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 i
 
 FOUR MONTHS IN ALGERIA: 
 
 A VISIT TO CARTHAGE. 
 
 REV. JOSEPH WILLIAMS BLAKESLEY, 
 
 VICAR OF WARE, HERTS; 
 AND SOMETIME FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBBIDOK. 
 
 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS AFTER PHOTOGRAPHS. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND 33, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. 
 1859.
 

 
 DT 
 
 B5af 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 The volume here offered to the Public contains some 
 account of a very curious country, which notwithstanding 
 its ready accessibility is little known in England. The 
 author was compelled, at a short notice, to seek refuge 
 from the inclemency of an English winter and spring ; and 
 while profiting by the genial climate of North Africa, 
 endeavoured to turn his banishment from England to such 
 account as was possible for a convalescent. Much remains 
 unnoticed to reward the curiosity of an ordinary traveller 
 at the cost of very little hardship or danger. 
 
 oVC855
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I 
 
 Voyage from Marseilles — Optical Phenomenon — Algiers from 
 
 the Sea — Mixed Population — Hotels of Algiers — Extensive 
 View — Accommodation for Invalids — Climate of Algiers — 
 Mildness of Winter — South Winds the coldest — Advantages 
 of Oran . .... 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Town of Algiers — Traces of Roman Town — Limit of its Size — 
 Ancient Remains excavated — The Fauxbourg Bab-Azoun — 
 Moorish Streets — Interior of Houses — Splendour of Interiors 
 — Specimens still existing — The Kazbah of Algiers ruined 
 in the Invasion — Interior of Mosques — Court of the Kadi — 
 The Marabouts of Barbary — Their numerous Tombs — Growth 
 of Legends — Endowment of Chapelries — Impoverished Popu- 
 lation — Mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman — Garden of Marengo 
 — Monuments to Napoleon — ^^ Distaste of the natives for 
 French Civilisation — Theatre and Club 13 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Neighbourhood of Algiers — Pointe Pescade — Cape of the Ruins 
 — Passage round the Cape — Spanish Settlers — Savage Dogs — 
 Energy of the Clergy — Liberality of first Bishop — Sisters of 
 Charity — Fever in Summer — Orphan Schools of Agriculture
 
 iii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Protestants and Jews— Moorish Shops — Moorish and Arab 
 Head-dresses — Oppression of Jews — Ritual of Jews — Varied 
 Type of Face— Singular Custom perhaps of Pagan Origin — 
 The Aissaoua — Descendants of the Psylli — Are professed 
 Exorcists, but really Jugglers — Serpent Eaters — Are still 
 beheved in 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ascent of the Sahel — Ruined Moorish Villas — Bouzarieh — 
 Peninsula of Sidi Ferudje — The French Invasion, h ow 
 effected — Arab Cavalry — Battle of Staoueli — Battle of Sidi 
 Kalif — Plateau of Fontaine ChapeUe — Disordered Advance of 
 the French — Arab Communism — Valley of the Consuls — El 
 Biar — Attack of the Fort of the Einperoi' — Surrender of 
 Algiers .^ 62 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Moorish Cemeteries destroyed — Road-making of the French 
 across the Sahel — Birkadem — Roads across the Metidja — 
 Want of Stone — Botanical Garden — Cultivation of Sugar — 
 Line of Mihtary Camps — Clerical Establishments — Failure of 
 Agricultural Colony — Disgraceful Conduct of Land Jobbers — 
 Ford of the Harash — Scarcity of Fuel — Rovigo and L'Arba — 
 Orange Groves — Cultivation of the iletidja — Agricultural 
 Returns — Fever prevalent at L'Arba — Causes of Unhealthy 
 Villages — A Fatal Invention — Landlords and Tenants — Capi- 
 talists of Algiers — A ^Model Tenant — Fonduck — A jjerfectly 
 happy Man — Predominance of Spaniards — Schools at Fon- 
 duck — Extensive Cultivation — Wild Boars — An Ai-ab Prison 
 — Irrigated Gardens 79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BoufFarik — General Lamoricidre — Camp d'Erlon — Blidah — Cul- 
 tivation of Tobacco— Gorge of the ChiftU — Dangerous Road — 
 Mudlike Soil — Pa.ssage of the Biban — Arab Outbreak — Medeah 
 — Mines of Mouzaia — Visit to the Teniat — Battle of the
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Teniat — View from the Teniat — Tomb of the Queen a 
 Mauritaniau Monument — Visit to Great Kabylie — Cross the 
 Metidja — Wild Beasts — Market on the Isser — Marshy Plains 
 — Caravanserais — Hospitable Frenchmen — Valley of the 
 Sebaou — Fort of Tizi-Quzou — Kabyle Farming — Subjugation 
 of Kabylie — Market of Tizi-Ouzou — A Frank Marabout — 
 Military Tenure of Laud — Quarrels of the Kabyles — Their 
 Original Stock — Their Government — Their Personal Character 
 — French Troops in Bivouack — Their Order and Helpfulness 
 — Admirable DiscipUne of a Part of the Army — Military 
 Punishment — Note on Kabyle Language Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 The Western Province — Coasting Voyage — View of Coast — " 
 Harbourless Sea — View of Cherchell— Its Capture by the 
 French — Tenez — Coast of the Dahra — Arrival at Oran — Its 
 Acquisition by France — Uncertain Policy of the Government 
 — Evil of Concessions— Population of Oran — Geological Cha- 
 racter of the Neighbourhood of Oran — Resemblance to the 
 Sahel — Life on the Borders — Hosj)itality of French Officers — 
 Journey to Tlemjen — Savageness of an Arab Tribe — Horrible 
 Route — African Charioteering — Occupation of Tlemjen — 
 Frontier Warfare — Rough-handed Justice — The Mechouar of 
 Tlempen — Rise of Abd-el-Kader — ^Abd-el-Kader at Tlempen — 
 The French break with him— Defeat at the Makta — Expedi- 
 tion to Maskara — Disastrous Retreat — Cavaignac in the 
 Mechouar — His heroic Bravery and Magnanimity — Destruc- 
 tion of Tlempen — Remains of Native Town — Magnitude of 
 Ancient City — The Mansourah — WaUs of Ai'tihcial Concrete 
 — Traces of former Greatness — Arab Hockey — Tomb of Sidi- 
 Bou-Medine — Arab School — Government Breeding Stable — ■ 
 Diet of Barbary Horses — Their special Merits — Ain-Temou- 
 chent — Lions and Panthers — Copper Mines of Sebdou . . . 
 
 152 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Journey to Maskara — Failure of Communistic Experiment — 
 Approach to Maskara — Trade of ]\Iaskara — Growth of the 
 Vine — Delays in Administration — Route to Mostaganem — 
 High Plateaux of Limestone — Descent on El Borj — Reception
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 by the Agha — Castle of a Native Chief — An Arab Warden of 
 the Marches — Arab Sumptuousness — Frost in the Mountains 
 — Effect of the Rains — A Fever-stricken Caravanserai — Endu- 
 rance of African Soldiers — Mostaganem — 111 Success of French 
 Settlers — State of Morals — Visit to Mazagran — French Feat 
 of Arms — An Ill-fated Monument— Souk-el-Mitou — Enormous 
 Olive-Trees — Valley of the Cheliff" — Traces of the Emperor 
 Hadrian — Carelessness of French Antiquaries — Visit to St, 
 Leu — Remains of Ai-senaria — Difficulty of Searching — Moun- 
 tain of Lions — Harsh Treatment of Natives — Sebkah of 
 Arzew — Return to Algiers — Note on the Kouskous .... 203 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Visit to Eastei-n Province — The Atlas Ranges — The Middle 
 Atlas — Elevated Plateau — Region of Marshes — Drainage by 
 the CheliQ' — Difficulty of Communication — DeUys — Bougie — 
 Roman Towns on the Coast — Djidjelli — Collo — Anchorage of 
 Stora — Remains of Rusicada — Ancient Records of Vulgarity 
 — Neighbourhood of Philippeville — Civil and Military Terri- 
 tory — Panic of a Kabyle Girl — Deserted Villages — Site of 
 Philippeville — Earthworks made by Soldiers — A Port wanted — 
 Jemappes — Numbers of Wild Boars and Lions — A Disappoint- 
 ment — A Sociable Lion — Kabyle Gallantry — Arab Victim of 
 French Swindling —An unpromising Domestic 239 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Journey to Constantine — Village of St. Antoine — Parisian Colo- 
 nists — Gi-afting of Wild Olives — El Hamma — Approach to 
 Constantine — Noble Site of the City — Horrors of the Storming 
 — Vast Remains of Antiquity — The City by Night — The Beni- 
 Mozabites — Mahometan Quakers — Commercial Spirit — An 
 Arab Wedding — Tomb of Prajcilius — Portentous Latinity of 
 a prosperous Cirta Banker — Kabyle Market — Red Salt — BUnd 
 Beggars — Extreme Fertility — Falls of the Rummel — Gorge of 
 the Rummel— Bridge destroyed — SijAon of the Aqueduct — 
 Jews of Constantine — Mahometan Teachers — Mihtary and 
 Civilian.s — French Subalterns — French Schools without Boys' 
 Games 269
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Journey to Batna — Ouled-Eamoum — Salt Lakes — The Grazing 
 Season — Arrival at Batna — A Bad Lodging — Penitentiary of 
 Lambessa — Treatment of Inmates — Political Prisoners — Im- 
 possibility of Escape — Remains of the Roman Camp and 
 Town — Triple Gateway — Ancient Subalterns' Club — Officers' 
 Ring-money— The Status of the Soldier — Dread of Evil 
 Omens — Timber-trade of Batna — Mountaineers of the Aures 
 as yet unsubdued — Ancient Numidian Monument — The Ma- 
 drasen a Fire Temple — Search for Treasure— Cold Nights on 
 the Plateau — Journey to Milah, a Roman Station — Recep- 
 tion by the Kaid — Arab Hospitality — Vanity in Age — Effects 
 of Fasting — Observance of the Ramadan a chief point of 
 Religion 300 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Journey to Guelma — Breeding Grounds of the Tribes — Savage 
 Dogs — Mules and Camels — Geological Phenomenon — Fall from 
 a Mule — Limestone Cliffs — Women's Tents — Mixture of Lan- 
 guages — A Bivouack in Prospect — A Friend in Need — Strange 
 Quarters — Hammam Meskoutin — Incorrect Information — 
 Mineral Springs of Extraordinary Efficacy — Ancient Routes 
 — Roman Baths still used — Extremely Fertile Valley — Guelma 
 the Ancient Calama — Beauty of the Site — Arab Coffee- 
 crushing— Market of Guelma — Depreciation of Horses — Re- 
 mains of Calama — Effects of an Earthquake — Pagan Riots at 
 Calama — Appeal to St. Augustine — Healthy Neighbourhooi} 
 of Guelma — Journey to Bona — Wild Boars and Lions — Descent 
 upon Bona — Site of Ancient Hippo — Military Prison at Bona — 
 Excellent Discipline — Ancient Cisterns at Hippo — Mouth of 
 River closed — Tomb of St. Augustine — Search for the Aque- 
 duct — Iron Mines — Want of a Port 332 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Voyage to Tunis — Pilgrims to Mecca — Ruffianism of French 
 Sailors — Hotels at Tunis — Jewish Tax-farmers — Interior of 
 Tunis — Its Reputation for Healthiness — Trade with the Inte- 
 rior — Expedition to Carthage — Hill of St. Louis — The Small
 
 i CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cisterns— The Byrsa and Magaria— The Cothon— Probable 
 Alteration of Level in the Neighbourhood— Topography given 
 by Polybius and Appian — Defence of Carthage like that of 
 Sebastopol — Success of the Besieged — The Magaria — The Great 
 Cisterns — The Aqueduct— French Collections — English Exca- 
 vations — Appian a Guide for the Topographer — Operations of 
 Scipio — His Winter Campaign — Attack on the Cothon and 
 the Byrsa — Limits of the Byrsa in the First and Last Days 
 — Djebel Gomart — Djebel Khawee — General View of Carthage 
 — Kemains of Amphitheatre — Procopius's Account of the 
 Vandal War— The Lake in his Time not used as a Harbour — 
 Destruction of the Aqueduct 373 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Cost of Algeria — Permanent Works — Products of Algeria — 
 European Immigration — Spaniards and Maltese — Arab Emi- 
 grants from Spain the Originators of Piracy — The Turkish 
 Dynasty a Military Oligarchy — The Moors and Koulouglis a 
 Subject Class — Administration by the Deys and their Satraps 
 — Government of the Tribes dependent on Algiers — Internal 
 Administration of the Town — Injudicious Policy after the 
 Conquest — French Administration at the Present Time — The 
 New Constitution of Algeria — Return to a System already 
 found to fail — Note on European Pojiulation of Algeria . . 415 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO BINDER. 
 
 Map of Algeria. 
 
 Arabs or the rttovijiCE or Okan Frontispiece, 
 
 Part of tue Mahsourah at Tlemoen ... To face p. 192 
 
 Roman Remains of Lambessa 312 
 
 Ancient Nlmidian Monument nbae Batna 320 
 
 Site of Ancient Carthage 373 
 
 Carthage taken from the Deck of Steamer 376 
 
 Carthage taken from the IIill of the Catacombs 407 
 
 Sections of Routes at End.
 
 •
 
 FOUR MONTHS IN ALGERIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The commuuication between the two continents of 
 Europe and Africa is at the present time as easy 
 and as regular as that between England and Belgium 
 Avas twenty years ago. Twice a week, on Tuesdays 
 and Saturdays, excellent steamers belonging to the 
 Messageries Imperiales leave Marseilles for Algiers. 
 Besides these, a steamer belonging to a private Erench 
 company leaves each port every Thursday. These 
 latter vessels are not quite so speedy as the packet- 
 boats, as they are built to carry merchandise, and 
 consequently they enjoy less popularity with the 
 travelling public. In one of them, however, I em- 
 barked on the 31st of December, 1857. The sky 
 was clear, and the sea like a mill-pond; a balmy 
 breeze, such as one is favoured with on a fine early 
 September day in England, blew gently from the
 
 2 VOYAGE FROM MARSEILLES. 
 
 south-west, and the barometers predicted the con- 
 tinuance of cahii weather. Under such circumstances, 
 no one who has ever experienced sea-sickness will 
 hesitate to choose a hdtiment de commerce just about 
 to put to sea in preference to the prospect of a mail 
 steamer forty-eight hours later. At one o'clock the 
 Kabyle passed the Marseilles lighthouse, carrying 
 twelve or fourteen deck and second cabin passengers, 
 but only myself in the chief cabin. I was well con- 
 tent to accept the dulness of my solitary state in 
 consideration of the comfort incident to being the 
 sole candidate for a berth, although the fineness of 
 the weather rendered the advantages of the position 
 less conspicuous than might have been the case. 
 The accommodation was in every respect quite as 
 good as that on board the mail-boats, and the 
 captain, an intelligent, courteous, and apparently 
 skilful seaman, made our tete-a-tete dinners and break- 
 fasts as pleasant as could be desired, and furnished 
 me with several pieces of information which I found 
 very useful when I first landed in Africa. 
 
 While watching the receding shore of Europe with 
 that interest which exile, although only for a few 
 months, invariably inspires, I was surprised by a phe- 
 nomenon which at the instant appeared very strange, 
 although a few minutes' reflection dispelled all asto- 
 nishment. As the hills surrounding Marseilles dis- 
 appeared, they were succeeded by what seemed to
 
 OPTICAL PHENOMENON. 3 
 
 be high chffs coming down to the water's edge. We 
 were at the time some five and thirty miles from the 
 land, and the appearance was not unlike that of the 
 English cliffs when one is six or seven miles out 
 at sea. I thought at first there niust be some optical 
 delusion, but on taking the bearings carefully, and 
 referring to the map, the mystery was explained. 
 The " cliffs " were the high Alpine summits, covered 
 with their eternal snows, distant from the deck of the 
 steamer more than one hundred miles. From my 
 point of view, the whole space really intervening 
 between the sea horizon and these summits had 
 vanished away, and they themselves appeared thrown 
 forward, as it seemed, quite near. They continued, 
 especially tw^o of them, growing higher and higher, 
 slightly illuminated, half an hour after the upper edge 
 of the sun had sunk in the sea, and it was not till 
 five o'clock that they altogether disappeared. Had 
 the steamer left Marseilles an hour earlier, they would 
 no doubt have been visible at even a greater distance. 
 At nine o'clock on new year's morning we sighted 
 Minorca, and during the day were passing through 
 the channel which separates that island from Majorca. 
 While about two leagues off the former, we were met 
 by the packet from Algiers, the first vessel we had 
 seen since quitting the shores of France, as the 
 ordinary course of ships proceeding up or down the 
 Mediterranean lies to the south of the Balearic islands.
 
 4 ALGIERS FROM THE SEA. 
 
 At sunset we lost sight of Majorca, being then about 
 one hundred and iifty miles from Algiers, in the 
 harbour of which we dropped our anchor at nine 
 o'clock, on the 2d of January, after a prosperous 
 voyage of forty-four hours. 
 
 The town of Algiers, on approaching it from the 
 north, looks at a distance as if it stood on a kind of 
 platform let down from a high range of hills behind. 
 This apparent peninsula is the Sahel, a mountainous 
 boss, which immediately backs the town, and the 
 high range behind is the Northern or Lesser Atlas, 
 as it is commonly although not very properly called. 
 Between the Sahel and the Atlas is an extensive 
 plain, the Metidja, the concealment of which from 
 the eye of a spectator approaching the land causes 
 the optical deception just noticed. I had heard a 
 great deal of the beauty of the conp cV ceil, and was a 
 little disappointed at not recognising- at once the 
 truth of the Arab comparison of Algiers to a diamond 
 set in a frame of emerald. But that idea, as I after- 
 wards found, was suggested by the distant view of 
 the town from the east, when the dazzling white of 
 the houses, ail massed together, contrasts strikingly 
 with the luxurijiut vegetation of early spring. Neither 
 the direction in which I had aj)proachcd, nor the 
 season of the year, allowed the production of this 
 effect. The houses in the immediate neighbourhood 
 of the sea are all built by the French in the style
 
 MIXED POPULATION. 5 
 
 of architecture to which they are accustomed, with 
 large windows opening on the street, and green 
 bhnds outside, as different as possible from the white- 
 washed wall, pierced with one or two loopholes, 
 which characterises the external appearance of the 
 ]\Ioorisli dwellings. The aspect of the hills around 
 seemed very little different from the opposite shore of 
 the Mediterranean ; but they were studded with white 
 specks of villages and country houses as far as the 
 eye could reach, and, not being aware that many of 
 these were ruins, I concluded that I was about to 
 enter a thickly peopled and prosperous country. A 
 number of boats, each with a barefooted Moor in 
 it, surrounded the steamer ; and as soon as the official 
 of the Sanitary Board, whose visits are not dis- 
 pensed with in any case, had pronounced a favourable 
 verdict, I was conveyed in one to the neighbourhood 
 of the Porte de la Marine, and landed on the quay 
 amid a crowd which seemed, both to eye and ear, 
 composed of every nation under heaven. Half- naked 
 negroes from Biskra, and sw^arthy Arabs from the 
 more immediate neighbourhood, contended with 
 figures in European costume, but of no lighter com- 
 plexion, for the honour of carrying my portmanteau, 
 and urged their respective claims in Arabic, Spanish, 
 Italian, Provencal, and English. A single Erench- 
 man appeared, — the commissionaire of the hotel to 
 which I was bound. Making myself over to the
 
 6 HOTELS OE ALGIERS. 
 
 disposal of this functionary, and freighting two INlaltese 
 with my baggage, I mounted the ascent which, no 
 long time back, had been trodden by thousands of 
 Christian captives ; assured the Custom-house officer 
 at the top that I was importing no eggs, poultry, 
 bread, fruit, or other article subject to ocfroi; and 
 after a walk of about five minutes under arcades 
 something like those of the streets in Bern, emerged 
 upon a handsome 7; /(7c^, on the opposite side of which 
 I recognised the Hotel d'Orient. This had attracted 
 my attention from the deck of the Kahyle by its 
 obviously good situation and its name blazoned in 
 letters of two feet long upon the cornice of its facade. 
 I found, however, that the " hotel " only commenced 
 with the third story of the edifice, that there were no 
 bedrooms lower than the fourth, and that on this 
 all were occupied ; and I was obliged to content 
 myself with a small chamber and dressing-room on 
 the fifth floor, which, in fact, consisted of a few 
 apartments built above the original roof of the house. 
 In three or four days, hoAvever, the departure of 
 some guests placed a good-sized room on the floor 
 below at my disposal, and in it I found myself suf- 
 ficiently comfortable to remain for two months. 
 
 The paucity of good hotel accommodation is a 
 serious drawback to Algiers as a residence for invalids, 
 especially where the lungs are supposed to be aff'ectcd. 
 The Hotel d'Orient is in the best situation, and the
 
 EXTENSIVE VIEW. 7 
 
 rooms are airy and with an excellent aspect. Mine 
 looked to the East, across the bay, upon Cape 
 Matifou. Beyond this appeared the point of land 
 behind which lay Dellys and the hills of the Great 
 Kabylie, among which rose one or two peaks of 
 Djerjera, the highest summits of the Northern Atlas, 
 covered with eternal snow. In front was the harbour 
 of Algiers, and just to the left the rock, once an 
 island and now connected with the main by a cause- 
 way of stone, on which the lighthouse stands. Im- 
 mediately below I looked down on the Place Royale, 
 an irregular shaped esplanade, of which the side 
 towards the sea, closed only by a dwarf balustrade, 
 serves as the rendezvous of the trading community, 
 as well as the promenade of the fashionables of 
 Algiers. Here a new comer finds an ample fund 
 of amusement for the trouble of only looking out of 
 his window. Arabs in their white bourn ouses, Jews 
 in their bagging knee-breeches and blue-black turbans, 
 Moorish women enveloped in white veils and white 
 trowsers, leaving no part of their persons visible but 
 the eyes and the stockingless feet, are mixed up in a 
 dense throng with cloaked Spaniards, Zouaves, French 
 officers, and ladies in the newest Parisian costume. 
 A military band plays in the Place two or three days 
 in the week, and troops are often paraded there. 
 But these attractions are soon more than compensated 
 by the fatigue of having to mount so high, which in
 
 8 ACCOMMODATION lOR INVALIDS. 
 
 some cases of ailment would be impossible. But in 
 this respect the Hotel de la Regence and the Maison 
 Garnie, over the Cafe d'Apollon, which alone are 
 equal to the Hotel d'Orient in situation, are no 
 better. The Hotel de Paris is well managed and the 
 charges reasonable ; but there is not an apartment in 
 it from which a view of the sea can be obtained. It 
 is, however, less lofty than the others. A new house, 
 the Hotel de I'Europe, is clean, and for a decided 
 invalid is perhaps the most to be recommended ; but 
 the charges are very high, and the situation incon- 
 venient. An Englishman of the name of Thurgar 
 has likewise established a boarding-house about a 
 mile out of the town. Nowhere, however, as far as 
 I could learn, Avould an invalid find the comforts that 
 await him in the towns of Southern Europe which 
 are resorted to for the sake of their climate. The 
 best course for such a one would be to bring with 
 him one or two confidential servants, and to hire a 
 furnished house in the neighbourhood. Apartments 
 are rare, but they also are to be had occasionally 
 in good situations. I would recommend any English- 
 man in want of them to state his need to M. Lary, 
 a, pdtissier in the Rue Bab-Azoun, whose skill in his 
 art is only surpassed by his civility and attention to 
 his customers, and from whom they will gain in- 
 formation of any rooms likely to be vacant. The 
 porter at the Hotel de la Regence likewise keeps
 
 CLLxMATE Ui-' ALGIERS. 9 
 
 a list of lodgings to be let, and so do some of the 
 shopkeepers in the town ; but a good deal of caution 
 is requisite before engaging anything, especially if 
 the hirer has a lady in his party. 
 
 There is usually a great deal of rain at Algiers 
 during the months of November, December, January, 
 and February ; in the present year the two latter 
 months followed the ordinary rule. In January there 
 were sixteen, and in February seventeen days upon 
 which rain fell. But of these there were very few in 
 which it was not possible to take exercise out of doors 
 for a considerable time. A storm generally gives some 
 notice of its approach if the barometer is consulted. I 
 never found the aneroid which I used — one constructed 
 by Lerebour and Secretan of Paris — fail to give me 
 warning, although it did once or twice raise a false 
 alarm. It was my habit to observe it, and the dry 
 and wet bulbs of a psychrometric thermometer by the 
 same manufacturers, four times a day, at 8 a.m. and 
 2, 6, and II p.m.; and I soon became enough of a 
 Aveather-prophet to take long walks and rides in 
 the neighbourhood without ever getting more than 
 one wetting, — -which after all I should have escaped 
 had I not unfortunately had a sluggish horse, and 
 forgotten to put on spurs on leaving home. There 
 is very little of the drizzling wet weather to which 
 we are accustomed in England. The rain, when it 
 falls at all, falls in pailfuls, ploughing deep furrows
 
 10 MILDNESS OF WINTER. 
 
 in the soft friable stone of the steep hills which 
 surround Algiers, and washing away the unmetalled 
 roads which wind up them. On a level, the imme- 
 diate result is the production of a deep soft mud, in 
 which one sinks above the ankles. But a very few 
 hours of sun dry up the soil, and a day or two 
 converts the mud to dust. Between the periods of 
 storm rains, too, there is generally an interval of two 
 or three days of quite settled weather; and during 
 these, excursions may be made to a distance of thirty 
 or thirty- five miles even by a valetudinarian. Before 
 the end of February I had crossed the Metidja in four 
 different directions, and had traversed on foot or on 
 horseback every portion of the Sahel, — the hilly 
 country of the Littoral, which separates the Metidja 
 from the sea. The temperature of the atmosphere 
 was that of an English May or June. On most days 
 I could sit writing or reading in my room with the 
 window open Avithout feeling in the least chilly, 
 although there was no carpet, and nothing to keep 
 my feet from the stuccoed floor but a small mat made 
 of the halfa-grass. The greatest observed height of 
 the thermometer in my apartment during the month 
 of January w^as 02" Fahrenheit, the lowest 54*^, and 
 the greatest variation in any one day only 7^. This 
 occurred on the 5th of the month ; and on no other 
 day did the viu-i;ition amount to b^ . In February the 
 greatest observed height was 06°, the lowest 5C°, and
 
 SOUTH WINDS THE COLDEST. 1 1 
 
 the maximum variation in any one da}^ less than 3i". 
 The most generally prevailing wind was tliat from the 
 north-west, which is invariably mild and refreshing 
 as regards its temperature, although sometimes too 
 violent for a decided invalid. The only days which 
 I found formidable were those in which the wind 
 blew from a southern quarter, after much moisture 
 had been precipitated. This, which had descended on 
 the Sahel in the form of rain, fell on the higli plateaux 
 of the Atlas in that of snow, and the blast from the 
 south passing over the latter struck most piercingly 
 whenever an ascent of the Sahel brought one Avithin 
 its range. The greatest peril which an invalid has to 
 encounter during an Algerian winter undoubtedly 
 arises from this cause. The snow on the high plains 
 does not melt in general till the month of March ; and 
 while it remains, it is extremely inexpedient for him 
 to remove from the shelter which the Sahel affords, 
 unless he sees a good steady breeze setting from the 
 northwards. As the hills come close down to the 
 sea, there is on fine days a constant temptation to be 
 imprudent in this respect ; and the better the health 
 of the patient, the more does he repine at being 
 confined in taking his exercise to a single road, which 
 is in fact all that is compatible with safety under such 
 circumstances. Indeed my own experience would 
 lead me to prefer Oran, the chief town of the western 
 province, to Algiers, as a domicile for the winter.
 
 12 ADVANTAGES OF OR AN. 
 
 Much less rain falls there ; and the plateaux inland 
 are not only considerably lower than in the meridian 
 of Algiers, but further removed from the coast. The 
 pedestrian can get away from the town without the 
 exertion of climbhig a steep ascent of seven or eight 
 hundred feet ; and although the surrounding country 
 is inferior in beauty to the immediate neighbourhood 
 of Algiers, it possesses perhaps greater interest for 
 the botanist and geologist, and is particularly "well 
 adapted for horse-exercise.
 
 TOWN OF ALGIERS. J 8 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The lower part of Algiers has been almost entirely 
 rebuilt since the French occupation ; and the intro- 
 duction of European architecture has not been favour- 
 able to picturesque effect. The Place Royale may be 
 considered as the centre of the modern town. Two 
 streets, the Rue Bab-el-Oued (Water Gate) and the Rue 
 Bab-Azoun (Gate of Grief), lead out of it, the former 
 in a northerly the latter in a southerly direction, to 
 the site of the gates from which they took their 
 names. They are composed of houses four or five 
 stories in height, built over arcades. This is the case 
 also with the Rue de la Marine, by which all travellers 
 arriving by sea are obliged to pass. In some few 
 instances the Moorish buildings have been retained in 
 this locahty, but in most cases their entire destruction 
 was requisite in order to carry out the line of street 
 according to the French notions of architectural pro- 
 priety; and those which were suffered to remain 
 have been more or less altered. The great mosque 
 (Djemmaa Kebir) which stands in the Rue de la
 
 14 TRACES or ROMAN TOWN. 
 
 Marine, has in front of it a colonnade taken from 
 another mosque which was destroyed in forming the 
 Place Roy ale. But the direction of the street com- 
 pelled the adoption of a broken line in setting it up 
 again, and the effect is extremely painful to the eye. 
 An incidental result of making these new streets was 
 to lay bare the foundations of the old Roman town, 
 Icosium, on the site of which modern Algiers is built; 
 and to show how, in ages far remote frotn one another, 
 similar conditions almost always produce similar 
 arrangements. A Roman street led up from the port 
 as the Rue de la Marine does at the present time, and, 
 compelled by the obstacle offered by the hill, divided 
 itself into two branches corresponding very nearly 
 with the new streets, and like them terminating at 
 the Bab-el-Oued and Bab-Azoun. This last circum- 
 stance was proved by the discovery of a Roman 
 cemetery in each place ; and as it is well known that 
 the ancients never buried their dead inside the walls, 
 we have in the facts distinct evidence of the limit 
 beyond which the ancient town did not extend. The 
 road which coincided with the Rue Bab-el-Oued led 
 to a station called Casse Calventii, placed by the 
 Itinerary of Antoninus thirty-two Roman miles off, 
 and supposed by Algerian antiquaries to have occupied 
 the site of Fouka, near Koleah. It passed from 
 thence to Tipasa, and Julia Ca^sarea, the modern 
 Cherchel. Tlie other, following the course of the
 
 LIMIT OF ITS SIZE. 15 
 
 Rue Bab-Azoun, led first to Uusgunia, near Cape 
 Matifou, and from thence passed through Kabylie at 
 no great distance from the coast, which it probably 
 struck at all points where the nature of the shore 
 allowed the formation of a marine town, and finally 
 terminated at Cartha2;e. Icosium could never have 
 been a place of any magnitude ; for before the 
 building of the causeway which now connects the 
 mainland with the original Algiers, the island on which 
 the lighthouse stands,* there could only be shelter 
 for a few small vessels. What importance it possessed 
 it probably owed to its position on the commercial 
 road which traversed the north of Africa from Car- 
 thage to Tangier. An Arabian historian, who wrote 
 in the eleventh century of the Christian era,f states 
 that there were then magnificent remains, of a magni- 
 tude to suggest the belief that the place must have 
 been the capital of an empire. He particularly speci- 
 fies some porticoes and a theatre paved with mosaics 
 representing figures of animals, and he mentions the 
 wall of a large church, which, from its direction due 
 east and west, was made use of by the Mahometans 
 as a kellah (or means of orientation), when they 
 performed their devotions. But besides the allowance 
 
 * El Bjezdir Beni-Mezarrhana. " The islaiuh of the cliildren of 
 Mezarrhana." In the construction of the causeway, Khaireddeen 
 Barbarossa is said to have made use of the materials of Rusgunia. 
 The masses of stone were brought across the bay and sunk to form 
 a breakwater against the effects of the north and north-west winds. 
 
 t -£"/ Belri, quoted by Berbruggee, Icosium, p. 10.
 
 10 ANCIENT RE^IAINS EXCAVATED. 
 
 to be made for the exaggeration of Oriental writers, it 
 must not be forgotten that the ancients, when they 
 had the funds, set no bounds to their expenditure 
 on pubHc buildings. Icosiuni was a colony with the 
 Latin franchise, fixed in the midst of a Berber popu- 
 lation, and doubtless endowed with lands which had 
 been taken from these, and which they continued to 
 cultivate as villeins. On the destruction of Roman 
 civilisation, they naturally recovered possession ; and 
 it is probably their union with the Arab invaders that 
 has given a peculiar character to the idiom spoken in 
 Algiers and the immediate neighbourhood, — which, 
 both in pronunciation and vocabulary, differs much 
 from the Arabic of the country only a few miles off. 
 The remains of the Roman town, whatever their 
 extent eight hundred years ago, have since that time 
 disappeared. Excavations occasionally bring to light 
 a mosaic pavement, a stone chair, a hand-mill, or the 
 fragment of a statue ; and cut stones, obviously 
 removed from their original position, are frequently 
 seen in the foundations of Moorish buildings ; but 
 the only monument which seems to be remaining in 
 situ is a bas-relief over a gateway in the island, in a 
 style indicating a very late period of art. 
 
 The greater portion of the Moorish town is con- 
 tained within the triangular area, which, rising from 
 a base formed by the streets of Bab-el-Oued and 
 Bab-Azoun, leans n})on the stee]) hill innnediately
 
 THE FAUXBOURG BAB-AZOUN. 17 
 
 in face of the sea, the vertex of the triangle being 
 formed by the Kazbah, or citadel, which stands at a 
 height of nearly four hundred feet. The whole of this 
 space lies within the Moorish walls, which still remain 
 on the two upper sides of the triangle. One of them, 
 that to the south-east, is still pierced by an ancient 
 gateway ; but the Water Gate and the Gate of Grief 
 no longer remain. The latter received its name from 
 the circumstance of offenders condemned to capital 
 punishment being executed by throwing them on iron 
 hooks which protruded from the walls by its side ; 
 and when the French marched into Algiers, they 
 found rotting on the top the heads of the unfortunate 
 crews of two brigs of war, which had formed part of 
 their blockading squadron and been driven ashore in 
 a storm. The gate itself was then cleared away, 
 together with the Moorish buildings in the vicinity, 
 and beyond it a new Tauxbourg has been since built, 
 composed entirely of European houses. In this a 
 handsome corn-market has been erected for the use of 
 the agricultural tribes of the neighbourhood, who 
 bring their produce thither ; and strangers, whose 
 time is limited, will see much in a small space by 
 visiting it at an early hour in the morning, as well as 
 a caravanserai which is immediately opposite. In the 
 latter they will find a picturesque assemblage of 
 i camels, mules, and asses, laden with all kinds of pro- 
 
 I duce, and natives of every variety of complexion, most 
 
 i 
 
 ; c
 
 18 MOORISH STREETS. 
 
 of them sleeping, a few smoking, and some calling in 
 tlie aid of the native smith to repair the shoes of their 
 animals. The form of these, as well as of the imple- 
 ments which arc used, has, no doubt, remained the 
 same for centuries ; and it is very curious to watch 
 the way in which the operator manages his fire so 
 as to consume as little fuel — generally the root of 
 the dwarf palm — as is possible in effecting his 
 task. 
 
 Several streets rise from the level of the Rue Bab- 
 el-Oued and Rue Bab-Azoun, converging more and 
 more as they ascend the hill, until they meet in the 
 immediate vicinity of the Kazbah. The steepness of 
 the ascent would prevent the use of a carriage in 
 these, even if they were wide enough to admit one ; 
 but, in point of fact, there is not one broader than 
 the Rows of Yarmouth, and most are even narrower. 
 The principal one, which bears the name of the Street 
 of the Kazbah, is cut in steps. Lateral alleys here 
 and there connect these main lines with one another ; 
 but the whole forms a labyrinth, out of which it is 
 impossible for the puzzled European to find his way, 
 except by remembering that if he mounts he will be 
 sure in time to arrive at the citadel, and if he 
 descends, no less certain ultimately to reach the sea. 
 I do not believe that one person in a hundred, if con- 
 ducted to the highest part of the town and then left 
 to himself, would succeed in returning by the same
 
 INTERIOR OF HOUSES. 19 
 
 course by which he had come. The sides of the 
 streets are in general simply dead walls, with here 
 and there a loop-hole above and a closed door below, 
 the houses exhibiting no more individuality than the 
 sheep of a flock. At the height of the first story, 
 wooden corbels are sometimes seen supporting a 
 second one, likewise with its dead wall, which ap- 
 proaches even nearer than the floor below to the 
 opposite tenement. Sometimes, especially in the cross 
 alleys, the houses actually meet at the top, and the 
 street becomes a mere arch. As you toil along it for 
 the first time, not without some feeling of uneasiness 
 at observing yourself the only European among a 
 crowd of strange figures, of whose language you do 
 not understand a word, you perhaps meet a troop of 
 asses loaded with baskets of sand, and followed by a 
 half-naked savage, whose looks do him injustice if he 
 would feel any scruple in felling you with the cudgel 
 he is employing upon the wretched brutes from whose 
 frantic rush you despair of escaping. Of course you 
 conclude that you have taken a wrong turn, and 
 got into a very disagreeable neighbourhood. But 
 this is altogether an error. There is, perhaps, a door 
 standing open in the invariable dead wall. Look in, 
 and you 'will see a charming court, surrounded by an 
 arcade of marble columns. In the middle is a 
 fountain, or perhaps some beautiful tree, such as in 
 England we only find in the hot-house of a millionaire.
 
