the Imams, and to 

 some extent he succeeded. It is not true however that he or any of 

 his generals, except Mcnou, made profession of Islamism. The report 

 originated in a desultory conversation he had with some of the sheiks, 

 who hinted at the advantages that might result to him and his army 

 from the adoption of the religion of the country. It was however a 

 wild idea, unsuited both to him and the sort of men he commanded. 

 It would have made him ridiculous in the eyes of his soldiers, and 

 would not probably have conciliated the Moslem natives. While he 

 was engaged in organising the internal affairs of Egypt, the destruction 

 of his fleet by Nelson took place in the roads of Aboukir on the 1st 

 and 2nd of August. He was now shut out from all communication 

 with Europe. The sultan at the same time issued an indignant mani- 

 festo, diited 10th of September, declaring war against France for 

 having invaded one of his provinces, and prepared to send au army 

 for the recovery of Egypt. A popular insurrection broke out at 

 Cairo on the 22nd of September, and the French found scattered in 

 the streets were killed. Many, however, and especially the women and 

 children, were saved in the houses of the better sort of inhabitant?. 

 Bonaparte, who was absent, returned quickly with troops ; the insur- 

 gents were killed in the streets, and the survivors took refuge in the 

 Great Mosque, the doors of which they barricaded. Bonaparte ordered 

 them to be forced with cannon. A dreadful massacre ensued within 

 the mosque, even after all resistance had been abandoned ; 5000 

 Moslems were killed on that day. Bonaparte then issued a proclama- 

 tion, in which, imitating the oriental style, he told the Egyptians that 

 he was the man of fate who had been foretold in the Koran, and that 

 any resistance to him was impious as well as unavailing, and that he 

 could call them to account even for their most secret thoughts, as 

 nothing wai concealed from him. 



In the month of December Bonaparte went to Suez, where he received 

 deputations from several Arab tribes, as well as from the shereef of 

 Mecca, whom he had propitiated by giving protection to the great 

 caravan of the pilgrims proceeding to that sanctuary. From Suez he 

 crossed, at ebb tide, over the head of the gulf to the Arabian coast, 

 where he received a deputation from the monks of Mount Sinai. On 

 his return to Suez he was overtaken by the rising tide, and was in some 

 danger of being drowned. This he told Las Cases at St. Helena. 



Meantime the Turks were assembling forces in Syria, and Djezzar 

 Pacha of Acre was appointed seraskier or commander. Bonaparte 

 resolved on an expedition to Sjria. In February, 1799, he crossed the 

 desert with 10,000 men, took El Arish and Gaza, and on the 7th March 

 he stormed Jaffa, which was bravely defended by several thousand 

 Turks. A summons had been sent to them, but they cut off the head 

 of the messenger. A great number of the garrison were put to the 

 sword, and the town was given up to plunder, the horrors of which 

 Bonaparte himself in his despatches to the Directory acknowledges to 

 have been frightful. Fifteen hundred men of the garrison held out 

 in the fort nnd other buildings, until at last they surrendered as 

 prisoners. They were then mustered, and the natives of Egypt being 

 separated from the Turks and Arnaouts, the latter were put under a 

 strong guard, but were supplied with provisions, &c. Two days after, 

 on the 9th, this body of prisoners was marched out of Jaffa in the 

 centre of a square battalion commanded by General Bon. They pro- 

 ceeded to the sand-hills south-east of Jaffa, and there being divided 

 into small bodies, they were put to death in masses by volleys of 

 musketry. Those who fell wounded were finished with the bayonet. 

 The bodies were heaped up into the shape of a pyramid, and their 

 bleached bones were still to be seen not many years since. Such was 

 the massacre of Jaffa, which Napoleon at St. Helena sought to justify 

 by saying that these men had formed part of the garrisons of El Arish 

 and Gaza, upon the surrender of which they had been allowed to 

 return home on condition of not serving against the French; on 

 arriving at Jaffa however, through which they must pass, their country- 

 men retained them to strengthen the defence of that place. It may 

 be safely doubted whether the whole of these men were the identical 

 men of El Arish or Gaza. But however this may be, it is true that 

 the Turks did not at that time observe the rules of war among civilised 

 nations, and therefore, it may be said, were liable to be treated with 

 the extreme rigour of warfare. Still it was an act of cruelty, because 

 done ii> cold blood and two days after their surrender. The motive 

 of the act however was not wanton cruelty, but policy, in thus getting 

 rid of a body of determined men, who would have embarrassed the 

 French as prisoners, or increased the ranks of their enemies if set at 

 liberty. This is the only apology, if apology it be, for the deed. 

 Another and a worse reason is, the old principle of Bonaparte of 

 striking terror into the country which he was invading. But this 

 system, which succeeded pretty well with the North Italians or the 

 Fellahs of Egypt, failed of its effect when applied to the Turks or the 

 Arabs; it only made them the more desperate, as the defence of Acre 

 soon after proved. The number of the victims, whom Moit states at 

 two or three thousand, was in fact about 1200. 



At Jaffa the French troops began to feel the Grst attack of the 

 plague, and their hospitals were established in that town. On the 

 14th the army marched towards Acre, which they reached on the 17th. 



