On the walls of Acre 121 mounted guns and 42 not mounted; 20 mortars.
In store and ready, 97 boxes field-pieces and 97 mortars; arms,
ammunition, shot, shells, stores of all kinds, military chest,
hospital stores; specie, supposed to be 5,000_l._ value.
The results of the capture of Acre were very important. The Egyptian
garrison of Caiffa and Jaffa forthwith evacuated those places, and
endeavoured to fight their way through Palestine into Egypt. The
Mutualis and Naplous insurgents, however, cut many of them off, and
those who escaped retreated to Acre and surrendered as prisoners of
war. The army of Ibrahim Pacha, which at the commencement of
September amounted to 75,000 men, had dwindled to 20,000. The Syrian
tribes declared for the Sultan, and the garrison and inhabitants of
Jerusalem also returned to their allegiance. On the fall of Acre,
Commodore Napier was sent to Alexandria, where he made a convention
with Mehemet Ali, in which the Pacha agreed to order his son Ibrahim
to evacuate Syria, and to restore the Turkish fleet as soon as he
received official notification that the Sultan would grant him the
hereditary government of Egypt, the Commodore, on his part,
undertaking that hostilities should be suspended against Alexandria
or any other part of Egypt, and that the Egyptian array under Ibrahim
Pacha should have an unmolested passage through Syria.[1] These
terms were not, however, ratified, and it was not till the 11th of
January, 1841, that, by a fresh treaty, Mehemet Ali gave up the whole
Turkish fleet, which sailed for Marmorice under Admiral Walker; and
soon after the Sultan sent a firman according to the Pacha the
hereditary possession of Egypt, without any interference on the part
of the Porte, while a yearly tribute of 2,000,000_l._ was to be paid
to the Sultan, besides about 2,000,000_l._ more of arrears.
Thus terminated the part taken by the British in the affairs of
Turkey and Egypt.
[1] In a private letter, dated November 21, from an officer of the
squadron, he says:--
"The Commodore joined this morning. We were all cock-a-hoop
expecting a brush with the batteries; but our expectations soon fell
to the ground on hearing that he remains here only a short time, and
then proceeds to Malta. The ships manned rigging and cheered him on
passing, the band playing 'Charlie is my Darling,' with which 'Old
Charlie' was much pleased. The 'Powerful' had the warmest berth at
Acre; but strange to tell, she was hulled only twice, one shot in the
cut-water, and one hitting the main bits on the quarter-deck; three
men were slightly wounded from one of their own guns."