_Guarantee by the Seraskier, the Moustechar Effendi, and Lieutenant-General Jochmus._ We, the Undersigned, upon the received declaration of his Excellency Menikli Ahmed Pacha and the other Egyptian Generals and Officers, to carry forthwith into execution the entire evacuation of Syria and the Desert, consent and promise faithfully to abstain from any hostile movement, according to the promise given by Commodore Stewart and Colonel Alderson, with the proviso that the forces at present near and at Gaza, march on El-Arish within seven days from this, embarking such men in transports as are sick, unfit for campaign, and unable to march according to Colonel Alderson’s judgment, and provided no movement is made by any Egyptian force at Gaza, east or northward. Given under our hand and seal at the Imperial head-quarters of Jaffa, January 30, 1841. (L.S.) MOUSTECHAR EFFENDI, _Seraskier_, JOCHMUS, _Lieutenant-General_. CHAPTER XIV. Contradictory Statements as to the Numbers of the Egyptian Army—Reason for abiding by the Reports of the British Officers—Colonel Alderson’s Detail of the Retreat—General Jochmus’s Statement—Lieutenant Loring’s Mission. It appears rather difficult to get at the exact amount of Ibrahim’s army, either when it left Damascus, or when its two divisions arrived at Gaza and Akaba. In the _Levant Papers_ are several statements upon the subject; but they are rather contradictory[64]. This is not to be wondered at, as the framers of some of them must have been sorely puzzled to account for the numbers, who, in spite of famine, cold, and “the sword of the fierce and revengeful Haouranees[65],” unquestionably made their appearance[66] at the places I have named. I shall, therefore, prefer to abide by the statements of the British officers at Gaza, who had no former reports to bolster up, and who undoubtedly have described things precisely as they fell under their observation. By Colonel Bridgeman’s report[67], Ibrahim brought to Gaza 15,000 infantry and 6000 or 7000 cavalry. Lieutenant Loring, who was charged by me with superintending the evacuation, gave the infantry at 23,550 men, and the cavalry 6440, independent of Souliman’s division of 5000 men, and 175 pieces of artillery[68] who marched from El-Mezereib to Akaba and Suez, by the way of Maan, at which latter place he provisioned himself for his march, arrived safely at Cairo, and by all the information I received at Alexandria, and what Souliman Pacha communicated to Colonel Napier at the former place, he did not lose a gun, and the Colonel was himself an eye-witness to the excellent state of his cavalry. This enumeration of Lieutenant Loring’s does not include the noncombatants.