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

200 TRAVELS IN ASIATIC TURKEY,
army. — I dreaded, I must confess, the consequences of these re-
gulations to our people, who would thus be left without tents to
shelter them from the effects of a hot and parching sun, and who
were not, like the Turkish troops, inured to the climate and ac-
customed to the privations to which the latter had been habituated
from an early age. Under these circumstances, which gave rise
to bitter and distressing reflections,
I lamented the nature of the
service in Avhich
they were engaged, and the melancholy situation in
which I saw them plunged.
Two thousand five hundred troops arrived in camp on the even-
ing of the above day. They consisted principally of the Arabs,
Avarees, who inhabit the eastern desert, the western parts of which
are occupied by the Mograbians.
It was finally settled on the J st of April, that a certain portion
of the baggage and tents should be carried with the army ; and
that the remainder should be left in the charge of a trusty and
responsible person,
to follow its movements with all convenient
despatch.
Taher Pacha, accompanied by Captain Leake, marched on
the 2d towards Salahieh, with three thousand men, and three pieces
of artillery. Summons to the
garrisons of Tineh and Salahieh
were delivered to Captain Leake by Colonel
Hollo-xay, under the
authority
of the Grand Vizier. Mahomed Pacha arrived in the
encampment from Gaza, with three thousand
ces of
artillery.
men, and four pie-
Much firing among the Turkish troops was heard in the camp
on the 3d. It was occasioned by a violent dispute between two
companies of janissaries, the 37th and 65th, rtvho, in the division
of a quantity of barley which they had found and appropriated to
themselves, had come to hostilities. In this conflict several of
them were killed, and many others wounded. It happened that
an Arnaut, who was passing by during the affray, received a slight
wound. This man made an immediate representation to his corps,
that it was the intention of the janissaries to fall on and butcher the
Amauts without distinction. The effect of this mis-statement was,
that the latter had recourse to their arms, and were proceeding to
the most alarming measures, which were, however, fortunately
prevented by the strenuous interference of the principal Turkish
officers in the camp.
During the whole of the morning it blew a violent gale, which
raised in the air tremendous clouds of sand, extremely harrassing to