Djezzar Pacha, a cruel but resolute old Turk, had prepared himself 

 for a siege. Sir Sidney Smith, with the 'Tiger' and 'Theseus' English 

 ships of the line, after assisting him in repairing the old fortifications 

 of the place, brought his ships close to the town, which projects into 

 the sea, ready to take part in the defence. The ' Theseus ' intercepted 

 a French flotilla with heavy cannon and ammunition destined for the 

 siege, and the pieces were immediately mounted on the walls and 

 turned against the French. Colonel Philippeaux, an able officer of 

 engineers, who had been Bun iparte's schoolfellow at Paris, and after- 

 wards emigrated, directed the artillery of Acre. Bonaparte was 

 compelled to batter tho walla with only 12-poundera : by the 28th of 

 March however he had effected a breach. The French went to the 

 assault, crossed the ditch, and mounted the breach, but were repulsed 

 by the Turks led on by Djezzar himself. The Turks, joined by English 

 sailors and marines, made several sorties, and partly destroyed the 

 French works and mines. Meantime the mountaineers of Nablous and 

 of the countries east of the Jordan, joined by Turks from Damascus, 

 had assembled a large force near Tiberias for the relief of Acre. 

 Bonaparte, leaving part of his forces to guard the trenches, marched 

 against the Syrians, defeated their undisciplined crowds at Nazareth 

 and near Mount Tabor, and completely dispersed them : the fugitives 

 took the road to Damascus. Bonaparte quickly returned to his camp 

 before Acre, when the arrival of several pieces of heavy ordnance from 

 Jaffa enabled him to carry on his operations with redoubled vigour. 

 The mouth of April was spent in useless attempts to storm the place. 

 Philippeaux died on the 2nd of May, of illness and over-exertion, but 

 was replaced by Colonel Douglas of the marines, assisted by Sir Sidney 

 Smith and the other officers of the squadron. The French, after 

 repeated assaults, made a lodgment in a large tower which commanded 

 the rest of the fortifications, upon which the Turks and the British 

 sailors, armed with pikes, hastened to dislodge them. At this moment 

 the long-expected Turkish fleet arrived with fresh troops, under the 

 command of Hassan Bey, and tbe regiment Tchifflik, of the Nizam or 

 regular infantry, was immediately landed. Sir Sidney Smith, without 

 losing time, sent them on a sortie against the French trenches, winch 

 the Turks, forced, seizing on a battery and spiking the guns. This 

 diversion had the effect of dislodging the French from the tower. 

 After several other attempts Bonaparte ordered an assault on a wide 

 breach which had been effected in the curtain. General Lauues led 

 the column. Djezzar gave orders to let the French come iu, and then 

 close upon them man against man, in which sort of combat the Turks 

 were sure to have the advantage. The foremost of the assailants 

 advanced into the garden of the pacha's palace, where they were all 

 cut down ; General Kam'oaud was killed, and Lanues carried away 

 wounded. On the 20th of May Bonaparte made a last effort, iu which 

 General Bon and Colonel Veneux were killed, with most of the storming 

 party. General Caffarelli had died before. The army now began to 

 murmur : seven or eight assaults had been made, the trenches and 

 ditches were filled with the slain, which the fire of the besieged pre- 

 vented them from burying ; and disease, assisted by the heat of the 

 climate, was spreading fast in their camp. After fifty-four days since 

 the opening of the trenches, Bonaparte saw himself under the necessity 

 of raising the siege. The people of Mount Lebanon, the Druses, and 

 Mutualis, who were at one time disposed to join him against Djezzar, 

 seeing his failure before Acre, altered their mind, and sent a deputation 

 on board the Turkish and English fleet. At the same time Bonaparte 

 learnt that the great Turkish armament from Rhodes was about to set 

 sail for Egypt : the Mamelukes had also assembled in considerable 

 numbers in Upper Egypt, and were threatening Cairo. Accordingly 

 he resolved to return to Egypt. 



On the 21st of May the French army broke up from before Acre, 

 and began its retreat. In the order of the day which he issued on 

 that occasion, Bonaparte affected to treat with disdain the check he 

 had met with, but he expressed himself very differently to Murat and 

 his other confidants, and we find him, towards the end of his life at 

 St. Helena, reverting to the subject with expressions of disappointment 

 and regret. " Possessed of Acre, the army would have gone to Damas- 

 cus and the Euphrates; the Christians of Syria, the Druses, the Arme- 

 nians, would hare joined us. The provinces of the Ottoman Empire 

 which speak Arabic were ready for a change, they were only waiting 

 for a man. . . . With 100,000 men on the banks of the Euphrates 

 I might have gone to Constantinople or to India ; I might have changed 

 the face of the world. I should have founded an empire in the East, 

 and the destiuit-s of France would have run into a different course." 

 (Bonaparte's conversations in Las Cases.) Whatever may be thought 

 of the chances of ultimate success, there is no doubt that Bonaparte, 

 after taking Acre,_would have become master of all Syria, But hia 

 position, and that of the countries around him, were very different 

 from those of Alexander and the Persians. 



The French army retreated through Jaffa, burning everything 

 behind them, harvest and all. " The whole country is on fire in 

 our rear," is Berthier's laconic expression in his report of that 

 campaign. Before continuing their retreat from Jaffa, Bonaparte 

 ordered the hospitals to be cleared, and all those who could be removed 

 to be forwarded to Egypt by sea. There remained about twenty 

 patients, chiefly suffering from the plague, who were in a desperate 

 condition and could not be removed. To leave them behind would 

 have exposed them to the barbarity of tho Turks. Napoleon, some 