 20 SPLENDOUR OF INTERIORS. 
 
 Passing under the arcade on a tesselated floor, you 
 find a staircase, of which both the stairs and walls are 
 covered with encaustic tiles, and which conducts to 
 an open gallery, likewise running round the court. 
 From this you may enter the chambers of the mansion, 
 not by opening a door, l)ut by simply withdrawing a 
 curtain which masks the approach to each ; and in 
 these you will see both the extent to which Oriental 
 luxury can be carried, and the taste with which it 
 adapts itself to the conditions of the climate. The 
 floors are invariably of stucco or encaustic tiles : 
 round the walls, which are painted in arabesques, run 
 sofas covered with rich silk hangings and em- 
 broidered with gold. Elegantly carved tables stand 
 here and there, covered with knick-knacks of native 
 workmanship, such as gold or silver essence boxes, 
 fans made of ostrich feathers, and ostrich eggs carved 
 in devices or suspended in a network of twisted gold 
 and silk thread. The main light comes through the 
 door by which you have entered from the open 
 gallery; sometimes there is no other whatever; but 
 when there is it proceeds from a narrow slit cul- 
 minating in an ogee arch, and filled with elaborate 
 stone tracery, through which a single sunbeam finds 
 its way in a fragmentary state. These windows arc 
 made like the embrasures in a fortification, and con- 
 tracted on the outer face of the wall to the simple 
 loopholes which strike the eye of a stranger. There
 
 SPECIMENS STILL EXISTING. 21 
 
 is no glass in tliem. On the stuccoed floor, there are 
 one or two small carpets, and perhaps a lion's or 
 panther's skin with the teeth and nails gilt. In the 
 palmy days of Algerine piracy, both the town and the 
 neighbourhood were full of mansions furnished in this 
 style, and in the case of the latter surrounded with 
 delicious gardens. But the universal ruin of the 
 Moorish population, which followed the French con- 
 quest, has to a great extent obliterated the traces of 
 the former magnificence. The country villas were at 
 first Avantonly destroyed by the conquerors, and the 
 town houses subsequently stripped by their owners of 
 everything valuable which could be carried away. In 
 some instances the beautiful courts with their marble 
 columns are occupied by the stores of an European 
 shopkeeper ; in others the tenant has cut oblong holes 
 in the outer walls and put sashes into them, and 
 scarcely in any has there been attention paid to keep- 
 ing up the ornamental repairs. Still, in a few houses, 
 the visitor may yet gain an idea of what a Moorish 
 interior must have been under the old regime. The 
 house of the bishop, which before the invasion of the 
 French was the palace of the Agha or War Minister, 
 is, perhaps, the finest specimen in existence. On a 
 smaller scale, but still very elegant and characteristic, 
 is the house of the English consul, Mr. Bell. The 
 supreme court of justice is also held in a genuine 
 Moorish house, although modernized by covering the
 
 22 THE KAZBxVH OF ALGIERS. 
 
 open court with a roof of glass. The pubUc library 
 and museum furnishes yet another example of the 
 kind ; and this last and the house of the consul are 
 the more striking, as the approach to them is through 
 streets of the most unprepossessing character, and 
 least likely to inspire an expectation of the beauty of 
 the interiors. 
 
 The Kazbah is rather a fortified palace than a 
 citadel in the proper sense of the word. It is com- 
 pletely commanded by a hill in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood, on which formerly stood a fortification, 
 called the Fort of the Tagarins ; while this in its turn 
 is dominated by the Fort of the Emperor, so called 
 from its being the point selected by Charles V. of 
 Spain as the base of his operations when he laid siege 
 to Algiers. But it promised perfect security to the 
 Deys against their own tumultuous soldiery ; and 
 shortly after the bombardment of the town by Lord 
 Exmouth, the seat of government was transported 
 thither in a single night by Megheur Ali, the successor 
 of Omar, under whom the bombardment had been 
 inflicted, and w'ho was strangled by his own subjects 
 the next year. The Djenina, the ancient palace, stood 
 in the Place lloyale, overlooking the sea, and the 
 existing clock-tower occupies the site of a part of the 
 terrace which beloncrcd to it. The circuit of the 
 Kazbah, as may be supposed, included everything 
 which was necessary to the completeness of Turkish
 
 RUINED IN THE INVASION. 23 
 
 life — among the rest a handsome mosque, which is 
 now used as an artillery barrack. The remainder is 
 appropriated to other military purposes ; and the 
 work of destruction and alteration has been carried to 
 such an extent as to make it difficult to comprehend 
 the connexion which formerly existed between such 
 portions as are still left. 
 
 It happened by a singular fatality that, through the 
 neglect of the chief of the staff, this alone, of all the 
 buildmgs in Algiers, was shamefully plundered im- 
 mediately after the occupation of the town. The 
 mischief began by some persons taking mere trifles 
 by way of souvenirs, but their example was quickly 
 followed by others whose rapacity changed the system 
 of petty thieving into downright pillage. A great 
 deal was said at the time on the subject, and grave 
 charges of enormous peculation made against General 
 Bourmont himself. But as regards the treasure 
 which was laid up there, the charge of malversation 
 appears to be without foundation ; and there is no 
 reason to doubt that the whole found its way to the 
 treasury of the French government. 
 
 There are several mosques in Algiers still appro- 
 priated to the use of the Moorish population, but 
 some have been converted into Christian churches. I 
 could not learn whether the cathedral "was or was not 
 one of these, but it has every appearance of being so. 
 The so-called New Mosque (Djemmaa Djedid) 'stands
 
 24 INTERIOR OF MOSQUES. 
 
 at tlie corner of the Place Royale and Rue do la 
 Marine, and is being restored at the expense of the 
 Government. There is a tradition that it was built by 
 a Christian slave, who had been an architect. When 
 it was finished, some one called the attention of the 
 Dey to the fact that the ground plan was of the form 
 of a cross; and the unfortunate artist expiated by 
 death what was regarded as an intentional insult to 
 the faith of Islam. When the French first acquired 
 possession of the town, they strictly prohibited all 
 Christians from attempting to enter a mosque, but 
 now no objection is made either by the conquerors or 
 the conquered. The raw is not healed, but the poor 
 jade is too much exhausted to wince when wrung. 
 There is, however, little gratification for curiosity to 
 be obtained by shocking the religious prejudices of 
 the population. A mosque is uniformly like a church 
 of several aisles, stripped of its pews and everything 
 else except its pulpit. At one end is a kind of niche 
 {miJirab), which is intended to indicate the direction 
 of Mecca, towards which the faithful should turn 
 while repeating their prayers, and by the side of this 
 the seat of the sheikh, whose duty it is to read the 
 lessons from the Koran and to preach occasionally. 
 The floors are covered with mats or carpets, and 
 before passing on to them the votary takes off his 
 shoes. In a court of the mosque is a fountain for 
 the requisite ablutions before commencing religious
 
 COURT OF THE KADI. 25 
 
 worship. The walls of the interior are in most cases 
 painted, and decorated all over with verses of the 
 Koran ; candles are burnt by the side of the mihrab, 
 and lighted lamps hung from the arches of the roof. 
 Occasionally there is a sort of vestry where instruc- 
 tion is given in the Koran, or one aisle of the mosque 
 is appropriated to the purpose ; and to almost all 
 mosques of importance a small room is attached 
 serving for a law-court, where the ordinary questions 
 of litigation between Mussulmans are decided on the 
 basis of the Koran. It is rather amusing to witness 
 the proceedings of the court. AVomen are not allowed 
 to enter it, bnt when their evidence is required they 
 give it through a small window of a few inches square 
 which opens into au adjoining apartment. Those 
 which I heard were very voluble and far more vehe- 
 ment than the male witnesses ; and in one or two 
 instances were obviously snubbed by the Kadi for 
 wandering from the point at issue, but with as little 
 effect as is generally produced by a similar proceeding 
 upon an Irish woman at Bow Street. 
 
 Besides the mosques, there are several marabouts 
 in Algiers and the neighbourhood. The word in its 
 original application denotes a saint, but is also em- 
 ployed to signify the burial-place of such a one, to 
 w^iich a sacred character is always considered to 
 attach. There is no form of consecration used by the 
 Mahometans either for their places of sepulture or
 
 26 THE MARABOUTS OF BARBAHY. 
 
 religious worship ; but uo nation in the world is more 
 strongly affected by that natural instinct which regards 
 with peculiar interest localities connected with re- 
 markable personages. Clement of Alexandria indulges 
 in a scornful invective against the pagan religions of 
 his time, on the ground that their temples were in 
 almost all cases built over the tombs of dead men ; * 
 but St. Augustine, only two centuries afterwards, has 
 inserted in the greatest of his works the details of 
 several miraculous cures he supposes to have been 
 effected by attendance on a Christian temple after its 
 sanctification by a portion of the relics of the proto- 
 martyr Stephen. f T)ie marabout of North Africa is 
 a very different kind of character from the dancing 
 dervish of the East. He is a man of piety and 
 learning, according to the Mahometan standard, who 
 devotes himself to works of religion and benevolence. 
 ]\Iany marabouts have been possessed of large fortunes, 
 which they employed in the relief of the poor, or in 
 works of public utility, especially sinking wells, — a 
 kind of public service which is always appreciated in 
 hot countries. Chastity — or at least the absence of 
 any disposition to sensuality, — self-sacrifice, and, above 
 all things, the freedom from any tendency to avarice, 
 are essentials in the character of a marabout. If to 
 these qualities be added a punctual performance of 
 all the enjoined religious exercises, and a thorough 
 
 • Vrolrept. p. 28. Sylburg. f T)c chit. Dei. xxii. 11.
 
 THEIR NUMEROUS TOMBS. 27 
 
 acquaintance with the theological literature of Islam, 
 he rises still higher in the estimation of his country- 
 men ; and if he possesses, over and above, an aptitude 
 for influencing others by oratory, there is scarcely any 
 limit to the power he may obtain. The father of Abd- 
 cl-Kadcr was a marabout ; and as there is always in 
 the mind of men a sort of presumption that high 
 qualities are to some extent hereditary, this circum- 
 stance was extremely favourable to the son in the early 
 part of his career. 
 
 The whole of Algeria is covered with the tombs of 
 these saints, which generally form the nucleus of a 
 general cemetery. Large sums are paid for the 
 privilege of interment in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of the holy man ; and sometimes some other 
 marabout of not inferior reputation to the first is by 
 his own desire buried near him.* Occasionally 
 legends are related by the ouldl (or keeper of the 
 marabout) connecting the tenants of the neigh- 
 bouring graves with one another; and in all cases 
 there is a history of the saint who first caused a 
 sacred character to be attached to the locality. A 
 collection of these traditions w^ould be a complete 
 parallel to the hagiology of the raediseval church, and 
 in many instances would even be identical with it. 
 
 * As the old prophet of Bethel ordered that his sons should 
 bury him by the side of the man of God whose death he had occa- 
 sioned.
 
 28 GROWTH OF LEGENDS, 
 
 The reason of this is obvious enough. In both the 
 one case and the other the historical details are Httle 
 more than the features which the imagination of the 
 narrator has given to a story, the primary object of 
 which is to ilhistrate the ideal which has been formed 
 of the character of its hero ; and as the legend is 
 repeated year after year, the original materials are 
 continually moulded more and more into a shape 
 suitable for this purpose ; until at last the result, if 
 tested by common rules of evidence, shocks all com- 
 mon sense. These traditional tales are no more 
 "lying legends" than they are facts. They may be 
 more fitly described as religious romances than anything 
 else ; and their function was — making allowance for 
 the difference of creed, and the different modes of 
 communicating knowledge — very much the same as 
 that performed by religious tracts in the present day. 
 But the ideal of humanity in the Middle Ages was 
 by no means unlike that which prevails among the 
 votaries of Islam. The bold warrior, without fear 
 and without reproach, dedicating his life to the pro- 
 pagation of his religious faith by means of his good 
 sword, and the bare-footed monk, as superior to the 
 temptations of the world as his military brother to its 
 terrors, arc precisely the kind of characters which a 
 Mahometan can best understand, and with which he 
 will most sympathise. Strong faith (whatever its 
 form), and boundless self-sacrifice (whatever its shape)
 
 ENDOWMENT OF CHAPELKIES. 29 
 
 inspired by that faith, were the common possession of 
 Richard Coeur de Lion and Saladin, of St. Louis and 
 the people for whose conversion or extirpation his life 
 was freely offered. 
 
 A natural consequence of the sacred character 
 which attaches to these tombs is that a mosque very 
 commonly is built close by, and funds are bequeathed 
 for the purpose of maintaining religious worship 
 therein. Sometimes a caravanserai is added for the 
 accommodation of pilgrims who visit the tomb ; and 
 in one case, that of Sidi-Bou-Medine, a marabout of 
 extraordinary estimation in the neighbourhood of 
 Tlemgen, there is a small chamber in which devotees 
 are accustomed to sleep in the hope of receiving 
 supernatural communications during the hours of rest. 
 The endowments of these chapelries, as they may be 
 called, are sometimes very considerable, or rather 
 were so before their confiscation by the Trench.* In 
 
 * This was effected by an arret, dated March 23d, 1843. The 
 following balance-sheet of a small marabout (Wali-Dadah) in Algiers 
 was made out in the year following the French occupation : — 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 PIASTIIES. 
 
 Ana (rent charge) on the farm of Wali-Dadah, situated on 
 
 the left bank of the Harash near the Maison Carree . . 202 -5 
 Do. on two warehouses in Algiers .... 37 
 
 Do. on a lot of land 12 
 
 Eent of three small houses 124'5 
 
 Do. of an entresol 15*5 
 
 Do. of a caravanserai 12 
 
 403-5
 
 30 IIMPOVERISHED POPULATION. 
 
 some cases there is attached to them a school, in 
 which gratuitous instruction is given to the children 
 of the poor; and in one, at Constantine, there is a 
 theological college of great celebrity, where I saw the 
 professor, an old man of an intelligent countenance, 
 giving a lecture on the Koran to pupils from all parts 
 of the world. But in most instances the funds are 
 not more than enough to provide for the sustentation 
 of the fabric and the religious worship, and to furnish 
 alms for the poor who frequent the latter. Every- 
 where thi'oughout Algeria, one meets with marabouts 
 deserted and in ruins. The impoverishment of the 
 native population coming on the back of the confisca- 
 tion of the permanent fund was no doubt the principal 
 
 EXPENDITURE. 
 
 PIASTRES. 
 
 Payment to the Imaum 24-5 
 
 Do. Reader 18 
 
 Do. Preacher 24 
 
 Oil for lamps 9G 
 
 Mats 12 
 
 Washing 30 
 
 Suudries 12 
 
 Balance . . 187 
 
 403-5 
 
 The balance goes to the Otthil, or steward, who in this particular 
 case was a Turkish official emi)loyed in the commissariat. But the 
 oukil is generally obliged to keep a Kliodja, or secretary, to make up 
 his accounts, and in some cases a payment has to be made to Mecca 
 or Medina. Provision for the poor worshippers would likewise have 
 to be made ; but in the balance-sheet, as a set ott" against such 
 omissions, it may be remarked that only money payments are put 
 down. There is uo mention either of produce reuis, or of the 
 offerings of devotees at the shrine, both of which would in most 
 instances be very large.
 
 MOSQUE or smi ABD-ER-RAHMAN. 31 
 
 cause of this, although hi some instances war has 
 been the agent of destruction. 
 
 The marabout and mosque of Sidi Abd-er-Rahman 
 are in a good state of preservation, and the European 
 traveller will do well to visit them. But they are 
 much frequented, especially on Fridays, by the Moorish 
 ladies, and it would be a great breach of decorum to 
 attempt to enter till they have taken their departure, 
 as women lay aside their veils while performing their 
 devotions, resuming them at the door as they leave 
 the mosque. Their features, with the exception of the 
 eyes, are extremely ugly : the straight coarse lips and 
 heavy nose bespeak a lamentable want of intelligence 
 or delicacy of feeling, and their voices, when they chat- 
 ter to one another, are singularly harsh. AVhen the 
 congregation is gone, the marabout may be entered in 
 the company of the oiikil ; but one is expected to take 
 one's shoes off and leave them at the door. The tomb 
 is covered with carpets, and lights are burning con- 
 stantly upon it. Votive offerings, in the shape of 
 shawls, flags, and decorated ostrich shells, are sus- 
 pended about ; the whole floor of the apartment is 
 carpeted, and several cats are walking about upon it. 
 The cat, perhaps from its cleanliness, is a favourite 
 animal with the Moors, and some of the marabouts 
 possess a fund specially appropriated for the mainte- 
 nance of several. They have also inherited a supersti- 
 tion, many thousand years old, that animals haunt
 
 32 GARDEN OF MARENGO. 
 
 sacred places; and take great pains on this account 
 to attract the birds to their cemeteries, by strewing 
 acorns about the tombs, and forming small holes in 
 the tombstones to hold the rain-water, that they may 
 be induced to come to drink. 
 
 From the cemetery adjoining the marabout of Sidi 
 Abd-er-Rahman, one may easily descend into the gar- 
 den of Marengo, or, as it was at first called, Jardin des 
 Condamnes, from having been laid out by military 
 convicts. This is a public promenade, and is much 
 frequented by the European part of the population of 
 Algiers whenever the military band plays there, which 
 it does two or three times in the week ; and also on 
 Sundays at precisely the same hour as the afternoon 
 service in the Cathedral. It is laid out in terraces 
 after the manner of all French public gardens ; only, 
 where one would see limes and beeches in Europe, 
 here are palms and cypresses. The most unequivo- 
 cally southern production, however, is the prickly pear 
 or Barbary fig, a huge cactus-like plant, with large 
 flat oval leaves growing out of one another. It is not, 
 I believe, indigenous, but, like the aloe, was brought 
 from South America to Spain. It grows in North 
 Africa to an enormous size, requires no trouble, and 
 makes better hedges than the aloe. At one time it 
 was believed that it might be used as food for the 
 cochineal insect, but this expectation w^as frustrated. 
 It is, however, extremely useful in many ways. After 
 
 I
 
 MONUMENTS TO NAPOLEON. 33 
 
 the figs which grow round the leaf have been gathered, 
 the leaf itself, in spite of the prickles with which it is 
 covered, which deter every other animal, is a favourite 
 food of the camel. The stalk is used for fuel. In 
 order to make a hedge of this plant, all that is requi- 
 site is to scratch a row of small holes in the ground, 
 and set a single leaf in each, and from them, without 
 any further attention, a hedge is formed in four or 
 five years which will keep out any animal but a 
 camel. Old hedges, however, are a favourite harbour 
 for scorpions, for whom they furnish an effectual 
 cover. 
 
 In the Jardin de Marengo is a colossal bust of 
 the first Emperor Napoleon j and it is to be wished 
 that it were the only monument to his memory in the 
 place. But not far from it is another which violates 
 every dictate of good policy as much as it does every 
 principle of artistic taste. On the top of a column is 
 a half-globe, on the top of which is stuck an iron spear. 
 On the east and west sides of the column are the 
 names of the victories won by the great commander ; 
 on tlie north, those of the capitals which he had occu- 
 pied by a victorious army ; while on the south, an eagle, 
 all beak and claws, hovers over a hat, of the peculiar kind 
 which the Emperor used to wear, from which arc sus- 
 pended the insignia of the legion of honour. Under 
 this delicate symbohsm, which, as far as its execution is 
 concerned, might have been carved by a stone-cutter's 
 
 D
 
 34 DISTASTE OF THE NATIVES 
 
 apprentice, are the Avords, " II avait reve cette con- 
 quete." Such is considered the most appropriate 
 monument to set up to a man whose favourite saying 
 was, " I shall go down to posterity with the Code in 
 my hand," in a country where the conciliation of the 
 native population is a necessary condition of converting 
 a source of enormous expense into one of even mode- 
 rate profit. It should be said, however, that this 
 monument Avas not set up by the present dynasty, 
 but by its predecessor, under the influence of a desire 
 to make political capital out of old military associations 
 which were imagined to be no longer dangerous. 
 When I first saw this specimen of Gallic Algerian art, 
 an aged Moor happened to be basking in the sun by 
 its base, gazing with fixed eyes upon the sea. I fancied 
 he might be recalling the piratical days of his youth, 
 and pondering over the mystery of Providence which 
 had given him and his into the hands of the infidels. 
 He looked like an old Jew by the waters of Babylon, 
 but with a grief too deep for anything but curses. No 
 doubt the French, by acts of unflinching severity, have 
 efi'ectually cowed the native population for at least a 
 generation; but they have as yet done but little to 
 reconcile them to the yoke, and less to inspire a love for 
 European civilisation such as they understand it. 
 
 I was exceedingly amused one night in the theatre 
 by the proceedings of a young native chief of about 
 twenty, who was l)rought tlierc by a sort of Mentor,
 
 FOR FRENCH CIVILISATION. 35 
 
 ail old Moor, apparently a French official, with a view 
 of cultivating his taste. The subject of the play was 
 one adapted to the display of that exaggerated senti- 
 ment and morbid sympathy which seems essential to 
 the success of the modern French drama. A woman 
 who has been privately married to an artist and borne 
 him a son, stimulated by personal vanity, separates 
 herself from him and goes on the stage, where she 
 obtains a vast reputation, and finally marries an Eng- 
 lish nobleman. Various circumstances contribute to 
 bring about an hiterview between her and her injured 
 husband ; and, of course, a great deal of passion is 
 displayed. The young Arab, who had been terribly 
 bored with the early part, here left off biting his nails 
 and brightened up, in the expectation that corporal 
 punishment was about to be inflicted on the peccant 
 dame. He applauded with his whole soul : " Ah I il 
 va la hattre. Bravo I Fais done ! " But he was 
 doomed to be disappointed. The lady, flung sternly 
 from the arms of her indignant husband, did indeed 
 fall flat on the stage : but no whip was brought, and 
 although a little consoled for a time by the hopes of a 
 duel which appeared looming in the distance shortly 
 afterwards, young Juba left the house at last in utter 
 disgust, exclaiming "Quelle betise!" I confess I 
 rather felt with him, although I had not shared his 
 expectations. 
 
 The acting at the Algiers theatre is extremely bad, 
 D 3
 
 36 THEATRE AND CLUB. 
 
 and the selection of pieces execrable. But tliere are 
 two or three very fair singers ; and wlien an opera 
 is given, an agreeable evening's amusement may be 
 had for a very small sum, the best places in the 
 house only costing three francs. Every one walks 
 thither, and walks home afterwards ; there being so 
 few parts of the town accessible to carriages, that 
 pedestrianism is a necessity for many ladies, and is a 
 fashion for all. Order is so well kept in the streets 
 that not the slightest annoyance of any kind is to be 
 apprehended. Except the theatre there is no kind of 
 public amusement for the upper classes, beyond such 
 as is furnished by the " Cercle," a club which com- 
 prises the chief military and civil functionaries, and to 
 which strangers may be admitted by the recommen- 
 dation of a member. There is a moderate library 
 there, and a fair collection of Erencli periodicals, be- 
 sides billiard and card rooms, of which the French 
 avail themselves from morning till night.
 
 NEIGHBOURHOOD OE ALGIERS. 37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The immediate neighbourhood of Algiers is imsiir- 
 passed in beauty by any part of North Africa. The 
 mass of hills which backs it sends out a branch 
 which runs nearly westward for nine or ten miles, 
 having an elevation which varies from six hundred 
 to more than a thousand feet. It terminates at 
 Rous-el-Knathar (the Cape of the Ruins), and through- 
 out its whole extent approaches very closely to the 
 sea-shore, on which side its fall is so rapid, that 
 to ascend is in most parts extremely difficult, and 
 the space which is left for cultivation is sometimes 
 very small. Just outside the Bab-el-Oued, omnibuses 
 are constantly to be found, which will convey the 
 traveller about three miles in this direction on a 
 pretty fair road. lie will pass through the village 
 of St. Eugene, where are a few houses most roman- 
 tically situated, commanding a sea-view something 
 like that from the under-clifF in the Isle of Wight. 
 It is rather a favourite quarter of the English who 
 visit Algiers. The route carrossable goes about a mile 
 
 :i^r-^ftc;cr
 
 38 POINTE PESCADE. 
 
 and a half bej'ond St. Eugene as far as Pointe 
 Pcscade, where there is a ruined Moorish fort, armed 
 by a few cannon probably taken from Christian 
 prizes in the days of piracy. They are all ship-guns, 
 and are allowed to perish Avitli rust on their rotting 
 carriages, which in some cases have already given 
 Avay. A part of the buildings which remain serves 
 as a barrack for a few Prench soldiers, whose wives 
 take in w^ashing. The decaying bastion was em- 
 ployed as a drying-ground when I visited the place, 
 from which an admirable view of Cape Matifou 
 and the mountains of Kabylie may be obtained. 
 Very soon after passing Pointe Pescade the road 
 changes into a path which can only l)e traversed 
 on foot or on a mule. I attempted it one day on 
 a steady old Arab horse, and found it very difficult. 
 The seaward slope of the hills is in some parts so 
 very steep, and the soil altogether so friable, that 
 a heavy fall of rain is sure to wash away the patl 
 in many places, and in others, Avhere the track is not 
 so close to the sea, to make a watercourse of it, an( 
 fill it with blocks of stone. On tlic faith, howeverj 
 of a map which represented the path as roundin| 
 Ca}jc llous-el-Knathar, I persevered ; but it cost me 
 nearly three hours of very fatiguing riding to advance 
 little more than six miles. At last I arrived a^ 
 Rous-cl-Knathar, and looked about for some ancient 
 ruins which were said to exist in the neighbourhood.'
 
 CAPE OF TEE RUINS. 39 
 
 But they are entirely level with the ground, and 
 overgrown with dwarf palms and lentisque, the 
 common brushwood of the country. I should not 
 even have guessed the fact of their existence ; but 
 being in despair at the length of the journey, I made 
 ray way with much difficulty through the brushwood 
 to a cottage, the inhabitant of which luckily proved 
 to be a Erenchman, — almost all of the settlers along 
 the coast are Spaniards, — and he told me that 1 was 
 standing on the object of my search. My attention 
 being thus directed to the matter, I did soon after- 
 wards observe a stone with an almost obliterated 
 Latin inscription on it ; but this was so defaced, that 
 I could not have decyphered it had I devoted twenty- 
 four hours to the task, and the question now was 
 hoAv to get home, for there appeared some symptoms 
 of an approaching storm. To return by the way 
 I had come was very objectionable, but the path 
 round the cape had thinned off into a mere sheep- 
 track, and looked dangerous even for a pedestrian. 
 I dismounted, and Avent some way along it to see 
 if there was any sign of horses or mules having 
 passed ; but there was nothing of the kind. I then 
 thought of gaining the crest of the mountain and 
 descending on the other side, instead of turning the 
 point; but the thickness of the brushwood stopped 
 me before I had got fifty yards, and the horse, 
 stumbling over the blocks of stone which lay
 
 40 PASSAGE KUUWD THE CAPE. 
 
 concealed beneath this overgrowth, had great diffi- 
 culty in keeping his feet. There was nothing for it 
 but to try the path, which the French colonist assured 
 me continued so bad as it looked only for two or 
 three hundred yards. My steed did not like the 
 performance of the feat any more than myself. I 
 had intended to drive him before me as the Swiss 
 mountaineers do with their horses, holding them back 
 by the tail in the very steep parts; but in this 
 arrangement he was by no means disposed to ac- 
 quiesce. No, the post of honour belonged to me ; 
 and if I wished to pass the headland at all, it was for 
 me to lead. Without the least display of viciousness, 
 he placed his fixed determination beyond the pos- 
 sibility of doubt, and at last we commenced our 
 march, I leading with the bridle in my hand, and 
 continually expecting to have him roll over upon mc, 
 and carry me with himself down the cliff. But] 
 happily we achieved our dangerous undertaking with- 
 out accident, and after half a quarter of a mile were] 
 fairly on the other side of the cape, when the hill I 
 receded, and another mile over dunes of sand] 
 brought us to the village of Guyot-ville, from which] 
 a good road meets the main line from Algiers toi 
 Kolcah. 
 
 Before the French invasion, the side of the hillsj 
 below which the road to St. Eugene and its con- 
 tinuation passes, was studded with Moorish villas, ofj
 
 SPANISH SETTLERS. 41 
 
 which ahnost all are now in ruins. They are perched 
 in the most romantic sites, which could only have 
 been reached by mule tracks, and these are now 
 very often effaced by the overgrowth of an African 
 vegetation. The pedestrian who explores the neigh- 
 bourhood of Algiers must not suppose that by fol- 
 lowing a path he will be sure or even likely to arrive 
 cither at a village or some well-frequented thorough- 
 fare. In the majority of cases he will find that the 
 track leads to some small clearance, or to a ruined 
 villa, in one or two rooms of which a Spaniard has 
 fixed his quarters, cultivating a small patch of the 
 domain of the former owner, and letting his goats 
 browse upon the brush which has grown over the 
 rest. In some instances he will come upon a thicket 
 of prickly pear, the representative of a formerly 
 existing garden, of wdiich this plant formed the fence. 
 Very many paths, which twenty years ago were 
 regular thoroughfares, have been stopped by the 
 Spanish settlers. All that these want is communi- 
 cation between their own huts and Algiers, where 
 they sell their produce ; and the consequence is that 
 they lend the little assistance which is required, in 
 addition to the natural influences of the climate, to 
 obhterate the track beyond their own settlement. 
 By this means they keep solitary Arabs, who are 
 much addicted to pilfering, away from their domiciles, 
 the security of which is often increased by the pre-
 
 42 SAVAGE DOGS. 
 
 sence of a large and ferocious mastiff, not tied up, 
 and altogether indiscriminating in his antipathy to 
 strangers. These savage dogs are the greatest 
 nuisance in the whole of the Phaz, as the neighbour- 
 hood of Algiers is called, and really constitute the 
 only danger which awaits the traveller in his rambles. 
 You meet with them again among the nomad Arabs 
 on the plateaux of the Atlas, but there their presence 
 is more justifiable, and one is not attacked unawares. 
 But in the Phaz, the traveller is never safe if he 
 deviates from the hio-li road. Without the least 
 warning, one or two of the brutes rush upon him 
 from some hut which he then perceives for the first 
 time. They are its chief guardians, the owner being 
 probably away tending his goats, or clearing a spot 
 of ground of bush with a vie^v to sowing it next year, 
 and having left none but children at home. If you 
 are on foot, you stoop and pick up a stone, or at least 
 affect to do so, and retire, facing the enemy in an 
 attitude of menace, as rapidly as prudence allows. 
 If you are on horseback, the case is worse, unless 
 you ride with a long hunting-whip, which the Prench 
 officers, when travelling among the Arab tribes, 
 often do. The dogs avoid your front and rear with 
 the greatest sagacity, and charge the flank of the 
 horse and the rider's legs. 
 
 Above the village of St. Eugene, one of the few 
 Moorish villas which has escaped the destruction of
 
 ENERGY OF THE CLERGY. 43 
 
 the war,* is used as a seminary for theological 
 students, and a country residence of the Bishop of 
 Algiers. The see has since its first constitution been 
 filled by prelates of great zeal and intelligence, and 
 the influence of the clergy has done much towards 
 improving the character of the European part of the 
 population. It is difficult to conceive a worse moral 
 condition than that of Algeria for some years after 
 the invasion. The first bishop, M. Dupuch, found 
 on his arrival at Algiers, in 1839, two priests who 
 performed the service in a mosque which had been 
 converted into a church, and a few sisters of charity, 
 who devoted themselves to teaching orphan children, 
 as well as attendance in the hospitals. A small 
 chapel at Oran, and another at Bona, with one priest 
 at each, comprised the whole of the ecclesiastical 
 establishment in the French possessions of North 
 Africa. 
 
 Irrespectively of other less ostensible forms of im- 
 morality, the number of illegitimate births was, on the 
 average of the six years from 1831 to 1836, no less 
 than 244 in the lOOO.f In seven years' time, the 
 bishop, almost entirely at his own cost and that of 
 his friends, had established forty-seven churches and 
 chapels, and forty almonries of hospitals, prisons. 
 
 * At the time of the invasion it was the residence of the French 
 consul. 
 
 t It was 72 in the 1000 for the whole of France.
 
 44 LIBERALITY OF FIRST BISHOP. 
 
 penitentiaries, and other institutions, which employed 
 thirty-nine regular and three supernumerary priests, 
 besides a large number of sisters of charity. Several 
 orphan asylums were set on foot by him, and also a 
 house of Trappists at Staoueli, the result of which 
 latter has been not only the successful cultivation of a 
 large tract of land on the edge of the Metidja, but the 
 collection of a series of important meteorological obser- 
 vations. In these efforts M. Dupucli not only spent 
 all his private fortune, but involved himself in debt to 
 the extent of £20,000. One of the first acts of the 
 present Emperor of the French, as President of the 
 Republic, was to set on foot a commission to inquire 
 into this subject ; and the result was, that the Govern- 
 ment entered into an arrangement with the creditors 
 for the discharge of obligations which were justly con- 
 sidered as a debt of the French nation. M. Pavy, the 
 successor of M. Dupuch, carried on the Avork which 
 the other had begun, with no less tact than vigour ; 
 and so far as French power is consolidated in Northern 
 Africa, it is mainly due to the moral influence of the 
 clergy. They operate upon the natives, not by formal 
 attacks on their creed, but by those works of charity 
 which are common to Christianity and Islam, and 
 which, more than any other religious act, are appre- 
 ciated by the votaries of the latter. 
 
 The hospitals especially, into which the IMoslem 
 population is freely admitted, and the service of which
 
 SISTERS OF CHARITY. 45 
 
 is, in many cases, performed by females of one or other 
 of the rehgious orders, exercise a powerful influence, 
 and most deservedly so, over the conquered race. I 
 visited one of these — the civil hospital at Oran — 
 and was exceedingly struck with the appearance of 
 cleanliness, order, comfort, and even cheerfulness, 
 which reigned throughout. The calm demeanour of 
 the sisters seemed to be felt like a sunbeam in the 
 chambers of pain and death. There was no sourness 
 of look, no parade of self-devotion, no expression 
 of the least wish for anything but more ample space 
 to enable them to receive all patients that offered. 
 I talked of the unhealthiness of the summer season, 
 when the wards would be full of fever-patients ; 
 but I could not elicit a word implying that they 
 themselves would then be exposed to greater risk, 
 or compelled to greater labour. The Apostle's ex- 
 hortation to let works of mercy be done with cheer- 
 fulness came forcibly into my mind, when I thought 
 of the conventional unction in which the philanthro- 
 pists of London platforms are wont to indulge. This 
 hospital at Oran was the only instance I saw in 
 all Algeria of attention to sanitary precautions even in 
 the minutest details. At Algiers, indeed, the arrange- 
 ments of the military hospital are considered very 
 good. It occupies the site of a country palace of the 
 Deys, about a mile outside the Bab-el-Oued, and con- 
 siderable pains have been taken to secure cleanliness,
 
 46 rEVER IN SUMMER. 
 
 good ventilation, and shade for tlie inmates ; and 
 a thermometer is placed in every ward. But with all 
 this, I saw the attendants bring the slop-pails and 
 empty them on the earth immediately by the walls of 
 the wards, which are long buildings of one story high, 
 running parallel to each other. In the course of a 
 short time the whole space must become saturated 
 with animal matter ; for the proceeding which I wit- 
 nessed was obviously the usual one. There were some 
 few cases of fever in this hospital even at the time of 
 my visit, in the month of February; but the great 
 accession, over the whole of Algeria, is in the months 
 of July, August, and September, when the fatigues of 
 the harvest, added to the natural insalubrity of the 
 season — -joomiferi grave tcmpus anni — multiply this 
 form of disease. In the province of Oran the unusual 
 abundance of the crops last year (1857) had aggravated 
 the evil beyond the average scale. Anxious to profit 
 by his good fortune, the poor colonist redoubled his 
 efforts to get the harvest in ; his strength in many 
 instances gave way ; and I was informed that there 
 were numerous cases of the corn remaining unreaped 
 from the circumstance of its owner having been com- 
 pelled to take refuge in the hospital. 
 
 One of the most useful of the institutions which 
 grew up under the auspices of the first bishop of 
 Algeria was the orphan asylum at Ben-Aknoun, about 
 five miles to the south of Algiers. It was established 
 
 1
 
 ORPHAN SCHOOLS OF AGRICULTURE. 47 
 
 by a Jesuit of the name of Brumault, not only for tlie 
 purposes of charity, but with a view to show that with 
 proper precautions the climate of Algeria might be 
 endured by European constitutions even during the 
 tender age of childhood. The experiment was suc- 
 cessful. A number of orphans, from the age of seven 
 years, were employed in agriculture, as well as in- 
 structed in the ordinary branches of education ; and 
 the mortality among them was little greater than that 
 among the children of the French peasantry. En- 
 couraged by the result, the Pere Brumault set up 
 another orphan asylum at Bouffarik ; and a third was 
 subsequently estabhshed near Oran on the same prin- 
 ciples. After the experiment ceased to be doubtful, 
 the government enabled the conductors of the under- 
 taking to enlarge their plan, by assisting them with a 
 grant of 2H francs monthly for each child. Some of 
 the departments of France sent orphan children to 
 these establishments, which indirectly serve as agri- 
 cultural schools for the colony. 
 
 Up to the end of the year 1854, there had been 
 built at the expense of the state, independently of those 
 due to private efforts, thirty-seven churches, two Pro- 
 testant temples, and three mosques ; and the numbers 
 of the first and the last have increased since that date 
 to a considerable extent. The establishment then 
 consisted of the bishop, who received 20,000 francs 
 a-year, with an allowance of 5,000 francs for travelHng
 
 48 PROTESTANTS AND JEWS. 
 
 expenses and the salary of two secretaries ; two vicars- 
 general at 3,600 francs, and two others whose post 
 was honorary ; eight canons at 2,400 francs each ; and 
 sixty-eight secular priests, of which those in the principal 
 villages received 2,500 francs annually, and the others 
 1,800. Besides these there were twenty vicars and 
 ten auxiliary priests, each receiving 1,800 francs. It 
 cannot be doubted that this number is continually 
 increasing. The Cathedral at Algiers is extremely 
 well attended at all the services, and the behaviour of 
 the congregation perfectly decorous. Some of the 
 highest functionaries set an excellent example of atten- 
 tion to public religious worship, as weU as of a moral 
 private life ; and the influence of this conduct, added 
 to the energy and tact of the principal ecclesiastics, is 
 certainly operating to purge the colony gradually of 
 the vile habits imported by the flood of adventm'ers 
 which came in first after the conquest. 
 
 A Trench Protestant service is performed in Algiers 
 every Sunday at noon, but the attendance is very small. 
 The Lutherans and Calvinists are united in one consis- 
 tory under a Calviuist pastor as president. There arc 
 a great number of Jews, not only at Algiers, but also 
 at Oran and Constantine. At the first-mentioned 
 place they are continually gaining more and more tlie 
 monopoly of the native tratiic. In one or two streets 
 only arc the shops occupied by Moors, who are 
 chiefly employed in making shoes. The Moorish shop.
 
 MOORISH SHOPS. 49 
 
 or rather stall, is iiotliing more than a room of very 
 narrow dimensions, with the side next the street taken 
 out of it. In the middle of it squats the owner, cross- 
 legged and barefooted, so near to the shelves on the 
 walls that either he or his workmen — for there are often 
 two or three — can reach anything that he wishes with- 
 out rising. The slippers are left in a corner of the 
 apartment near the street, above which the shop is ele- 
 vated two or three feet. Every now and then work is 
 suspended in order to take a cup of coffee, which costs 
 only a sou including the lump of sugar with which it 
 is sweetened. It is extremely strong, and is not cleared 
 from the grounds, which, indeed, are always swallowed 
 as unhesitatingly as the raisins in a plum-pudding by 
 an Englishman. 
 
