Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/787

763 MEHEMET ALL E G Y P T 7G3 Ghureiyib. A horrible fate awaited those who had shut themselves up in the Barkookeeyeh. Having begged for quarter and surrendered, they were immediately stripped nearly naked, and about fifty were slaughtered on the spot ; and about the same number were dragged away, with every brutal aggravation of their pitiful condition, to Mehemet AH. Among them were four beys, one of whom, driven to madness by Mehemet All s mockery, asked for a drink of water ; his hands were untied that he might take the bottle, but he snatched a dagger from one of the soldiers and rushed at the pasha, and fell covered with wounds. The wretched captives were then chained and left in the court of the pasha s house ; and on the following morning the heads of their comrades who had perished the day before were skinned and stuffed with straw before their eyes. One bey and two others paid their ransom and were released ; the rest, without exception, were tortured and put to death in the course of the ensuing night. Eighty-three heads (many of them those of Frenchmen and Albanians) were stuffed and sent to Constantinople, with a boast that the Memlook chiefs were utterly destroyed. Thus ended Mehemet All s first massacre of his too confid ing enemies. The beys, after this, appear to have despaired of regain ing their ascendency ; most of them retreated to Upper Egypt, and an attempt at compromise failed. El-Elfee offered his submission on the condition of the cession of the Feiyoom and other provinces ; but this was refused, and that chief gained two successive victories over the pasha s troops, many of whom deserted to him. At length, in consequence of the remonstrances of the English, and a promise made by El-Elfee of 1500 purses, the Porte consented to reinstate the twenty-four beys, and to place El-Elfee at their head; but this measure met with the opposition of Mehemet Ali and the determined resistance of the majority of the Memlooks, who, rather than have El-Elfee at their head, preferred their present condition ; for the enmity of El-Bardeesee had not subsided, and he commanded the voice of most of the other beys. In pursuance of the above plan, a squadron under Salih Pasha, shortly before appointed high admiral, arrived at Alexandria on the 1st of July 1806, with 3000 regular troops, and a successor to Mehemet Ali, who was to receive the pashalik of Salonica. This wily chief professed his willingness to obey the commands of the Porte, but stated that his troops, to whom he owed a vast sum of money, opposed his depar ture. He induced the Ulema to sign a letter, praying the sultan to revoke the command for reinstating the beys, persuaded the chiefs of the Albanian troops to swear allegiance to him, and sent 2000 purses contributed by them to Constantinople. El-Elfee was at that time besieg ing Demenhoor, and he gained a signal victory over the pasha s troops ; but the dissensions of the beys destroyed their last chance of a return to power. El-Elfee and his partisans were unable to pay the sum promised to the Porte ; Sal ill Pasha received plenipotentiary powers from Constan tinople, in consequence of the letter from the Ulema; and, on the condition of Mehemet Ali s paying 4000 purses to the Porte, it was decided that he should continue in his post, and the reinstatement of the beys was abandoned. Fortune continued to favour the pasha. In the following month, El-Bardeesee died, aged forty-eight years ; and soon after, a scarcity of provisions excited the troops of El-Elfee to revolt. That bey very reluctantly raised the siege of Demenhoor, being in daily expectation of the arrival of an English army ; and at the village of Shubra-ment he was attacked by a sudden illness, and died on the 30th of January 1807, at the age of fifty-five. Thus was the pasha relieved of his two most formidable enemies ; and shortly after lie defeated Shaheen Bey, with the loss to the latter of his artillery and baggage and 300 men killed or taken prisoners. On the 17th of March 1807, a British fleet appeared off Alexandria, having on board nearly 5000 troops, under the command of General Eraser ; and the place, being disaffected towards Mehemet Ali, opened its gates to them. Here they first heard of the death of El-Elfee, upon whose co-operation they had founded their chief hopes of success ; and they immediately despatched messengers to his suc cessor and to the other bsys inviting them to Alexandria. The British resident, Major Misset, having represented the importance of taking llosetta and Er-Hahmaneeyeh, to secure supplies for Alexandria, General Fraser, with the concurrence of the admiral, Sir John Duckworth, detached the 31st regiment and the Chasseurs Britanniques, under Major-General Wauchope and Brigadier-General Meade, on this service ; and these troops entered llosetta without encountering any opposition ; but as soon as they had dis persed among the narrow streets, the garrison opened a deadly fire on them from the latticed windows and the roofs of the houses. They effected a retreat on Aboo-Keer and Alexandria, after a very heavy loss of 185 killed and 262 wounded, General Wauchope and three officers being among the former, and General Meade and seventeen officers among the latter. The heads of the slain were fixed on stakes on each side of the road crossing the Ezbekeeyeh in Cairo. Mehemet Ali, meanwhile, was conducting an expedition against the beys in Upper Egypt, and he had defeated them near Asyoot, when lie heard of the arrival of the British. In great alarm lest the beys should join them, especially as they were far north of his position, he immediately sent messengers to his rivals, promising to comply with all their demands, if they should join in expelling the invaders ; and this proposal being agreed to, both armies marched towards Cairo on opposite sides of the river. To return to the unfortunate British expedition. The possession of Ilosetta being deemed indispensable, Briga dier-General Stewart and Colonel Oswald were despatched thither, with 2500 men. For thirteen days a cannonade of the town was continued without effect ; and on the 20th of April, news having come in from the advanced guard at El-Hamad of large reinforcements to the besieged, General Stewart was compelled to retreat ; and a dragoon was despatched to Major Macleod, commanding at El Hamdd, with orders to fall back. The messenger, how ever, was unable to penetrate to the spot ; and the advanced guard, consisting of a detachment of the 7 1st, two companies of the 78th, one of the 35th, and De Kolles s regiment, with a picquet of dragoons, the whole mustering 733 men, was surrounded, and, after a gallant resistance, the survivors, who had expended all their ammunition, became prisoners of war. General Stewart regained Alexandria with the remainder of his force, having lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, nearly 900 men. Some hundreds of British heads were now exposed on stakes in Cairo, and the prisoners were marched between these mutilated remains of their countrymen. The beys became divided in their wishes, one party being desirous of co-operating with the British, the other with the pasha. These delays proved ruinous to their cause ; and General Fraser, despairing of their assistance, evacuated Alexandria on the 14th of September. From that date to the spring of 1811, the beys from time to time relinquished certain of their demands ; the pasha on his part granted them what before had been withheld ; the province of the Feiyoom, and part of those of El-Geezeh and Benee-Suweyf, were ceded to Shaheen ; and a great portion of the Sa eed, on the condition of paying the land- tax, to the others. Many of them, took up their abode in