These operations were just beginning when Safadin, who [Sidenote: _Sept. 12-13_] had transferred his headquarters to Jafna (called by the Arabs Yebnah and by the Franks Ibelin), on the coast-road, about thirteen miles south of Joppa, received from the Frank leaders some new overtures for a treaty.[793] Their object probably was to ascertain, if possible, something as to the plans and movements of their adversaries; and Safadin did his utmost to spin out the negotiations, his brother having charged him to detain the enemy at Joppa by every means he could devise till the Sultan’s work at Ascalon, which he was most anxious to keep secret from them, should be done.[794] The Franks were in no great haste to move; the rich orchards and vineyards and olive-yards round Joppa formed a delightful camping-ground; moreover, they must in any case wait till their fleet came into the harbour. Soon after its arrival some of the poor folk who had been turned out of Ascalon wandered into Joppa [Sidenote: c. _Sept. 20-22_?] and astonished the Crusaders by telling them what Saladin was doing. The tale seemed so incredible that Richard despatched Geoffrey de Lusignan and some others by sea to reconnoitre Ascalon and find out the truth. When these scouts confirmed the report of the refugees, a council was held to decide what should be done. Richard’s military instinct told him that the plan with which they had set out from Acre—the securing of the whole coast before they risked any attempt on the interior—was the only sound one. “The Turks are razing Ascalon; they dare not fight us. Let us go and recover it. All the world ought to hasten thither!” he pleaded. But the duke of Burgundy and the French party urged that the shortest route to the goal of their pilgrimage was the route which started not from Ascalon but from the place where they now were, and that Joppa should be rebuilt and made the base for an advance upon Jerusalem. Richard, feeling that anything was better than dissension within the host, yielded to their urgency. A tax was levied for the expense of the restoration of Joppa;[795] and on October 1 Richard wrote home: “Know ye that by God’s grace we hope to recover the Holy City within twenty days after Christmas, and then we will return to our own land.”[796] CHAPTER V THE ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 1191-1192. Ambulantes et flentes properabunt.... In Sion interrogabunt viam, huc facies eorum.