 The Moorish shops which abound the most, 
 next to the shoemakers, are those of the embroi- 
 derers, and after them the barbers. The natives 
 shave their whole head, except a small tuft on 
 the crown, just where the tonsure of a Romish priest 
 appears ; and the head is not so easily operated 
 upon by its owner as the chin. All barbers' shops are 
 furnished with a bench that goes all round, on which, 
 the candidates squat, waiting their turn for the services 
 of the experienced operator. " One learns to shave," 
 says the native proverb, "on the heads of orphans." 
 Sometimes, after shaving, the turban is fresh made, — 
 a work of some time. Immediately over his bare 
 
 E
 
 50 MOORISH AND ARAB HEAD-DRESSES. 
 
 head, the native, whether Moor or Arab, wears one or 
 more skull-caps of wool or cotton, and above these the 
 ordinary red fez. But the next step differs in the two 
 cases. The Arab, when in the country, winds over 
 his head a portion of a long scarf of mixed wool and 
 silk, or wool and cotton, called a haih. This is often 
 twenty-five feet or more in length and about a yard in 
 breadth. It is twisted a greater or less number of 
 times under the chin and over the head, according 
 to the state of the weather, and then secured by a 
 cord of camel's hair wound over all. But the Moor, I 
 after wetting his haik, makes a small coil of it, and 
 winds this around the lower half of the fez. In the 
 barbers' shops, this operation is performed by the help 
 of a block, like the dressing of a wig in Europe, and 
 the compound ornament transferred to the head of the 
 owner after completion. In wet weather, or at night, 
 the Arab untwists the camel's hair cord, superadds tc 
 his ordinary head-gear the hoods of one or two bourH 
 nouses, and then winds it round again ; and he adopts 
 the same proceeding when exposed to a violent sun. 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark upon the incompati- 
 bility of these habits with the custom of uncovering thf 
 head as a mark of respect. When an Arab or Mooi 
 wishes to exhibit this, he takes off his shoes. 
 
 It is a curious circumstance that the Algerine Jews 
 have no objection whatever to the presence of a Christ 
 tian as a spectator of their ritual, unless he takes off his
 
 OPPKESSION OF JEWS. 51 
 
 liat. This they extremely dislike. They have several 
 synagogues in Algiers, one of which is now being re- 
 stored in a handsome and costly manner, I believe at the 
 expense of the French government, which is extremely 
 popular with them. In fact, the oppression from 
 which this unhappy race has been rescued by the con- 
 quest of Algeria was most fearful. A forced contribu- 
 tion, upon any sudden necessity for money arising, was 
 the mildest form of injustice to which they were sub- 
 jected. More than once the Deys,to allay sedition among 
 their soldiers, granted them free permission to plunder 
 the Jews for a certain number of hours. The Moorish 
 children used always to beat those of the Jews when 
 they saw them in the street, and the least resistance 
 would have been punished by death. Probably it is 
 the reaction from this miserable condition which has 
 made the youthful part of the Jewish population of 
 Algiers conspicuous for vulgar insolence. An Euro- 
 pean, if not in uniform, who meets a shoal of Jew 
 boys, especially on Saturdays, is pretty sure to be made 
 the subject of some petty impertinence. 
 
 The ordinary language which the African Jews 
 use is Arabic, but almost all can also speak Spanish. 
 French is a very rare accomplishment among them, 
 except in Algiers. Everywhere else it implies a 
 superior education. The Spanish language is pro- 
 bably a traditionary acquirement with them from 
 the time of their exile from Spain, although the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 RITUAL OF JEWS. 
 
 many Spanish settlements which existed until recently 
 on the northern coast of Africa must have always 
 rendered it very useful. Their ritual is, as every- 
 where, Hebrew ; but the rabbins preach to them 
 (at least on some occasions) in Arabic. I attended a 
 service in Algiers, and was struck by the circum- 
 stance that the air to which the psalms were chanted 
 coincided almost exactly with one of the Gregorian 
 tones. On this occasion the synagogue was very full. 
 Many of the men wore an European costume, but 
 covered their shoulders with a silk scarf, worn like 
 that of a lady in England. Their prayers were re- 
 peated with extreme rapidity, every one tm'ning 
 himself to the nearest wall. In Constantino I heard 
 the chant of the psalms occasionally accompanied 
 or interrupted by the shrill cry of hj-ly-ly, — the same 
 which the Moorish women use at funerals and 
 weddings, and which is no doubt the representative 
 of the el-el-eu, which Herodotus tells us the Libyan 
 "u^omen of his time excelled in uttering. I cannot 
 say whether it proceeded from the throats of boys or 
 women, for I was at some distance from the syna- 
 gogue, engaged in copyhig some inscriptions ; but 
 I was informed it constituted a regular part of the 
 Sabbath service. The chant of the psalms at Con- 
 stantine was not Gregorian, as at Algiers, but more 
 monotonous and barbaric. The type of the Jewish 
 countenance is, at least as regards the women, very
 
 VARIED TYPE OF FACE. 53 
 
 different as one gets farther East. At Algiers the 
 expression is ugly and mean to the last degree ; the 
 nose is hooked, and the chin short and receding, and 
 this effect is increased by their habit of tying up 
 the lower jaw, like that of a corpse, with a handker- 
 chief. At Constantino the nose was straighter and 
 the chin longer and fuller, and I was astonished 
 to find some fair complexions and auburn hair, 
 which reminded me of one of Guercino's Esthers. 
 
 On arriving at Tunis, 1 found this the predominant 
 type of the female Jewish physiognomy, which acci- 
 dent gave me an unusual facihty for observing. On 
 the 1st of May, it is the practice to decorate the 
 synagogues with flowers and wax-candles. A kind 
 of shrine, or bower, composed of these is carried in 
 procession from some neighbouring house, attended 
 by people singing and uttering the cry of ly-ly-ly. 
 When it arrives at the synagogue it is hung up ; and as 
 several are brought, the whole building becomes one 
 blaze of tapers. Every woman who has been married 
 during the previous month comes to the synagogue 
 of her district, dressed out as handsomely as she can 
 compass, and takes her seat upon a bench, where 
 she remains till midnight, when a sermon is de- 
 livered by the rabbin — I suppose on the duties of 
 wedlock. I was conducted by a Jew to seven or 
 eight of these synagogues, in each of which a col- 
 lection is made for the poor of the district, and every
 
 54 SINGULAE CUSTOM. 
 
 visitor is expected to contribute a small sum. One 
 of the brides was a cousin of my cicerone, and at 
 tlie house, in a part of which her " churching " took 
 place, his family resided, and I was treated with 
 coffee by his mother and sister, a girl of about 
 thirteen, who was to be married very shortly. All 
 the ladies who showed themselves on this occasion 
 were much alike. Their hair varied from black to 
 auburn, but their complexions Avere invariably bright 
 and clear. Each as she came sat down upon the 
 bench, opened a pair of large stupid eyes to their 
 fullest extent, stared about her vacantly, and in a 
 minute or two drew up her legs, which were encased 
 in tight pantaloons of gold brocade, and assumed the 
 squatting attitude Avhich alone is compatible with 
 comfort in the opinion of a native. No one seemed 
 to take any particular notice of any other, except the 
 collectors of the contribution, who kept a hawk's eye 
 upon all departures ; but there was an incessant 
 chattering and repetition of some formularies main- 
 tained by the crowd present. What the precise 
 origin either of this curious festival or of the peculiar 
 physiognomy of the Jewesses of Eastern Barbary 
 may be, it is not easy to say with confidence. The 
 former, being independent of the lunar month, can 
 hardly be in its origin Jewish. It perhaps has some 
 connexion with the Roman festival of the Floralia, 
 and the exhibition of the brides in public may bo
 
 PERHAPS OF PAGAN ORIGIN. 55 
 
 a substitute for the grosser displays to which the 
 pagan populations were accustomed, and against 
 which some of the African fathers strongly inveigh.* 
 There is ample evidence, that after the re-conquest 
 of Barbary from the Vandals by Belisarius, a con- 
 siderable number remained in the more inaccessible 
 parts of the country. In the subsequent times, these 
 would naturally spread, and mixture with the natives 
 would tend to produce in their descendants the 
 physiognomy and complexion which has been re- 
 marked. It seems not improbable, therefore, that 
 while the time of this curious nocturnal festival and 
 its floral character is inherited from Roman colonists, 
 the musical part of it descends from the aboriginal 
 Africans ; and the aspect of the population which 
 celebrates it indicates the influence exercised by the 
 great invasion from Spain in the fifth century of the 
 Christian era. Finally, in the substitution of decently- 
 dressed wives for the " meretricia turba," and in the 
 appropriation of the money collected from visitors to 
 the support of the poor, we may recognise the influ- 
 ence of the early Christian Church, which, when 
 compelled to tolerate the pagan festivals, always 
 contrived to give a new interpretation to the old 
 
 * See St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, iv. 26, and Lactantius (who 
 received the instructions of his teacher Arnobius in an African 
 city, Sicca Veneria, — probably El Kef, on the road between Bona 
 and Tunis, and about sixty miles from the latter). Divbi. Insiii. 
 i. 20.
 
 56 THE AISSAOUA, 
 
 ceremonies, and turn prevailing customs to good 
 account.* 
 
 There is a singular fraternity in all the towns of 
 the north of Africa, which illustrates in a remarkable 
 maimer the way in which an organized society lasts 
 through many ages, taking up into itself elements 
 derived from the most opposite sources. The members 
 of it are called Aissaoua, — the guild or company of 
 Aissa, which is the Arabic form of the name Jesus. 
 The traditionary account of their origin is obviously 
 a perversion of the miraculous feeding of the nml- 
 titude recorded in Scripture. Their founder (so runs 
 the legend) was a marabout, whose preaching attracted 
 a large crowd of followers. On one occasion they 
 found themselves in the desert without any means of 
 
 * The motives of the early Church in these matters are put iu 
 the most favourable light by St. Augustine in the following passage, 
 which is instructive in many ways. He had been preaching at 
 Hippo against their practice of indulging in systematic excess in the 
 churches on the festivals of the martyrs ; and he told the people 
 (he says), — " Post persccutiones tam multas tamque vehcmentes, 
 cum, facta pace, turbrc gontilium in Christianum nomen venire 
 cupientos hoc impedirentur, quod diesfestos cum idolis suis solerent 
 in abundantia epularum et ebrietate consumere, nee facile ab his per- 
 niciosissimis et tam vetustissimis voluptatibus se possent abstinere, 
 visum fuisse majoribus nostris, ut huic infirmitatis parti interim 
 parceretur, diesque festos, post eos quos relinquebant, alios in 
 honorem sanctorum ^lartyrum non simili sacrilegio quamvis simili 
 luxu celebrarentur ; jam Christi nomine colligatis et tantae auc- 
 toritatis jugo subditis salutaria sobrietatis prtecepta traderentur, 
 quibus propter prsecipientis honorem ac timorem resistere nou 
 valercnt ; quocirca jam tempus es.se, ut qui non se audent negaro 
 Christianos, secundum Christi voluntatem vivere incipiant, ut ea, 
 qua nt essenl Cliristiani, conccssa simt,quu»i Christiani sunt respuantur.'' 
 — Ep. ad Ali/pium. Opera, vol. ii. p. 70.
 
 DESCENDANTS OF THE PSYILLI. 57 
 
 subsistence, and were on the point of abandoning 
 him, when he bade them not be disheartened but 
 eat wdiatever they could find. Immediately they fell 
 to devouring earth and weeds, the leaves of the 
 prickly pear, and the snakes and scorpions which had 
 taken refuge among the roots of the last. From that 
 time forwards the affiliated members of the society 
 acquired the power of devouring substances the most 
 ill-adapted for food. They are really, I have little 
 doubt, the genuine descendants of the Psylli, a tribe 
 of serpent-charmers and jugglers, which Herodotus 
 was informed had perished in an expedition into tlie 
 Sahara,* but which existed, with the reputation of 
 being insect and reptile-proof, in the neighbourhood 
 of the Cyrenaica, five hundred years afterwards,f and 
 in the time of the Antonines were in repute all over 
 Greece for their skill in curing snake-bites. | 
 
 I was witness of the feats of a party of Aissaoua in 
 Algiers, where the faith in their magical powers has 
 in great part given way to mere wonder at their 
 endurance. But even here they do not exhibit them- 
 selves professedly as jugglers, but are sent for as 
 
 * IV. 173. The story of Herodotus shows that the reputed 
 expedition into the desert entered into the traditionary reports 
 of his day, although the circumstances attending it were related 
 differently. It would seem as if in his time the PsyUi professed to 
 have (like the Lapland conjurors) power over the wind. Their 
 object was to quell the sclrocco, then, as now, the worst calamity to 
 which Barbary is exposed. 
 
 f Strabo, Geograph. xvii. 1, p. 460, ed. Tauchnitz. 
 
 X Pausanias, ix. 28. 1.
 
 58 ARE PROFESSED EXORCISTS, 
 
 exorcists by Moorisli families in wliich there may be 
 a sick person, who is supposed by the superstitious 
 inmates of the house to be under the influence of 
 mahgnant spirits. When such an occasion offers, 
 the curious are admitted into the court where the 
 magicians assemble, and are expected to make a 
 small present in acknowledgment. The proceeding 
 which I witnessed commenced by six or seven 
 A'issaoua sitting round a charcoal fire, and singing 
 a low monotonous chant, accompanying it with 
 sounds produced by the palm of the hand and 
 knuckles on a musical instrument, exactly resembling 
 the ancient tympanum, or tambourine without the 
 jangling metallic apparatus. This was continued a 
 long time, the chief of the party taking no part in 
 the incantation except by throwing occasionally a 
 pinch of some substance which caused a slight smoke 
 into the chafing-dish. The chant became gradually 
 more energetic and quicker, and at last a young man 
 laid down his tambourine and got up. Pie stood 
 over the fire, swaying his body about in time to the 
 music, assuming every minute more and more the 
 appearance of a person possessed, alternately bowing 
 liis head almost into the chafing-dish and throwing it 
 backwards as if without power to restrain himself. 
 Presently he became ecstatic, and commenced jumping 
 violently, always, however, coming down in the same 
 spot close to the fire, and from time to time setting
 
 BUT UEALLY JUGGLERS. 59 
 
 up a hideous howl. The old chief now advanced to- 
 wards him, and seemed to soothe him by gestures 
 like those which animal magnetizers are wont to 
 employ to tranquillize their patients. He then brought 
 him a kind of shovel used by the Arab smiths, of 
 which the scoop had been made red hot. The young 
 man took this with a howl, intended to evince satis- 
 faction, licked it with his tongue, and placed it on his 
 naked arms, which were streaming with perspiration 
 from the exercise he had taken. He then stalked 
 about the apartment, uttering the peculiar growl 
 which is emitted by an angry camel. A leaf of the 
 prickly pear was thrown to him, which he picked 
 up in his mouth from the ground, and ate a portion 
 of it. He then resumed his jumping by the side of 
 the chafing-dish, and another performer got up and 
 exhibited nearly the same feats. 
 
 This w^as a man almost as black as a negro, but 
 with the European features and soft hair. After he 
 had, however, exhibited his appetite for red hot iron 
 and cactus leaves, he treated the company to a yet 
 more disgusting display. Giving a rotatory motion to 
 a long piece of iron, exactly like a spit, he proceeded 
 apparently to force out one of his eyes with it. The 
 real operation effected was the twisting of the eyelid 
 round the point of the rod, by which means the 
 former entirely disappeared, and the whole of the eye 
 protruded as if it had been torn from its socket. This
 
 60 SERPENT EATERS. 
 
 was esteemed a master-stroke, and the chief made a 
 special collection for the benefit of the performer. He 
 afterwards inserted the same rod into his body at the 
 navel and brought the point out just over the hip. 
 Both these feats were accompanied by indications of 
 great pain, the idea intended to be impressed upon 
 the spectators being that the man was compelled thus 
 to torture himself by the demon which possessed him. 
 I observed him very closely, and saw that the latter 
 trick had been effected by means of an artificial fistula 
 made in the thick skin of the belly. After drawing 
 the iron rod from his body, he returned to the side of 
 the chafing-dish, and resumed his jumping, which dis- 
 played extraordinary agility, until at last he sunk with 
 an appearance of perfect exhaustion upon a bench at 
 the side of the room. This performer was the son of 
 a man of some property, who was anxious to induce 
 him to give up his vagabond life ; but the excitement 
 of it was too great an attraction to allow him to 
 accede to his father's wishes. 
 
 Some of these Aissaoua, in their fit of possession, 
 eat serpents and scorpions alive; and the old chief 
 told us that one of his party would soon come to 
 Algiers who was a master of this accomplishment, 
 which, like the eye trick, is far from general among 
 the body ; but he was not successful in inducing any 
 European to pay him another visit. 
 
 In the interior of the country the faith in the
 
 ARE STILL BELIEVED IN. Gl 
 
 magical nature of the proceeding still continues firm. 
 At Maskara I passed by the door of a hut, where an 
 exorcism by some Aissaoua was being carried on inside. 
 Mingling with some Arabs that were standing and 
 looking in, I saw a performer in the state of ecstatic 
 excitement ; but in two or three minutes my Euro- 
 pean dress caught his eye, and he suddenly stopped, 
 put his hand to his head as if stunned, and staggering 
 to a bench fainted, or affected to faint, away. By 
 the manner of the Arabs, both within and without 
 the cottage, I saw plainly that my presence was felt to 
 have broken the spell in which the exorcist had been 
 held, and consequently to have marred the success of 
 the incantation. The whole proceeding was suspended ; 
 and observing the sullen side looks, with one eye half- 
 closed — a sure sign of Arab malice — which were 
 directed upon me, I judged it prudent to walk slowly 
 ofT, the more so as some of the party were Morocco 
 Arabs, the most savage and unscrupulous of all the 
 race. On passing near the house about an hour 
 afterwards, I was glad to find, by the sounds which 
 proceeded from it, that the operation had been re- 
 sumed, and I took care not to endanger its success by 
 a second intrusion.
 
 62 ASCENT OE THK SAHEIj 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 From Pointe Pescacle a track ascends the hill, by 
 which the pedestrian may get up to the plateau on the 
 top of the Sahel, and after a few miles of walking, 
 reach the village of Bouzarieh ; and he may also do 
 the same by ascending just beyond the village of St. 
 Eugene; but the extremely broken character of the 
 ground and the overgrowth of brushwood renders 
 it very easy for him to miss his way, and he must 
 remember that the chances are ten to one against his 
 meeting with any one to put him right should he do so. 
 A pocket-compass and a map, — of which last the best 
 to be had are extremely bad, — are an absolute neces- 
 sity ; but even with these, and with a habit of finding 
 his way about a strange country, the traveller must 
 lay his account for a good deal of fatigue and some 
 deviation from the nearest path. He will, however, 
 be sure to find objects to interest him, although they 
 all tell the same tale, — one of former prosperity that 
 has vanished. Between St. Eugene and Bouzarieh I 
 passed several ruins of old Moorish villas, and in two
 
 RUINED MOORISH VILLAS. 63 
 
 places came upon portions of the old Roman road, 
 which probably conducted from Icosium to the settle- 
 ment near Rous-el-Knathar. One of the ruined villas 
 was so large that, at a distance, I thought it might be 
 still occupied. Its scale corresponded with that of the 
 country-house of an English gentleman with a fortune 
 of £7,000 or £8,000 a-year. When I reached it, 
 however, I found the roof gone, and the glazed tiles 
 which had ornamented the interior torn up, except in 
 one room most admirably placed for an exquisite 
 sea-view, which appeared to have been used as an 
 oratory. Very near there was a small wood, and as 
 my course led me round this, I happened to observe 
 a narrow path conducting into it, frayed through trees 
 which grew so thick as almost to conceal it. I fol- 
 lowed it, and presently found myself in an open space 
 containing a number of Moorish graves, and just by, 
 overgrown with brushwood, a handsome tomb. The 
 occupant of this was probably some former owner of 
 the ruined mansion, in repute as a marabout. Even 
 at the present time some persons remain who pay 
 respect to his memory, possibly pauperized members 
 of his own family, for ragged strips of clothing were 
 hanging about the tomb, and hard by I found con- 
 cealed a coarse kind of candlestick with remnants of 
 wax sticking to it, which had obviously been em- 
 ployed very recently. About half-a-mile off I met a 
 Moor who happened to speak Erench, and he told me
 
 64 BOUZARIEH. 
 
 that there was a burial-place, no longer used, in the 
 direction from which I had come. 
 
 Bouzarieh may, however, be reached in a two hours' 
 drive from Algiers by two different roads, both of 
 which afford a succession of exquisitely beautiful 
 views, only to be surpassed by the one which pre- 
 sents itself on arriving at the Vigie, or Telegraph 
 Station, about half-a-mile from the village itself. From 
 this point, which is not less than 1400 or 1500 feet 
 above the sea, the spectator may study the country as 
 he woidd a map ; while in whatever direction he turns 
 his eye, he will behold a picture to charm the artist. 
 If he looks to the east, he surveys the sweep of the 
 sea-coast which forms the bay of Algiers, with Cape 
 Matifou, as it appears to the eye, almost within range 
 of cannon shot. Beyond this rise gradually the moun- 
 tains of Kabylie, and high above the rest the rugged 
 ridge of Djerjera (the Mons Ferratus of the ancients), 
 with the snow on its peaks shining in the sun. Turn- 
 ing round to the south, his view is closed by the blue 
 wall of the Atlas, at the foot of which appears a part 
 of the rich plain of the Metidja, not cut up by fences, 
 but dotted here and there with minute white specks, 
 which indicate that an European has been tempted 
 by the fertility of the soil to brave the fever which 
 •rises out of the neighbouring marsh. More common 
 than these arc patches of dark green, the site of 
 Arab orange-groves, or masses of a lighter hue, out 
 
 1
 
 PENINSULA OF SIDI FERUDJE. 65 
 
 of which spring two or three palm trees. These 
 mark the villages of agricultural Arabs, fenced in 
 and intersected in every direction by the prickly pear. 
 In the south-west direction, the elevated plateau 
 upon which the spectator is standing, runs out as 
 far as the eye can see in a kind of spur, separating 
 the Metidja on its south-east side from another plain 
 on the north-west. This latter comprises the whole 
 circle of the operations that gave the French pos- 
 session of Algiers in 1830. Carrying the eye from 
 the Rous-el-Knathar, of which I have already spoken, 
 along the line of the coast westwards, one's attention 
 is arrested by an elevated promontory about nine 
 miles to the west-south-west. A flat neck of land 
 connects it with the shore, which on both sides of 
 the isthmus is very low, and sweeps into bays 
 affording some slight protection from the north-east 
 and east winds. For four or five miles from the sea, 
 the land rises very gradually. The soil is soft friable 
 sandy clay, thickly covered with the ordinary brush- 
 wood of North Africa, the lentisque, the oleander, 
 and the myrtle, very gently undulating, and here 
 and there seamed with ravines, made by the streams 
 which take their rise in the plateau on which I 
 suppose the spectator to stand. 
 
 On the top of the promontory is a small round tower, 
 called by the Spaniards Torre Chica, which gives its 
 name to the peninsula in most charts ; but the natives
 
 6(5 THE FRENCH INVASION. 
 
 call it after Sidi Ferudje, a marabout of great sanc- 
 tity, who lies buried there. When the invasion of 
 Algiers was determined upon, it was resolved that the 
 debarkation of the army should take place here, the 
 beach being favourable for such an operation, and 
 the peninsula offering an excellent site for a fortified 
 camp, to serve as a base for future operations. On 
 the 13tli of June, about noon, the vessels of the 
 invading force began to arrive, and cast anchor in 
 the bay to the west of the cape. They met with 
 scarcely any opposition, the Turks having expected 
 that a landing would be attempted in the neighbour- 
 hood of Cape Matifou, where they had collected 
 a considerable force to oppose it. A single battery, 
 which was masked by the brushwood, discharged four 
 shells upon the invaders, one of which in bm'sting 
 wounded a seaman on board the Breslau man-of-war, 
 but no other harm was done. The whole of the day 
 was occupied in placing the fleet in proper positions 
 for the debarkation of the troops the next morning. 
 The French army, amounting on the whole to nearly 
 35,000 fighting men, was distributed into three 
 divisions, the first commanded by General Berthe- 
 zcne, the second by General Loverdo, and the third 
 by the Duke D'Escars, a young man of gallantry, 
 but altogether unversed in war, and forced upon 
 M. dc Bourmont by the influence of the court. The 
 fleet, which consisted of 100 ships of war and 357
 
 HOW EFFECTED. 67 
 
 transports, besides a considerable number of barges 
 and rafts for lauding artillery and horses, was under 
 the orders of Admiral Duperre, between whom and 
 General Bourmont a coldness and jealousy soon made 
 itself felt. At break of day on the 14th, the first 
 division effected a landing without any resistance, and 
 advanced at once against the enemy, who had posted 
 themselves on a slight elevation about a mile and 
 a half from the shore, and defended their position by 
 three batteries. On the advance of the French they 
 abandoned these after a very slight resistance, retiring 
 behind a shallow ravine a little more inland ; and the 
 first division of the invading army bivouacked on the 
 ground the enemy had left, with the second, which 
 had landed during the advance of the first, close in 
 its rear. The third division was also disembarked, 
 and at once set to work to convert the peninsula of 
 Sidi Ferudje into an entrenched camp, in which 
 hospitals and magazines, both of food and ammu- 
 nition, were speedily established. 
 
 It is surprising to find how little the French were 
 aware of the nature of the country in which they had 
 to operate, and also how greatly they had over-esti- 
 mated the strength of the enemy with whom they 
 were about to contend. M. de Bourmont seems to 
 have imagined that he would be surrounded by clouds 
 of cavalry like the Mamelukes • and in a general 
 order issued about a fortnight before the landing, 
 
 F 2
 
 68 ARAB CAVALRY. 
 
 endeavoured to forestall the panic whicli he feared 
 n]ight spring up among the troops from such an appa- 
 rition. The soldiers were also provided with a kind 
 of movable palisade, formed of lances chained three 
 together, which was intended to defend them against 
 the attacks of these formidable horsemen. But nothing 
 can be more unlike tlie Mameluke than the spahi of 
 North Africa, or the flat plains of Egypt than the Tel 
 (a hill country) of Algeria. The Arab horseman is 
 indeed armed with a sabre or yataghan, but he only 
 employs it for the purpose of decapitating his wounded 
 prisoner. Encumbered with his loose bournouses — 
 for he always wears two, and often more — the drawing 
 of his weapon is to him a work of considerable time, 
 and the sheathing it more difficult still. His real 
 arm of offence is a long gun, with which he performs 
 the service of a mounted rifleman, galloping up to 
 within forty or fifty yards of his enemy, discharging 
 his piece, and retreating again as rapidly as he had 
 advanced. The rough and broken character of the 
 ground on the flanks of the mountains, and the thick 
 brushwood covering it, would effectually prevent the 
 ordinary manoeuvring of cavalry. 
 
 Although the troops had been landed without 
 accident, they carried only five days' provisions with 
 them, and it required some time to disembark a 
 sufficient quantity of stores to prevent future anxiety 
 on this score. Bourmont had also determined to
 
 BATTLE OF STAOUELL 69 
 
 make a road, and establish a chain of redoubts, along 
 the Kne by which his army moved. Eight of these 
 redoubts were constructed between Sidi Ferudje and 
 Algiers, most of which strike the eye at once at the 
 present day. The delay, however, occasioned by 
 such a cautious policy gave the Turks time to collect 
 a larger force than they had at first at command ; 
 and on the 19th of June they attacked the French 
 lines. Bourmont had wished to wait the arrival of 
 his siege guns and the horses of his baggage -train 
 before advancing at all farther; but the inaction of 
 the soldiers so much increased the audacity of the 
 enemy, that after they were repulsed it seemed abso- 
 lutely necessary to pursue them, and, changing his 
 first plan, the French general ordered an attack. His 
 plans were somewhat marred in the execution, but 
 nevertheless the victory of the French was complete ; 
 all the artillery of the enenjy fell into their hands ; 
 and in the camp at Staoueli, where the Agha of 
 the Turks had his head-quarters, not only were 
 the tents of the principal officers taken all standing, 
 richly furnished, but in one a considerable sum in 
 money was found, which had been brought to pay 
 the troops. In this afi'air, which goes by the name of 
 the Battle of Staoueli, the Turks lost nearly 4,000 
 men, while the French had no more than 600 put 
 hors de combat. In the year 1843, when M. Dupuch 
 laid the first stone of the Trappist establishment at
 
 70 BATTLE OF SIDI KALIF. 
 
 Staoueli, there was placed underneath it a bed of 
 bullets which had been picked up in the immediate 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Bourmont, steadily pursuing his original plan of 
 carefully securing his communications, continued the 
 road from Sidi Ferudje up to the new position of his 
 advanced divisions at Staoueli, and completed the 
 entrenchment of his great camp on the peninsula 
 itself. The lines drawn across the isthmus were 
 armed with twenty-four sea guns, and the redoubts 
 built to secure the road with the pieces which had 
 been taken from the enemy. These operations were 
 just completed when the Turkish commander, having 
 collected a fresh force of Arabs, attacked the French 
 advanced posts on the 24th. The general, who that 
 day had come early to the front from his head- 
 quarters at Sidi Ferudje, met the assault by ordering 
 his own troops to take the offensive. The enemy did 
 not attempt to make a stand, but fled till they 
 reached the elevated ground which connects Bouzarieh 
 with the hills immediately above Algiers. The French 
 call this affair the battle of Sidi Kalif, from a hamlet 
 which then occupied nearly the same site that the 
 village of Cheragas now does. But fcAv men were 
 put Jiors de combat on their side ; but among them 
 was a son of the general's, who received a wound 
 from which lie died a few days afterwards. At the 
 end of the day they occupied the position of Fontaine
 
 PLATEAU OF FONTAINE CHAPELLE. 71 
 
 Cliapelle, a name given by them to a marabout of 
 Sidi Abderrhaman-bou-Nega, in consequence of a 
 strong spring of excellent water in the vicinity. This 
 marabout, now ruined, stands close by the present 
 road from Algiers to Cheragas and Koleah, which 
 passes between it and the spring. Immediately 
 beyond it, as one goes from Sidi Ferudje towards 
 Algiers, is a moist elevated plateau, from which issue 
 several streams. Some of them, running to the west- 
 ward, fall into the sea between Sidi Ferudje and 
 Rous-el-Knathar ; while others, taking a south-westerly 
 course, descend into the plain of the Metidja, where 
 they augment the stream formed by the union of 
 two branches of the Harash, which take their rise 
 in the Atlas range. The heights occupied by the 
 Turks at the close of the 24th lie beyond this 
 plateau. They dominate the position taken up by the 
 French, a circumstance which turned to the disad- 
 vantage of the latter during the next four days, 
 which were occupied in continual skirmishes, while 
 the general completed his road to bring up the heavy 
 guns with which he intended to attack Algiers. 
 
 On the 29th the army was united at Fontaine 
 Chapelle, and moved forward. The third division, 
 which had not been engaged, was brought to the 
 front to give the Duke d'Escars an opportunity of 
 distinguishing himself. At break of day the three 
 divisions advanced in close columns across the valley
 
 72 DISORDERED ADVANCE 
 
 Avliicli separated them from the enemy, 'who took to 
 flight without making any important resistance. The 
 second division, Avhich was in the centre, had been 
 ordered to follow the trace of an ancient Roman road, 
 which wound over the mountain Bouzarieh to the 
 vicinity of the Fort of the Emperor, keeping the water- 
 shed at the head of the many ravines which seam all 
 sides of the hill. The third division, stationed on the 
 left, after a fatiguing march across several glens, 
 where the Avorst European troops might have stopped 
 it, finally arrived on the slopes of Bouzarieh which 
 face Algiers. The first division, on the right, had no 
 enemy to oppose it, but the difficulties of the ground 
 over which it had to move were so great, that bear- 
 ing insensibly to its left, it passed in the rear of the 
 second, without being aware of the fact, and at last 
 appeared on the slopes of Bouzarieh, behind the 
 division of the Duke d'Escars. The fate of the second 
 was even worse. Owing to some misapprehension, 
 Loverdo made a retrograde movement, and got into a 
 ravine, where General Bourmont's aide-de-camp, who 
 was despatched to order him to advance, had great 
 difficulty in finding him. Finally, the third division 
 contrived to entangle itself in the broken ground ; for 
 Bourmont, on arriving at the Vigic of Bouzarieh, 
 and finding the erratic course which had been pur- 
 sued by the first division, determined to retain it, and 
 send the third to occupy the ground to the right of
 
 OE THE FRENCH. 73 
 
 the Roman road, the place which, accordmg to the 
 original plan, was to have been taken up by the first. 
 The Duke d'Escars, making a short cut for the pur- 
 pose of effecting the operation more speedily, got his 
 men, too, lost in some of the deepest and most 
 difficult ravines. For a time it was utterly dis- 
 organised, and troops of all arms were mixed up joe/e"- 
 mele with one another. 
 
 If the Turkish general had possessed any ability, it 
 is said that two of the three divisions would infallibly 
 have been destroyed ; but after the first onset, the 
 Turks abandoning their guns, which fell into the hands 
 of the French, took refuge beneath the fortifications of 
 Algiers. Only the third division suffered any loss, 
 except from fatigue ; but the confusion in that and 
 the second was for a time very great, and the restora- 
 tion of order was the work of several hours. 
 
 After the traveller has satisfied his curiosity with 
 the view of the country from the Vigie of Bouzarieh, 
 he will do well to visit the Arab village called Petit 
 Bouzarieh. This occupies the site of a village of 
 Andalusian Moors which was destroyed by the 
 French ; and the huts of the present inhabitants are 
 composed in great part of the ruins of the former 
 houses. It is thickly planted with the prickly pear, 
 the hedges of gardens in former days, but now only 
 an article of cultivation. The French village of Bou- 
 zarieh, which consists of only tvvo or three tenements.
 
 74 ARAB COMMUNISM, 
 
 one of them an alehouse and cafe, is about ten minutes' 
 "walk south of the Arab village, and a carriage cannot 
 pass between them. The first time I was there I was 
 witness of a curious spectacle. Some of the Arabs 
 had jointly purchased an ox in Algiers, for the pur- 
 pose of slaughtering it, and dividing the flesh. Their 
 practice is to throw the animal on the ground by 
 hampering its legs with a rope, after which they cut 
 its throat with a yataghan. Tliis operation had just 
 been performed— as always, in the open air — on a 
 green in front of the little inn of the Erench village, 
 and there were lying on the ground twenty-four little 
 heaps of meat, and a twenty-fifth, which consisted of 
 the head and feet of the animal. What had become 
 of the fifth quarter and the hide, I could not learn, 
 but no doubt they were made use of in some way. 
 To distribute these portions among the purchasers, a 
 number of bits of twisted straw and sticks, duly 
 marked, Avere put into a basket and shaken. An 
 Arab then took them out one by one, and as he did 
 so called out the name of the OAvner, who thereupon 
 appropriated the next heap of flesh to himself. An 
 old man, whom I took for the kadi, stood by looking 
 on, perhaps to see that the proceeding was conducted 
 fairly. 
 
 The slopes of IMount Bouzarieh, towards the west 
 and south, arc held by this tribe. They cultivate a 
 portion of the soil on something like communistic
 
 VALLEY OF THE CONSULS. 75 
 
 principles, dividing it among' themselves according to 
 tlie strength of each family, and feeding the unculti- 
 vated part in commonage. When the head of a 
 family dies, his property is divided among his chil- 
 dren according to the Mahometan law, which is ex- 
 pounded by the kadi. No Algerian Arab can alienate 
 the piece of land he cultivates to a non-tribesman, if 
 the members of the tribe choose to purchase it. It is 
 not often that the desire can arise, for the position of 
 the holder of a property acquired under such circum- 
 stances, surrounded by native neighbours, would be 
 something worse than that of a snake in a porcupine's 
 hole. 
 
 Towards the north, the slopes of Bouzarieh are 
 chiefly inhabited by Spaniards and Mahonnais, who 
 cultivate the remains of the gardens which had been 
 formed by the Moors in that region, wherever the 
 arrangements for irrigation have escaped destruction. 
 The great demand for fruit and vegetables in Algiers 
 is enriching them, for they are a singularly frugal and 
 industrious people. 
 
 From the French village of Bouzarieh, a road 
 descends through what is called the Valley of the 
 Consuls, it having been a favourite locality for foreign 
 residents before the conquest. The gradients are 
 easy, and the many windings which the steepness of 
 the hills towards the sea has necessitated, open a 
 succession of the most charming views, something like
 
 76 EL BIAR. 
 
 those one enjoys in skirting the gnlf of Spezzia. But 
 the softness of the soil has here, as almost everywhere 
 in Algeria, been fatal to the preservation of the route, 
 -which is so injured by the rains that a humane man 
 will be tempted to get out of his carriage in going up 
 hill, and a prudent one in going down, at a dozen 
 different places. It descends on the shore, at a little 
 distance outside the fortifications on the north side of 
 the town, close by the military hospital which has 
 been already mentioned. The other road runs south- 
 ward for four or five miles, till it strikes the highway 
 from Algiers to Cheragas, Staoueli, and Koleah, which 
 is one of the very best in the whole country. 
 
