  Letter of Congratulation from Lord Ponsonby to the Author—Ibrahim Pacha’s Standard, missing from the Field of Boharsof—Letters to Lord Ponsonby, Colonel Hodges, and the Admiral respecting it—Lord Ponsonby’s Speech to the Sultan, and Letter to the Author—Colonel Hodges’ Explanation—The Affair never satisfactorily cleared up. Before leaving Beyrout, I received a letter from the Ambassador, dated October 22, congratulating me on the affair of Boharsof, and expressing a hope that we should follow up our successes. His Lordship was also very active in urging the Porte to send more arms and troops, and also to secure to the mountaineers all their rights and privileges, and remove that wicked and unprincipled old Turk, Izzet Pacha, which I had requested him to do. By the same conveyance I received the Oriental Observer, in which paper it was stated that Colonel Hodges had arrived at Smyrna, with the green flag, under which I had seen Ibrahim Pacha reconnoitring our position, and which we took at Boharsof, and afterwards lost, as I was informed by General “My Lord, “Powerful, Beyrout, November 1, 1840. “I received your Lordship’s letter, and I am happy to find that our operations have given so much satisfaction at Constantinople, as also to yourself. I do hope you will be able to do something for the mountaineers; nothing would increase our influence so much as giving them the sea ports, because the Turks do not treat them well; and they would be quite willing to pay a tribute. I was yesterday at the residence of the Grand Prince, and I am no longer surprised that he should have stuck to Mehemet Ali; he had three palaces building at the same time, which shows that he had his full sway in the mountains, and it is to be hoped his successor will be kept in check. “We are at last going to Acre with 3500 men; should the weather remain fine I think we shall “Ibrahim Pacha’s standard was taken, which I should have sent to the Sultan, with the Admiral’s permission, but General Jochmus told me it had been lost, which very much surprised me. It appears, by the Smyrna paper, that Colonel Hodges was in possession of it, and that he was to present it to the Sultan. I can hardly believe he would have done this unless under some mistake. I have written to him about it; and your Lordship will oblige me by inquiring if Ibrahim’s standard has found its way to Constantinople, and who sent it. “I have two flags taken at Sidon, one by Corporal James Symons; some mark of favour to him would do good. I hope, in the course of the winter, to be at Constantinople if operations cease here, which I hope will not be the case till the coast becomes dangerous. “I have the honour to remain, “Your Lordship’s obedient servant, “Charles Napier.” “To the Right Hon. Lord Ponsonby.” “My dear Hodges, ***** “In the Oriental Observer the following paragraph appears: “‘Colonel Hodges, Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul General at Alexandria, is on board, and has the flag of Ibrahim Pacha, taken in the last engagement, which, on his arrival at Constantinople, he will present to the Sultan.’ “If this is true, this flag must have been sent to you in a surreptitious manner, for I feel assured you never would have lent yourself to such a transaction.” A few days after this I received another letter from the Ambassador, acquainting me that he had presented the standard in question to the Sultan, in form, and made the following speech: “Sire, I solicited the honour of an audience of your Imperial Majesty, that I might lay at the foot of your Majesty’s throne the standard taken in battle by your Majesty’s valiant troops, and sent to me from the officer who had the happiness to direct the “A few weeks since, some rebellious subjects of your Majesty boasted that the standard should be displayed before the capital of your empire. The standard is now here, a monument of the triumph of your Majesty’s arms, and an evidence of the error of those who proclaimed the weakness of the Sublime Porte, and the power of the Pacha of Egypt.” His Lordship’s letter and his Lordship’s speech puzzled me more than the Oriental Observer. I began to doubt whether I had commanded the Turkish army, or had ever been on the heights of Boharsof at all, as I most certainly never sent this flag to Lord Ponsonby, and I again wrote to his Lordship for an explanation. “My Lord, “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, the 25th of September, inclosing the copy of a speech your Lordship made to the Sultan on presenting the standard of Ibrahim Pacha to His Majesty, taken by the Sultan’s troops under my command, at the battle of Boharsof. “The standard ought to have been brought to me, and by me delivered to Sir Robert Stopford, and I have considered it necessary to write officially to him to request that he will order an inquiry into this mysterious affair. “Your Lordship must not be satisfied with the capture of Acre; the next attempt should be made on Damascus. I am ordered to Alexandria, and I shall see what can be done there. “The Sultan had better form the whole of the Egyptian troops who have been captured or deserted, give them their arrears of pay, promote the officers, and land them in Egypt, promising that when Mehemet Ali is put down they should go to their homes, and that the rest of his army shall have their arrears, and go home also, if they come over; “I have the honour to be, &c. “Chas. Napier.” “Right Hon. Lord Ponsonby.” I also sent to the Admiral the following letter: “Sir, “Powerful, off Acre, Nov. 7, 1840. “Lord Ponsonby has inclosed me a speech made by his Lordship to the Sultan on delivering to his Majesty Ibrahim Pacha’s standard, taken by the troops under my command at the battle of Boharsof; it is a mystery to me how that standard fell into Lord Ponsonby’s hands. It was not sent to his Lordship by me who commanded the troops, and General Jochmus, the chief of the staff, declared that the standard had been lost. I have not now the power to officially inquire how this lost standard found its way to Constantinople, but I have to request you will take such steps as you see fit to clear up this mysterious affair. Had an inferior officer in the Duke of Wellington’s army sent a captured standard to the King of Portugal, unknown “I have the honour to be, &c. “Chas. Napier.” “Admiral Sir Robert Stopford.” The Ambassador never thought proper to reply to either of my letters, and the only explanation I ever got was from Colonel Hodges, which I subjoin: “As to the flag, I was the bearer of it to this place. I left Beyrout on Sunday evening. I called on Sir Charles Smith on the afternoon of that day, at his quarters on shore, when he asked me to take charge of despatches, and a flag, that I understood from him had been taken from the 2000 Egyptian troops that had surrendered the day before at Beyrout. This flag, with a parcel of red This did not explain Lord Ponsonby’s speech, and to this day it is a mystery. Now the flag was either sent or not; if sent, the person has managed to conceal it, and if it was not sent, then some one has bamboozled the Ambassador or the Ambassador bamboozled the Sultan. Here I shall let it rest, and carry the reader at once to St. Jean D’Acre, a place well known in ancient and modern history. |
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