“General Jochmus, notwithstanding his nearer approach to Damascus, has been still kept in doubt as to what is going on there; but he seems to be fully of opinion that Ibrahim Pacha is about to move, and that he will, if possible, retreat on Gaza. His proposal, therefore, is to cause the Egyptian Army to be harassed on its flanks and rear by the mountain levies, and having assembled the regular Turkish troops at points along the coast, to operate with them as occasions may offer, in the defiles between the Jordan and the coast. In the mean time General Jochmus has been very desirous of attacking Gaza, and of capturing or destroying the provisions which are said to be in store there for the Egyptian army, and he has repeatedly urged my co-operation for this purpose with men-of-war or steamers on the coast. There have been, however, and are still, many difficulties opposed to such an undertaking. The whole of the fleet had taken shelter at Marmorice, leaving only one steamer to watch the wreck of the Zebra in the Bay of Acre, besides the Hecate, which brought me to Beyrout; yet three French vessels, a corvette, and two brigs of war, remained upon the coast and were generally at anchor near Beyrout. I took the earliest opportunity of making this known to the Admiral, Sir Robert Stopford, and he most kindly and promptly sent Captain Houston Stewart with the Benbow, seventy-two, and the Hazard sloop. They arrived on the 24th of December, but the heavy surf prevented their communication with the shore, and it was not until the 27th that I could get the detachments of artillery and sappers, which came from England in the Hecate, disembarked at Acre. In the mean time, however, Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun of the Artillery, and Lieutenant-Colonel Alderson of the Engineers, had made a visit to that fortress, and likewise to Tyre and Sidon. “The Admiral, while he sent me this naval aid, expressed a great unwillingness to have it employed against Gaza or in any offensive operations; first, on account of the storms prevailing at this season; secondly, because the negotiations opened by Captain Fanshawe were still pending, and he had consented to a request, made by the Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, that Egyptian steamers might go off Gaza to embark the sick, the women, and the children, of Ibrahim Pacha’s army, for Alexandria. “Captain Houston Stewart had instructions from the Admiral based upon these reasons; and they of course weighed also with me as to any operations against Gaza; besides I had received information of the Egyptian force there, and at El-Arish, having been largely reinforced.