 Returning from Bouzarieh to Algiers by this route, 
 the traveller will nearly follow the course of the 
 French army, when, after the action of the 29th of 
 June, they proceeded to invest the Fort of the 
 Emperor, Very soon after reaching the highway, he 
 will pass through El Biar, a collection of houses not 
 altogether milike an English village. There are seve- 
 ral villas in the immediate neighbourhood, and it is 
 a favourite resort of the Algerine aristocracy. A mile 
 further, and the Fort of the Emperor is seen on the 
 right hand, — the key of Algiers, which lies at its feet, 
 and could be destroyed from it with perfect ease. It 
 is now a strong fortification, but at the time of the 
 invasion was merely an oblong square, with a large 
 round tower in the middle, and a double wall on the
 
 ATTACK OF THE FORT OF THE EMPEROR. 77 
 
 south side, altogether devoid of outworks, although 
 dominated by higher hills iu the immediate neighbour- 
 hood. On two of these, opposite to the south and 
 the west sides of the fort, the French constructed 
 their batteries of attack. The trenches were com- 
 menced on the 30tli of June, and on the 4th of 
 July, at four o'clock in the morning, fire was opened 
 simultaneously on the south side from a battery of six 
 guns, and on the west from ten guns, two howitzers, 
 and four mortars. At eight o'clock the Turkish fire, 
 which at first had been very vigorous, began to 
 slacken ; at ten it was silenced, the guns of the 
 fort nearly all dismounted, and the parapets entirely 
 destroyed. General Lahitte, who conducted the siege, 
 now gave the order to lay the guns for making a 
 breach, when suddenly a terrible explosion was heard, 
 and a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the fort. The 
 Turks, unable to resist the attack of the invaders, had 
 retired to the Kazbah after laying a train to the 
 magazine of the Fort. As soon as this was ascer- 
 tained, the French scaled the walls ; and by means 
 of only two field-pieces, assisted by the fire of three 
 Turkish guns that remained uninjured, speedily 
 silenced Fort Bab-Azoun, from which, as well as from 
 the Kazbah, a fire had been kept up on them 
 during the attack on the Fort of the Emperor. 
 They then established themselves on a mamelon — the 
 site of the Fort of the Tagarins — situated less than
 
 78 SURRENDER OF ALGIERS. 
 
 200 yards from the Kazbali, and Avere proceeding to 
 form communications between this and the Fort of 
 the Emperor, when the Dey sent his chief secretary, 
 Mustapha, to the French general, with an offer to pay 
 the expenses of the expedition, and to satisfy the 
 whole of the French demands upon him as the price 
 of peace. Bourmont replied that the surrender of 
 Algiers was a necessary preliminary of any negotia- 
 tion, and the secretary returned, after making the 
 extraordinary proposition to the French general to 
 assassinate the Dey and set up the Finance Minister 
 (a patron of his own) in his place. From the new 
 sovereign, he asserted, the French would obtain a 
 better bargain than the existing one had proposed. 
 
 It was now eleven o'clock at night; the terrified 
 people, fearing that the town would be taken by 
 storm and plundered, tumultuously demanded a 
 capitulation; and at half-past one in the morning, 
 two new messengers arrived, one of whom was a 
 Moor that had long resided in Marseilles. They 
 were presently followed by the chief secretary, this 
 time accompanied by the Enghsh Consul. A capitu- 
 lation was drawn up, and accepted by the Dey ; and 
 by noon the next day, — only three weeks after the 
 landing at Sidi Ferudje, — the French army occupied 
 the citadel and town of Algiers, which they have ever 
 since retained.
 
 MOORISH CEMETERIES DESTROYED. 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The beautifully -traced road by which the traveller 
 descends from the Fort of the Emperor to the Eaux- 
 boiirg Bab-Azouii (the southern extremity of Algiers), 
 was constructed by the army under the Duke de 
 Rovigo (General Savary) during his short admini- 
 stration of the province in 1832. In its formation, 
 as well as in that of the esplanade outside the Bab-el- 
 Oued, it Avas necessary to destroy a Moorish cemetery ; 
 and this proceeding, which under any circumstances 
 would have shocked Mahometan feelings, was con- 
 ducted with such disregard of all decency, that even 
 the Erench civilians were scandalized. No provision 
 was made for the re-interment of the partially decom- 
 posed remains ; and when the engineer's line passed, 
 as was often the case, through the middle of a grave, 
 one half of the skeleton was left exposed to view in 
 the bank, while the other part was carted away with 
 the earth that had to be removed, to form an embank- 
 ment a little further off.
 
 80 ROAD MAKING OF THE FRENCH 
 
 Another brancli of the road descends upon the 
 esplanade just mentioned, and is no less admirable as 
 a work of engineering. It was finished by General 
 Voirol, the great road-maker among the governors of 
 Algeria, in the year 1834 ; and then, for the first time, 
 it became possible to make the circuit of Algiers in a 
 wheeled carriage. The descent in both these branches 
 is at the uniform pitch of one in twenty, and great 
 pains have been taken to provide means for carrying 
 off the water which falls in the rainy season. 
 General Voirol extended this road southwards for 
 nearly fifteen miles beyond the point where its two 
 branches meet, through the villages of Dely Ibrahim 
 and Douera, to the very verge of the plain of the Me- 
 tidja, at an Arab settlement called Ouled-Mendil, It 
 was subsequently prolonged as far as Blidah, on the 
 other side of the plain ; and the part constructed by 
 Voirol is undoubtedly the best, as well as the most 
 important, of all the Algerian routes. 
 
 Another road, no less admirably traced, but in worse 
 condition, quits Algiers by the Bab-Azoun, and winds 
 up the Sahel through the village of Mustapha, a 
 charming situation, where some of the principal 
 French functionaries have country houses, which are 
 for the most part old ]\Toorish villas. Mustapha is 
 only about a niih^ and a half from Algiers. The plain 
 which lies beneath, between the hill and the sea, is 
 partly occupied by souie cavalry barracks, in which
 
 ACROSS THE SAHEL. 81 
 
 are quartered the 1st Regiment of the Chasseurs 
 d'Afrique. Their colonel, the Vicomte de Salignac- 
 Fenelon, whose courtesy and high cultivation are not 
 inferior to his acknowledged abilities as an officer and 
 administrator, occupies one of the country houses on 
 the hill above, in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 palace of Marshal Randon, the Governor- General of 
 Algeria, who is his father-in-law. Beyond the cavalry 
 barracks is an extensive common, on which the reviews 
 of the troops stationed in Algiers take place. Skirting 
 this, another road likewise constructed by General 
 Voirol, runs along the foot of the hills, and in about 
 six miles reaches the Maison Carree, just after crossing 
 the river Harash on a stone bridge of some centuries 
 old. 
 
 Following the course of the route through Musta- 
 pha, the visitor, after passing the culminating point 
 (on which a column is placed, commemorating the 
 names of General Voirol and of five regiments of the 
 African army, by whom the operation of making 
 the road was executed), begins to descend through an 
 undulating country, seamed with ravines, of which 
 the sides are richly wooded and the bottoms fertile, to 
 a pretty village called Birmandi'eis. It only consists 
 of two or three houses, one of which is a cafe, — the 
 first essential of French existence ; but the plentiful 
 supply of water, and the luxuriant foliage of the trees 
 with which it is surrounded, invest it with the highest 
 
 G
 
 82 BIRKADEM. 
 
 beauty in the eye of an African. It has, however, a 
 bad reputation for unhcalthiness, being surrounded by 
 hills which prevent a free circulation of air. About 
 two miles further is a larger village — Birkadem (Well 
 of the Negro), so called from a fountain, ornamented 
 with a marble facade, by the side of the road. The 
 village is built in a hollow, below a mamelon on which, 
 in the early part of the French occupation, a fortified 
 camp was established. From another hill, little more 
 than a mile off the village on the south-east side, a 
 good view of the lower portion of the Metidja, and 
 of the Atlas behind it, may be obtained. 
 
 There are communal schools here both for boys and 
 girls, but very scantily attended. The mistress of the 
 latter complained that there were some absences from 
 fever, which much surprised me at that time of the 
 year (the middle of January), and the master did not 
 assign any such reason for the small number of his 
 scholars. All the settlers in Birkadem are engaged in 
 agriculture, with the exception of one who was em- 
 ployed in the preparation of cri7i vegetal, the stringy 
 fibres of the leaves of the dwarf palm, w4iicli is used 
 instead of wool for stuffincr mattresses. Amon": the 
 children in the school I found two or three INIahonnais 
 and Germans, the latter of which could understand 
 their native language, but had become unable to speak 
 it. The schoolmaster told me there was also a Moorish 
 school kept up by the Government, which was well
 
 ROADS ACROSS THE METIDJA. 83 
 
 attended. I asked if care was taken to teacli the 
 scholars French, and he rephed that they rarely learnt 
 more than the few words which would be useful to 
 them in intercourse with the officials. 
 
 Beyond Birkadem the road approaches the Metidja 
 more apparently, and in about three miles reaches it 
 by descending rather suddenly on the Oued-el-Kerma, 
 which is there crossed by a stone bridge. I estimated 
 this point to be very little more than thirty feet above 
 the level of the sea. Here the work of General Voirol 
 terminated ; but the road is now continued, in a west- 
 south-west direction, along the skirts of the plain, till it 
 cuts the prolongation of the Dely Ibrahim and Douera 
 road, about a mile to the south of Ouled Mendil, at a 
 place called Les qiiatre chemins. There is a posting 
 station here, and one or two inns to supply the wants 
 of travellers ; but nothing can exceed the melancholy 
 appearance of the place. Immediately to the south of 
 it is a fen, through which, at the expense of great 
 labour, the road to Blidah is carried ; and this — which 
 is the chief, and indeed only direct military commu- 
 nication between the seat of government and the most 
 important post in the central province — is so rotten, 
 and lies so low, that in the whole of England it would 
 not be easy to find a farming road which would not, 
 taking the whole year round, prove a more secure 
 route. At its lowest point, which is about three or 
 four miles before reaching Bouffarik, it is probably 
 
 g2
 
 84 WANT OF STONE. 
 
 not more than half a dozen feet above the sea 
 level. A very slight fall of ram destroys the 
 consistency of the surface, and any considerable 
 quantity would interrupt the traffic altogether. 
 One day, while I was at Algiers, the Blidah dili- 
 gence (which is by no means badly horsed) stuck fast 
 in this Slough of Despond, and even the passengers 
 in the coi/pe, who on these occasions are generally 
 considered a privileged class, were forced to get out 
 and walk, — when they found the mud up to mid- 
 thigh. 
 
 The connexion of Algiers and Blidah is the most 
 pressing of the problems which the so much desired 
 railroads are required to solve ; and the difficulty of 
 solution is enormous. There is not enough stone in 
 the province of Algiers to metal the common roads, 
 much less to furnish ballast for railway embankments 
 such as would be requisite. These, constructed of the 
 soft earth of the Sahel, would not resist even the rains 
 of England, and would be washed away in a year by 
 the almost tropical storms of North Africa. 
 
 If, instead of mounting the hill by the road through 
 Mustapha, the traveller pursues the route along the 
 low lands, he will soon arrive at the great botanical 
 garden of Algeria, or (as it is called) the Jardin 
 d'Essai. It, or rather two cafes immediately opposite 
 to it, is a favourite resort of the middle classes of 
 Algiers, both Erench and native. One of the cafes is
 
 BOTANICAL GARDEN. 85 
 
 a Moorish one ; and it is worth while to step up to it 
 while waiting for one of the many cUadines which ply 
 between " Le Ruisseau" — about a mile fm'ther than 
 the Jardin d'Essai — and Alafiers. In fine weather 
 several Moors are generally to be seen sitting outside 
 the cafe, under the shade of some plane trees, occupied 
 in playing draughts. The laws of the game slightly 
 differ from the European, and the squares, instead of 
 being black and white, are depressed and elevated, — 
 which is, perhaps, the original form of the board, and 
 imitated in later times by the difference of colour. 
 
 The public are freely admitted to the main walks of 
 the Jardin d'Essai, but, in order to visit the conserva- 
 tories and the parts of the garden in which experiments 
 of acclimatization are being carried on, it is necessary 
 to apply to the curator for a written order. This, how- 
 ever, there is no difficulty in obtaining ; and the visitor 
 will be well repaid for his trouble. There are some 
 beautiful Norfolk Island pines growing in the open air. 
 One tree particularly struck me — the Araucaria excelsa. 
 It was at least forty feet high, and shooting out with the 
 vigour of a native shrub. Here may be seen a collec- 
 tion of all the different varieties of that cactus to which 
 the prickly pear and the cochineal plant belong. The 
 latter is very like the prickly pear, and its leaves of 
 the same shape, but smaller. The plantain is being 
 fast naturalized. Its fruit comes to the Algiers mar- 
 ket, but it is not yet produced cheap enough to be
 
 86 CULTIVATION OF SUGAR. 
 
 anything but a luxury. The sugar-cane may also be 
 vseen. It is a favourite idea of enthusiastic Algerians 
 to establish sugar plantations in Biskra and the neigh- 
 bouring oases, and cultivate them by means of negroes 
 redeemed from the warlike tribes further south. This 
 proceeding is strenuously advocated in the newspapers 
 of Algiers on motives of humanity, as being an ad- 
 mirable device for preventing the murder of prisoners 
 of war ; and the astounding ignorance of the princi- 
 ples of political economy which prevails in Algeria 
 allows one to indulge the charitable hope that the 
 writers of the articles may be in earnest. 
 
 But of all the contents of the Jardin d'Essai the 
 most pleasing to the ordinary visitor is an avenue 
 composed of date palms and dwarf palms alternately. 
 It presents the appearance of a beautiful colonnade of 
 about 450 yards long. I was struck with the ample 
 clusters of dates hanging from the trees. Large yellow 
 stalks rise up among the leaves all round, and bending 
 over divide into a profusion of bunches. The fruit, 
 however, does not ripen satisfactorily north of the 
 Atlas, and the dates with which the market of Algiers 
 is supplied all come from Biskra. Almost all the 
 camels which one sees have been employed in bring- 
 ing them. 
 
 After proceeding as far as " Le Ruisseau," a point 
 on the road where a brook coming from the hills is 
 employed in turning a mill, the road takes a more
 
 LINE OF MILITARY CAMPS. 8/ 
 
 southerly direction, and begins to ascend the Sahel 
 by graduated terraces, like those of the Birkadem and 
 the Dely Ibrahim routes, until it reaches Kouba, a 
 village between six and seven miles from Algiers. 
 Here, again, an excellent view of the town and har- 
 bour is obtained. In the early part of the French 
 occupation, the safety of the immediate neighbour- 
 hood was secured by a line of fortified camps, at 
 Kouba, Birkadem, Dely Ibrahim, and Tixerain, a place 
 between the two last named. The routes already 
 described connected Algiers directly with the first 
 three, and their communication with one another was 
 effected by a cross road of a less elaborate construc- 
 tion. This still exists between Kouba and Birkadem ; 
 but Tixerain is now left in the rear of a more ex- 
 tended line, which goes as far south as Saoula, 
 and then, turning to the north-west, passes through 
 Drahria to Dely Ibrahim. It is quite practicable for 
 wheeled carriages until near Drahria, when its con- 
 dition becomes as bad as that of one of the fen tracks 
 in Cambridgeshire. This probably arises from the 
 circumstance of a fortified camp (which subsequently 
 became a village) having been established still further 
 to the south, at Douera. The maintenance of the 
 roads within the new line of communication becoming 
 unnecessary, money was no longer spent in keeping 
 them up ; and in Algeria no route survives neglect 
 for any length of time.
 
 88 CLERICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 
 
 The village of Saoiila is almost exclusively inha- 
 bited by Spaniards, whose constitutions ofPer greater 
 resistance than those of the French to the fevers which 
 still prevail and which at first decimated the settlers. 
 The population of Drahria is also mainly Spanish, but 
 there are some few French among them, one of whom 
 keeps a cafe, although he himself is a farmer. The 
 day I visited the village the whole population, my 
 host included, were at work in the fields, with the 
 exception of one man who took my horse. The wife 
 of the cafe-keeper seemed a very intelHgent and active 
 woman. She had come to Africa as lady's-maid to 
 an officer's wife, and had married a fellow-servant. 
 Her husband had been ofiercd some land as a conces- 
 sion, but preferred to rent what he held, which was 
 ready cleared and in a healthy situation. She seemed 
 perfectly contented, and was loud in her praises of 
 the fertility of the soil, which produces not only 
 cereals and garden-stuft', but very fair wine. The 
 village was originally surrounded with a loop-holed 
 wall, but the security of the last ten years has caused 
 this to disappear, leaving only the town gates still 
 standing to testify to its former necessity. 
 
 On the site of the camp at Kouba a large church 
 of a very imposing character is in course of erection. 
 It stands on elevated ground, and is built with a 
 cupola. Fortunately, in the immediate neighbourhood 
 is a quarry of stone well adapted for architectural
 
 FAILURE OF AGRICULTURAL COLONY. 89 
 
 purposes. This church is to form a part of the great 
 diocesan seminary for the clergy, and is connected 
 with a missionary college of the Peres Lazaristes and 
 a school conducted by the sisters of the religious 
 order of St. Vincent de Paul. The whole of these 
 establishments are at present in a provisional state, 
 the buildings intended for their reception being yet 
 far from completion. 
 
 About a mile from the camp an agricultural village 
 was established by the Duke de Rovigo, and a few 
 houses still remain ; but the attempt entirely failed, 
 after it had given rise to steps which were highly pre- 
 judicial to the relations between the French and the 
 natives. The panic produced in Algiers by the inva- 
 sion, and still more by the arbitrary measures which 
 followed it, not only caused many of the Moorish 
 inhabitants of the town to emigrate, but induced 
 several of the agricultural Arabs of the vicinity to 
 abandon their lands. It happened just at this time 
 that 500 or 600 Germans and Swiss, who had come 
 to Havre with the design of crossing to America, sud- 
 denly changed their minds and proceeded to Algiers, 
 where they arrived for the most part in a state of 
 destitution. The Duke thought this an excellent 
 opportunity for attempting the establishment of an 
 agricultural colony, and made choice of Dely Ibrahim 
 and Kouba for the experiment. At Kouba there was 
 a farm belonging to a sequestrated mosque, and at
 
 90 DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT OF LAND JOBBERS. 
 
 Dely Ibrahim some lands which had been held by the 
 now suppressed janissaries. Taking these properties 
 as the foundation of his scheme, he increased them by 
 seizing the abandoned lands in the neighbourhood ; 
 leaving it at the same time free to the owners of these 
 to establish their claims and obtain some compensa- 
 tion. The consequences of this rash step showed 
 themselves immediately. The natives, despairing of 
 any substantial justice, sold their rights for the merest 
 trifle to Europeans, who made use of their purchase 
 solely for the purpose of compelling the Government 
 to buy off their opposition to its measures. Even 
 some officials took advantage of the opportunity for 
 enriching themselves afforded by a measure which 
 issued in the irritation of the natives, the corruption 
 of their masters, and the destruction of the poor colo- 
 nists. Twenty per cent, of these perished from want 
 and misery before their location was effected, in spite 
 of the aid of the state, which was extended to them 
 to the amount of more then £8,000. The Duke was 
 so annoyed at the ill success of his experiment that 
 he had an official notice published, prohibiting any 
 colonist from landing in Algiers if not in possession 
 of sufficient funds to maintain himself for a twelve- 
 month. " Unhappily," says a contemporary witness 
 of what followed, " there was still free access to the 
 colony for land-jobbers and lawyers, money-lenders 
 and prostitutes ! "
 
 FORD OF THE IIARASH. 91 
 
 From Kouba the road begins to descend towards 
 the Metidja through an undulatmg country, which in 
 parts remuids one of the skirts of a Hampshire moor, 
 — with dwarf pahiis, camel-thorn, prickly broom, 
 asphodel, and a liliaceous plant with a very broad leaf, 
 where in England we should find brambles, gorse, 
 and rushes. Three or four miles bring us to the ford 
 of the Harash, which is there about as broad as the 
 Cam at Chesterton. Its depth varies with the quan- 
 tity of rain that may have recently fallen. I crossed 
 it on two occasions, and the first time the depth was 
 less than three feet, the second full four. In August 
 or September it would probably not cover the ankles, 
 while in the winter before last its stream became suf- 
 ficiently swelled to sweep away the cottages of some 
 brick-makers, who are established on a little island 
 formed by a secondary channel of the stream. One 
 of these was an Italian Swiss, and another a Spaniard. 
 They told me they could not make bricks for less than 
 thirty francs the 1,000, although the earth beneath 
 their feet furnished the clay for nothing. Tiles about 
 ten inches square cost fifty francs the 1,000. The 
 chief expense is that of fuel for heating the kiln, which 
 consists entirely of the brushwood which grows over 
 the country, especially the roots of the dwarf palm. 
 These burn very slowly unless mixed with some other 
 kind of wood, and the Arabs avail themselves of this 
 peculiarity to husband their fuel. If they wish to
 
 92 SCARCITY OF FUEL. 
 
 have a cup of coffee, the water and the powdered (or 
 rather crushed) grains are put together into a small 
 tin pot, just big enough for the purpose. In a 
 corner of the gourbi (Arab hut) you see a small heap 
 of ashes with a mass in the middle which gives no 
 sign of being alight; but upon this the tin pot is 
 stuck and surrounded with ashes, and the point of 
 the long nozzle of a pair of bellows being introduced 
 underneath, just so much ignition as will suffice to 
 boil the liquid, and no more, is quickly produced; 
 the coffee is then poured into a small china cup in 
 which a single lump of Avhite sugar has been placed, 
 and the fire immediately damped up with the ashes 
 which lie around it. In forging small iron work, such 
 as spurs, bits, and horse-shoes, equal thrift is dis- 
 played. 
 
 On the steppes south of the first range of the 
 Atlas there are no trees of any kind, and the tribes 
 which, for a part of the year, overspread these regions 
 have no fuel but the dung of their own animals and 
 the stalks of the wild artichoke, with here and there 
 the addition of the branches of the camel-thorn. In 
 the plains, and on the hill-tops, where the wet does 
 not run off and Avherc the soil is not (as on the 
 steppes) limestone or salt sand, another plant is very 
 common, of which the stalks are sometimes used as 
 fuel, although the })urpose for which they are chiefly 
 employed is to form the sides of the gourhi. The
 
 ROVIGO AND L'ARBA. 93 
 
 French call it Voignon sauvagc, and it covers tlie 
 place where it grows with a handsome plume-like 
 green foliage, out of which the flower rises on a stem 
 of six feet or more in height, and in its thickest part 
 of two inches in diameter. This, before it falls, ac- 
 quires the consistency of cane ; and its pith has the 
 property of amadou. 
 
 From the ford of the Harash just described, which 
 is called the Gue de Constantine, the French have 
 cut a perfectly straight road across the Metidja to 
 Rovigo, a village which lies under the Atlas, near 
 the gorge where the river issues from the mountains. 
 This road runs south, with a very slight variation to 
 the west, and passes for its whole length over a part 
 of the plain which is slightly elevated above the 
 depressions which exist both to the east and west 
 of its course. In the year 1839, a military camp 
 was formed here, and another at L'Arba, which is 
 likewise at the foot of the Atlas, about six miles to 
 the east. The year after the termination of the war 
 with Abd-el-Kader (1848), a French village was 
 built a little to the north of the camp at Arba ; and 
 another road has been recently made, nearly parallel 
 to the one just mentioned, connecting by almost as 
 straight a course Arba with the Maison Carree. Both 
 Arba and Rovigo lie within the outhan, or circle, of 
 Beni Moussa, the most fertile portion of the province 
 of Algiers. The traveller, going from the former to
 
 94 ORANGE GROVES. 
 
 the latter, and continuing liis journey to Blidah, would 
 pass through the chief orange growing country of 
 Algeria. The groves chiefly belong to the natives, 
 who are growing gradually rich by the increasing 
 demand for their produce, which is exported in great 
 quantities from Algiers, both to the eastern province 
 of Constantine and to France itself. The price of 
 the fruit has risen considerably of late. A few years 
 back, a franc would purchase 100 of the finest 
 oranges in the market at Algiers, which now fetch 
 four or five times that sum. They are much cheaper, 
 however, at the place of production; and I suspect 
 their dearness in Algiers arises from the astuteness of 
 the Maltese traders, who have contrived to get into 
 their own hands the greater part of the supply of the 
 markets. I was engaged in taking some bearings 
 from a point in the Atlas two or three miles from 
 L'Arba, on the road to Aumale, when a Kabyle passed 
 driving some mides. He seemed interested in my 
 occupation, and after some conversation carried on by 
 signs, asked me if I would buy some oranges. I held 
 up a single sou, and he immediately put two enor- 
 mous oranges into my hands, and seemed as if he 
 would have increased the number had I demurred to 
 the bargain. As he had bought the fruit to sell 
 again, and was obviously more than content with his 
 profits, it is clear that he could have paid very little 
 for his stock. The flavour of my purchase was quite
 
 CULTIVATION OF THE METIDJA. 95 
 
 equal to its appearance. In England we liave no idea 
 of a ripe orange ; for when this state is completely 
 attained, the fruit must be eaten speedily. When 
 you peel it, the thick rind — for thin rinds belong only 
 to imperfectly developed oranges — sends out a cloud 
 of spirit as it cracks, and separates itself from its 
 contents with the very least effort ; the white string 
 in the middle of the fruit comes out whole, and the 
 segments all but fall apart from one another. The 
 sweetness is such that no quantity of sugar could 
 increase it, yet its acidity at once removes the sensa- 
 tion of thirst. When Apicius came to England to 
 eat the Milton oysters, he ought to have returned by 
 Africa for his dessert. 
 
 Along the sides of the road from the Gue de Con- 
 stantine to Rovigo, and of that from the Maison 
 Carree to L'Arba, a good deal of cultivation is seen, 
 and, in the latter case, of not a bad quality. The soil 
 of the Metidja, wherever the water does not lie, is 
 exceedingly fertile ; and the Government, by carrying 
 deep drains along the sides of the roads, and in some 
 instances by cutting catch-water ditches in other 
 parts, have done a good deal for the promotion of 
 agriculture. If a semicircle be drawn from L'Arba 
 as a centre with a radius of about four miles, the 
 range of Atlas forming the chord, there is within this 
 area apparently uninterrupted culture, with the solitary 
 exception of a wood of wild olive trees not far from
 
 96 AGRICULTURAL RETURNS. 
 
 the town.* In other parts of the route one sees cul- 
 tivation here and there, and European farm-houses, 
 showing that it is not due to the native population. 
 But these patches arc interrupted with marsh and 
 brushwood, in the midst of whicli the herds of the 
 Arabs pasture. Between the Maison Carree and 
 L'Arba, I passed two haouches (farms), of sedentary 
 Arabs, and one douar, or encampment, of pure 
 nomads, — the first I had ever seen. Their tents 
 are of a dark brown colour, and are made of a 
 mixture of camel's hair, goat's hair, and the fibres of 
 the dwarf palm woven together. It was only a small 
 douar, but the novelty of the sight and the pic- 
 turesque appearance of a few camels browsing in the 
 neighbourhood made it very interesting. 
 
 The town of L'Arba itself is chiefly inhabited by 
 Spaniards, who are tenants of Trench proprietors. 
 The persons who obtain gratuitous concessions of 
 land rarely remain upon them. In the course of my 
 ramble on the flanks of the Atlas I came upon a 
 cantonnier, whose case will serve as a very fair 
 specimen of the small African landholders. He had 
 
 * In 18o7 the breadth of laud sown with cereals (including peas) 
 was, according to the official returns, 6,495 hectares, equivalent to 
 16,044 acres, in the whole of the Metidja and the neighbourhood of 
 Algiers. The produce was 95,772 hectoliti'es, or 33,022 quarters. Of 
 this quantity L'Arba contributed 30,774 hectolitres (or 10,612 qrs.) 
 from 1822 hectares (4,502 acres). The average of the whole gives 
 about sixteen bushels and a half to an acre ; that of the neighbour- 
 hood of L'Arba, 181,
 
 FEVER PREVALENT AT L'ARBA. 97 
 
 served in the army, and on quitting it received an 
 assignment of about ten acres of land, together with a 
 building which had been used as a blockhouse. The 
 land he made over to a Spaniard for three years, as 
 the price of clearing it ; " for you conceive, Monsieur," 
 said he, " that I am so occupied here, that I have no 
 time to do that sort of thing myself." I had found 
 him smoking his pipe on the ground about a mile up 
 the hills on the Aumale road. Two enormous ruts a 
 foot deep gaped hard by, and the tool which he had 
 brought ostensibly for the performance of his duties 
 was the common mattock, which is used for getting 
 up the stumps of the brushwood. This was stuck by 
 his side in the grass, and no doubt had been so ever 
 since his arrival on the scene of his labours. On my 
 return by the same spot an hour later, I found every- 
 thing in statu quo, except that my friend was not 
 smoking, but lying asleep on his back. This man had 
 been at L'Arba for eight years, and had had fever every 
 summer. In the town itself I had some conversation 
 with a French w^oman, who gave an even worse 
 account of the place. She had been there, she said, 
 for three years and six months, and had never been 
 well, from fever in the summer, and colds in the 
 winter. In the Rovigo diligence I found myself to be 
 the only one of six passengers who had not had " the 
 fever." Several had suffered from it more than once, 
 but the first time is said to be the worst. The hos- 
 
 H
 
 98 CAUSES OF UNHEALTHY VILLAGES. 
 
 pital doctors at Algiers have remarked the very general 
 prevalence of distended spleens among the patients, 
 which they connect with this scourge, — no doubt the 
 most formidable enemy the conquerors have had to 
 contend with. But although the statistics of disease 
 are very discouraging, I saw enough dming my stay 
 in the country to convhice me that the climate was 
 not wholly, if indeed chiefly, in fault. The entire 
 neglect of even the commonest arrangements for clean- 
 liness in the new villages would drive Mr. Chadwick 
 frantic. In this respect Algeria under an absolute 
 monarchy exactly resembles democratized Corcyra. 
 The position too of the settlements has been in almost 
 all cases originally determined by military considera- 
 tions. The genera] type is a mamelon surrounded by 
 a loop-holed wall, which, in the event of a revolt on 
 the part of the natives, would be useful in carrying out 
 strategic operations. A plentiful supply of w^ater, an 
 aspect which should secure the cool breeze from the 
 sea, and be protected from the destructive scirocco, an 
 adequate distance from pestilential marshes, are all 
 points of vital importance to a settler ; but they have 
 rarely been regarded, and possibly could not have been 
 regarded, in the selection of the places d'armes, which 
 the return of peace converted into " centres of popu- 
 lation." The apparent economy of utilizing buildings 
 which already existed outweighed, as was natural, the 
 apprehension of distant and contingent evils, especially
 
 A FATAL INVENTION. 99 
 
 in the times when the expenditure of the government 
 on its African colony siippHed a formidable weapon to 
 the opposition in the French chambers. The miser- 
 able condition of the greater part of the colonists who 
 arrive in Africa, and in many instances their vicious 
 habits, ought likewise to be reckoned for much. In 
 an evil hour for the colony, it struck a French specu- 
 lator that a spirit might be distilled from the root of 
 the asphodel, a plant with which the wet portions of 
 the country are thickly covered. He succeeded in his 
 attempt ; a vile poisonous liquor, dignified by the 
 name of absintJie d'Afrique, was produced at a cheap 
 rate, and acquired general popularity. The discoverer 
 made a fortune, and his invention has slain more 
 Europeans than the sword of Abd-el-Kader, and even, 
 according to high medical authority, than the malaria 
 of the Metidja. The most painful part of the whole 
 affair is, that the poor Arabs are gradually perishing 
 under this insidious enemy's influence. A bigoted 
 adherence to the letter of their law has not saved them 
 from the proneness to be influenced by any casuistry 
 which flatters their passions ; and many of them wel- 
 come the new invention, " which is not forbidden in 
 the Koran," as heartily as some disciples of Father 
 Mathew did the discovery of " a temperance lozenge." 
 All the landholders of Algeria do not, however, 
 belong to the class of concessionaires. The lawyers 
 who have accumulated fortunes by practising in the 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LANDLORDS AND TENANTS. 
 
 courts, and the capitalists who have lent money on 
 mortgage, succeed very often to the farm of the 
 colonist soon after it has been brought into tolerable 
 order ; and, indeed, whenever European skill is seen 
 applied in any great degree to the cultm-e of the land, 
 the latter generally turns out to belong to some one 
 who is not a professional agriculturist. Two " model 
 farms" in different parts of the Metidja, are the 
 creation of a gentleman who has a high reputation as 
 an advocate in Algiers, and who yet (as I was told) 
 finds time, with the aid of bailiffs, to manage both 
 of them himself. In general, however, the non-resi- 
 dent proprietor lets his farms on the partiarian system, 
 providing his tenant with seed-corn and agricultural 
 implements, and receiving as rent a certain portion of 
 the produce, most commonly in kind. This tenure 
 has, indeed, been introduced even into the relations 
 between the natives and their conquerors in some 
 parts of the colony. In the province of Constantine, 
 between Philippeville and the capital, I saw a large 
 breadth of land sown with corn, obviously cultivated 
 by Arabs, and I was informed that it belonged to the 
 concessionaires of a village several miles off. At Setif, 
 too, where as much as 50,000 acres of land were 
 conceded to a Swiss company, in the view of intro- 
 ducing the Alpine dairy-farming into the country, the 
 colonists, after a very short time, confined themselves 
 to the cultivation of their gardens, and let their land
 
 CAPITALISTS OF ALGIERS. 101 
 
 to the very tribe which had been dispossessed in 
 order to make room for them. But the Metidja, 
 from its proximity to Algiers, is naturally the locality 
 in which professional and mercantile men seek for 
 an investment ; just as the metropolitan counties 
 are the region in which the successful London specu- 
 lator undergoes his transformation into a country 
 gentleman. Prom similar causes, the proprietorship 
 in both cases changes hands very often; and to 
 facilitate the transfers which the revolution of the 
 wheel of Fortune continually compels, the French 
 Government has constructed a cadastral map of the 
 whole of the Metidja on a scale of 1 : 40,000, which 
 is very nearly two inches to a mile, and the sales which 
 take place from time to time are registered Avith 
 a careful reference to the position of the property on 
 this map. 
 
 I casually made the acquaintance of an intelligent 
 Frenchman who owned a good deal of land in the 
 plain. He had the day before bought two new farms; 
 and he showed me a portion of the map in which 
 they were laid down. The metairie system is ex- 
 tremely well adapted to a country like Algeria, where 
 the expenditure of capital by the tenant is a thing not 
 to be dreamed of, but where, at the same time, an 
 intelligent agriculturist without capital may enrich 
 his landlord and himself simultaneously. The gentle- 
 man in question told me that he accidentally met
 
 102 A MODEL TENANT. 
 
 a man in a diligence, and \Yas so much pleased with 
 him that he pnt him into a farm, the occupant of 
 which had suddenly died. He performed his part 
 here so well, that, on another farm falling vacant, his 
 employer added it to the first, and was then going 
 likewise to place him over the two new purchases. 
 I was fortunate enough to get a sight of this phoenix of 
 a farmer, and do not wonder at the good impression 
 which he made. He was a tall, stalwart fellow, of six 
 feet high, as wiry and active as an American back- 
 woodsman, but with a thoroughly honest expression 
 in his quick grey eye. I am sorry to say his yellow 
 cheek indicated, that although unconquered he had not 
 been unattached by the evil genius of the plain ; 
 and I recommended his landlord to send him a stock 
 of quinine from Algiers. 
 
 From L'Arba the Metidja in the north and north- 
 easterly directions is very Ioav and wet, and is 
 occupied almost exclusively by Arabs — except in the 
 immediate vicinity of the road from the Maison 
 Carree to Fonduck — until the Oued Hamiz is reached. 
 This is a river which takes its rise in the Atlas, and 
 runs for some distance in a north-east direction ; but 
 on emerging from the hills at Fonduck it changes its 
 course to the north-west, and falls into the sea about 
 a couple of miles to the south of Cape Matifou. 
 
 Fonduck itself is a village built inside a loop-holed 
 wall of about 300 yards square, with a block-house
 
 EONDUCK. 103 
 
 at three out of the four corners. It hes in the angle 
 formed by two branches of the Hamiz, and occupies 
 the site of a large covered bazaar {FonducJc), where the 
 native population used to hold a market every Thurs- 
 day. The original position on which the French estab- 
 lished themselves was a mamelon about two miles off, 
 on the eastern side of the Hamiz. This site was found 
 to be badly chosen, and the camp was moved, in 
 1842, to another mamelon, about half a mile from the 
 present village. Here may still be seen the ruins of 
 very extensive barracks, from which there is a com- 
 manding view. After the complete subjection of 
 Algeria, in 1848, this place, like the camps of L'Arba 
 and the Harash, was abandoned as a military post; 
 but the importance of the position, and the capabi- 
 lities of the soil in the neighbourhood, induced the 
 Government to spend a good deal of money in 
 establishing there " a centre of population." Nothing 
 can be more melancholy, however, than the appear- 
 ance of the village. Its population is said to have 
 been entirely removed several times, and in the 
 summer every one expects " the fever" as a matter 
 of course. I should think there were not sixty 
 houses in the whole, and of these all but three or 
 four are mere cottages. One of the exceptions is 
 the Mairie ; for Fonduck has recently been constituted 
 the chief town of a commune, and honoured with 
 a mayor, agreeably to the notion of Aristotle, that the
 
 104 A PERFECTLY HAPPY MAN. 
 
 State has a prior existence to that of the individuals 
 which compose it. 
 
 I made the acquaintance of this worthy magistrate, 
 who manifested a simple-minded satisfaction with 
 his new dignity, only to be exceeded by that which 
 a child evinces on acquiring his first cricket-bat. 
 Nothing could be further removed from vanity than 
 his calm complacency, his placid confidence that there 
 he was the right man in the right place. He made 
 me come into his house, and look at all the arrange- 
 ments. One room, — the most spacious, being about 
 ten feet by fifteen, — was being paved with glazed 
 tiles. " Look there, Monsieur, cest gentil, nest ce 
 pasF This is the apartment pour les noces. That 
 other is my bureau — just opposite : cest commode ; 
 do me the pleasure to pass into the garden : cestjoli; 
 you see the almond-tree in the centre ; cest hien gentil, 
 ga. Ah ! there is a great deal to do here, in fact 
 everything 1 but I trust I shall soon eff'ect an improve- 
 ment. My military hfe has given me the habitude of 
 command. Yes, Monsieur" (this was in answer to a 
 question of mine), " I have 4,000 indigenes in my 
 commune ; there is much to do in administering the 
 law. No, I don't understand Arabic : void mon 
 interprete." I looked with some interest at the 
 prophet who was to communicate the oracles of 
 Themis to the world without. Plis face exhibited the 
 same good-humour as his chief's; he was bringing
 
 PREDOMINANCE OF SPANIARDS, 105 
 
 home some carpenter's work for the official residence 
 in his cart ; a prime minister in a blouse ! 
 
