· The Vergennes Gazette and Vermont and New-York Advertiser · Vergennes · page 1
Foreign Intelligence
TURKEY. CONSTANTINOPLE, April 16.
“The Porte has to-day published the following intelligence: AFTER the French under General Buonaparte had gained a victory over the Turkish army in Syria, they advanced against Acre, in order to make themselves masters of the whole of Palestine. Dgezar Pacha, enraged at the loss of the first battle found means to inspire his troops with new courage, and led them again to the field… Buonaparte, who has been forced to evacuate several posts, is in the vicinity of Gaza… Buonaparte had left Egypt 17 ships laden with artillery and ammunition which were to be conveyed to Palestine.” And, from the Vienna Court Gazette: “He certainly advanced some time ago, with 3000 Frenchmen, and as many Arabs and Copts, whom he had brought from Egypt, into Palestine. The defended posts of Gaza and Jaffa could not stop his progress. He came down the coast, to St. John d’Acre, the ancient Ptolemais, and detached a small column against the passes about Nablouse, to watch the movements of Dschezar Oglu, Governor of Jerusalem, who could have fallen upon his rear.”
The oldest item in this archive by thirteen years. Napoleon's Syria campaign, reported in a Vermont weekly under the standing head Foreign Intelligence. The word Palestine appears three times and does no work beyond naming the place: masters of the whole of Palestine, conveyed to Palestine, into Palestine. Gaza, Jaffa, Acre, Nablouse and Jerusalem are all named in the same two columns. Nobody is arguing about any of it.