“Very shortly after this, Rechid Pacha returned with your Excellency, when the same points were distinctly stated, and you expressed your conviction of the impossibility of Ibrahim’s coming upon Gaza; that we should advance close to it, and you would send notice to the Egyptian troops, that they might have twenty-four hours to retreat, after which you would attack and occupy Gaza. Rechid Pacha said he would go immediately to Jerusalem, from whence he would write positive information, upon which we might safely rely; that we should not move from this place until we received his communications. After his departure, General Michell and I paid your Excellency two visits, in which we found out, on examination of maps and Egyptian officers who had deserted from Gaza, that it was not only possible but very probable that Ibrahim might come on Gaza by the end of the Dead Sea, and that he might reach it within two days of the time in which your troops could. You then avowed that your aim was not to facilitate his retreat, but to annihilate his army, and prevent a single Egyptian getting back to his own country. “The Seraskier Zacharias Pacha, your Excellency, General Michell, and myself had a meeting this forenoon, at which you stated it to be your determination to advance; that you had ordered the troops at Jerusalem to make a combined movement on Gaza with those from Ramla; and that 6000 men and 1400 cavalry (900 of them being irregular), with twenty-four guns, would attack Gaza, destroy the provisions, and immediately retire, leaving two battalions in the place; that if Ibrahim Pacha appeared you would retire, and that, if he pressed you, you could retreat on the mountains near Jerusalem. There appeared to General Michell and to me such an evident and imminent hazard in this operation, and so inadequate an object to be gained, so much evil would result from a retrograde movement, such disaster from defeat, that I declared I could be no party to it, and that so long as it was not ascertained beyond doubt that Ibrahim Pacha was not coming on Gaza, I could not afford any naval co-operation. “It is with sincere pain that I have come to this resolution; your Excellency has had no reason to doubt the hearty co-operation hitherto of Her Britannic Majesty’s naval forces in promoting the Sultan’s cause; but I should be betraying my trust, and acting in direct opposition to my orders, if I concurred in any operations which had for their object the prevention or suspension of Ibrahim Pacha’s evacuation of Syria. “I have, &c., (Signed) “HOUSTON STEWART, “_Captain and Senior Officer commanding H.B.M. ships and vessels on the Coast of Syria_.” “Head-quarters, Jerusalem, “January 25, 1841. “Sir,