IOR/L/PS/9/76/62

Copies of two letters addressed to Robert Abbott, East India Company Agent in Aleppo, containing news of the French campaign in Palestine led by General Napoleon Bonaparte:

1. An Italian letter from Luigi Malagamba, sent from Acri [Acre] and dated 12 March 1799. The letter describes difficulties in communication and reports that French forces have captured Gazza [Gaza], Lidda [Lidd], and Rama [Ramleh] and are said to have entered and sacked Jaffa. Malagamba also describes the preparations of the Pascà [Aḥmad Pāshā al-Jazzār, Ottoman Governor of Sidon] for the defence of Acre and reports that he has requested support from British ships in the Mediterranean.

This copy was enclosed in a letter from Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], to John Spencer Smith, Minister Plenipotentiary in Constantinople [Istanbul], dated 17 April 1799 (IOR/L/PS/9/76/66).

2. An extract of a letter from Nicholas Ducci, Agent, sent from Latichia [Latakia] and dated 12 March 1799. The letter reports a battle between French and Turkish [Ottoman] forces in El Arish [al-‘Arish], rumours that French forces have captured Gaza and Jaffa, and population flight from Alexandria following British naval attacks. It also describes a plague in Accre [Acre] and the reaction of the population to the approaching French forces.