 I found to my regret that the inhabitants of this 
 Algerian XJlubrae did not greatly participate in the 
 sanguine hopes of their magistrate. They took me, 
 I fancy, for some official person, as I had a small 
 sketch-book in my hand, and hoped that they might 
 get some advantage by representing their views. One 
 woman begged me to come into her cottage, and 
 asked me how people could escape illness when they 
 lived in such a place. It was, indeed, a wretched 
 tenement, — merely a single room without a chimney, 
 — in fact, a tent of bricks instead of canvas. By way 
 of remedying the defect, a large square hole was 
 knocked under the gable, and some boards nailed 
 over it and round it, under the idea that the smoke 
 might perhaps pass out. But, of course, whenever 
 the inside of the hut was warmer than the atmosphere 
 outside, the current of air necessarily set inwards, 
 and I could hardly stop there five minutes, although 
 the door was open the whole time. I found that here, 
 although all grants of land had been made to the 
 Trench, the predominant population was, as at L'Arba, 
 Spanish. Agricultural labour seems absolutely into- 
 lerable to the French emigrant. But the government 
 appears determined to leave no stone unturned to 
 make Fonduck prosper. A handsome new church is 
 in course of building, and the cure, recently appointed,
 
 106 SCHOOLS AT TONDUCK. 
 
 was described to me as an active, intelligent young 
 man. I visited a mLxed and an infant school ; and 
 although there were only about tAventy children in 
 each, they were in excellent order. They are managed 
 by the Soeurs Hospitalieres. The mistress of the 
 mixed school told me that many of the children were 
 necessarily absent taking care of the cattle. 
 
 There is one particular in the French arrangements, 
 which at Ton duck has certainly increased the de- 
 spondency with which the population regard their 
 future prospects. With the exception of a flat surface 
 of about 200 acres, w^hich is artificially irrigated and 
 employed in the cultivation of tobacco, the immediate 
 neighbourhood is not cleared ; and the allotments of 
 land which the concessionaires received are for the 
 most part a mile off" their habitations. This must add 
 considerably to the fatigue — under any circumstances 
 severe — to which the cultivator is subjected in the 
 summer ; and when exhaustion comes upon him in 
 the midst of his work, the distance of his home is an 
 obstacle to his readily obtaining any wholesome re- 
 freshment, and naturally he has recourse to the 
 portable spirit-flask. The uncleared bush imme- 
 diately around the village is the more striking, as, 
 after it is passed, the land is cultivated with insig- 
 nificant interruptions, for some distance on each side 
 of the road, all the way to the Maison Carree. In 
 fact, the spectator who stands on the site of the
 
 EXTENSIVE CULTIVATION. 107 
 
 deserted camp, and looks towards Algiers, will see, 
 perhaps, the greatest continuous extent of cultivated 
 land furnished by one view in the whole of Algeria. 
 His eye will pass over a surface as flat as the Cam- 
 bridgeshire fens. On the road which runs quite 
 straight to the north-west as far as the eye can see, 
 there are two villages (the village du Midi, and the 
 Maison Blanche, both mainly inhabited by Spaniards) 
 and some insulated houses, and in the distance may 
 be seen other white specks indicating European farm- 
 houses, about as thick, I should say, as the steam- 
 mills in the fens. 
 
 I spent about three hours in rambling about the 
 hills in the neighbourhood of Fonduck. Here the 
 Atlas does not rise nearly so steeply as behind 
 L'Arba, and the general character of the country 
 was not unlike that through which the traveller 
 passes who quits the South Western Railway at the 
 Christchurch Road Station and drives across the 
 country to the south, if, instead of heather and firs, 
 one substitutes dwarf palms and lentisques growing 
 to the height of five or six feet. Among the wind- 
 ings of the hills I came upon several Arab villages 
 of small size. All the gourhis were of straw, and the 
 soil was cultivated in patches of twenty or forty acres 
 each where the ground was tolerably flat. These 
 sedentary Arabs suffer a good deal from the wild 
 boars, which find refuge in the uncleared brushwood,
 
 108 WILD BOARS. 
 
 and destroy their crops while green. Every Friday 
 (which is their Sabbath) they have a regular battue. 
 Three or four hundred of them form a circle of 
 beaters, and drive the boars into a smaller space, 
 until at last they break cover, and afford the sports- 
 man the chance of a shot. The day before my 
 visit seven had been killed in this way. The Arabs 
 will not eat the flesh themselves, but they sell the 
 carcases to the European settlers, and a rasher from 
 one of them furnished my breakfast. A ride of four 
 hours had given me a good appetite, but I neverthe- 
 less found the meat extremely hard on this as on 
 other occasions. 
 
 The Maison Carree, or, as it was called by the Turks, 
 Bordj el Kantra (Eort of the Bridge or Pass), is a square 
 building which, before the Ereuch invasion, served to 
 defend the bridge over the Harash, and also to pro- 
 tect the herds belonging to the State, which pastured 
 in the marshes of the lower Harash, at that time not 
 even partially drained. The day after the occupation 
 of Algiers, Bourmont sent a brigade to seize this prize, 
 and also the horses in the breeding stables of the 
 Dey, which were in the same locality, and at Rassauta, 
 an equally marshy district on the way to Cape Mati- 
 fou. But the Bey of Constantine, who had, as in 
 duty bound, brought his contingent to the aid of his 
 liege lord, as soon as the advance of the Erench upon 
 Bouzarich and the attack of the Eort of the Emperor
 
 AN ARAB PRISON. IO9 
 
 showed that resistance was hopeless, set off to return 
 to his own province, and SAvept all the cattle and 
 horses away with him. The building is now used 
 as a prison for Arab convicts sentenced for a longer 
 period than a year. When I visited it there were 
 390 inmates ; but the intendant told me that there 
 were many more in France, — I suppose at Toulon. 
 About 150 of them were at work, the most employed 
 in making crin vegetal, and some few in laying out a 
 garden in the immediate neighbourhood of the build- 
 ing. The majority lie idle about the wards. At night 
 they are kept seventy or eighty together in long 
 rooms, which are lighted, but I did not understand 
 that any surveillance was kept up. The moral effect 
 of the punishment seems very questionable. During 
 their imprisonment they pick up a little French from 
 the soldiers who guard them ; and when they are 
 discharged, they form connexions with the worst part 
 of the European population in the towns, by whose 
 co-operation they become worse thieves than before. 
 Such, at least, is the view of the officer in charge of 
 the prison. He looked forward to the abolition of the 
 establishment concurrently with a considerable exten- 
 sion of the prison at Lambessa, of which I shall speak 
 in another place. Certainly, if physiognomy fiurnishes 
 any means of judging of character, the prisoners 
 had not improved by their detention in the Maison 
 Carree.
 
 110 IKRIGATED GARDENS. 
 
 The space between the sea and the road from the 
 Maison Carree to Algiers, is, after the bridge of the 
 Harash is crossed, almost throughout occupied by 
 Maltese and Spanish market gardeners. The soil is 
 perfectly levelled, and irrigated by the method which 
 universally prevails wherever an Arab population has 
 set foot, viz. the chain of buckets and the well. All 
 parts of the apparatus are made without a particle of 
 iron being used. The buckets are jars tied to a rope 
 of halfa, and the parts of the wheels are kept together 
 with wooden pegs, where nails would ordinarily be 
 used. The mules which turn the wheel appear to 
 continue their work without any superintendence on 
 the part of the owner : but I suppose he is near, 
 although invisible, and would summarily punish any 
 cessation on the part of the poor animals from their 
 monotonous task. 
 
 Half way to Algiers is the village of Hussein Dey, 
 where an enormous building which was formerly a 
 summer palace of the Algerine Deys, now serves as 
 a magazine for tobacco, of which the Government is 
 the sole purchaser. The road which proceeds from 
 this point direct to Algiers was shut up for the pur- 
 poses of repair at the time I was there, and the 
 traffic passed by another which runs westwards for 
 about a mile, and joins the Algiers and Kouba road 
 at the "Ruisseau" mentioned above.
 
 BOUPFARIK. ] 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The most important inland town in the central 
 province of Algeria is Blidali, which lies at the foot of 
 the Atlas, about thirty-three miles from Algiers, in a 
 south-west by south direction. The intercourse with 
 it is so great that three dihgences run in the day, 
 some by the El Biar and Douera road, and others by 
 that which passes through Mustapha and Birkadem. 
 All, however, pass through Les Quatre Chemins. The 
 first important place traversed is BoufFarik (Eather of 
 separation), a name given to a slight elevation in the 
 midst of swamps, where at the time of the Erench 
 invasion a large cattle market used to be held, fre- 
 quented by Arabs from all parts of the plain. This 
 is now resumed under Erench superintendence. The 
 market-day is Monday, when several thousands of 
 Arabs may be seen collected together in a large enclo- 
 sure to the east of the road, a little beyond the town 
 of Bouffarik. In the middle is a caravanserai, and 
 accommodation for the officials who register the sales, 
 — an important regulation in a country where cattle-
 
 112 GENERAL LAMORICIME. 
 
 lifting has begun to be considered a dangerous 
 pursuit, but has scarcely ceased to be regarded as a 
 creditable one. Enormous quantities of sheep, cattle, 
 mules, and horses are collected in the enclosure ; but, 
 on the day I was there, I did not see a single camel 
 among them. 
 
 When the French first obtained a footing on the 
 south side of the Metidja, there was a considerable 
 breadth of wood covering the country to the north of 
 Bouffarik, and the facility which this and the marshes 
 afforded the natives for menacing the communications 
 between Algiers and Blidah, rendered it a matter of 
 vital importance to remove it. In the year 1833, the 
 desired result was brought about, chiefly by the 
 agency of the Arabs themselves, over whom a young 
 French officer, whose name has since become well 
 known throughout Europe, had contrived to gain 
 great influence. Lamoriciere, then captain of a bat- 
 talion of Zouaves, was the first Frenchman who con- 
 ceived the idea of gaining the confidence of the tribes. 
 Trusting to his knowledge of the language and his 
 tact, he ventured among the Arabs of the then un- 
 subdued Metidja without any escort ; and under his 
 auspices a separate department of administration was 
 formed, which, under the name of the Bureau Arabe, 
 subsequently expanded into the machinery by which 
 the invaders have solved the problem of governing 
 the native population of the whole of their acquisi-
 
 CAMP D'ERLON. 1 13 
 
 tions. He himself was the first head of the new office, 
 and his staff consisted only of a couple of French 
 officers and three native interpreters. The woods of 
 BonflParik were felled, and the swamps partially drained, 
 by the assistance rendered by friendly chiefs ; and the 
 route to Blidah thus effectually secured. European 
 traders even ventured to frequent the Arab markets ; 
 but this step seems to have been a little prema- 
 ture. The appearance of the strangers excited ill 
 will, and it became necessary to establish a fortified 
 camp in the neighbourhood, to protect them against 
 sudden acts of violence. For this purpose the Count 
 d'Erlon built a square work in the immediate vicinity of 
 Bouffarik, and furnished it with defences which effec- 
 tually guaranteed its safety against the attack of any 
 enemy. He was, however, unable to secure the gar- 
 rison against a much more formidable foe, the pesti- 
 lential exhalations of the surrounding swamps ; and 
 the Camp d'Erlon, as it was called from the governor 
 under whose auspices it had been constructed, acquired 
 the sobriquet of La Cimitiere. About four miles 
 beyond Bouffarik, Marshal Bugeaud attempted to form 
 a military colony in an even more inauspicious locality, 
 at Bene Mered. This is much lower than Bouffarik, 
 and more unhealthy; but its position on the main 
 road into the interior, and its plentiful supply of water 
 (for a strong spring rises in the middle of the village), 
 tempt a few French to settle there in spite of the 
 
 I
 
 1 14 BLIDAH. 
 
 danger. Over the spring a handsome monument in 
 the form of an obelisk is erected, to the memory of 
 twenty-two soldiers, Avho, in the revolt of 184.2, were 
 surprised there by ten times their number of Arab 
 horsemen. They succeeded in resisting the attack 
 until relieved ; but only five of their number survived. 
 Bhdah is said to have had a population of 18,000 
 a few years before the French invasion. But in 1825 
 it was entirely destroyed by an earthquake, in Avhich 
 half its inhabitants perished. The panic-stricken sur- 
 vivors at first deserted the locality, with the intention 
 of forming a new settlement farther to the north ; but 
 they soon returned to their ancient haunts, unwilling 
 to forsake a spot to which they had been accustomed, 
 and which enjoys the advantages of an ample supply 
 of water and a fertile soil, to an extent unsurpassed 
 by any other town in Algeria, The native population 
 is now under 4,000, having been reduced to that 
 extent by the miseries of war in the first eight years 
 of the French occupation. The town has been almost 
 entirely rebuilt, with rectangular streets and European 
 houses. The immediate neighbourhood is covered 
 with orange and lemon groves, and is a very favour- 
 able locality for tobacco, of which the cultivation has 
 lately made great strides. I was told that some land 
 in the vicinity of the town in which this plant was 
 grown paid a rent of 300 francs the hectare (or £4 16*. 
 the acre). This, however, was under peculiarly
 
 CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO. 115 
 
 favourable circumstances for irrigation. What is 
 especially desired is a soil of a light sandy gravel, and 
 an unlimited supply of water. When these two con- 
 ditions are secured, the hectare sometimes produces to 
 the amount of more than 2,000 francs. The expense 
 of cultivation (including irrigation) is estimated at 
 about 1,000 francs the hectare. The leaves of the 
 plant, where the cultivation succeeds best, are stripped 
 three times in the year. It may be easily conceived 
 that the French are attracted by the advantages of a 
 place which enables them to gratify their desire of 
 acquiring a proprietorship in land without submitting 
 to the irksomeness of agricultural labour. Blidah is 
 almost more French than Algiers itself, and has its 
 theatre, hotels, cafes, and all other appliances of 
 enjoyment which make up the bourgeois' notion of 
 civilisation. The markets within the walls are well 
 supplied with meat, fruit, and vegetables by the Arabs 
 of the neighbourhood ; and there is besides a weekly 
 market held every Friday outside the town for the 
 purposes of general traffic between the natives and the 
 Europeans. 
 
 From Blidah the road into the interior takes a turn 
 towards the west, and descends in that direction for 
 six or seven miles until it reaches the Chiffa, up the 
 gorge of which the present road to Medeah is carried. 
 For the next twelve or fourteen miles after the ascent 
 commences, nothing can be imagined more romantic 
 
 I 2
 
 116 GORGE OF THE CHIFFA. 
 
 than the route. The scenery is somethmg between 
 that of Herefordshire and North Wales, the coloimng 
 of the sandstone rock and the rich vegetation remind- 
 ing one of the former, and the precipitous character of 
 the mountain forms of the latter. Wherever there is 
 sufficiently flat space for trees to take root, the ravines 
 are richly wooded ; but in most parts there is room 
 for only the lentisque. The narrowest part of the 
 gorge is just above a post station where a little brook, 
 called the Ruisseau des Singes from the large number 
 of monkeys which haunt it, falls into the Chiffa. Here 
 the perpendicular walls of rock are a very few yards 
 apart, and it requires some nerve to sit in a carriage 
 while passing along the narrow road which overhangs 
 the abyss below ; although, as the horses which draw 
 you wear no blinkers, you have an additional security 
 for yourself in their natural instincts. Still, one 
 wishes for a parapet, which is in general dispensed 
 with, as its existence would involve the widening the 
 road, and the extreme steepness of the rocks necessi- 
 tates the removal of many tons of their sides for every 
 additional inch of road-way. The greatest danger, 
 however, arises not from the narrowness of the route, 
 but from the softness of the rock out of which it is 
 cut. Long after rain, streamlets spring here and there 
 from the sides of the cutting, and it is no easy matter 
 to dispose of these, and get them across the twenty 
 feet or so whicli intervene between the bottom of the
 
 DANGEROUS ROA.D. 117 
 
 cliff from wliicli they issue and the ravine, without 
 their doing mischief by the way. After every shower, 
 in spite of all provision which has been made, the 
 margin of the road is full of large notches cut by the 
 running waters, like those which the knife of an idle 
 school- boy leaves in the edge of his desk. The can- 
 tonniers are on the look-out for these gaps, and build 
 them up with a pile of large flat stones, which are 
 soon ground into a condition of stability by the passing 
 traffic. Some rain had fallen the night before I left 
 Medeah, and the wheels of the coach, while descending 
 the terraces of the gorge, passed over several of these 
 corbel-like patches where two days before the road 
 had been apparently quite sound. If there were to be 
 any remission of diligence on the part of the watchers, 
 the most fearful accidents might happen, and no 
 intelligence of the particulars would reach the world. 
 Down would go horses, carriage, and traveller, into the 
 bed of the Chiffa, far away from any European habita- 
 tion. In the course of the day, some Arab fishermen 
 or shepherds would perhaps light upon the wreck, 
 when in their quiet impassive way they would collect 
 the fragments of harness and ironwork, with the 
 remark "Allah kerim " (God is merciful), and leave 
 the mutilated corpses to be devoured by the jackals. 
 
 On leaving the gorge of the Chiffa, carobs, almond 
 trees, and wild olives of great size are seen. After 
 quitting the valley of the river altogether, the road
 
 118 MUDLIKE SOIL. 
 
 continues to ascend in a general \Yesterly dii'ection, 
 and attains its highest point about half a mile before 
 arriving at Medeah. I estimated the col over which 
 we passed at about 2,961 feet above the level of 
 the sea, and 2,490 above Blidah. Soon after leaving 
 the valley of the Chiffa, at about 1,900 feet above the 
 sea level, the soil assumes a rather nmd-like character, 
 and continues to present this appearance for nearly 
 a mile. 1 observed the same phenomenon on the way 
 from Oran to Maskara, in the western province, at 
 nearly the same height above the sea, and apparently 
 of about the same thickness, viz. 150 or 100 feet. 
 It also appeared on the road into Great Kabylie, but 
 at a much lower elevation, viz. not more than 850 
 feet. I was told, in the case of that at Maskara, that 
 the soil was considerably impregnated with salt. 
 This I had no means of ascertaining ; to the eye the 
 appearance was that of simple mud, exactly like the 
 deposit through which the South-Eastern Railway is 
 carried in the neighbourhood of New Cross, the loose 
 texture of which caused an accident on a large scale 
 when the line was first opened, and necessitated the 
 expenditure of much money to prevent a recurrence 
 of the mischief. 
 
 Medeah, which is placed just on the southern 
 incline of the first ridge of the Atlas, is a military 
 position of considerable importance to the conquerors. 
 They have occupied it permanently since 1840 ; but it
 
 PASSAGE or THE BIBAN. 1 19 
 
 had been in their hands three times before. The 
 events of that year and of 1839 showed that, so long 
 as it remained under the Arabs, there could be no 
 permanent security for the settlers in the Metidja, or 
 even for those in the Phaz of Algiers. On the 2d of 
 November, 1839, the Duke d' Orleans entered Algiers 
 at the head of an army which, under the guidance of 
 Marshal Valee, had performed the feat of marching 
 from Constantine by land, through the pass of the 
 Biban, or Iron Gates. This exploit was only intended, 
 like the fortification of Paris by M. Guizot, " faire un 
 effet moral," and it was achieved by the co-operation 
 of the commandant of Bougie, who had been in- 
 structed to make some movements to draw upon 
 himself the attention of the native tribes that would 
 otherwise have opposed the transit of the army. But 
 although the success was as empty as that of the 
 celebrated German campaign of Caligula, the enthu- 
 siasm was as great. The whole of the soldiers were 
 feasted in public on the esplanade of the Bab-el-Oued ; 
 the conquest of Algeria was proclaimed complete ; 
 a palm branch, plucked (as was said) at the gorge of 
 the pass, was presented in the name of the army to 
 the Duke ; and the official newspapers declared that 
 the time of difficulty was at last at an end, and 
 France aboat to receive the glorious recompense of 
 her labours. The Duke returned to Paris at the 
 conclusion of these festivities, and three days after-
 
 120 ARAB OUTBREAK. 
 
 wards, on the 1 0th of November, the war broke out, 
 which in a couple of months swept every European 
 settler out of the Meticlja, and obliged the French to 
 draw in their outposts, and devote all their strength 
 to the maintaining four fortified camps,* the com- 
 munication of which with one another and with 
 Algiers was continually interrupted. The plain was 
 invaded simultaneously from the east, west, and 
 south. In the first-mentioned quarter, the Kabyles, 
 keeping the forts of Fonduck and Kara-Mustapha 
 blockaded, advanced as far as Birkadem and the 
 Jardm d'Essai. Blidah was so distressed for want 
 of provisions, that many of the native inhabitants, 
 although well affected to the French, were expelled 
 from the town, as the sole alternative of their dying 
 of hunger. In the spring of 1840 the French had 
 collected a sufficient force to resume the offensive, 
 and on the 12th of May a pitched battle with Abd- 
 el-Kader resulted in giving them the possession of 
 Medeah, which they entered on the 17th, and found 
 deserted of all its inhabitants. The present town is 
 almost entirely new. It consists of extensive barracks, 
 a military hospital, which makes up about 500 beds, 
 and a few houses, the whole surrounded by a loop- 
 hole enceinte. The ancient aqueduct which supplied 
 the town with water still exists, but it is the only 
 
 * These were L'Arba, Blidah, Fonduck, and Kara-Mustapha, about 
 four miles to the east-north-east of Fouduck.
 
 MI^Dl^AH. 121 
 
 moniuneiit of the former importance of the place. 
 The view from the walls is extremely beautiful. 
 Magnificent mountains form the frame of the picture, 
 on one of which may be seen Milianah, likewise an 
 important military position. This may be easily 
 reached in a day on horseback ; but there is no road 
 practicable for a carriage, although there is one direct 
 from Blidah. 
 
 I found very comfortable quarters at the Hotel du 
 Gastronome, the only establishment of the kind in 
 the town ; and the next day set off to see the copper 
 mines at Mouzaia, an establishment in the heart of 
 the Atlas, about eight miles off. The route for 
 two-thirds of the way is the same which formerly 
 was the only communication between Medeali and 
 the plain of the Metidja. It passes westward along 
 the north side of the amphitheatre in which Medeah 
 lies, at rather a higher level than the town, and 
 affords a magnificent view of a sea of mountains 
 on the left hand. After a while, the descent on 
 Mouzaia begins. It is in a plain surrounded by 
 hills ; and in its immediate neighbourhood the rotten 
 dirt-like earth noticed above again takes the place 
 of the sandstone and limestone which elsewhere cha- 
 racterise the Atlas. The establishment consists of about 
 150 workmen, many of whom have their wives and 
 families with them, in the aggregate about 400 souls. 
 They all live in a fortified building, loop-holed ; for
 
 122 mNES OF MOUZAIA. 
 
 at the first beginning of the undertaking (in 1846) 
 they were several times attacked by the Arabs, who 
 indeed succeeded in destroying an outlying building 
 rather nearer to the nortliern crest of the Atlas, 
 the ruins of which remain. This state of things is, 
 however, now past ; there is no longer any garrison 
 at the works, and the state of the walls indicates 
 a belief that security is perfect. The worst enemy 
 that remains is the fever in the summer-time. All 
 the workmen who receive six francs a day or more 
 pay one franc into a fund, from which when sick 
 they are allowed two francs a day. There is a 
 little chapel, and a resident priest to serve it, a 
 school conducted by three Sceurs Hospitalieres, an 
 infirmary, and a doctor ; but grave cases of sickness 
 are sent to the hospital at Medeah. The workmen 
 are almost all foreigners, chiefly Piedmontese. Next 
 in number come the Spaniards, and there are also 
 a few Germans. The married people with families 
 are allowed two rooms, but the single men live three 
 or four together in one. I went into one in which 
 there were three Frenchmen ; and another which 
 belonged to a married German. This man's wife 
 Avas so pleased at my addressing her in her native 
 tongue, that she insisted on my sitting down to drink 
 a glass of wine. While she went out to wash a 
 glass, another female came in and sat down. Not 
 knowing who she was, I told her in French that
 
 VISIT TO THE TENIAT. 123 
 
 the owner of the apartment had just gone out, when 
 she said, " 0, Sir, pray don't speak to me in French : 
 let me hear the language of my fatherland 1" The 
 same feelin": brougrht three other Germans to shake 
 
 o o 
 
 hands with me as I got on my horse to go away. 
 One, a very strong hale-looking young man, told me 
 he had been there three months, and in one of these 
 had earned 400 francs. My hostess had before said 
 that some only made three francs a day. The 
 explanation of these different accounts seems to be, 
 that the payment is by the piece ; and probably 
 the unfortunate persons referred to had had fever 
 and lost their strength, while the young man, having 
 arrived in the winter, had as yet not experienced 
 this misfortune. lie told me that he had served 
 three years as a soldier in Berlin, and had seen a 
 good deal of other parts of the world. He did not 
 think he shoidd remain long in Africa. 
 
 The copper ore obtained in these mines is smelted 
 on the spot, and conveyed on the back of mules to 
 Medeah. It is from thence carted to Algiers, and 
 there shipped, chiefly (as I was told) to England, to 
 the amount of 2,000 tons annually. Each ton of ore 
 contains from 500 to 600 grammes of silver, but no 
 appreciable quantity of gold. 
 
 I was desirous of visiting the Teniat (defile), as the 
 pass over the mountains is called by which the old 
 road from the Metidja ran ; and to do this, it was
 
 124 BATTLE OF THE TENIAT. 
 
 requisite to have the escort of a native. The kindness 
 of the manager of the works procured me the com- 
 pany of an Arab, Avho, in spite of his mean appearance 
 and the yet more miserable condition of his horse, 
 was, I imagine, a man of some distinction ; for all 
 whom we met on the way kissed his hand with great 
 respect, except one proud-looking fellow, who recipro- 
 cated a salute on the cheek. 
 
 I was told it would take two hours to mount to 
 the Teniat, but we performed the distance really in 
 little more than an hour. This is the position which 
 Abd-el-Kader occupied in the battle which has been 
 referred to ; and he all but succeeded in holding it. 
 He had placed several guns in commanding situations, 
 and the ascent is so steep that the "French had, in 
 many parts, to employ their hands in climbing, and 
 not an officer up to the general remained on horse- 
 back. The original intention of Marshal Valee had 
 been to penetrate the mountains by way of Milianah ; 
 1)ut the Emir, by a scries of manoeuvres, the skill and 
 courajxe of which called forth the admiration of the 
 French officers, succeeded in turning him to this pass, 
 where preparations had been made for receiving him, 
 and where the Arabs were assured by their chief that 
 the whole army of the invaders would find their 
 graves. His expectations were nearly realized. The 
 bulk of the French army Avas composed of young 
 soldiers; but, fortunately, the general adopted the
 
 VIEW FROM THE TENIAT. 125 
 
 precaution of placing veterans in the beads of his 
 cohnnns, and this wise measure saved the day. The 
 generals Changarnier and Lamoriciere, then colonels, 
 greatly distinguished themselves on this occasion. 
 The latter led one of the attacking columns. 
 
 The construction of the new road to ]\Icdeali 
 through the valley of the Chiffa, has, as in all similar 
 cases, been fatal to the old one over the Teniat, which 
 has been let go out of repair, although for some time 
 after the occupation of Medeah it was kept up in 
 a condition which admitted of the passage of artillery. 
 So soft is the soil, and so violent the rains, that even 
 already it is, in some places, almost washed away. 
 No one uses it but the Arabs with their mules ; but 
 they, the most obstinate conservatives on the face of 
 the earth, persist in preferring it to the new route. 
 
 From the summit of the pass the view over the 
 Metidja is shghtly limited on the western side by the 
 projecting buttresses of the Atlas ; but towards the 
 north-east the whole extent of the Saliel as far as the 
 IVIaison Carree lies directly before the spectator. 
 Behind the Sahel is the sea; and, in the extreme 
 distance to the right, the lower ranges of the Atlas, 
 which beyond Eonduck take a northerly direction, 
 and constitute the western bank of the valley of the 
 Boudouaou. This part is thickly covered with wood, 
 and, more than almost any other portion of Algeria, 
 the haunt of wild beasts. But in the midst of the
 
 126 TOMB OF THE QUEEN 
 
 vast expanse, where the traces of men are so shght, 
 the eye is attracted by an object bespeaking an 
 altogether different order of thhigs. This is a conical 
 pyramid, standing on the highest part of the Sahel, 
 which even from that distance indicates that it must 
 have been raised by the hand of man, and formed of 
 a material of a more durable character than the 
 ordinary soil of the hills. It goes among the natives 
 by the name of Khober-el-Roumiyeh, " Tomb of the 
 Roman woman," (or, the " Christian woman,") and 
 appears on the charts under that of " Tombeau de la 
 Reine." Shaw says that, in his time, the Turks 
 called it Maltapasi (the Treasure of the Sugar-loaf). 
 There can be no doubt, however, that it is really an 
 old Manritanian work, the same which a Roman 
 geographer* terms " the common monument of the 
 royal family," and that it was erected by the same 
 people and for the same purposes as another tumulus 
 in the province of Constantine that the French have 
 christened " the tomb of Syphax," which is in a far 
 better state of preservation, and which will be described 
 
 * Mela, De situ orbis, i. 6. 10. The commentators, with the excep- 
 tion of Perizonius, have made sad confusion of this passage, which, 
 as it stands in the MSS.,. is perfectly lucid to any one who sails along 
 the coast, as the writer tacitly assumes, from west to east. " Urbium 
 
 qiins habet [Numidia] maximee sunt, Cirla procul a mart lol ad 
 
 mare, aliquando if/nobilis, nunc quia Jubce regia fuit et quod Ccesarea 
 vocitatur, illustris. CiTRA Iianc, {nam in medio ferme littore sita est,) 
 Cartinna et Arsinna sunt oppida et Quiza castellum et Laturus sinus et 
 Sardabale Jlutius : ULTRA, Monumentum commune regia gentis, deinde 
 Icosium et Ruthisia urbes, etjluentes inter eas Aveus et Kabar," &c.
 
 A MAURITANIAN MONUMENT. 127 
 
 in another chapter. The " Tombeau de la Reine," 
 however, has the advantage of the other monument as 
 regards its situation, which is incomparable for the 
 object designed. The crest of the Sahel, in the part 
 where it stands, rises considerably above the general 
 level, and for many miles out at sea the " tomb " 
 forms the best of landmarks. It may be seen also 
 from many parts of the plain of the Metidja, and from 
 the whole of the northern crest of the Atlas. The 
 best land view of all is that from the cemetery at 
 Blidah, from which it bears west-north-west. It is a 
 truncated cone on a cylindrical base, built of a fine 
 limestone, Shaw estimated the diameter of the base 
 at ninety feet, and the height of the monument at 
 a hundred ; but he is so inaccurate as regards its 
 figure, that I should be inchned to place little depend- 
 ence on these numbers. The cylindrical base is 
 certainly not more than one-fourth the height of the 
 whole, but Shaw makes it one-half. Neither is it 
 easy to believe that the diameter of the base is less 
 than the altitude of the whole, although it certainly 
 does not exceed it in so great a proportion as is the 
 case with the " tomb of Syphax." 
 
 It had been my intention, immediately on returning 
 from the visit to Medeah, to proceed by sea to 
 Philippeville, and devote the remainder of my time to 
 a tour in the interior of the province of Constantine, 
 — far the richest of the three in Roman remains.
 
 128 ■ VISIT TO GREAT KABYLIE. 
 
 Accidental circumstariccs, however, caused the delay 
 of a steamer in which I had taken a berth, and 
 I found that I had four clear days to spare before 
 embarking. I had often before, from the fiat roof of 
 my hotel in Algiers, admired the Djerjera with its 
 snow-clad peaks, and felt a great desire to see some- 
 thing of the hardy race inhabiting its valleys, the 
 complete subjection of which to France had been the 
 work of only the last year. The weather — it was now 
 the last week of i\Iarch — had become fine and settled, 
 and an enterprising inhabitant of Algiers determined 
 to take advantage of the new military road which had 
 just been completed, to run a diligence into the heart 
 of Great Kabylie. This was advertised to go as 
 far as Tizi-Ouzou in a single day, and I calculated 
 that, in the event of the promise being realized, 
 I should be able to visit both Dollys, the port of 
 Kabylie, and Fort Napoleon, the military key of the 
 country, and return to Algiers in time to take the 
 steamboat for the eastern province. My kind friend, 
 the Vicomtc Fenelon, assured me that I should never 
 get to Tizi-Ouzou by the diligence in a day, or 
 probably at all ; but I determined to try my chance, 
 and, fortified with letters from him to the com- 
 mandant at Tizi-Ouzou, I set off at five o'clock in the 
 morning, in a vehicle something like a low break 
 covered with a canvas hood. 
 
 Wc left Algiers by the road to the Maison Carree,
 
 CROSS THE METIDJA. 129 
 
 and crossed the Metidja by an excellent road running 
 about east by north to the low hills which intervene 
 between Fonduck and the sea. Por the seven or 
 eight miles after leaving the Maison Carree, the culti- 
 vation of corn is continuous on both sides of the road, 
 which here passes along a comparatively elevated 
 strip. But from Ruiba, a village situated on the 
 road about seventeen miles from Algiers, the country 
 begins to be under tillage only in spots here and 
 there, and its general appearance is that of a vast flat 
 covered with asphodel and wild artichoke, and studded 
 with brushwood. The road gradually descends from 
 this point to the bridge of the Reghaija, one of the 
 sluggish brooks of the Metidja which struggle north- 
 wards to the sea, turning the soil in their neighbour- 
 hood into marsh. The Reghaija is here but little 
 above the sea-level ; but the road at once begins again 
 to ascend, and in three or four miles reaches an ele- 
 vation of 160 or 170 feet, when a descent again 
 commences through low hills, over which the brush- 
 wood is extremely thick, to the new village of Alma 
 in the valley of the Boudouaou. This river is consi- 
 dered the boundary of the Metidja to the eastward. 
 The bridge of the Boudouaou I estimated at about 
 thirty-five feet above the sea-level, and between seventy 
 and eighty below the village. Just after crossing it 
 we stopped for breakfast, an affair of nearly two hours, 
 as the horses which had brought us from the Maison
 
 130 WILD BEASTS. 
 
 Carree had to be fed and rested, to enable tliem to 
 resume tlieir course. I had here an opportunity of 
 makmg the acquaintance of my fellow-travellers. Two 
 of them were the wives of French officers going to 
 join their husbands in Kabylie, and a third that of 
 a colonist in the same country, of a lower class. 
 Besides these was a young German nobleman, with 
 a Russian tutor, who was about to make a tour in the 
 same region. I thought he was going on a shooting 
 excursion, as he carried a double-barrelled gun in his 
 hand; but he told me that he only did this on 
 account of the character of the country, thinking it 
 well to appear armed among such a popidation. 
 
 Between the descent upon the Boudouaou and the 
 neighbourhood of the Isser, the country for the space 
 of fifteen or twenty miles is a good deal infested w^ith 
 wild beasts, and the Arabs and colonists sometimes 
 lose their cattle. This intelligence seemed to cause 
 some discomfort to the German, which was increased 
 by one of the ladies informing him that a lion had 
 been seen in the middle of the day about a fortnight 
 before, after having killed two cows belonging to 
 a neighbouring douair. Panthers are also found in 
 the locality, — an animal much more dreaded than 
 the lion by the natives. We saw, however, neither 
 these nor any other beast of prey ; nor, indeed, any 
 indication of their existence, except it were some 
 bones apparently belonging to a slaughtered ox.
 
 MARKET ON THE ISSER. 131 
 
 which seemed as if they had been gnawed by 
 jackals. 
 
 The road continues with a gentle rise and fall 
 through a thickly-wooded country, until after passing 
 a col of a few hundred feet above the sea-level, thirty - 
 seven miles distant from Algiers ; when the descent 
 into the valley of the Isser, the frontier of Kabylie, com- 
 mences, and the wood begins to be more sparse and 
 at last to fail altogether. The region through which 
 the Reghaija, the Boudouaou, and the Oued Corso 
 (another small river between the Boudouaou and 
 the Isser) flow, comprises the outJum (or circle) of 
 Khachna. On arriving at the Isser, we found that 
 it was the day of the weekly market, and had we 
 been earlier, should probably have seen several thou- 
 sands of the natives collected in a large open space 
 on the eastern bank of the river ; but it was nearly 
 four o'clock in the afternoon, and the greater part of 
 the crowd had already dispersed. Others were mount- 
 ing their horses and mules to make the best of their 
 way home. The French have built a caravanserai 
 here, for the convenience of the officers and other 
 travellers whose business may take them into Kabylie ; 
 and three of my fellow-travellers, — tlie German wdth 
 his companion, and one of the ladies, — stopped at it. 
 I went on with the remaining two as far as Zib 
 Zamoun, another caravanserai where we were to pass 
 the night, and where (as T had been forewarned) it 
 
 K 2
 
 132 MARSHY PLAINS. 
 
 became necessary to exchange the carriage for a seat 
 on a horse or mule. Except for the herds of cattle 
 which cover it, nothing could be more dreary than the 
 face of the country for some miles beyond the Isser. 
 It presents the appearance of large marshy plains 
 covered with dwarf-palm and the plants which love 
 wet soils, especially the asphodel, which fills the air 
 with a smell no less powerful and even more dis- 
 agreeable than that which proceeds from the turnip 
 fields of Norfolk. It was at this time in full flower. 
 The road through the plain was extremely bad, and 
 we were all obliged to get out several times to enable 
 the horses to extricate the vehicle from the ruts in 
 which it had stuck. At one time I despaired of 
 getting on any farther; but Avith the assistance of 
 some natives in raising one of the wheels, and an 
 energetic appeal, both by word and whip, to the 
 struggling horses, we succeeded in scrambling out of 
 our prison, and reached Zib Zamoun about an hour 
 before sunset. 
 
 I had learnt before setting out in the morning, 
 that the idea of proceeding as far as Tizi-Ouzou on 
 wheels had been renounced; but I still hoped that, 
 if we had arrived tolerably early at Zib Zamoun, I 
 might have been able to obtain horses to proceed 
 onwards at once. But tliis now was impossible, 
 and I made up my mind to pass the night in 
 the caravanserai, and sot ofl^, if I could obtain the
 
 CARAVANSERAIS. 133 
 
 means, an hour before daybreak. The caravanserais 
 of Algeria are generally large squares or oblongs, 
 adapted for defence, in case of necessity, against 
 any attack of the natives. The quadrangle is 
 entered by only one door in the loop-holed wall. 
 Inside there is a certain amount of shed for mer- 
 chandise and horses belonging to travellers, or for 
 the common soldiers ; and in the open space in the 
 middle there lie mules, asses, and camels. They«r- 
 dien of the caravanserai is allowed to receive guests 
 like the landlord of an hotel, reserving only two or 
 three rooms for the use of the military officers who 
 may be on their way to join their posts. When they 
 accompany troops who pass the night in bivouack, 
 they have no claim to this accommodation. The 
 other apartments are filled with beds, four or five in 
 one room, and the accommodation is of the roughest 
 kind. You get sheets, but not water unless you ask 
 for it. In fact, the description which was given to 
 me before I quitted Algiers exhausts the subject. On 
 a un abri, et meme qicelque chose a manger, et V on 
 n est pas cole : voila tout. The doors do not fasten, 
 and I was making up my mind to pass the night in 
 my cloak on one of four beds, with my writing-case 
 under my head, in the uncertainty of who might be 
 the tenants of the others, when I fortunately met 
 with a French officer, the colonel commanding the 
 regiment of Dellys, who, on finding that I was the
 
 134 HOSPITABLE FRENCHMEN. 
 
 bearer of a letter of introduction to the commandant 
 of Tizi-Ouzon, courteously asked me to dine Avitli liim- 
 self and another oflScial, the intendant of Dellys ; and 
 induced the " gardien " to put me into a separate 
 room containing only two beds. The second of these 
 was occupied by the colonel's orderly, who was not 
 allowed to enter the apartment until I might reason- 
 ably be supposed to be asleep, and vacated it the 
 next morninGr before the hour at which I intended to 
 rise. But though the politeness of these gentlemen 
 procured me an excellent dinner and comparatively 
 comfortable quarters, I passed a wretched night. The 
 noise of the horses munching their barley or whinnying 
 to one another, of camels growhng, and soldiers 
 talking, woke me as soon as ever I closed my eyes, 
 and I rose before daybreak with a headache and more 
 tired than when I lay down. 
 
