ST. JEAN D’ACRE. 
Ache, 1 commanding the chief commerce of the corn country of Palestine, has always 
been a position of the first importance to the governors of Syria. Standing on the 
northern point of the Bay, of which Carmel forms the southern; heavy and massive 
on the sea-side; from the land it forms a striking object, with its fortifications rising 
above the plain, and the Mediterranean, always bright and beautiful, for its back-ground. 2 
The Artist visited Acre previously to the memorable attack by the British fleet, 
and the havoc occasioned by the explosion of the great Magazine among its buildings. 
But it still bore formidable marks of the long siege, which closed in its capture by 
the Egyptian troops under Ibrahim Pacha, in 1832, 
The advantages of position are generally paid for at a high price. Acre has 
been the prey of war from an early age. In the general inroad of the Saracens it 
was stormed (a.d. 636). The invasion of the Crusaders furnished another period of 
blood in its history (a.d. 1104). But within less than a century, the tide of Christian 
success had sunk, and the famous Saladin became master of Acre. Within seven 
years it was again assaulted, and fell into the possession of a new Crusade. Once 
more, in the decay of the Christian conquests, it was stormed by the Saracens. But 
the Caliphate itself went down, and the City was given into the stronger grasp of 
the Turk (a.d. 1517). After a long period of oblivion, in the decay of the Sultanry, 
Acre was revived by the Arab Daher, a tyrant, hut a bold soldier. On his death the 
government was seized by a barbarian, whose name, Djezzar (the butcher), was amply 
earned by the merciless severity of his sword. 
But it was now destined to form a conspicuous feature in a war which ultimately 
involved the civilised world. In 1799, the French army, under the great military genius 
of their country, advanced to the walls. The fortifications were feeble, and the garrison 
was composed of Tui'ks and Arabs in a state of insubordination. But the arrival of two 
British ships of war, under the gallant Sir Sydney Smith, restored their courage; and 
Napoleon, after repeated assaults, and fifty-one days of open trenches, was driven from 
Acre, and from Syria. 
In 1832, the revolt of Egypt exposed it to a new enemy; and it was besieged by 
the troops of Mehemet Ali. Abdallah, the Governor, declared, that “ if an European 
force attacked him, he would blow himself up; but if a Turkish, he would wait, till 
the walls fell down upon his garrison.” Closely besieged for five months and twenty-one 
days; 35,000 shells were thrown into it, and almost all the public buildings were shattered; 
yet it finally yielded only to famine. 3 
1 Anciently called also Acco, and Ptolemais. 2 Roberts’s Journal. 
3 G. Robinson’s Travels, 199. 
