602 



JAFFA. 



and it is said, that one of its governors who engaged to 

 remedy this inconvenience, was strangled by order of 

 Djezzar, Pacha of Acre. The climate seems to have 

 a tendency to insalubrity, which lias been attempted to 

 be corrected by draining extensive marshes. Soap is 

 the principal manufacture of this town, as it is of seve- 

 ral considerable tewns of Syria, from all of which it 

 is sold under the name of Joppa soap, and is ex- 

 ported for supplying Egypt. Oil of olives was one of 

 its chief ingredients; but the groves of olive trees 

 which covered the neighbouring country, and also 

 those of oranges, lemon?, and other fruits which adorn- 

 ed the town, were destroyed by the Mamelukes during 

 the sieges of AH Bey and his successor. Spun cot- 

 ton is exported in small boats to Acre, whence it is 

 shipped for other places, and also the provisions, the 

 produce of the country. Jaffa is governed by an offi- 

 cer, who is said to be appointed by the Kislar-Aga or 

 chief of the Black Eunuchs in the Turkish emperor's 

 service, but the regulations under which the military 

 subsist are not explained. The governor pays a small 

 tribute to the Porte, which he levies in customs from 

 merchandize and taxes on the town and villages de- 

 pendant on him: his authority seems to have been 

 very low about thirty years ago, but events more recent 

 have rendered Jaffa of greater importance. The town 

 subsists by its commerce, and the resort of pilgrims to 

 the Holy Land, who find a reception in some of the 

 monasteries : part of the money paid by them for this 

 privilege, however, is diverted into a different chan- 

 nel. Jaffa is celebrated as the Joppa of Scripture: 

 the spot where the Roman Catholic monastery stands 

 is said to have the site of the house of Simon the tan- 

 ner : and on a rising ground, about a mile east of the 

 town, are some ruins, called those of the house of Ta- 

 bitha, who was raised from the dead by St Peter, and 

 "where Pococke supposes there was a church dedicated 

 to her, as the Greeks resort hither to perform their re- 

 ligious rites on the day of her festival. In profane 

 history it is equally celebrated ; for here Perseus is 

 believed to have rescued Andromeda from danger ; 

 and Jerome affirms that in his time the rock to which 

 she had been bound was still pointed out. Jaffa was 

 destroyed by the Sultan Saladin in 1191, after which it 

 was rebuilt and fortified by the Christians. 



During the arduous contest which subsisted for so 

 many years among the principal European powers to- 

 wards the close of the eighteenth century, a French ar- 

 my invaded Egypt. A force of 12,428 men commanded 

 by Bonaparte was detached to act against Syria in Fe- 

 bruary 1799, principally, it is said, with the view of 

 reducing Acre, in retaliation for the capl.ure of the fort 

 of El Arisch by Djezzar. This army succeeded in ta- 

 king every place on the route with facility, and at 

 length reached the walls of Jaffa on the 7th of March 

 of the same year. With regard to the consequences of 

 the ensuing siege, the keenest controversies have been 

 agitated by our contemporaries : on the one hand it has 

 been said, that the French exercised unheard of enor- 

 mities on the captured garrison : on the other, these 

 have been as strenuously denied. 



The Turks believing themselves invincible behind 

 their walls, cut off the head of a messenger who carried 

 a summons from Bonaparte to surrender, and did not 

 answer it. But the French batteries being completed 

 in three days, the fire of twelve-pounders opened at 

 seven in the morning of the 7th, the summons having 

 sent at day-break, and was directed against a kind 



of square tower where the wall seemed weakest, on the 

 south-west of the town. The breach appearing prac- N 

 ticable by three o'clock, the signal was given for storm, 

 ing, amidst a fire well sustained by the garrison. The 

 French advanced boldly ; but no sooner had they pe- 

 netrated the streets, than they gave themselves up to 

 the fury sanctioned by an assault, massacring who 

 ever ventured to oppose them. " All the horrors which 

 accompany a storm are seen in every street, and repeat- 

 ed in every house. Here are heard the screams of some 

 3 r outhful female, the victim of violation, vainly implo- 

 ring succour from her outraged mother, or calling on 

 the name of her father, who is mercilessly murdered. 

 No asylum is respected: streams of blood are flowing: 

 and at each footstep appears a being groaning in the 

 agonies of death." General Befthier ordered an officer 

 M. Miot, to take a detachment, and carry the wound- 

 ed off the breach ; on arriving at the spot, he found that 

 his whole detachment had forsaken him. Thus disap- 

 pointed, he entered the city. " What a spectacle," he 

 exclaims, " was there ! the pallid hue of the inhabitants ; 

 their terror ; the shouts of the soldiers ; women wander- 

 ing about despoiled of their veils, recognizing their dead 

 or dying relatives among the disfigured bodies. The 

 ground was overspread with dresses and furniture, and 

 the soldiers selecting the richest from among the pestife- 

 rous garments." While all this was going on, a consider- 

 able portion of the garrison had retired into one of the 

 forts, where they laid down their arms, and were con- 

 ducted to bivouac before the tents of the general's staff. 

 The Egyptians were selected from among them, and 

 removed : and the remainder, consisting of between 

 2000 and 3000, Sir Robert Wilson seems specifically to 

 affirm 3800, Turkish artillerymen, Maugrabins and 

 Arnauts, were put under the guard of a strong detach- 

 ment. Next day they were sparingly supplied with 

 biscuit, and parties of them were carried to get water 

 in some vessels with which they had been furnished. 



Meantime Bonaparte, elated with his conquest, issued 

 proclamations to the inhabitants of the various towns 

 of Palestine, giving them an option of peace or war, 

 declaring that he was merciful to the troops surrender- 

 ing at discretion, but those were treated with severity 

 who had infringed the rights of war. He also solici- 

 ted the friendship of Djezzar, and his hostility towards 

 the Mamelukes and the English. 



It does not appear how these overtures were recei- 

 ved, or what time was allowed for an answer ; but on 

 the 10th of March, a little after mid-day, the prisoners 

 of Jaffa were put in motion, surrounded by a vast 

 square battalion formed by the French divison of Ge- 

 neral Bon. Suspicions arising in the French army re- 

 garding their disposal, induced many not appointed for 

 that duty to accompany the columns of Turks, who 

 marched in profound silence. At length, having reach- 

 ed the sandy downs, about a mile south-west of Jaffa, 

 they were halted near a marsh containing turbid water, 

 when the commanding officer of the French directed 

 that the whole should be partitioned into small groups. 

 The order being accomplished, the victims were con- 

 ducted to different points, and inhumanly butchered in 

 cold blood : an atrocity unexampled in the modern 

 history of civilized nations. Notwithstanding the num- 

 ber of troops employed in it, the execution of this 

 horrible sacrifice required a long time, and it is af- 

 firmed that it was only with extreme repugnance that 

 the soldiers fulfilled the duty imposed upon them. All 

 the prisoners suffered with the most heroic fortitude, 



Jaffa. 



