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

106 TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
is mentioned, to evince the peculiar and very
delicate situation in>
which we were placed among the Turkish troops.
On the 31st the Kallern Bashi, the officer who has the charge of
the Vizier's writing implements, &c. was found murdered in the
camp.
On the 2d of August the New Adventure transport arrived from
Cyprus, which place she had left fourteen days before, having been
swept by the currents towards Alexandretta.
In the I evening rode through the gardens
of Jaffa, where I saw
a great abundance of prickly pear-trees, which are employed as
fences, and are admirably well adapted to that purpose. -The natives
are very fond of the fruit. The grapes were ripened, and were,
as well as the figs, of an excellent quality. With respect to the
water-melons, they were so large, that at dinner, some days before,
one was brought to us which weighed twenty-five pounds.
A party of Turkish soldiers, consisting of about three hundred,
left the camp on the morning of the 3d, for El-Arish ; and,
in the
evening, Mahomed Pacha, with two thousand men, set off for the
same destination.
A considerable reinforcement of troops from the eastward reached
the camp on the 5th; and in the evening we were informed, that
several laden camels, with their attendants, had come in from Grand
Cairo.
On the morning of the 6th, Captain Lacy, of the royal engineers,
set off for El-Arish, mounted on a hedjin, or as
dromedary,
were also the persons who accompanied him. On the following
day, Mr. White-man embarked on board the New Adventure transport,
bound to Cyprus. He was the bearer of despatches for Lords
Elgin and Grcnville, which were to be forwarded to their respec-
tive destinations by the British consul at Larnica. The transport
did not, however, sail until the 9th, at two in the morning, when
she took the advantage of the land breeze, which generally pre-
vails at that early part of the day.
At the same time six hundred Albanians left the camp for El-
Arish. I made an excursion, in the evening, to the sand hills (si-
tuated near the sea-side, and about three miles distant from the
encampment), the scene of the horrid massacre of the captured
Turks and Christians, by the order of the French commander in
chief, Bonaparte, some days after he had taken possession of Jaffa.
I have already touched on this act, so
inglorious
to its perpetrator,
and I shall add here, that
in the account I have given of that place j