Colonel Alderson, who was with the naval officer, carried up the amount of Ibrahim’s army to 33,000 men[69], besides Souliman’s force. He remarks, in a private document with which I have keen favoured: “It appears Ibrahim commenced his retreat from Damascus on the 29th of December to El-Mezereib: at the latter place he divided his forces into five columns[70]: 1st, the artillery and guns[71], women, &c., _via_ the Desert and Suez, under Souliman Pacha; 2nd, the cavalry, consisting of ten regiments, under Achmet Menekli Pacha; two of them (the cavalry of the Guards) were recalled to join Ibrahim, after he recrossed the Jordan, near Jericho; the 3rd and 4th, each consisting of five regiments of infantry; and lastly Ibrahim himself, with three regiments of foot guards, the two cavalry regiments of the guard as before stated, and from 300 to 400 Arnauts, Henadi, and 300 rifles. Each of these last four divisions had orders to make the best of their way to Gaza. “When they left Damascus they had only sixteen days’ provisions, in addition to which they obtained a small supply of flour at El-Mezereib. The cavalry were sixteen days on the march, the infantry twenty-seven and twenty-eight, and Ibrahim’s corps thirty-four. Small supplies were occasionally received from the villages, but they avoided the great towns, and made for the Dead Sea, which they kept sight of, and approached as near as the nature of the country would allow.” Colonel Alderson, who was an eye-witness of their arrival at Gaza, and collected all the information he could, states that Ibrahim left Damascus with 62,499 souls, including women and children; there arrived at Gaza, independent of women and children, 27,000 regular troops, of which 4250 were cavalry, and 3200 irregulars; the garrison of Gaza consisted of 2800 men. Thus, then, 33,000 men either embarked from Gaza or marched from thence between the 23rd of January and the 19th of February, besides 9215 under Souliman Pacha, who marched to Suez. Colonel Alderson’s account stands thus: Arrived at Gaza 30,200 Marched with Souliman 9,215 Regular troops missing 8,859 Irregular troops supposed to have gone to their 8,440 homes Women and children supposed to have arrived at 2,000 Gaza Perished 3,786 ————— 62,500