 We set out from Zib Zamoun in a regular caravan. 
 I had agreed overnight to give an Arab a couple of 
 francs more than the usual tariff for a mule, on con- 
 dition that we shoidd start not later than half-past 
 five ; but when morning arrived, I found that although 
 the mule was brought, the guide was not forth- 
 coming, and he did not make his appearance until 
 an hour later, when the rest of the party who intended 
 proceeding into Kabylic were ready. At last the 
 cavalcade issued out of the gate of the caravanserai ; 
 the two French women and myself on three mules,
 
 VALLEY OF THE SEBAOU. 135 
 
 a Jew pedlar with his wares on a fourth, next five 
 packhorses loaded with merchandise, also belonging 
 to the Jew, then three asses, each with a Kabyle 
 behind him, loaded with corn and oil jars. Presently 
 we were joined by four camels, but these after a time 
 turned off on another track. Zib Zamoun caravan- 
 serai is situated nearly at the top of the col which 
 separates the valley of the Isser from that of the 
 Sebaou, the principal stream of Kabylie ; and within 
 a mile the road began to descend, in terraces along 
 the side of the mountain, to the level of the latter 
 river. The soil is extremely soft and rotten ; and 
 although there had not been rain for some days, 
 we got on very slowly. The holes made by the feet 
 of the baggage animals a few days back remained, 
 partially hardened ; and every minute I expected 
 my mule to break her legs by treading into some of 
 these, until we got down to the level of the river. 
 The present road into Kabylie pursues the left bank, 
 not crossing it as the old one (which alone appears 
 on the maps) did at the Borj-Sebaou. Two small 
 streams, which are forded, fall into the Sebaou from 
 the southern side. After a while we left the river 
 and struck inland in a south-easterly direction, and 
 soon after Tizi-Ouzou (hill of the prickly broom) 
 appeared in view. Its position is highly picturesque. 
 The river Sebaou, after descending from the high 
 mountains in the south of Kabylie, makes a kind of
 
 136 rORT OF TIZI-OUZOU. 
 
 loop from east to west northwards. This bend is 
 caused by a mountain of 1,200 or 1,300 feet high, 
 which is joined to the hills lying south of it by a 
 low narrow neck ; and it is on a mamelon rising out 
 of this neck that the fort of Tizi-Ouzou stands. 
 From its walls one has a charming view of the river, 
 both before it vanishes behind the hill and after 
 its reappearance, according as one looks to the east 
 or the west. Northwards is the elevation which 
 forms the peninsula, and to the south and the south- 
 east higher mountains still, the latter being the snow 
 peaks of Djerjera, the most lofty summits in North 
 Afiica, except some in the Aures. 
 
 The day proved extremely sultry and my mule very 
 sluggish, and the discomfort from these causes was 
 increased by having only the common Arab harre, 
 or packsaddle, to sit upon. The muleteer continually 
 left his charge in order to chatter with the Kabyles, 
 and then I could not avoid falling into the rear of 
 the procession. At last I discovered that the words 
 " Ah! ye brute !" pronounced in an angry tone and 
 with as much of the guttural as my south-country 
 mouth could compass, was not a bad imitation of 
 the Arab interjection used for stimulating baggage- 
 animals. I applied them with considerable success 
 for a league or two, when the cunning creature 
 discovered the imposition, and heard the appeal with 
 perfect composure. Beating produced no effect what-
 
 KABYLE FARMING. 137 
 
 ever ; and the projecting " barre " hindered the appli- 
 cation of spnrs. The only experiment which did not 
 entirely fail was tickling the shoulder of the animal 
 with a small piece of stick, which, I suspect, was 
 imagined to be a fly. 
 
 From the moment of arriving on the banks of the 
 Sebaou, it became plain that the land was cultivated 
 by very much better farmers than the Arabs. The 
 Kabyles are extremely industrious, and their crops 
 were almost as clean as those in the eastern counties. 
 There was a great breadth of land under cultivation ; 
 and the extreme fertility of the soil prevents the 
 necessity of doing more than ploughing a few inches 
 deep. The Kabyle at his plough is exactly represented 
 by the figures in the old bas-reliefs ; and the instru- 
 ment itself is constructed precisely as Virgil teaches. 
 There is not a particle of iron about it except the 
 tip of the share ; and it is so light, that the owner 
 may be constantly seen carrying the whole except the 
 yoke, and sometimes that too, home on his shoulders. 
 The oxen are of very low stature, something like the 
 Breton breed, and the agriculturist holds the single 
 handle of the plough with his right hand while he 
 guides them with a long stick stretched out in his 
 left. We passed by one or two Kabyle villages, and 
 saw some others on the mountains which bound the 
 valley of the Sebaou to the south. Mountains close 
 in both sides of the valley, in many places well cul-
 
 138 SUBJUGATION OE KAEYLEE. 
 
 tivatcd and wooded. The scenery is about on the 
 same scale as that of the vale of Newlands, near 
 Keswick. The huts of the natives are budt of stone 
 and thatched, without any chimney, but still of rather 
 a superior order to the gourhis of the agricultural 
 Arabs. Each has in general a very small bit of 
 garden attached to it, surrounded by a fence of dry 
 camel-thorn, so low that it can be useful only as a 
 symbol. I saw no 'cultivation except of cereals and 
 prickly pear; but the soil is well adapted for fruit- 
 trees, and, higher up in the mountains, for vines. 
 
 The Jew who was of our party had been a camp 
 follower of the expeditions under Marshal Bugeaud 
 in 1844 and 1846, and pointed out to me the scene 
 of a feat of the Prench troops in the former of those 
 years, when, by scaling the heights at break of day, 
 several Kabyle villages were sui'prised and destroyed. 
 The subjugation of the country was to a great extent 
 achieved by Marshal Bugeaud, before his retirement 
 to make room for the Duke d'Aumale as Governor- 
 General. But on the fall of the Orleans dynasty new 
 troubles arose ; and the final submission of the whole 
 of Kabylie did not take place till 1857, when the 
 Beni-Ratcn, the tribe which last retained its inde- 
 pendence, acknowledged the supremacy of the con- 
 querors. A week after this event took place. Colonel 
 Lallemont, the commandant at Tizi-Ouzou, adopting 
 the policy which had l)cen initiated by Lamoriciere
 
 MARKET or TIZI-OUZOU. 139 
 
 twenty years before, attended one of the great markets 
 of the tribe without arms, and accompanied by only a 
 single orderly. Fort Napoleon, by which the French 
 have clinched the conquest of the country, is built on 
 the site of one of these places of gathering, called 
 Souk-el-Arba, or simply I'Arba (Wednesday), from 
 the day of the week on which the market is held. It 
 is about four leagues to the eastward of Tizi-Ouzou, 
 and Dellys is nearly the same distance to the north. 
 
 At Tizi-Ouzou, the market-day is Saturday ; and I 
 was fortunate enough to arrive when the crowd was 
 the thickest. About half a mile from the fort three 
 or four thousand people were collected in a small 
 plain, to which the hills slope down on every side, 
 backed at a greater distance by others of considerable 
 elevation. The greater part of the company were 
 Kabyles, distinguishable from the Arabs by rarely 
 wearing the bournous, and by being in many instances 
 bareheaded and barefooted. On the lower hills was 
 picketed a crowd of horses, mules, asses, and camels, 
 while the owners transacted their business in the 
 plain. In this there appeared a great many tentes 
 d'abri, — which the French have adopted from the 
 natives, — filled with wares of iron, tin, crockery, 
 cotton, and silk. Some were stuffed with people 
 lying down for rest after the fatigues of the journey. 
 Cattle were standing about for sale, mules lying down, 
 often stretched on their sides with their legs tied.
 
 140 A TRANK MARABOUT. 
 
 Everybody seemed busy talking and cliaflfering. In 
 the midst, several spahis attached to the Bureau Arabe 
 were riding up and down, to keep order, and nip in 
 the bud any disturbance. This jurisdiction seems to 
 be quite popular with the natives. I saw a group of 
 fellows Avith a mule that had a twisted joint, which 
 was obviously an occasion of strife. All shouted with 
 one accord " Au bureau ! au bureau ! " — probably the 
 only French words they knew ; and undoubtedly the 
 rough, summary, costless way of administering justice 
 by that machinery is a great boon to them. An 
 accidental circumstance put me in the position of an 
 arbitrator. One man had found a napoleon, and did 
 not know what to do with it without consulting some 
 European authority. The heat of the sun had induced 
 mo to roll a white liaik round and over my black hat ; 
 and I afterwards found that this headdress caused me 
 to be regarded as a Frank marabout. Accordingly 
 the coin was brought and ofifered to me, not altogether 
 to the satisfaction of a companion of the possessor, 
 who when I took it in my hands obviously expected 
 me at once to duck under the crowd, and make ofi' 
 with the prize. By the help of signs I endeavoured 
 to explain to the man the value of the piece of gold, 
 and his own right to it ; and I hope my decision was 
 not at variance wdth the Kabyle law of treasure-trove. 
 It certainly had one merit in a judgment, — that of 
 satisfying the parties concerned.
 
 MILITARY TENURE OF LAND. 141 
 
 The intense heat had produced the appearance of a 
 gathering storm towards the middle of the day, and as 
 it grew later, 1o\y thunder began to growl among the 
 mountains, and clouds to collect about their tops. It 
 was plain I must resign the project of going on either 
 to Dellys or Fort Napoleon ; which otherwise the 
 kindness of Colonel Lallemont would have enabled me 
 to achieve, as he at once placed horses and a spahi 
 at my disposal. The spahis of Tizi-Ouzou are a body 
 which existed in the Turkish times. They hold the 
 plain by military service, and were originally composed 
 of adventurers from all countries. The French give 
 them a red bournous, and when they are actively em- 
 ployed a small daily pay ; and their allotments of 
 land enable them to maintain themselves in comfort 
 and respectability. Here one has an excellent illus- 
 tration of the feudal tenures of mediaeval Europe. The 
 spahi is in every respect the miles of the Norman con- 
 querors of England ; and if the French possession of 
 Algeria should be consolidated, the descent of the 
 land which is held on this tenure may in time give 
 rise to some of the peculiarities which existed in the 
 English common law. 
 
 Before leaving Tizi-Ouzou I walked up to the fort to 
 take leave of the commandant, and there found my 
 German and Russian travelling companions whom I 
 had left at the Isser. The former had taken his 
 double-barrelled gun out of its case, having arrived in
 
 142 QUARKELS OP THE KABYLES. 
 
 the country where he expected it might be useful; 
 and, although I have no doubt the vigorous govern- 
 ment of the French enabled him to travel as safely as 
 I did myself, the weapon must have proved a terrible 
 temptation to the Kabyles, who would perfectly appre- 
 ciate its beautiful finish, which was striking even to 
 an European. Unfortunately for the comfort of its 
 owner, news had just been brought of a disturbance 
 in the mountains between two tribes, which necessi- 
 tated the interference of the troops, and cost a few 
 lives. These, however, were sacrificed (as I heard) in 
 the quarrel, not in the means adopted for putting it 
 down. The fact is, that the internal government of 
 Kabyle tribes is a pm'e democracy ; and " diffi- 
 culties " which arise in the markets or elsewhere, are 
 settled very much in the way they are in the more 
 remote parts of the United States. 
 
 The Kabyles are at the present time an altogether 
 mixed race ; but beyond all doubt the nucleus of this 
 is the aboriginal population which the Greeks found 
 in Africa nearly three thousand years ago, and which 
 were described, as some parts of them are at this day, 
 by a name that in a Greek mouth became the word 
 " barbarous." In their purest state they exist in the 
 Aures mountains near Batna, in the hills above Bona, 
 in the mountain region south of Boujie, and in the 
 rugged cliff's of the Djerjera ; in fact, in exactly those 
 parts of the country which are most inaccessible, and
 
 THEIE, OEIGINAL STOCK. 143 
 
 would afford the best refuge from the conquering 
 races which one after another have overspread the 
 north of Africa. They are also found in some parts 
 of the empire of Morocco, and about eight or ten days' 
 journey to the south of Maskara, in the western pro- 
 vince of Algeria. In these localities the sands of the 
 desert woidd supply the same shelter which was fur- 
 nished by the steep mountains of the north. The 
 nomads in the plains of Morocco are said to call them- 
 selves Berbers, and to give the name of Chulups to 
 the stationary inhabitants of the hills belonging to the 
 same race ; but in the mountains of Algiers and Tunis 
 the name by which they go generically is that of 
 Kabyles. They, however, only designate themselves 
 by the name of the special tribe to which they belong, 
 as the Beni-Raten, the Flissa, the Beni-Abbes ; just as 
 the Scotch highlanders called themselves Campbells or 
 Gordons.* Their languages differ to a considerable 
 extent, as the dialects of Lancashire and Sussex may ' 
 do, but they all are able to understand one another. 
 In those parts of the country where they have been 
 brought into a closer contact wdth other races, both 
 the language and the blood is more mixed, the one by 
 the adoption of foreign words,! and the other by their 
 numbers having been recruited, for a series of genera- 
 tions, by refugee slaves from their more powerful 
 
 * The hill-tribes, however, speak of themselves and one another 
 as " Temazirght," i. e. " freemen." 
 
 t See the note at the end of this chapter.
 
 144 THEIR GOVERNMENT. 
 
 neighbours. In proportion as the power of these 
 waned, the Kabyles extended their settlements, and 
 moved down into the phains about their mountain for- 
 tresses, or up into the hill country surrounding the 
 desert. Seven or eight centuries ago, a powerful 
 confederation of the Kabyle tribes existed, extending 
 from Boujie to Algiers, and covering a considerable 
 portion of the Metidja. The Hadjoutes, which the 
 French on their arrival found to the west of the 
 Mazafran, are also a Kabyle tribe. The characteristics 
 of the race very much resemble those of the Swiss. 
 They are brave, hardy, vindictive, utterly fearless of 
 death, and above all things jealous of their indepen- 
 dence. When they go to war, every man capable of 
 bearing arms appears in the field. On any special 
 emergency each village assembles and elects a repre- 
 sentative, and the aggregate of these select a chief for 
 the command of the whole tribe ; but the authority of 
 this functionary ceases as soon as the occasion for his 
 services is past ; and even before that time arrives, if 
 his conduct should not give satisfaction, his con- 
 stituents meet together and at once depose him. For 
 ordinary purposes they submit implicitly to the autho- 
 I'ity of their marabouts, for whom their respect is 
 unbounded. They are Mahometans, but it is only the 
 marabouts who can read Arabic, and their instruction 
 is derived from the oral teaching of these. All the 
 words in their language which relate to religion, and
 
 THEIR PEllSONAL CHARACTER. 145 
 
 almost all to the arts of life, are of Arabic orisin. 
 The women generally go unveiled, and the men bare- 
 lieaded; but neither of these customs is universal. 
 They are extremely frugal and industrious. It is a 
 common thing for a Kabyle to hire himself out as a 
 labourer in the towns, and after several years to return 
 to his native mountains with the produce of his earn- 
 ings. If he can get sufficient to procure a wife, a hut, 
 a gun, a yataghan, a spade, an iron pot, a hand-mill, 
 and a dog, he is quite content. If in addition he 
 acquires a plough with draught oxen, and if his house 
 is built of stone, he is regarded as a man of fortune. 
 Many of the Kabyles, like the Swiss, adopt the pro- 
 fession of mercenary soldiers. A great number of 
 them were in the service of the Emperor of Morocco, 
 and at the time of the French invasion many were 
 perfectly ready to take service under them against the 
 Arabs, for whom they entertain great contempt. The 
 Zouaves — a name familiar in English mouths — 
 although now without exception Europeans, were 
 in their origin a force raised from one of these 
 tribes, the Zouaoua,* which had never submitted to the 
 
 * The Zouaoua, who lie between the Flissa and the Beni- Abbes, 
 were at one time the centre of a kingdom (Koukou). In the time 
 of Herodotus they must have given their name to a large district, for 
 it is doubtless these whom he means by the Zauekes (iv. 193). The 
 last part of this word is a Kabyle root meaning " territory," so that 
 Zauekes means " the inhabitants of the Zouagha, or Zona's land," 
 and is formed by the same sort of false analogy that produced the 
 name " Penshurst Wood." The Buzantes (as it should be written : 
 see Stephanus Byzantinus, stib voce), whom he joins with them,
 
 146 FRENCH TROOPS IN BIVOUACK. 
 
 Algerine domination, and readily joined the invaders 
 against the common enemy. 
 
 I had intended to set off very early in the morning 
 from Tizi-Ouzou to avoid the heat of the weather ; but 
 owing to some misunderstanding, the horses were not 
 brought until half-past eight. But I was well mounted 
 on an excellent Arab horse belonging to a spahi, and 
 by four o'clock in the afternoon I reached the caravan- 
 serai at the Isser (where I proposed to pass the night) 
 with far less fatigue than had resulted from only two- 
 thirds of the distance the day before on my sluggish 
 mule. Between the valley of the Sebaou and Zib 
 Zamoun, where I stopped an hour to breakfast, I met 
 a battalion of French soldiers forming part of a force 
 to be employed in improving the roads of Kabylie 
 and draining some marshes. The condition of the 
 route was very bad where I encountered them, and 
 great was the disgust apparent on every face. What 
 they were coming to, however, was much worse. On 
 arriving at the Isser, I found three battalions more 
 encamped, and at Boudouaou, the next day, two more 
 following them. The appearance of the camp at the 
 Isser was very lively ; and the men had all made 
 themselves comfortable, and seemed full of good- 
 humour. The tents were all pitched, and cooking 
 
 are "the men of Bujie or Buzie." In 1833 the Kabyles in the 
 mountains round about this place could bring 20,000 armed men 
 into the field. The Beni-Abbcs, like the Chaldeans of Kurdistan, 
 were manufacturers of arms. The town of Kala (which was their 
 fortress) is only tive or six leagues from the Biban or Iron Gates.
 
 THEIR ORDER AND HELPFULNESS. 147 
 
 was going on in messes. Several of the soldiers were 
 fishing in the river, others bathing or washing their 
 shirts. I saw no drunkenness or disorder of any- 
 kind, either in the camp or the neighbourhood, and 
 was everywhere treated with civility. While strolling 
 by the bank of the river, I came suddenly on the 
 carcase of a horse out of which several pieces had 
 been cut. This was, probably, a sumpter animal, 
 killed by an accident. The French soldiers in Africa 
 eat, without the slightest hesitation, the flesh of any 
 horse or mule which is so killed. On their expedi- 
 tions into the interior, the commissariat does not 
 profess to carry any other food than biscuit for them, 
 and they get no meat but what can be procured 
 on the spot, or is the result of accidents. My 
 informant told me that, in the Kabylie expedition of 
 1857, a mule happened to fall from a precipice, and 
 in a quarter of an hour's time not a hoof was left. 
 His own cook served him up some of the carcase as 
 lamb ; and the only fault he found with the dish was 
 that it was too fat. The allowance of the soldier is 
 three biscuits a day; and on some expeditions he is 
 compelled to carry rations for six or seven days in 
 addition to his arms and accoutrements. On one 
 occasion, my informant told me, he had known 
 biscuits for eleven days carried by each man. This 
 is, I fancy, more than is done in any other army of 
 modern times; but yet the Roman legionary would 
 
 L 2
 
 148 ADMIR^LE DISCIPLINE 
 
 have thought it a hght ^yeight compared with that on 
 his own shoulders. 
 
 The discipline of the French regiments which have 
 been for some time in Africa is, apparently, all that 
 can be desired. The Zouaves are especially remark- 
 able in this respect. They are an extremely fine body 
 of men, at least equal in point of physique to oiu" 
 foot-guards, and far superior to them as regards 
 education and habits of life. During the whole of my 
 stay in Algeria, I never saw a Zouave either intoxi- 
 cated or engaged in any discreditable act. The 
 regiments of the line are, in every respect, much 
 inferior. It is the practice to take one of these out 
 every fine day upon a promenade militaire, to accustom 
 them gradually to the exigencies of war. They pro- 
 ceed to some distance, as if on actual service, pitch 
 their tents, cut wood and cook their rations, and 
 return to barracks in the afternoon. But although 
 the object is to rehearse the incidents of a campaign 
 in the presence of the enemy, and the semblance of 
 war is kept up even to leading spare sumpter mules 
 with the troops, habits of slovenliness have been 
 allowed to creep into the system. One day I came 
 upon a battalion just marching out of Algiers, and 
 determined to accompany them. Everything went on 
 en rcf/Ie while we were in the neighbourhood of the 
 town ; but immediately after this, bayonets were 
 unfixed miuI swords shoatlicd, the otficer commanding 
 
 i
 
 or A PAET OF THE ARMY. 149 
 
 the advanced guard quitted his men and took a short 
 cut across the common under Mustapha, and the men 
 carried their muskets in any way that most suited 
 their ideas of comfort. On arriving at the Jardin 
 d'Essai, a halt for a quarter of an hour took place, and 
 the officer again quitted his men to have a chat and 
 a cup of coffee in the cafe opposite. I availed myself 
 of the opportunity to feel the weight of one of the 
 knapsacks ; but the owner informed me, with a smile, 
 that on actual service it would weigh twice as much, 
 for that on these occasions they made it as light as 
 possible. The ammunition boxes on the mules were, 
 if I might judge from the sound as they shook, 
 similarly emptied. This regiment might, possibly, have 
 recently arrived from France, and be an exception to 
 the ordinary rule ; but it certainly made an indifferent 
 figure. The road was excessively muddy, and the 
 men expressed their annoyance very generally, although 
 in a good-humoured way. Probably a good deal of 
 tact is required in bringing new arrivals up to the 
 proper standard of efficiency. 
 
 Military punishments are extremely common. 
 Scarcely a week takes place without something of the 
 kind. One day I was a spectator of the expulsion 
 of a soldier from the army. He was placed in the 
 centre of the Place Royale, around which several 
 companies were drawn up. The commanding officer 
 read aloud a paper containing his sentence and the
 
 150 MILITARY PUNISHMENT. 
 
 grounds of it. A musket was then put into his hands, 
 and he went through the manual exercise backwards, 
 after which the piece was lowered from his shoulders 
 to the ground, and he was compelled to step over it. 
 The military buttons were then cut from his dress, 
 and, no longer a soldier, he was made over to the 
 civil power for the further punishment of seven years' 
 hard labour. This man's offence had been disorderly 
 conduct in one of the natives' houses, and resistance 
 to the authorities who were called in to put a stop to 
 it ; in the course of which he struck his commanding 
 officer. He had been in a military prison for two 
 years before, and was just discharged when he com- 
 mitted the offence which led to his further punish- 
 ment. 
 
 Note to Page 143. 
 
 The following considerations induce me to believe that the 
 language now spoken by the Kabyles is substantially the same as 
 that which prevailed in the north of Africa more than two thousand 
 years ago ; a language bearing, probably, about the same relation to 
 that of an educated Carthaginian, as the spoken dialect of the Saxon 
 boors in the reign of Edward III. might to the written language of 
 Wichf:— 
 
 1. St. Augustine, on an occasion of explaining the word " Messias," 
 remarks that the Punic word " Messe" is equivalent to the Latin 
 " ungue." {TracL 15, in Johan. Evang. c. iv. § 27.) The student is 
 naturally surprised that, in employing such an illustration, Augustine 
 should have selected an imperative mood. But, in fact, the impera- 
 tive mood is in the Kabyle language the root of the verb, all other 
 forms of which are moulded upon this one. It seems an obvious 
 inference that the same remarkable peculiarity existed in the 
 language that Augustine calls " Punic." 
 
 2. But the "Punic" of Augustine is " the only language besides
 
 NOTE ON KABYLE LANGUAGE. 151 
 
 Latin in use in the parts where the Donatist tenets found support." 
 {Tract. 2, in Ep. Johan. § 3.) It must, therefore, be the common 
 African, the popular language of his time, not any dialect which 
 may be supposed to have been employed by literary Carthaginians 
 and to have become obsolete upon the destruction of the Cartha- 
 ginian State. And it was the language of the country, not of the 
 townspeople ; for, if spoken in the towns, Augustine's congregation 
 would not have been so entirely ignorant of it as he assumes them 
 to be. (See Ojpp. vol. iv. p. 1234, ed. Ven.) It is, therefore, the 
 language of the hillsmen, of the inhabitants of those chains of moun- 
 tains which run along the coast westward from Hippo (Bona) to the 
 neighbourhood of Cape Matifou, — a region which at this day is 
 occupied exclusively by Kabyles. 
 
 3. In the extent of coast just mentioned, the Antonine Itinerary 
 and Ptolemy give the following towns, — Rusicada (on the site of 
 Philippeville), whose name still may be traced in the modern Skikda, 
 Eusazus, Rusubeser, Rusuccurus or Rusicurium, Rusicibar or 
 Eusubbicari, and Rusgunium. In all these manifestly native names 
 the first syllable is a Kabyle word, which in its various forms of 
 Rus, Ras, Ros, or Ris, signifies " head" or " cape." 
 
 4. The name by which the natives of North Africa called their 
 gourbis, a century before Christ, was " magalia," which Bochart has 
 shown is merely a corruption of the genuine Punic word " magaria," 
 the well-known name of one quarter of Carthage. But "magalia" 
 still survives in the Kabyle phrase "'1 mehalla" (a camp), 
 
 5. The Kabyles of the present day use one and the same word 
 indiflferently to denote an European and a Christian. This word is 
 Iroumi, which is obviously derived from Roma, and, consequently, 
 must have been adopted in the times when to be a Roman and 
 a Christian were nearly convertible terms. This would be the case 
 in the time of Augustine, when the Christian Churches in Africa 
 were composed almost exclusively of the Roman population in the 
 towns on the coast and the commercial routes. 
 
 6. Herodotus relates a story of one of the chiefs of Cyrene, to 
 whom a strange oracle was given in figurative terms. In the event 
 of his pursuing a certain policy he is menaced with death, in which 
 he will have for a partner "the sm^passing bidl" (ravpos 6 KaWia-Tevcov). 
 He did not take the warning, and he paid the penalty of his rashness 
 in being assassinated, together with his father-in-law Alazir, by the 
 people of Barca, of which place Alazir was king. The modern 
 Kabyle language explains the oracle, which the father of history has 
 left in obscurity. In it the word "ezghir" signifies "a bull," and 
 this, with the prefix of the definite article, "Tezghir," is at once 
 recognised as the name of the Barcsean chief, gk being merely the 
 strong aspirate.
 
 152 THE WESTERN PROVINCE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At the beginning of March, there being every 
 appearance of the winter rains having passed over, 
 I determined to proceed by sea to Oran, the seat of 
 government of the Western Province of Algeria, with 
 the intention of devoting a fortnight to visiting the 
 most remarkable localities in the neighbourhood, after 
 which the season would be sufficiently advanced to 
 allow of my going to the high plateaux of the Central 
 and Eastern Provinces without prejudice to the main 
 object of my sojourn in Africa. The Government 
 steamers run every ten days between Algiers and 
 Oran ; but the chance of a berth in these is very 
 uncertain, for they are, in fact, intended merely 
 for the postal service of the littoral, between the 
 two extremities Oran and Bona, and the little cabin 
 accommodation they possess is liable to be forestalled 
 for the use of the military stafiP. It is impossible 
 to take a berth beforehand ; and when the boat 
 arrives, there is a rush, it may be at five and six 
 o'clock in the morning, to secure such places as are
 
 COASTING VOYAGE. 153 
 
 to be had. But there is a private company, whose 
 vessels every twenty-four or twenty-five days run 
 between Marseilles and Malta, crossing from the 
 former to Oran, and thence making a coasting voyage 
 as far as Tunis, from which port they stand across to 
 the other extremity of their course. In one of them, 
 the Vincent, I was fortunate enougli to obtain a berth 
 immediately after being disappointed of one in the 
 Government steamer; and on the night of the 2d 
 of March we left the harbour of Algiers with a bright 
 moon but a contrary wind. The barometer fell very 
 much on the 1st, and the Vincent was kept back twelve 
 hours on account of the strength of the wind which 
 followed this indication. But at sunset on the 2d 
 there seemed to be a lull, and at 11 p.m. we put 
 to sea in hopes that the gale was over. The ex- 
 pectation was not realized, and after proceeding 
 between forty and fifty miles, we were compelled to 
 turn about, and seek for shelter once more in the 
 harbour of Algiers. At the time of turning (about 
 7 A.M. on the 3d) we were nearly abreast of 
 Cherchell ; and although the west wind had become 
 insuperable, the weather was beautifully clear, and 
 we returned, except when stretching across a bay, 
 at a distance of not more than three or four miles 
 from the shore. Not suff'ering from sea-sickness, 
 I rather rejoiced at our mischance, as it enabled me 
 to examine at my leisure the whole of the coast
 
 154 VIEW OF COAST. 
 
 between Chercliell and Algiers, although the rough- 
 ness of the sea frustrated all attempts at the very 
 rudest outline. The two chief objects were the 
 " Tombeau de la Heine," and the peninsula of Sidi 
 Fenidje. It was the first sight I had had of the 
 former, and it instantly arrested my attention. The 
 captain of the steamer averred that it was a natural 
 mound ; but it is really built of cut stone, as I learnt 
 from the superintendent of the Museum at Algiers, 
 M. Berbrugger, who had visited it and made some 
 excavations. From the sea, it seems to stand on 
 the highest point of the Sahcl, as on a pedestal, 
 backed by the Atlas mountains in the distance, the 
 lake of Aloula and the plain of the Metidja lying 
 between the two ranges. 
 
 On the 4th of March we made another trial to get 
 westward, and leaving Algiers at eight o'clock in the 
 morning, were ofiF Cape Tcnez just about sunset, with 
 the finest weather, although the wind still headed us. 
 Between the Ras el Ammouch (the cape just to the 
 east of Cherchell) and Cape Tenez the coast forms a 
 bay of the greatest beauty, the hills coming down 
 quite into the sea, very like the mountains of Cum- 
 berland both in size and shape. Behind them, every 
 now and then, one catches a sight of the Atlas in 
 some of its highest parts near about Milianah. Just 
 after passing the Ras cl Ammouch (which is the 
 termination of a magnificent mountain, a sort of
 
 HARBOURLESS SEA. 155 
 
 outlying mass of the Atlas range, to which it is 
 joined by a lower col covered with fine timber), the 
 remains of a Roman aqueduct appear. This supplied 
 Julia Csesarea, of which Cherchell is the modern repre- 
 sentative, with water. But east of the cape are other 
 ruins ; and it is there that I am inclined to believe 
 the old Mauritanian town, lol, formerly stood. The 
 " Tombeau de la Reine" obviously connects itself 
 with these ruins as they are seen from the sea ; and 
 the eastern, uot the western, side of the cape is the 
 place where shelter would be sought by the trading 
 vessels of the ancients from the prevalent wind in 
 this part of the Mediterranean. Indeed, this place 
 and the bay of Arzew, which is similarly situated, are 
 the only roads in which vessels can find shelter in the 
 whole line of coast between Oran and Philippeville.* 
 The sea which washes the shore of northern Africa well 
 deserves its ancient epithet of " harbour-less ;" but the 
 captain of the steamer told me that, if again forced 
 back, he could lie under the lee of Ras el Ammouch, 
 
 * The harbour of Algiers is of course no real exception, being 
 formed by artificial breakwaters. The port at Julia Ctesarea was 
 also an artificial one, — an excavation like those at Carthage and some 
 other places on the coast of North Africa. To these the ancients 
 gave the name of Cothoti. That of Csesarea must always have been 
 very difficult to make ; and I apprehend that the trading vessels of 
 the Roman empire made use of the roads of lol for temporary shelter, 
 tind then during fine weather moved into the Cothon to discharge 
 their cargoes. The same kind of thing takes place now at Oran. 
 Vessels habitually lie in the roads of Mers-el-Kebii', where they are 
 safe from all winds but one ; and when the weather permits, are 
 brought from thence into the harbour of Oran.
 
 156 VIEW OF CHERCHELL. 
 
 and would do so. The modern Cherchell contains 
 but very few houses within the walls (so far as the 
 view from the sea may be trustedj ; but there is a 
 large building, which I was informed was a miUtary 
 hospital, and in the neighbourhood are two camps, 
 built so as to command the country and keep the 
 neighbouring Kabyles in awe. These people have 
 cleared and tilled a good many spots in the high 
 mountain which terminates in the cape, as well as 
 in the others to the south. A road from Cherchell, 
 practicable for wheeled carriages in the summer only, 
 runs through the forest of timber-trees spoken of 
 above, and after passing through Marengo, a fever- 
 stricken French village created in 1848, proceeds to 
 join the route which unites Blidah with Miliana. 
 From Marengo it is possible to pass direct to Algiers ; 
 but as far as Koleah the traveller must go on horse- 
 back, although on arriving at the latter place he will 
 find one of the best roads in Algeria, and a daily 
 diligence to Algiers. Koleah is not seen from the 
 sea, because it is on the southern incline of the Sahel; 
 but it is not very far removed from it. It is nearly 
 abreast of the steamers when they are half-way 
 between the promontory of Sidi Ferudje and the 
 Tonibeau do la Reine. There is a strong military 
 force there in fortified barracks; and the town, 
 although an Arab one originally, has been so meta- 
 morphosed by the French, who iiave taken possession
 
 ITS CAPTUEE BY THE PilENCH. 157 
 
 of it, and cut sash-windows in the houses, that it is 
 difficult to imagine that it was recently a place 
 esteemed sacred by the natives. Such, however, is 
 the case ; and even yet the tomb of the marabout, 
 whose reputation made the place illustrious, is, in 
 deference to the feelings of the natives, closed against 
 all Christians, although the mosque which was built 
 by its side has been converted into a military 
 hospital. 
 
 The Kabyles in the neighbourhood of Cherchell 
 gave the French a good deal of trouble in the first 
 eighteen years of the occupation ; and the camp at 
 Koleah was, in fact, intended to secure the settlers in 
 the Metidja against incursions from this quarter. 
 Cherchell itself was not occupied in force until the 
 outbreak of the war with Abd-el-Kader in 1839. 
 The French met with no resistance in entering the 
 town ; but it was entirely deserted by its inhabitants, 
 and they found no human being within the walls, 
 except a blind beggar and a dwarf idiot. Eut the 
 mountaineers, especially the Beni-Menasser, maintained 
 a perpetual warfare with the garrison until the year 
 1842, when the vigorous efforts of Marshal Bugeaud 
 and General Changarnier succeeded to a great measure 
 in breaking their spirit, and the ruin of Abd-el-Kader 
 completed their submission. 
 
 Tenez, which is considered half-way between Algiers 
 and Oran, lies a little to the westward of the cape.
 
 J 58 TENEZ. 
 
 It occupies the site of the ancient Cartenna, a Roman 
 colony, and the quarters of the second legion. A 
 small town nearly a mile from it was the capital 
 of one of the petty kingdoms which succeeded to the 
 break-up of the Arab domination. The object of the 
 Romans in establishing a colony there probably was 
 to obtain the produce of the copper and iron mines 
 which exist a few miles ofiF. The fii'st part of the 
 name Cartenna, like that of Carthage and Cirta, 
 implies a fort, and the last seems connected with 
 the root of " Teniat," a pass ; and some of the 
 French antiquaries of Algeria believe they have found 
 the foundations of a tower on a hill commanding a 
 defile in the immediate neighbourhood. The steamer 
 carrying the mails between Algiers and Oran touches 
 at Tenez, but the approach is considered very dan- 
 gerous. An artificial harbour is projected ; but it is 
 not likely to be executed before the Greek Kalends. 
 
 At sunset on the 4th the breeze had abated, and w^e 
 had every hope of arriving at Oran by nine or ten 
 o'clock the next morning. But soon afterwards the 
 west wind again resumed its force, and about four in 
 the morning became a perfect storm ; so that when I 
 came on deck at seven o'clock on the morning of the 
 5th, I found that very little progress had been made. 
 As the day advanced the wind abated, but until late 
 in the afternoon we never made more than four knots. 
 The weather, however, was very fine ; and as the coast
 
 COAST OE THE DAHEA. 159 
 
 trends greatly to the southwards, we were able to make 
 some sail and steady the vessel. After coming abreast 
 of a place called on the maps Point Magroua,* the high 
 hills, — which had from the time of passing Cherchell 
 come down into the sea, leaving occasionally narrow 
 plains, but more generally steep cliffs scarcely permitting 
 a track to be made along them, — receded from the shore 
 and diminished very much in altitude. The coast began 
 to present the appearance of a plateau of sandstone (with 
 what looked like limestone over it in some places), 
 and was occasionally so low and so loose in texture as 
 to remind one of the crag of the Norfolk coast. Its 
 colour varies from the white of driving sand f to the 
 reddish colour which predominates in the neighbour- 
 hood of Algiers. Here and there it is cut by small 
 rivers, and in one place by a very considerable one — 
 
 * Magroua is an alternative of the more common name Dahra, given 
 to the country between the sea and the river Chehff. Its inhabitants 
 are almost all of Kabyle race ; they are brave and industrious, and 
 at one time exported corn and wax at a few places on the seaboard. 
 
