On the 11th June 1882 a large body of Arabs made a murderous attack on the European residents in Alexandria, and so serious was the matter considered that a week or two after, the Ambassadors of the Great Powers met in conference at Constantinople to take the crisis under review. As no redress was forthcoming, Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, commander of the British fleet in Egyptian waters, having ascertained that work on the new fortifications at Alexandria was being continued, notwithstanding promises made that all such operations would be suspended, sent to Arabi Pasha, who was nominally the Egyptian minister of war, an ultimatum that unless the work ceased immediately the fleet would open fire upon the forts. The reply was a denial that any such work was being carried on. Three days afterwards the Admiral discovered that his ultimatum was treated with contempt, and that guns bearing upon the harbour had been mounted since the date of his message. He at once prepared a proclamation calling upon the Egyptian authorities to surrender the fortifications within twelve hours, otherwise they would be demolished by the fleet. On the 11th July the bombardment commenced, and nearly the whole of the fortifications were soon laid in ruins. Next day hostilities were resumed, but, on a flag of truce being hoisted, the Admiral ordered firing to cease. On the morning of the 13th it was found that, under cover of the flag of truce, {74} the Egyptian troops, headed by Arabi Pasha, had evacuated Alexandria, leaving it to be pillaged and fired by a riotous mob of Arabs, who massacred a large number of Europeans. To protect life, and save the place from total destruction, Admiral Seymour landed a force of seamen and marines, who kept the city in order until the arrival of British troops a few days afterwards. In the course of the following fortnight a force of about 16,000 occupied Alexandria, Ramleh, and the delta of the Nile, under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley. Meantime Arabi Pasha had occupied Cairo, which was strongly fortified, while he had formidable entrenched camps some miles south of Ramleh, and also at Port Said and Ismailia on the Suez Canal, and at Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir, on the sweet-water canal route between Ismailia and Cairo.