Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. IOI
Mahmoud Reif Effendi, the Reis Effendi, was at the time above
mentioned, between forty and fifty years of age. During a residence
of four years in England, as secretary to the Turkish ambassador,
he acquired a great fund of general information : he speaks the
French language very fluently,
and is
justly
considered as a man
possessing much and ability
information.
An will
opportunity occur, more consistently with the order of
my narrative, of presenting
the reader with a particular account of
I sh^all, therefore, proceed to a con-
the Turkish armv in camp ;
of which it was stationed.
cise description of Jaffa, in the vicinity
Jaffa is situated on an eminence: nearly in the centre of the town
is an old ruinous building,
called the citadel, on the top of which
is a round casemated tower, provided
with one or two wretched
pieces of ordnance. This work which by no means appears calcu-
lated to repel the attack of an enemy from without, seems rather
intended to overawe the place itself,
in the event of intestine com-
motion.
The city is surrounded by a stone wall, provided,
at certain dis-
tances, with towers alternately square and round. Notwithstanding
this wall cannot boast of any great strength, it sufficed to force
Bonaparte's army to break ground, and to erect batteries against it
to the southward. After a breach had been effected, the French
troops stormed, and carried the place. It was probably owing to
the obstinate defence made by the Turks, that the French commander
in chief was induced to give
orders for the horrid massacre
which succeeded. Four thousand of the wretched inhabitants, who
had surrendered, and who had in vain, implored the mercy of their
conquerors, were, together with a part of the late Turkish garrison
of El-Arish (amounting it has been said, to five or six hun-
dred) dragged out in cold blood, four days after the French had
obtained possession of Jaffa, to the sand hills, about a league dis-
tanr, in the way to Gaza, and there most inhumanly put to death.
I have seen the skeletons of these unfortunate victims, which lie
scattered over the hills, a modern Golgotha, which remains a last-
ing disgrace to a nation calling itself civilized. It would give pleasure
to the author of this work, as well as to every liberal mind,
to hear these facts contradicted on substantial evidence. Indeed I
an sorry to add, that the charge of cruelty against the French Ge-
neral does not rest here. It having been reported that previously
to the retreat of the French army from Syria, their commander in
chief had ordered all the French sick at Jaffa to be poisoned, I \v;.j