 -j- This is also conspicuous at a place called Rummel-el-Abiad 
 (white sand), just to the east of Point Magroua, one of the places 
 where in the time of Shaw European merchants used to trade with 
 the native tribes of the Dahra, Khelat-el-Shimmah (the lighthouse) 
 is another observable point. Shaw says that about here is the 
 Djibel Meniss, a mountain of salt. He puts Khelat-el-Shimmah at 
 nine leagues from the embouchure of the Cheliff. I took it (or the 
 building which I supposed to be it) for considerably less. But the 
 circumstances under which I saw it exclude all pretence to exact- 
 ness. I may observe, however, that Shaw in this part of his book is 
 far from exact. He errs palpably, for instance, in identifying the 
 Cartili of the Itinerary with any one of the places on the coast of the 
 Dahra ; for whatever it was, it was to the east of Tenez, and lay 
 between it and Cherchell. My Khelat-el-Shimmah is to the west 
 of Magroua, not, as Shaw makes it, to the east.
 
 160 ARRIVAL AT ORAN. 
 
 the Clieliff — the largest river in Algeria. After passing 
 this, we stretched across the bay of Arzew, seeing 
 Mostaganem in the distance just before sunset ; and as 
 we approached the high hills which again show them- 
 selves at the western extremity of the bay, the lights 
 of Arzew appeared in the angle on the left hand. It 
 was perfectly calm as we rounded Cape Ferratt, at a 
 distance, so far as I could judge, of about three miles ; 
 but the moon had not risen, and I very much grudged 
 the loss of the scene, — a feeling which a view of it 
 from the shore of the bay by daylight some days after- 
 wards did not tend to diminish. However, before 
 light the next morning we arrived safe in Mers-el- 
 Kebir (the Great Port), and having taken a pilot on 
 board, entered the harbour of Oran at eight o'clock, 
 where our long narrow steamer looked like a great 
 pike in a cistern of water. I landed, and found 
 tolerable quarters at the Hotel de I'Univers, and an 
 establishment of warm baths in the immediate vicinity. 
 My tossing on board the steamer had produced no 
 feeling of discomfort ; I had lost, apparently, all trace 
 of illness, and I looked forward with intense interest 
 to the prospect of visiting a country where, for a cen- 
 tury before its conquest by the French, travelling had 
 been an impossibility for an European. 
 
 Oran itself has been entirely rebuilt by the French. 
 It occupies the two sides of a ravine, through the 
 bottom of which flows a ])rook which turns several
 
 ITS ACQUISITION BY TRANCE. 161 
 
 mills, and furnishes the means of irrigation to an 
 immense number of gardens. The Spaniards had 
 been masters of the old town with some interruption 
 for three centuries, when in 1791 an earthquake 
 destroyed the greater part of it, and the Bey of Mas- 
 kara, taking advantage of the circumstance, succeeded 
 in making himself master of it. The seat of govern- 
 ment of the western province had until this time been 
 Maskara, but it was now transferred to Oran ; and 
 this circumstance, occurring as it did nearly forty 
 years before the Trench invasion of Africa, contributed 
 by the strangest of chances more than almost anything 
 else to secure the possession of Algeria to them. If 
 Oran had remained Spanish, it would probably have 
 been impossible to crush Abd-el-Kader. Its acquisi- 
 tion by the French was a matter almost of haphazard. 
 The success of Bourmont in capturing Algiers had 
 taken every one by surprise. The Turkish power fell, 
 and with its fall the bands of imperial government 
 were everywhere snapped asunder throughout Algeria. 
 In this state of things Bourmont sent his son to 
 Oran to receive the submission of the Bey of that 
 province to Prance as his feudal sovereign. More 
 than this was neither expected nor desired, for it was 
 in the highest degree uncertain whether the attitude 
 which the conquerors occupied would be maintained 
 by the Home Government. The Bey of Oran, how- 
 ever, an old man fond of money, and hathig trouble 
 
 M
 
 162 UNCERTAIN POLICY 
 
 and whatever promised to produce trouble, not only 
 professed his submission, but expressed the greatest 
 anxiety to receive a French garrison into the town, and 
 himself retire to Asia to end his days in the enjoyment 
 of the w^ealth he had amassed. In the meantime, 
 while the discussion between him and Captain Boiu:- 
 mont was going on, a French officer named Le Blanc, 
 who commanded a brig of w^ar lying in the roads, took 
 advantage of the casual arrival of two other vessels, 
 collected a hundred marines, landed them, and marched 
 up into the fort of Mers-el-Kebir, the Turkish garrison 
 not offering the least resistance. In the confusion 
 which followed the Paris revolution of July, 1830, all 
 orders for the administration of Algeria w^re sure to 
 be soon countermanded ; and at the very time when 
 some troops and guns, w^hich had been sent by Bour- 
 mont with a view of following up the bold policy 
 thus irregularly initiated, were being landed at 
 Oran, a fresh mandate enjoined the abandonment 
 of the place. Some companies wdiich had been 
 landed returned to the transports in the very boats 
 which brought them ; the sea-front of the fort was 
 blown up, and the French left. Before they did so, 
 they offered to remove the old Bey Hassan, as he had 
 originally desired. But when this wash had been 
 expressed, he was actually besieged by the Arabs, who, 
 finding that the yoke of their Turkish masters had 
 been shrewdly shaken, took the opportunity of endea-
 
 OF THE GOVERmiENT. 163 
 
 vouring to get rid of it altogether. They possibly had 
 their eyes opened to the fact that their restlessness 
 would bring about the dominion of the French in the 
 place of that of their co-religionists ; for when Hassan 
 was informed by his new friends that they were willing 
 to convey him to Asia, he thanked them, but said that 
 he would remain where he was in the confidence of 
 being able to regain the allegiance of his subjects, and 
 that in doing so he still considered himself the vassal 
 of France. This loose tie, a bargain as it were on one 
 side only, sufficed to maintain the connexion of the 
 French with the western province until the course of 
 events showed the necessity of strengthening it. 
 
 It is only the knowledge how entirely the whole 
 administration of the North African possessions was 
 for the first fifteen or twenty years swayed by external 
 circumstances, that^ can restrain one's indignation at 
 the way in which money has been frittered away in 
 public works. The harbour of Oran is an instance of 
 the most flagrant kind. It^is formed by a jetty — for 
 really it is unworthy of the name of a pier — run 
 out into the sea, and originally such a structure as 
 ministers to^the wants of a few fishing-boats in some 
 of the villages on the English coast. Only five miles 
 off" is the magnificent Mers-el-Kebir, large enough to 
 contain all the navy of France, and overhung by a rock 
 which is almost another Gibraltar. But even granting 
 the necessity — which doubtless existed — of making 
 
 M 2
 
 164 EVIL OF CONCESSIONS. 
 
 some arrangement for landing troops and stores 
 exactly at Oran, there is a projecting rock not a 
 hundred yards from the commencement of the existing 
 pier, \^hich indicates, as plainly as if the advice were 
 carved in letters upon it, the point from which a 
 breakwater for any future harbour, to be effectual, 
 must necessarily be carried. It is not difficult to see 
 the course which things have almost everywhere taken 
 in this ill-managed dependency. To meet some special 
 conjuncture, a make-shift has been contrived. Further 
 necessities have arisen; and to meet these without 
 sacrificing what existed, some roundabout course has 
 been suggested and carried out, generally through the 
 machinery of a *' concession " of some sort. It is just 
 as if a settler in a new country were not only to begin 
 by running up a shed to shelter himself from the 
 weather, but resolutely to maintain the shed in all its 
 integrity when he grew rich, building up his house bit 
 by bit around it, making the dining-room an adjunct 
 of the kitchen, and the best bedi'oom an appendix of 
 the hayloft. 
 
 In the existing town of Oran, the great bulk of the 
 population consists of Spaniards and African Jews. 
 There are comparatively few Moors. Such as there 
 are live mostly in the relics of the old town which 
 remain scattered round about the existing enceinte. 
 The Jewesses are as frightful as those of Algiers, and 
 the Moorish women as frightful as the Jewesses. The
 
 POPULATION OF OR AN. 165 
 
 opportunity of criticism is here more common ; for the 
 Mauresques of Orau, instead of covering the face up 
 to the eyes from below with a haik, and letting a veil 
 fall down to the eyebrows from above, wear no haik, 
 but hold their veils about the whole of their faces with 
 their hands, letting only a single eye appear. This 
 normal appearance, however, involves for its preserva- 
 tion some fatigue and much attention ; and it is sacri- 
 ficed almost as often as not to the impulses of laziness, 
 curiosity, or vanity. Neither are the trousers of Algiers 
 here worn. In their place are long petticoats ; and 
 instead of the small Moorish shoe a boot of yellow 
 leather, reaching up only to the ankles, which are sur- 
 rounded with massive metallic bangles. I saw while 
 in Oran a few of the Berber women — the Kabyles of 
 Morocco. They tattoo themselves on the forehead, chin, 
 and cheeks, and have very much the appearance of 
 gipsies. They go unveiled, and have no scruple about 
 the presence of men, which the Arab women always 
 have, although less so where the tribes have been 
 brought into close contact with the French, which is 
 particularly the case in the neighbourhood of Oran. 
 
 One of the most magnificent views in the whole of 
 Algeria is gained by ascending the hills on the west 
 of the town, to a point which is marked out by a 
 ruined marabout conspicuous from below. It cannot 
 be less than from 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the sea- 
 level; and from it the whole of the neighbourhood
 
 166 GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF 
 
 may be seen as in a map. The most prominent 
 object is the mountainous promontory which separates 
 the Bay of Oran from that of Arzew, terminating 
 in Cape Ferratt. Out of the middle of this rises 
 a hill, with a double crest like Parnassus, called the 
 Mountain of Lions, from the former abundance of 
 those animals in the locality. They are, however, 
 now so scarce, that the fact of one being killed there 
 three years ago was remarked as matter of wonder. 
 The Mount of Lions is more than 5,000 feet in 
 height, and is covered with the usual brushwood of the 
 littoral of Algeria, as I had the opportunity of observing 
 in crossing the flanks of it on my way from Arzew 
 some days afterwards. Lideed, the high ground 
 which surrounds Oran from Cape Ferratt to some 
 distance to the west of Mers-el-Kebir is, in a geolo- 
 gical point of view, exactly analogous to the Saliel 
 of Algiers. It is composed of the same sandstone 
 (more compressed, however, by volcanic action), and 
 clothed with the same plants. Like the Sahel, too, 
 its inclination to the south is very gentle, and 
 it slopes into an extensive plain corresponding to 
 the Metidja of the central province. But while 
 the waters of the Metidja do, with the exception 
 of Lake Aloula, find their way ultimately into the 
 sea, the drainage of the plain of Oran — if one may 
 give a collective name to the lowlands intercepted 
 between the high coast and the Atlas range — accu-
 
 THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ORAN. 167 
 
 mulates in large shallow lakes called Sebkahs, more 
 or less impregnated with salt. The largest of these, 
 a few miles from Oran, extends over a great surface. 
 At the time I saw it, it was about seven miles across 
 at its broadest part, and not less than thirty in length. 
 Another, in the neighbourhood of Arzew, is of a smaller 
 size, but much richer in its yield of salt. This is 
 simply collected from the banks as the water evaporates 
 in the summer-time. Beyond the lake of Oran, the 
 extreme visible point of which bears south-west of the 
 marabout above-mentioned, are the hills which form 
 the feet of the Atlas, — one part of the rim of that 
 great irregular inland basin, of which the Sebkahs 
 constitute the bottom and the high cliffs from Cape 
 Ferratt to Cape Fegalo the seaward edge. The southern 
 part of this tract, towards the Sebkah of Arzew, is 
 occupied by the Abid-Gharabas, a tribe of Arab nomads 
 partly inhabiting the valley of the Sig, and partly the 
 mountains above it. Near the Sebkah of Oran, and 
 from thence nearly as far as Maskara on the south-east 
 and Tlem^en on the south-west, spreads the Kabyle 
 tribe of the Beni-Amer, which is subdivided into 
 thirteen cantons. In the northern part of the basin, 
 between the sea and the Sebkah of Oran, are the 
 tents of the Douair and the Turkish military colonies 
 of the Zmela. These last have, to a considerable 
 extent, given way to European settlers; but twenty 
 years ago the whole of the country was covered with
 
 168 RESEMBLANCE TO THE SAHEL. 
 
 the ordinary growth of Algerian wastes, such as dwarf 
 palm, lentisque, and asphodel. Now, for six or seven 
 miles around Oran, it is well cleared, and much culti- 
 vation is carried on. Almost as far as the Sebkah 
 the landscape appears spotted with farms, which 
 I was told were chiefly French ; but my informant at 
 the same time owned that the actual labourers were 
 mostly Spaniards and Maltese, especially the former. 
 
 From the marabout which commands the view just 
 described, it is easy to gain the summit of the plateau, 
 which the traveller may follow for several miles before 
 he will arrive at its western extremity. Everywhere 
 towards the sea he will find the descent more or less 
 precipitous, while in the opposite direction there is 
 uniformly a gentle slope towards the great Sebkah. 
 On the very top of the plateau the surface is generally 
 laid bare by the heavy rains, and there appear large 
 blocks of limestone, or flat surfaces of the same, 
 devoid of vegetation or moisture. Two or three 
 flocks of goats, attended by Spanish herdsmen, haunt 
 this part, and pick up a subsistence from the grass 
 which shoots up in the clefts. The more sloping 
 parts are better covered. The dwarf palm, the 
 asphodel, and the wild lavender soon appear ; and at 
 a little distance below the highest level, the Flora of 
 the Sahcl of Algiers is reproduced in every particular. 
 Here and there a small space has been cleared, and 
 sown Avith corn ; but this is very rare and the produce
 
 LIFE ON THE BORDERS. 169 
 
 extremely scanty ; while the broad-leaved lily showing 
 itself thick in the midst of the crop, proves that the 
 surface has been merely scratched, probably by hand- 
 labour. 
 
 The Kasbah, or citadel of the old Oran, lies on the 
 western side of the ravine which divides the town. 
 It suffered greatly from the earthquake of 1791, and 
 is now only used as a barrack for some tirailleurs 
 indigenes. The military head-quarters are in the 
 Chateau Neuf, situated on the heights of the eastern 
 side. I had brought letters to General Martimprey, 
 the commander of the forces, and also to Colonel 
 Rensen, the chief of the staff of the western province, 
 two officers whose scientific as well as military repu- 
 tation will be well known to many of their late British 
 comrades in the Crimea; and I walked up to the 
 General's quarters to deliver them. The proximity of 
 the Morocco frontier causes this command, and that 
 of Tlemgen which is subordinated to it, to be one of 
 great anxiety ; and almost every hour military couriers 
 arrive bringing despatches which require immediate 
 attention from relating to those sort of matters which 
 somebody has well described as being " trifles — 
 except you neglect them." It was the first time 
 I had seen realized the habits of a border life ; and 
 I remembered Sir Walter Scott's description of 
 Branksome Hall when I saw eight or ten spahis, with 
 their horses, all ready to start at an instant's notice.
 
 170 HOSPITALITY OF FRENCH OFFICERS. 
 
 waiting outside the office of the chief of the staff. 
 The pressure of business, however, was no hindrance 
 to my receiving the most com^teous attention from this 
 gentleman, who during my stay at Oran made me 
 feel that hospitality is not exclusively the characteristic 
 of Englishmen, and his kindness and that of his chief 
 put me in the way of seeing much more of the 
 interior than would otherwise have been possible 
 in the limited time I could command. 
 
 My wish was to go first to Tlem^en, and from thence 
 cross the interior to Maskara, by a route which passes 
 through Sidi Bel Abbes, — a town not remarkable 
 in any other respect but interesting as being the 
 centre of the native commerce in this part of Africa. 
 From Maskara I hoped to obtain means of going 
 direct to Mostaganem, and from thence returning to 
 Oran by the old town of Arzew — the Arsenaria of 
 the Roman empire. The importance of Tlem^eu, 
 Maskara, and Mostaganem, as military posts, espe- 
 cially of the two former, has caused the connexion of 
 each with the centre of government at Oran by a 
 "route carrossable ; " but they can only be reached 
 from one another on horseback, and the condition of 
 the country is such that an escort, if not absolutely 
 necessary, is at any rate desirable. 
 
 The road to Tlem^en, however, although in the 
 summer-time it is traversed by wheels, is reputed to 
 be the very worst in the whole of Algeria that enjoys
 
 JOURNEY TO TLEMQEN. 171 
 
 that distinction. I set out upon it at three o'clock in 
 the morning in the malle-post, which is built specially 
 for the purpose, like one that goes (or used five-and- 
 twenty years back to go) over the Simplon. It is 
 very low, without a perch, and no passenger is allowed 
 more than ten kilogrammes (about twenty-five pounds) 
 of luggage, at any price. There is scarcely room for 
 four inside ; but nevertheless six were squeezed in, 
 of whom one luckily was a child. Off we set as the 
 clock struck three, by the light of the moon as well 
 as that of our own lamps. The first part of the road 
 skirts the plain as far as Miserghin, the site of a 
 former country palace of the Bey of Oran, and then 
 descending into it passes along the western shore of 
 the great Sebkali. It is impossible to conceive any- 
 thing more dreary than the appearance of the country 
 in this part. Only a very few spots are cleared here 
 and there, and all the rest is bush. The soil at the 
 edges of the plain has the same resemblance to that of 
 the New Forest which has been remarked in the case 
 of the Metidja. From the salt lake we began to rise, 
 and crossed a range of hills (or rather a plateau) of 
 1,200 or 1,300 feet above the sea; after which we 
 dipped a little, and then mounted another of more 
 than 1,600. From this elevation we descended on the 
 Isser, a river which has obtained great notoriety in 
 the annals of Algeria. The name is identical with 
 that of one of the rivers on the borders of Great
 
 172 SAVAGENESS OE AN ARAB TRIBE. 
 
 Kabylie, as is also the case with one of its affluents — 
 the Oued Zeithun. No doubt both belong to the 
 Kabyle language and are significant in it; for the 
 tribes both on tlie river of Oran, and on that of 
 Algiers, are of the Kabyle race. 
 
 At the post-station just before descending to the 
 Isser, we fell in with a tribe (or portion of a tribe) 
 which were described to me as Ouled Ben-Yous- 
 souf, and said to occasion the French more trouble 
 than almost any other at the present time. The 
 small camp of them which we passed was exempt from 
 contributions to the State, in return for the service of 
 watching the stable in which the relays of horses were 
 kept. Without this arrangement these would infallibly 
 be stolen, probably by their present guardians. Three 
 or four of them were sitting on the ground as the 
 Arab always does, wrapped in his burnous, with his 
 chin resting on his knees, and glared at us from eyes 
 in which ferocity and fear were combined much as in 
 those of Mr. Van Amburg's lions. They would not 
 return our salute, or accept snufF or tobacco from us, 
 but scowled on us in sullen silence without moving, 
 except one young man whose curiosity, or cupidity, 
 was excited by my aneroid barometer, which he got 
 up to look at. He was one of the handsomest and 
 most villanous-looking fellows I ever saw ; and I have 
 no doubt, except for the awe inspired by the French, 
 his yataghan would have been employed upon our
 
 HOKRIBLE EOUTE. 173 
 
 throats without a moment's delay, or the shadow of a 
 scruple. But he had a noble profile, and the eye of 
 an eagle. Upon the banks of the Isser, on the other 
 hand, we found a tribe of a particularly mild and 
 quiet character, engaged in agriculture and appa- 
 rently well to do. After crossing the Isser, another 
 range of hills is passed before descending on the plain 
 which lies to the north of Tlem^en, and I estimated 
 the highest point upon them over which the road 
 passed, at 1,198 feet above the level of the sea, 
 Tlem^en itself being 1,167 higher still. 
 
 It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the 
 condition of the Tlempen road to those who have not 
 tried it. All was very well while we were in the 
 neighbourhood of Oran, and within tolerable reach of 
 the stone which is obtained from the rocks on the 
 western side of the town. But on arriving at a place 
 called Les trois puits, very soon after we had reached 
 the shore of the sebkah, all pretence at solidity ceased. 
 The track which had been marked out for the road 
 became, from the ruts upon it, worse than the country 
 through which it ran. This, however, is the normal 
 state of things ; the coachman and postboy — we never 
 had less than six horses, by the way, and often eight 
 — showed themselves equal to the emergency, and at 
 once turned off into the waste, without a shadow of 
 hesitation. Away we went at speed, crashing on over 
 dwarf palms and other shrubs, the carriage surging
 
 174 AFRICAN CHARIOTEERING. 
 
 like a ship in a storm over the inequalities of the 
 ground, until from time to time suddenly brought up 
 by a quagmire. I have no doubt we left the road 
 twenty times in the course of the day, and on one or 
 two occasions did not regain it until after a circuit of 
 several miles. How the woodwork and springs stood 
 is to me incomprehensible. Once the road was quite 
 blocked up, while at the side was a low parapet of 
 stones piled up a foot high, and beyond them a ditch 
 nearly a yard broad, cut to let the waters run off. 
 To my infinite surprise, the postboy turned the leaders 
 right at this. Over they went clear, followed by the 
 other four horses, and the other four horses by the 
 carriage. Two such jolts as accompanied this brilliant 
 manoeuvre I never felt ; but the machine did not seem 
 to suffer, neither was the luggage scattered to the 
 four winds or the coachman shot into infinite space. 
 In short, after a time, the natural apprehensions 
 incident to such an undertaking as we were engaged 
 in, subsided, and, except for the bruises, it became as 
 pleasant an excitement as a gallop after hounds. 
 I suppose the habit of driving guns has induced this 
 style of charioteering in French Africa ; unless it has 
 been handed down traditionally from the time when 
 Pindar celebrated the feats of the chiefs of Gyrene. 
 
 The appearance of Tlem^en, as one approaches it, is 
 extremely pleasing. The plain around is a complete 
 forest of olive-trees of enormous size, belonging to the
 
 OCCUPATION OF TLEMCEN. 175 
 
 natives, who between the Isser and Tlemyen appear the 
 most civihsed and the best to do of any I have seen. 
 Their prosperity, however, is only of fifteen years' 
 standing; for so long as Abd-el-Kader remained at 
 Tlera^en this region was subjected to the horrors of 
 war, as much as Belgium in the last century, and for 
 similar reasons. Its command was important to the 
 Arab chief; for through it he kept up his communi- 
 cations with the empire of Morocco, and was enabled 
 to receive gunpowder — it is said from Gibraltar — by 
 the mouth of the Tafna, — a stream of which the Isser 
 just mentioned is one of the tributaries. But in 1842 
 a permanent stop was put to these proceedings. 
 Tlemgen was occupied in force by General Bedeau, 
 an officer whose skill as an administrator became 
 remarkable even among the many remarkable men 
 which the Algerian conquest produced. After dis- 
 playing the power of France by driving Abd-el-Kader 
 from the valley of the upper Tafna, he took advantage 
 of the character of the Kabyle population, — essentially 
 republican, and averse to submission to a central 
 power — to excite the latent jealousy which existed 
 with regard to the Emir, and propose a league against 
 him between them and the French. The design 
 perfectly succeeded. The town of Nedrouma, con- 
 taining nearly five thousand inhabitants (on the 
 northern slope of the hills which lie to the west of the 
 lower Tafna), was the first to respond favourably to
 
 176 FRONTIER WARFARE. 
 
 the invitation, and the example was soon followed by 
 many other tribes. Before the year was over, the 
 Emir was compelled to retire far to the south ; while 
 the whole country from Tlemgen to the sea had 
 become perfectly well affected to the conquerors, who 
 had the good sense to interfere with their new allies 
 no further than was necessary to keep them at peace 
 with one another. 
 
 The general in command at Tlemgen, to whom 
 I had brought an introduction, was absent on a 
 promenade militaire in the Sahara; but Colonel Le 
 Rouxeau de Rosenkoet, the commandant ad interimy 
 in return for my request to be allowed an Arab 
 trooper who could speak Prench to escort me, gave 
 me as a cicerone a young French officer, Lieutenant 
 Marty, who was famihar with the whole locality. 
 This gentleman was so obliging as to mount me on 
 one of his own horses, and we set off attended by 
 three spahis, one of whom also spoke Trench, and 
 appeared of superior rank to the other two. Tlemyen 
 is only about ten miles from the frontier of Morocco, 
 where a deadly hatred to the French prevails; and 
 although on the Algerian side of the border the 
 natives are kept in good order, the Arabs on the 
 other side continually cross and commit acts of 
 brigandage. There is no treaty of extradition between 
 the two countries, and consequently criminals have 
 little difficulty in escaping after the commission of
 
 ROUGH-HANDED JUSTICE. 177 
 
 any outrage. If the Morocco robbers are caught, they 
 are shot without mercy; aud they, not unnaturally, 
 always murder when they rob. About three weeks 
 ago a poor French colon was killed just outside the 
 walls of Tlem^en ; and I observed that only a mile 
 out in the country a spahi was always sent on in 
 front to reconnoitre, wherever ruins or the like 
 appeared to offer a cover for a party of bad subjects. 
 
 Mr. Marty complained of the fatiguing character of 
 his duty, especially in winter. The only protection 
 that can be afforded to the cultivators is to patrol the 
 frontier in strong parties by night ; but this is not an 
 effectual security, and whenever the nights are dark 
 and stormy, some homestead is sure to be burned. 
 The offenders are, however, often intercepted on their 
 way back, and a very extensive system of espionage is 
 organized, I believe on both sides of the frontier. In 
 the course of the afternoon a fourth spahi rode up 
 and said something to the lieutenant, when he told 
 me that the authorities had received information of 
 the murderer of the Frenchman, that he was at that 
 moment on the French side of the border, and would 
 probably be executed before night. This rough 
 method of administering justice is, doubtless, the only 
 one possible ; but it is obvious that the evidence 
 must in most cases be very incomplete, and that by 
 it a frightful scope is given to misconduct on the part 
 of the native agents employed, besides sowing an
 
 178 THE I^IECHOUAR OP TLEMQEN. 
 
 altogether ineradicable hatred in the bosoms of the 
 INIarocains, who in the natural course of things 
 can hardly fail, sooner or later, to become French 
 subjects. 
 
 In the course of the wars which devastated this 
 part of the country since 1830, the town of Tlem9en 
 was almost entirely destroyed. In the highest part 
 of it is a strong walled fortress, which, like the Kasbah 
 at Algiers, served as a palace for the chiefs in former 
 days. It is called the Mechouar. Upon the capture 
 of Algiers by the French, the Arabs here, as well as 
 at Oran, endeavoured to throw off the yoke of the 
 Turks. But the garrison threw themselves into the 
 Mechouar, and for five years resisted all the efforts 
 of the Arabs to dislodge them. This apparently 
 insignificant circumstance — for the Turks and Kou- 
 louglis were only a few hundreds in number — was, 
 like the strange course of events at Oran, essential 
 to the success of the French; for it prevented the 
 consolidation of Abd-el-Kader's power until the hold 
 of the conquerors upon the western province had 
 become too firm to be shaken off. 
 
 That extraordinary man, who has been called with 
 justice the modern Jugurtha, is exactly the same age 
 as tlic present Emperor of the French. He was born 
 in the year ISOS, and his father, Mahiddin, was a 
 marabout of the tribe of the Hachem, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of jNIaskara. The family had for several
 
 RISE OF ABD-EL-KADER. 179 
 
 generations presided over a kind of college, founded 
 by one of their ancestors, and called from him the 
 Giietna of Sidi-Mahiddin. It was there that Abd- 
 el-Kader was educated by his father to the utmost 
 extent to which Arabian cultivation is carried ; and 
 it is said that, in addition to great capacity in other 
 respects, he displayed at an early age remarkable 
 oratorical talent. In the year 1832, the Arabs in 
 the neighbourhood of Maskara — the fall of the 
 Algerine dynasty having left them practically inde- 
 pendent — were anxious to elect the old Mahiddin 
 as their chief. He pleaded his old age, and recom- 
 mended them to take his second son ; and to confirm 
 his advice told them a story, which, whether true or 
 not, was well adapted to influence the imagination of 
 his hearers. Several years before, he said, while on 
 a pilgrimage to Mecca with his eldest son, he met in 
 the neighbourhood of the city a fakeer, who pre- 
 sented him with three apples. " One is for thee," 
 said the holy man ; " one for him," pointing to the 
 boy; "and the third for the sultan." "What 
 sultan ? " said the old man. " Him whom thou hast 
 left at home." This augury, then first pubhshed, 
 contributed not a little to confirm the impression 
 which the character of the young chief had already 
 made in the neighbourhood of his birthplace. To 
 these favourable circumstances was added the secret 
 influence of the Emperor of Morocco, who after vainly 
 
 N 2
 
 180 AED-EL-KADER AT TLEMCEN. 
 
 attempting to possess himself of a part of the pro- 
 vince, in anticipation of the general scramble which 
 seemed likely to take place, conceived the thought of 
 achieving the same result through the agency of 
 another, and for this purpose saw none so well adapted 
 as the young son of Mahiddin, who, like himself, 
 claimed the honour of a descent from the Prophet. 
 
 Elected Emir of Maskara under these circumstances, 
 Abd-el-Kader commenced his career by an attack of 
 Oran, which the French, after a series of abortive 
 schemes for governing it by the agency of a native 
 chief, had at last determined to occupy themselves. 
 He failed in the attempt ; but by the example which 
 he set of personal courage, he succeeded in habituating 
 the Arabs to the fire of artillery, of which they had 
 hitherto entertained an irresistible fear. Adopting 
 another style of warfare, he began to cut off the 
 supplies which the town had been accustomed to 
 receive from the country, and soon made it almost 
 entirely dependent on those imported by sea. The 
 next year he succeeded in obtaining possession of 
 the city of Tlem9en, but was unable either to cajole 
 the Turkish garrison of the Mechouar, or to expel 
 them by force, having at that time no artillery. But 
 his policy in starving the littoral had been so suc- 
 cessful, that in the next year (1834) he obtained a 
 peace from General Des Michels, the French com- 
 mandant at Oran, which gave him the port of Arzew,
 
 THE FRENCH BREAK WITH HBI. 181 
 
 and confined the commerce of Oran and Mostaganem 
 (which latter the French had in the meantime occupied) 
 to the supply of their own wants. His fortunes now 
 grew rapidly. He had succeeded in impressing the 
 general with the delusion that through him the French 
 might obtain a control over the whole of the tribes 
 of the interior ; and actually, with the aid of ammu- 
 nition supplied him in this hope, secured a supremacy 
 over all the native tribes between the confines of 
 Morocco and the river Chelifl". In 1835 he pushed 
 on yet farther, crossed the ChelifF and obtained the 
 submission of both Cherchell and Tenez, advanced 
 from thence to Milianah, where he was received with 
 the greatest enthusiasm by all the inhabitants, and 
 from thence proceeded to Medeah, where he ap- 
 pointed one of his own adherents bey of the province 
 of Tittery. The French Government now took the 
 alarm, and endeavoured to check the growing great- 
 ness of their protege ; but the first attempt in that 
 direction ended most unfortunately. General Trezel, 
 who had succeeded to the command at Oran, ad- 
 vanced with about 2,500 men and five or six guns on 
 the road towards Maskara, as far as the banks of the 
 Sig. He had been attacked by skirmishers during 
 his march, and suffered so much, although the enemy 
 had on every occasion been repulsed, that he felt 
 unable to advance farther. In order to save appear- 
 ances, he resolved upon his retreat to return, not to
 
 182 DEFEAT AT THE MAKTA. 
 
 Oran, but to Arzew ; and fearing that arrangements 
 might have been made by Abd-el-Kader to attack 
 him on the direct route thither, he determined to 
 skirt the hills which form the boundary of the valley 
 of the Sig on the west, and to come out into the 
 open country which surrounds the gidf of Arzew 
 by a defile below the junction of the Sig and 
 the Habra, where the united streams take the 
 name of the Makta (ford). The Emir divined 
 his intention, and at once despatched a number of 
 cavalry, each carrying a foot-soldier behind him, to 
 occupy the pass. When the head of the French 
 column arrived there, it was the middle of the day, 
 and the soldiers were terribly exhausted with the 
 heat. On their left were hills, and on their right a 
 marsh formed by the Makta ; and the passage between 
 was so narrow, that the carriages which contained the 
 ammunition and the wounded could only pass singly. 
 In this conjuncture the Emir launched his troops 
 upon the column, and struck a panic into the whole 
 force. Only one carriage, containing wounded, was 
 saved ; the ammunition carts were all lost ; and it 
 was with the greatest difficulty General Trezel suc- 
 ceeded in bringing the survivors of the contest into 
 Arzew, where they did not arrive till eight o'clock at 
 night, after having been marching incessantly for 
 sixteen hours, of which they were actually engaged 
 with the enemy for fourteen. No less than 500
 
 EXPEDITION TO MASKARA. 183 
 
 were left on the field of battle. Abd-el-Kader carried 
 off a howitzer, the first he ever possessed ; and the 
 French troops were so discouraged by the events of 
 the day, that their commander was obliged to send 
 them to Oran by sea. This terrible defeat took place 
 on the 29th of June, the blackest day of any in the 
 annals of the conquest of Algeria. In the following 
 November an attempt was made to revenge the insult 
 inflicted on the honour of the French. The Governor- 
 General, Marshal Clausel, accompanied by the Due 
 d'Orleans, conducted an expedition with no less than 
 11,000 men against Maskara. After encountering 
 some opposition, the army reached the town on the 
 5th of December ; but Abd-el-Kader with the whole 
 of the Mussulman population had abandoned it. Only 
 the Jews remained, plundered and ill-treated by the 
 Mahometans in the confusion of the evacuation. The 
 rain began to fall, and everything looked discou- 
 raging. Clausel had brought with him an Arab 
 chief, whom he proposed to leave as Bey of Maskara ; 
 but this dignitary preferred to return with the army, for 
 Abd-el-Kader, with the whole population of Maskara, 
 was but three leagues off, waiting only for the retreat 
 of the French to return to his old quarters. Ac- 
 cordingly, it was determined to burn everything 
 which could be destroyed and to return to Mosta- 
 ganem, transporting thither the w^hole of the Jewish 
 population of Maskara. The retreat commenced on
 
 184 DISASTROUS RETREAT. 
 
 the 9th. The rain had continued falUng, and the 
 route, which winds among broken ground, as it 
 descends from plateau to plateau, became almost 
 invisible from the clouds and mist. The army suf- 
 fered terribly during the three days which elapsed 
 before it reached Mostaganem. The baggage animals, 
 especially the camels, slipped into the ravines which 
 every watercourse forms in an incredibly short space 
 of time in this soft soil after rain ; and the slip of a 
 loaded camel is nearly sure to disable the animal by 
 spraining the hip-joint. The wretched Israelites who 
 were being removed suffered worse than the soldiers 
 from want of food and misery of all sorts. Numbers 
 of children were left to perish on the road, and some 
 were preserved only by the compassion of the soldiers. 
 An eye-witness relates that he saw a mounted chasseur 
 carrying two infants, one in each arm. They were 
 very young, and in default of the nourishment they 
 expected from their mother, who had probably 
 perished, their rough nurse was supplying them with 
 his own biscuit, previously masticated to a con- 
 dition in which it appeared possible to afford them 
 sustenance. 
 
 But with all the success that had hitherto attended 
 the Emir, he had not been able to obtain possession of 
 the Mechouar of Tlem^cn. That still held out, and 
 now it was to change hands, and acquire an even 
 more obstinate defender. Marshal Clause), in the next
 
 CAVAIGNAC IN THE MECHOUAR. 185 
 
 month after the unfortunate expedition to Maskara, 
 perhaps with a view of retrieving the moral power 
 which his ill success had destroyed, set out again at 
 the head of another large force, and occupied the 
 town. Delighted with its position, and the fertile 
 character of the neighbouring country, he formed the 
 project of occupying it permanently. But Tlemyen is 
 not less than eighty miles from Oran, and the distance 
 precluded the idea of being able to keep up communi- 
 cations with it. It is not more than a third of the 
 distance from the embouchure of the Tafna, and close 
 to this is a small island called Rasgoun. The Marshal 
 conceived that by seizing this, and establishing a fort 
 upon the mainland, he should obtain the power of 
 supplying Tlemgen with stores by a much shorter line. 
 An attempt to open this communication was foiled by 
 the difficulties presented by the nature of the country, 
 which were such as to enable the Emir to offer an 
 effectual opposition to any convoy. Unwilling, how- 
 ever, to relinquish his project, Clausel persisted in the 
 original design. The Turks and Koulouglis were 
 removed, and a young "French officer, Captain Cavaig- 
 nac, was placed in the Mechouar with no more than 
 273 men, all volunteers. The position appeared an 
 almost desperate one ; and it has been said that the 
 real object of the Home Government was to sacrifice 
 one wiiose stern republican principles rendered him 
 odious to the then existing dynasty, and whose talents
 
 186 HIS HEROIC BRAVERY 
 
 and energy inspired as much fear as admiration. But 
 if this was the secret design of the Ministry, their 
 scheme was signally foiled. It was not until late in 
 the following June that the brave garrison of the 
 Mechouar and their intrepid commander were relieved. 
 In April, indeed, an effort was made to open a com- 
 munication with them from Rasgoun ; but the attempt 
 to establish a post on the mainland had awakened all 
 the hostility of the Kabyles in the neighbourhood, and 
 Abd-el-Kader, profiting by the circumstance, collected 
 a force, defeated General d'Arlanges to whom the task 
 of relieving Cavaignac had been assigned, and after- 
 wards blocked him up in his fortified camp, where he 
 was nearly starved before he could be extricated by 
 General Bugeaud, by whom at last the relief of the 
 Mechouar was effected. But when the relieving ex- 
 pedition reached Tlemcen, they found the gamson not 
 only alive, but in the highest spirits. All their 
 supplies had been long since exhausted, and their 
 clothing worn out ; but their indomitable chief had fed 
 them from the produce of forays executed by night in 
 the neighbouring country, clothed them afresh in the 
 same way, and infused into them the firm conviction 
 that they were able to hold the fortress against the 
 whole Arab nation. Yet all the recognition that their 
 extraordinary efforts received was an offer on the part 
 of the general, to recommend Cavaignac for promotion 
 to the rank of chef dc haiaillon. Not a word of
 
 AND MAGNANIMITY. 187 
 
 praise, not the slightest mark of approbation, was 
 bestowed upon the heroic band which he had com- 
 manded ; and scorning the personal reward which had 
 been proffered him, the indignant commander declared 
 that he would accept of no distinction which his men 
 could not share. Among all the exploits of the 
 Algerian campaigns, this maintenance of the Mechouar 
 lives the most in the memory of the French African 
 army. Cavaignac is their preux chevalier beyond all 
 others, and the present sovereign of Prance evinced no 
 less sagacity than magnanimity in the respect which 
 he showed to the memory of his great rival. 
 
 Important as the part was which the Mechouar 
 played, it is utterly indefensible against artillery, 
 being commanded by the hills on its southward 
 side. If Abd-el-Kader had owaied half a dozen 
 cannon in 1834, he would probably at this moment 
 be sultan of the whole of Barbary. But the events 
 of 1835 and 1836 had unmasked his intentions; 
 and although by an adroit diplomacy, no less wonder- 
 ful than his talents for war and organization, he suc- 
 ceeded in 1837 in procuring a treaty which gave 
 him not only Tlemgen, but the whole of the province 
 of Tittery, a large portion of that of Algiers, and all 
 that of Oran, with the exception of the towns of Mos- 
 taganem, Arzew, and Oran, his final destiny was 
 inevitable. The pride of the French nation had been 
 roused. The merest hint of an intention to abandon
 
 188 DESTRUCTION OF TLEMCEN. 
 
 the African conquests would have entailed the fall of 
 any government. The people were ready to maintain 
 their conquests at any cost ; and above all, the men of 
 ability in the African armies, the Lamoricieres, Chan- 
 garniers, Bedeaus, Cavaiguacs, Bugeauds, and others, 
 had shown themselves uumistakeably, and could no 
 longer be suppressed to favour the feeble proteges of 
 the Court. When the Emir's ambition at last stimu- 
 lated him to recommence the war, the contest imme- 
 diately became one against the whole power of France 
 backed by undivided pubhc opinion; and overwhelming 
 as his successes were at the first outbreak, no reason- 
 able person could doubt the ultimate issue of the 
 struggle. 
 
 The exigencies of warfare during the period of 
 which a sketch has been given, naturally produced the 
 destruction of the greater part of the town of Tlemgen. 
 The buildings in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 Mechouar were of course levelled to destroy all cover 
 for an enemy. Two or three mosques still remain 
 standing, but with these exceptions the whole of the 
 upper level has been rebuilt by the French. The 
 place is valuable as an important military position, and 
 the Mechouar is of course made use of as a barrack 
 and arsenal. There is also a military hospital within 
 the enceinte. From the ramparts the view is ex- 
 tremely beautiful, but not equal to that from the high 
 ground about half a mile to the south, from whence
 
 EEMAINS OF NATIVE TOWN. 189 
 
 the prospect extends over tlie whole of the valley of 
 the Tafna, down to the very mouth of the river. The 
 new French town contains only two or three streets, 
 and d. place filled with the shops of a few tradespeople, 
 chiefly Jews, who minister to the wants of the military. 
 Of course there is here a cafe, billiard-tables, a con- 
 fectioner, a great number of tobacconists, and one or 
 two general shops, such as one sees in an English 
 village ; but this constitutes the whole of the Euro- 
 pean trade. In the slope below the upper part of the 
 town there are three or four streets still remaining of 
 the Moorish city, — among them two entirely full of 
 low shops, where there appears to be considerable 
 native traffic, and even some manufactures. I saw 
 house furniture being made, silk embroidered, and in 
 two or three instances handlooms at work. The native 
 population is entirely confined to the lower part of the 
 town. Mixed up with them I saw several of the 
 people from the other side of the Morocco frontier, dis- 
 tinguishable both by the villainous expression in their 
 countenances, and by their garb, which is not a bour- 
 nous but a loose sort of tunic of a brown colour with 
 black stripes running down it very close to one another. 
 The same dress is worn by the Beni-Mozabites, a 
 remarkable tribe which will be described below. 
 
 Under the escort of Lieutenant Marty I visited 
 a most singular and extensive ruin which exists about 
 a mile from the outer circuit of the ancient walls.
 
 190 MAGNITUDE OF ANCIENT CITY. 
 
 These are far in advance of the existing city, which 
 bears about the same relation in point of size to that 
 which must once have been, as the stone of a peach 
 to the fruit. At least five distinct circles of fortifica- 
 tion are traceable ; and Avithin the precincts of one 
 of these, whose extent may be judged from the fact 
 that it took me eleven minutes to walk to the nearest 
 part of the existing wall, there are enormous numbers 
 of olive-trees of immense age, — probably eight or nine 
 hundred years old. These must, of course, have been 
 planted subsequently to the destruction of the 
 buildings whose place they occupy. The Arab tradi- 
 tions state that the population of Tlemgen once 
 amounted to 200,000, and that its wealth was 
 fabulous. It was during this, its flourishing time, 
 that a sultan of Fez, or of Mostaganem, — for, like all 
 mythical stories, this one, while preserving the kernel 
 of the legend, varies in all its details, — laid siege to 
 the city. Unable to take it after an attempt which 
 lasted as long as that upon Troy, he resolved to build 
 another city in the immediate vicinity.* So numerous 
 was his army, that his cavalry brought from the 
 mouth of the Tafna, in the folds of their bournouses. 
 
 * This was to be an finTelxt<Tfta from which to gall Tlemfen, — a 
 feature in the legend which may give some clue to the time in which 
 it sprang up, i.e. while the Turkish conquests were proceeding, 
 and this method was adopted for overcoming the resistance of the 
 fortified cities of which the barbarous invaders gradually possessed 
 themselves.
 
 THE MANSOURAH. 191 
 
 the earth for making the walls. From this, and some 
 other substances, a cement was made of which the 
 new city was built, — a manufacture which none now 
 can imitate. The stately ramparts arose, and within 
 them there was a mosque far surpassing any that 
 existed in Tlemgen. Part of it was built by Maho- 
 metans and part by Jews. The former still stands, 
 the latter has fallen. The name of Mansourah (the 
 fortunate) was given to the new city, of which the 
 ruins alone now remain. Its arms effected the 
 destruction of Tlem^en, and then it fell itself. Such 
 is the account which local traditionary history gives 
 of these curious remains. It is unnecessary to 
 criticise the details of the story. The Mansourah 
 was, apparently, built by one of the sovereigns of 
 Tlem^en in its palmy days, as a palace for himself. 
 The area is an oblong, extending from north to south, 
 but the north-west angle of the oblong is cut off, so 
 that the whole forms an irregular pentagon, of which 
 the circumference is not less than a mile or a mile 
 and a half. The thickness of the walls throuo;hout 
 was not less than six feet, and their height about 
 twenty-five. So much still remains, that it is plain 
 there were square towers every thirty or forty yards, 
 and that the whole circumference, wall and towers, 
 was regularly battlemented. But in the north-west 
 angle the ruins of the mosque afford the most won- 
 derful sight of all. The minaret is split from top to
 
 192 WALLS OF ARTIFICIAL CONCRETE. 
 
 bottom, and half remains standing, more than one 
 hundred feet in height. The mosque itself constituted 
 a separate fortification. Its walls, as well as those of 
 the circuit of the Mansourah, are perforated through- 
 out, to admit of arrows being shot or spears protruded 
 through the orifices.* The material of the whole is 
 not stone, but an artificial concrete, which seems to 
 have been made in large blocks. It is extremely 
 hard, which no stone in the vicinity of Tlemgen is. 
 The minaret of the mosque contained eight stories, 
 which may be distinctly traced inside. Its outer face 
 is elaborately ornamented in the best Arabian style ; 
 but in the lower part of the facade the ornamentation 
 is effected by carved stones, which are, apparently, of 
 Roman origin, and v^-ere, no do\ibt, brought from the 
 ruins of one of the Roman towns in this neighbour- 
 hood after its destruction by the Vandals. 
 
 As the Mansourah lies upon the northern incline of 
 the hills which back Tlem9en, the southern end of the 
 oblong area is higher than the rest. From this upper 
 side a single line of fortification extends up into the 
 mountain which is close above, so as to form a barrier 
 and i)revent any one from passing to the north of the 
 inclosure. The direction of the face of this towards 
 Tlem^en may, perhaps, have formed the basis of the 
 
 ♦ This is also the case with the ancient walls of Tlem^en, and also 
 with the ruius at Souk-el-Mitou, about eighteen miles from Mosta- 
 ganem.
 
 M^
 
 TRACES OF FORMER GREATNESS. 193 
 
 legend just related. But the sumptuous style of the 
 mosque and the character of the buikUng throughout 
 would prove decisively (if proof were necessary) that 
 the work was not effected for any temporary purpose, 
 such as the taking a neighbouring town ; and more- 
 over, that it would never have been undertaken except 
 by some one who had the command of very large 
 funds. 
 
 But the whole story of Tlem^en is obscure. That 
 it passed through great vicissitudes is obvious ; but 
 there is a break in its history, which up to the 
 present time no one has been able to fill up. After 
 Lieutenant Marty had left me in the afternoon, I set 
 out by myself on foot to explore a portion of the 
 ancient wall which seemed to be the lowest part of 
 the widest circle of the old fortifications, and had 
 especially attracted my attention by a handsome 
 minaret which remained just outside it, apparently 
 perfect, although every trace of the mosque to which 
 it belonged had vanished. But beyond this enceinte 
 there ran a brook, and beyond the brook there 
 appeared a further fortification, possibly intended as 
 an outwork. All was in ruins, but exhibited marks of 
 strength far exceeding that of the most recent of the 
 walls. The whole is in the midst of a grove of olive- 
 trees growing on ruins, which the French have called 
 the " Bois de Boulogne," and cut some paths in it for 
 the benefit of promenaders. I foimd a couple of
 
 194 AUAB HOCKEY. 
 
 apparently well-educated frenchmen here, and tried 
 to learn something from them in explanation of what 
 met my eye. But they assured me that nothing was 
 known, adding, " Vous navez qiia voir et u reflechir, 
 Monsieur, et vous pourrez en /aire une Jiistoire aidant 
 quun autre!' Any enthusiasm, however, for ex- 
 ploring, which this encouragement might have excited, 
 was damped by my new acquaintance calling my 
 attention to the height of the sun, and recommending 
 me not to let the shades of evening overtake me in 
 the Bois de Boulogne. 
 
 On my way back to the town I witnessed an 
 amusing spectacle, — forty or fifty Arabs playing 
 hockey. It was the only time I ever saw this grave 
 impassive race in a state of active enjoyment. On 
 this occasion, however, they certainly were so, — at 
 least the players. The scene of the sport was a large 
 quadrangular inclosure, part of a ruined building of 
 some kind. The game was played with large crooked 
 sticks, of which the bent part Avas tied round with 
 a cord, so as to form a kind of spoon, and the ball — 
 which was a large leathern puddhig — was not struck, 
 but pushed or spooned. There were three holes in 
 three of the four sides of the ruin, and a party of 
 players corresponding to each ; and the object seemed 
 to be for every two of these to combine against the 
 third, so as to defeat their efforts to drive the ball 
 through their own liole. Such a game is an apt
 
 TOMB OF SIDI-BOU-MEDINE. ]95 
 
 emblem of the political life of the race, ever ready to 
 combine against a government, even if it be one 
 which they themselves have helped to set up. 
 
 After visiting the Mansourah, Mr. Marty took me 
 to a village in the neighbourhood called Sidi-Bou- 
 Medine, which has grown up around the marabout of 
 a Mahometan saint of the same name. A very beau- 
 tifully decorated mosque — now being restored — stands 
 close by the marabout. So sacred is this village 
 reputed, that no European is allowed to reside in it. 
 Notwithstanding this, the French officer and myself 
 were admitted into the very sanctuary, without taking 
 off our boots or spurs — much against my own wish. 
 Both the tomb of Sidi-Bou-Medine and that of Sidi- 
 Absalom, who lies by his side, are covered w4th rich 
 carpets, and the walls hung round with offerings, very 
 much in the same style as in the marabout of Sidi- 
 Abd-el-Rahman described elsewhere. In this case 
 there was also a sort of chancel-screen in front of the 
 tv^^o tombs, completely covered with banners, which, 
 I was told, were renewed annually. Close to the 
 apartment containing the tombs is another in which 
 four or five persons are buried, who were admirers of 
 one or other of the two saints. Opposite to these 
 chambers, but still within the enceinte of the mara- 
 bout, is another chamber with benches, on which 
 pilgrims who frequent the shrine sometimes spread 
 their carpets and pass the night. Within the precinct 
 
 o2
 
 196 ARAB SCHOOL. 
 
 is also a well, surrounded with a tube of white 
 marble, down which a small bucket (which held about 
 two quarts) was let by a chain and some water brought 
 up. This was offered to me, but I did not taste it, 
 upon which some of the people who were with us 
 drank it eagerly; and as they certainly were not at 
 the time thirsty, I imagine that some particular virtue 
 is supposed to reside in the spring. 
 
 We w^ere conducted from the marabout to an 
 elevated bank nearly opposite, where, under the shade 
 of a tree, we found a carpet spread on a bench of 
 stone in the open air. On this the officer and I 
 took our seats, the superior spahi on a stool just 
 below us, and the other two with four or five people 
 of the village on a stone bench at right angles to 
 ours some way off. They then brought us coffee, 
 prepared in the Arab fashion, and a large basket 
 filled with nuts, pomegranates, and dates, to which 
 a bowl of milk was soon added. After drinking om* 
 coffee, and just tasting the contents of the basket, 
 which I was told ought to be done, a live coal was 
 brought in a pair of tongs for us to light our cigars, 
 and the spahi then took the provisions and carried 
 them to the occupants of the lower bench, who con- 
 sumed them with every appearance of appetite. I 
 fancy the theory of the transaction was that these 
 people were feeding on our bounty. In an apartment 
 adjoining the mosque we found a school in which the
 
 GOVERNMENT BREEDING STABLE. 197 
 
 children of the village were being taught to read. 
 One of them, a little creature of only four years old, 
 was the son of the schoolmaster. It was painfully 
 studying the Arabic alphabet on a well-thumbed bit 
 of parchment, with the usual accompaniments in such 
 cases of a pouting mouth and dirty nose. 
 
 The Government keep up a breeding stable at 
 Tlem^en, for the use of the tribes ; but there were 
 at the time no fine horses in it, the best having been 
 dispersed over the country. The long wars since the 
 conquest of Algiers were so destructive, that there 
 resulted a manifest degeneracy in the quality of the 
 race ; and to remedy the mischief, the Government 
 has of late years purchased stallions at high prices, 
 and allowed the Arabs to avail themselves of them 
 gratuitously. The best breeding stable is considered 
 to be that at Mostaganem. In this I saw a very 
 handsome Syrian horse, for which 7,000 francs had 
 been paid. He was the most expensive of the whole 
 collection, but there were three or four other very 
 fine animals. The lowest price for which a stalhon 
 can be procured which it would be desirable to use as 
 a stud horse is about 4,000 francs ; but for ordinary 
 purposes, from 500 to 700 francs will purchase a 
 good horse in the western province, and in the 
 eastern the price would be even less. Mr. Marty 
 told me that his charger which I rode, had cost 700 
 francs. It was from Morocco, and a powerful animal,
 
 198 DIET or BAKBAEY HORSES. 
 
 thicker in the carcase than the Arab horses usually 
 are, of a gray colour, and with a rat-tail. I saw 
 several others of the same type in the neighbourhood 
 of Oran, but scarcely any either in the central or 
 eastern provinces, and I imagine that this variety of 
 the Barb is peculiar to the empire of Morocco. Mr. 
 Marty's owai horse was a black, much lighter in the 
 crest and finer in the head. He told me he had 
 more than once galloped him for fifteen leagues. 
 The great value of the Barb consists in his endurance 
 of fatigue and hard fare. The full allowance of food 
 which he ever receives is ten pounds of barley and 
 the same weight of hay, w^here the latter is attain- 
 able ; but of the latter very few horses belonging to 
 the natives get any. The animal is fed at the close 
 of his day's work, having been allowed to drink 
 about half an hour or an hour before. The barley 
 is put into a nosebag, and the horse is left to eat 
 it at his leisure during the night. During the whole 
 day he is not allowed either to eat or drink ; and 
 he is never put into a close stable or littered down. 
 It is quite an error to suppose that the Arabs never 
 trot their horses. I have seen them often do it ; but 
 the usual pace in travelling is a quick walk, which the 
 Barb will keep up for an almost unlimited time. On 
 campaigns this breed is said to be unrivalled. The 
 whole of the Pi'ench cavalry in Africa is now furnished 
 with native horses ; and I was informed that their use
 
 THEIR SPECIAL MERITS. 199 
 
 is rapidly extending to Europe, and that before long 
 the army will be mounted exclusively on them. The 
 Emperor was at first unfavourable to the plan, but he 
 has since altered his views ; and my informants added 
 that, in the event of an European war, the superior 
 mobility of the cavalry resulting from the substitution 
 of African for European horses would astonish every 
 one. It struck me that by a judicious selection of 
 stallions from this breed it would be possible to im- 
 prove yet further the agricultural horse of Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, retaining his weight and stature, but 
 hardening his constitution, and increasing his activity ; 
 and if I had been a scientific farmer, I should cer- 
 tainly have brought back with me a specimen or 
 two of large barbs in order to make the experiment. 
 
 Erom Tlemgen I returned again to Oran, by the 
 recommendation of Colonel Le Rouxeau, who told me 
 that the season was not sufficiently advanced to allow 
 me to take the cross route to Maskara by Sidi Bel 
 Abbes without risk of detention by the swelling of the 
 streams I should have to ford. By returning to Oran 
 I gained one advantage, — that of seeing by dayhght 
 the portion of the route which in coming I had passed 
 in the dark. But there are no striking features in it. 
 About half-way is the village Ain-Temouchent, — 
 exhibiting the ordinary characteristics of the new 
 African villages, of being surrounded with a loopholed 
 wall, and suffering from fever in the summer. Except
 
 200 AIN-TEMOUCHENT. 
 
 in the immediate neiglibourliood of tliis, of Boutlelis, 
 and Miserghin, tlie whole country is covered with the 
 usual Algerian bush. The two villages of Boutlelis 
 and Miserghin, which are of considerable size and sur- 
 rounded with loopholed walls, are now chiefly peopled 
 by Spaniards. Between the latter and Oran are a good 
 many aloe hedges, but farther inland I did not see 
 the plant at all. Two or three strings of camels met 
 us in diflerent parts of the route, bringing salt from 
 the Sebkah of Oran, which the Arabs are allowed to 
 take on paying a franc for every camel-load; and 
 we saw also, both in going and returning, several 
 douairs of nomads. In one of these, which we 
 passed just after daybreak in going to Tlem^en, the 
 sheep and goats w^ere being milked before being let 
 out from the middle of the encampment, where they 
 had been kept during the night for safety from 
 marauders and wild beasts. Where there is danger 
 from either of these causes, the tents are pitched near 
 to each other in the circumference of a regular circle, 
 but this rule is not observed where there is nothing 
 to fear. The neighbourhood of Ain-Temouchent is 
 rather troubled with lions, w^hich at night destroy 
 some of the cattle ; and a little farther to the south, 
 on the line from Sidi Bel Abbes to Milianah, passing 
 through Maskara and Orleansville, is the region of 
 panthers, — an animal which, from its cunning and its 
 power of climbing trees, is much more feared as an
 
 LIONS AND PANTHERS. 201 
 
 adversary than the lion by both Arabs and Europeans, 
 — while its cruelty in slaughtering many more cattle 
 than it devours renders it a greater pest to the farmer. 
 A young lieutenant of Engineers whom I met on my 
 way from Maskara to Mostaganem, told me that in 
 the part of the country just mentioned he had often 
 when out at night found it prudent to take refuge by 
 the Arab fires instead of pursuing his journey, in con- 
 sequence of finding these animals too closely upon his 
 track. The statement surprised me, as I had no idea 
 they ever followed either man or beast by scent, but 
 supposed they lay in wait for their prey, and sprang 
 upon it unawares. 
 
 The only military position which the French occupy 
 to the south of Tlemyen in the vicinity of the Morocco 
 frontier is Sebdou, which is about twenty-six miles ofiP. 
 As far as that point the land rises in plateau after 
 plateau. Arrived at the top, the traveller enters upon 
 what is called the Little Sahara, a region of salt lakes 
 at a high elevation surrounded by plains abounding in 
 the halfa^ a rush like that of which Indian matting is 
 made. In these plains wells are only found here and 
 there. In the vicinity of Sebdou is an elevated forest 
 region, to the south of which the land again descends 
 by a similar series of plateaux into the Great Sahara, or 
 sandy desert. This description I was informed applied 
 with very little variation to the whole of the elevated 
 land between what is called on the maps the Little and
 
 202 COPPER MINES OF SEBDOU. 
 
 Great Atlas, extending from near the Atlantic to the 
 vicinity of the Syrtes, and in one part I was subse- 
 quently enabled to verify the correctness of the 
 account. Near Sebdou are some mines where copper 
 is said to be found in considerable quantity, and I be- 
 lieve some silver also. The numbers of the workmen, 
 (who amount to 1,200 or 1,500, and are all armed,) 
 furnish a security against a regular attack; but an 
 escort is always requisite to accompany the mail from 
 Sebdou to Tlemfen, and vice versa, the tribes having 
 got a strange notion into then* head that it carries 
 treasure. I was informed that the mines of Sebdou 
 exhibited marks of having been w^orked in the Koman 
 times, and should have been glad to have visited them, 
 for which the Commandant politely offered me the 
 means ; but the expedition required three days, and I 
 could not spare the time without giving up Maskara 
 or Mostaganem.
 
 JOURNEY TO MASKARA. 203 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The diligence from Oran to Maskara sets off at the 
 same hour with that to Tlem^en, viz. three a.m. ; but the 
 distance is considerably less, being only sixty-seven or 
 sixty-eight miles, and the road, although bad in many 
 parts, very much better; so that we arrived by two 
 P.M. The route, like that to Tlem9en, traverses the 
 great plain in which the Sebkah lies, and at a distance 
 of ten miles from Oran passes by a wretched village, 
 called Valmy, or Le Figuier, — the latter from a fig-tree 
 of gigantic proportions by the side of which a treaty 
 was made, in the early part of the occupation of 
 Algeria, between General Trezel and the two Arab 
 tribes of the Douair and Zmela. It is also the site of 
 a post estabhshed by Abd-el-Kader for the purpose of 
 cutting off the supplies which the town of Oran derived 
 from the interior. After traversing a low chain of 
 hills, the road descends, at a distance of thirty-five 
 miles from Oran, upon the banks of the Sig, where 
 the village of St. Denis, which was built in 1845, 
 indicates the point from whence General Trezel, ten
 
 204 FAILURE OF COMMUNISTIC EXPERIMENT. 
 
 years before, commenced the retreat upon Arzew before 
 the force of Abd-el-Kader, which resulted in the cala- 
 mitous defeat of El Makta. We found a new bridge of 
 wood building here. The soil in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood is extremely fertile, and especially favom-- 
 able to the production of tobacco, wine, and silk. 
 The year after the foundation of the village an attempt 
 was made to bring it into cultivation by a society 
 called the Agricultural Union of Algeria. More than 
 3,000 hectares of ground were conceded to this body, 
 whose distinctive principle was that the labourer should 
 be admitted to a partnership in the profits of the under- 
 taking. The enterprise proved a sad failure. Money 
 was never forthcoming in sufficient quantity to prevent 
 sacrifice by inopportune sales. Every labourer was 
 attacked by fever. The financial crisis which in Africa 
 followed the revolution of 1848 put a final stop to the 
 subscriptions of the capital of the Association, which 
 never reached the half of the sum originally contem- 
 plated — £40,000. Then came three years of cholera, 
 which in the last quarter of the year 1850 killed thirty- 
 seven out of one hundred and twenty labourers em- 
 ployed on the lands of the Association. The under- 
 taking finally subsided into an ordinary joint-stock 
 company, conducted by a paid agent ; after nearly 
 half of the original concession had been given up to 
 redeem a forfeiture which had been incurred of the 
 whole, by failure to fulfil all the conditions that had
 
 APPROACH TO MASKARA. 205 
 
 been annexed to the grant. At the present time, 
 however, the locaUty is become tolerably healthy, and 
 cotton and tobacco are grown to some extent. 
 
 From the bridge of the Sig the ground rises again, 
 and the road crosses the elevated land between the 
 valleys of the Sig and the Habra. After traversing 
 the latter, the high hills are reached, and the ascent 
 becomes continuous until within about a mile of Mas- 
 kara, the road winding in terraces up the mountain. 
 The highest point is, according to my estimate, 2,032 
 feet above the sea-level, and Maskara itself, which lies 
 on the southern slope, 2,041 feet. But the weather 
 was obviously deteriorating during the whole of the 
 journey, and therefore there is every probability that 
 the barometer fell from this cause to some extent. 
 For the last three or four miles we had hail, and the 
 air was extremely cold, and I congratulated myself 
 that I was sheltered by a carriage instead of being 
 exposed on horseback in the plain of Eghres, where I 
 should have been had I fulfilled my original design of 
 coming from Tlemgen across the country. It so hap- 
 pened that the head of the Bureau Arabe at Maskara, 
 to whom I had brought letters, was detained by the 
 weather in this very locality, and did not get home for 
 two days. The plain of Eghres seems very much to 
 resemble the Metidja, as one looks down upon it from 
 Maskara. The new town itself is built something like 
 Oran, on two sides of a ravine through which a brook
 
 206 TRADE OF MASK IRA. 
 
 runs, and this on its way down is utilized for irrigating 
 the gardens which fill the hollow. The fortifications 
 are constructed with apparently more than usual care. 
 The universal loopholed wall is here and there bas- 
 tioned, and one or two cannon placed so as to sweep 
 all approaches. The fortification too is carried across 
 the brook in both places where tlie line of the wall 
 cuts it. On the most elevated portion of the space 
 within the walls are spacious barracks, and in a part 
 of the remainder streets are laid out on an imposing 
 scale, waiting only for the builder to realize the plan 
 of the architect. At present the eflPect is an extremely 
 melancholy one. There is one little inn and a few 
 shops, but the rest of the area is nearly void. Just 
 outside the walls, as you enter from the north, is a 
 bazaar, frequented in about equal proportions by Arabs 
 and Jews. Maskara is famous as a staple for the 
 bournouses and haiks manufactured by the Arab 
 women, having in this respect no rival but Tunis. All 
 the shops in the bazaar are filled with specimens of 
 this kind of work, and the shopkeeper himself will 
 sometimes take one off" his OAvn shoulders, if he thinks 
 it likely to attract a customer. To the north-east of 
 the walls are the ruins of the old town, for the most 
 part turned into huts by a tribe of sedentary Arabs, 
 whose straw gourbis are mixed up with the scarcely 
 less miserable hovels constructed out of the debris 
 of the masonry. There are, however, a few houses
 
 GROWTH OF THE VINE. 207 
 
 still surviving the destruction of Maskara. They are 
 universally of one story high, with flat roofs. The 
 fate before the poor Arab squatters is a very melan- 
 choly one. Their presence is obviously quite incom- 
 patible with the development of the town on the plan 
 contemplated by the Erench. I remarked this to 
 some officers, whose curiosity was excited by the ap- 
 pearance of a stranger. They told me that they would 
 no doubt be removed, and named Milianah as a place 
 where there was room for them. But I fancy, from 
 the look and the shrug with which the diminution of 
 their numbers was spoken of, that they are even now 
 perishing away from the effects of imported vices, and 
 that it will only be a remnant, if any, that must be 
 removed to make room for cafes and estaminets. 
 
 The country around Maskara is exceedingly favour- 
 able to the cultivation of the vine. The wine produced 
 is not unlike the Steinwein which one gets at Wlirz- 
 burg ; and if equal pains were taken in the selection 
 of the plant and the manufacture of the wine, I have 
 little doubt the results would be very important both 
 here and at Medeah. At each of these places are 
 found the important conditions for the perfection of 
 the grape, heat in summer and a considerable amount 
 of cold in winter. But unhappily at neither of them 
 is the wine-grower a man of capital, who can aflFord to 
 wait several years for the retm*n of his outlay. All 
 kinds of grapes and in all degrees of ripeness are
 
 208 DELAYS IN ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 thrown together into the press, and the wine is never 
 kept for more than two or three years before it is 
 consumed. Some of the cultivators, however, are 
 thriving. I went into the house of one who had been 
 there almost ever since the occupation of Maskara by 
 General Lamoriciere, that is, for fifteen or sixteen 
 years, and he professed himself quite satisfied with 
 the country, but not with the way in which business 
 was done. The annoying delay in putting a colonist 
 in possession of the lot of land conceded to him, was 
 constantly complained of wherever I went : but the 
 worst case I heard of was that of the eldest son of 
 this farmer, a remarkably fine young man, and to 
 all appearance steady and industrious in the highest 
 degree. He had, he said, been waiting fifteen months 
 for the fulfilment of a promise which had been made 
 to him of a " concession." In his case the worst 
 consequences of delay were averted ; for he lived with 
 his father and helped him in the tillage of his own 
 land; but it is easy to imagine the utter ruin in 
 purse, constitution, and character, which must befal 
 an ordinary peasant left in one of the towns of the 
 littoral for many months before he obtains a location. 
 An effective machinery for settling emigrants at once 
 upon their grants, and good roads to enable them to 
 transmit their produce to the coast, arc the first 
 desiderata of Algeria, if it is to become really a colony 
 and not continue simply a dependency.
 
 ROUTE TO MOSTAGANEM. 209 
 
 The bad weather in which I arrived at Maskara 
 ceased for a couple of hours before sunset, but 
 returned again in the night, and the next morning 
 I fully expected to remain a prisoner for two or three 
 days. Captain D'Abert, the brother-in-law of Captain 
 Saal, the head of the Bureau Arabe, strongly dissuaded 
 me from attempting the direct route to Mostaganeni, 
 on account of the effect of the rain upon the soft soil of 
 the country. There are two bridle ways. The shorter 
 one passes over a high plateau, considerably above the 
 level of Maskara, which itself I found so cold as 
 to render a fire absolutely necessary in my bedroom. 
 The other road, however, presented two obstacles 
 which were conclusive to a convalescent. The one 
 was a descent in soft clay over a path only about 
 a yard wide, with a fall of some three hundred feet 
 on each side ; the other a marsh to pass, which 
 after rain comes up higher than the horses' bellies. 
 It seemed scarcely possible to take either of these 
 routes without undoing all the good which had been 
 produced by a winter in Africa, and early in the 
 morning I gave up the idea of proceeding. But a 
 few hours afterwards I observed that my barometer 
 had considerably risen, and that the atmosphere was 
 beginning to clear. I therefore returned to Captain 
 D'Abert, and told him that if the existing state of 
 things continued I would start at one o'clock, if he 
 could procure me a good horse and allow me a 
 
 p
 
 210 HIGH PLATEAUX OF LIMESTONE. 
 
 trooper to attend me. He was extremely polite, and 
 at the appointed time appeared with a horse on which 
 he had had one of his own saddles placed, and a 
 couple of spahis, the one of whom was to carry my 
 small valise, and the other, who from his embroidered 
 saddle and bridle appeared to be of superior condi- 
 tion, to be responsible for my good treatment on the 
 way. 
 
 I was to pass the night with the Agha of El Borj, 
 an Arab chief high in the confidence of the French, 
 to whom the superior spahi was the bearer of a letter 
 of introduction. Almost as soon as we were fairly e7i 
 route, the weather cleared up, and the only incon- 
 venience I had to suffer was from the weight of two 
 bournouses, in which M. D'Abert had kindly invested 
 me, assuring me — which I have no doubt was quite 
 true — that they would keep out even a tropical rain.* 
 We ascended immediately after leaving the town, 
 and rode along a high narrow plateau which runs 
 south-west and north-east, and separates the great 
 plain on the south-east of Maskara (the plain of 
 Eghres) from that on the north-west, which is a 
 portion of the valley of the Habra. We kept getting 
 
 * Two bournouses are necessary for this purpose. One soon gets 
 wet through ; but two furnish an effectual protection, if they are of 
 the best quality. The Arabs often wear half-a-dozen over one 
 another, and possibly their sedate manners are necessitated by the 
 great weight they habitually carry. The two bournouses, where only 
 two are worn, are white and black ; the former being put outside in 
 warm weather, the latter in cold.
 
 DESCENT ON EL BORJ. 211 
 
 higher and higher; but the weather was now fine, 
 and my cumbrous garb effectually prevented me from 
 feeling the least cold. In some parts the view was 
 most magnificent ; in one especially, where the plateau 
 had narrowed to a breadth of only five or six hundred 
 feet, from which we looked on the right hand over the 
 plain of Eghres, and towards the left to a moun- 
 tainous frame inclosing the valley of the Habra. The 
 soil was a sandstone interspersed with strata of lime- 
 stone, the whole very much cracked by the eff'ect of 
 earthquakes. The heavy rains of Africa following 
 these, have, in many places, washed the soft sandstone 
 away, leaving a complete range of limestone cliff's such 
 as one sees on the shores of the sea. On the top of 
 the plateau, too, large masses of limestone and bare 
 sheets of the same are frequent, from the same cause, 
 viz. the comparative resistance which they offered to 
 the heavy rains which washed away the loose sand- 
 stone from them. 
 
 After riding for about two hours and a half through 
 this scenery, we began to descend upon El Borj, 
 which we saw in the distance.* It is in the middle 
 of a narrow elevated plain which breaks the range 
 over which we had been proceeding, and constitutes 
 the pass, not only between the plains of Eghres and 
 
 * I made the elevation of El Borj to be 717 feet above Maskara. 
 The plateau over which we had been passing was four or five 
 hundred feet higher still. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 RECEPTION BY THE AGHA. 
 
 the Habra, but between the latter and the valley of 
 the lower Cheliff, whose affluents from the south are 
 divided from the plain of Eghres by a similar plateau 
 to the one we had traversed, running east and west. 
 Its position, therefore, is extremely important in a 
 military point of view, as it protects the region round 
 about Arzew and Mostaganem from attacks both on 
 the part of the Hacheni (Abd-el-Kader's tribe), who 
 inhabit the plain of Eghres, and on that of the Flitta, 
 a Kabyle tribe of great power in the south-west part 
 of the valley of the lower Cheliff. 
 
 El Borj was destroyed by Abd-el-Kader in revenge 
 for the want of resistance on the part of the Bordja to 
 the expedition under Marshal Clausel which burnt 
 Maskara ; but it was then only a petty village without 
 any fortifications. The place is now surrounded with 
 a loopholed wall, perhaps of three-quarters of a mile 
 in extent, in the midst of which stands the habitation 
 of the Agha. When about a quarter of a mile off, 
 my spahi rode on to deliver the letter from the French 
 autliorities, and I followed with the other at a more 
 dignified pace. The great man received me half-way 
 up the stairs which led to his door, and conducted me 
 to the guest chamber, where I found a young French 
 officer of Engineers already arrived. I requested him 
 to inform tlie Agha how pleased I was to have the 
 opportunity of visiting a great native chief; but, to 
 my surprise, he tokl luc lie could not speak Arabic.
 
 CASTLE OF A NATIVE CHIEF. 213 
 
 However, a black tirailleur indigene, who had come 
 with him, was sent for, and acted as interpreter. He 
 took his place at the fire by which we were seated, 
 and is responsible for whatever effect my remarks 
 produced upon my host. 
 
 After we had drunk some coffee and appeared suf- 
 ficiently warmed, the Agha proposed to show us a new 
 house which he was building, and of which he was 
 obviously extremely proud. It was curious to see the 
 form which his architectural taste had taken. The 
 edifice is in fact a blockhouse, a square building with 
 very thick walls, two stories high. It has an open 
 court in the middle, and the general construction is 
 precisely that of an ordinary Moorish dwelling. But 
 there are only four windows, one in the middle of each 
 side of the first floor, exactly corresponding to the 
 embrasures for cannon in a real blockhouse. Around 
 them is a recess, professedly for the purpose of private 
 conversation, like the oriel window or parloir in the 
 old English halls, but really representing the space 
 requisite for trailing a gun. All the other windows 
 were mere loopholes for musketry. The luxe of the 
 house was mainly of a Moorish character, the floors 
 and walls being covered with encaustic tiles ; but 
 together wdth these was a French bed for the Agha, 
 and a few patches of a gaudy flock paper which had 
 the oddest effect in the midst of the tiles on the wall. 
 
 Within the fortification there were several Arab
 
 214 AN ARAB WARDEN OF THE MARCHES. 
 
 gourbis, asses turned out to pasture, one or two 
 patches of ground cultivated as garden, and a mosque, 
 which last the Agha had recently built. Into the 
 precinct are driven at night a large number of cattle, 
 to insure their safety from wild beasts or plunderers. 
 There were also just outside a number of other 
 gourbis, whose tenants would of course, in the event 
 of danger, retreat within the fortification. The whole 
 furnished an excellent parallel to the state of things 
 existing in mediaeval Europe. Here was the fort of 
 the great noble, the church of which he was the 
 patron, the retainers who were immediately about 
 his person, and the vassals in the vicinity, who re- 
 paired to his standard and sought his protection on 
 the occasion of a foray being made by a neighbour. 
 The Agha's title, too, and his functions, are nearly 
 identical with those of Warden of the Marches. He 
 is, in fact, a Mahometan Percy, with the commandant 
 of the western province of Algeria for his liege lord. 
 
 At half-past six we sat down to a dinner furnished 
 with knives, forks, and napkins ; for the Agha has the 
 reputation of being tres-civilise. First came soup, 
 then a stew of kid, followed by another of mutton, 
 each in a wooden bowl, and finally a dish of kous- 
 kous,* the favourite Arab viand. Wine was provided 
 for the lieutenant and mc, but the chief of course 
 drank only water. The lieutenant had a sapper in 
 * See note at the end of the chapter. .
 
 ARAB SUMPTUOUSNESS. 215 
 
 attendance upon him, who was sent for as the soup 
 disappeared, and during the remainder of the dinner 
 sat upon a chair at some distance from us, the chaouch 
 (Arab butler) handing him each dish as we had done 
 with it. Prom him it was sent out to my spahis 
 and the tirailleur, who messed together downstairs. 
 After dinner coffee was brought us in cups of the 
 most delicate porcelain, each placed in a saucer of 
 fretted silver, which fitted like an egg-cup, and the 
 whole set upon an elaborately ornamented circular 
 salver. The cups and salver were, the Agha said, 
 of Morocco workmanship. We then drew round the 
 fire, and the tirailleur found his way in again ; but 
 we had little conversation, for the officer persisted, 
 with what I thought extremely bad taste, in ad- 
 dressing himself exclusively to me, and quite ignoring 
 the existence of our host. Irrespectively of all gen- 
 tlemanly feeling, as the Trench give the Agha the 
 rank of a general officer in their own army, it seemed 
 only becoming that he should be treated with corre- 
 sponding respect by a subaltern ; and it struck me 
 that he felt the incivility which was put upon him, 
 for about half-past eight he got up, and very shortly 
 wished us good night. Our arrangements for bed 
 did not take us long, for we had simply to lie 
 wrapped up in our cloaks on mattresses of crin 
 vegetal, which were ranged round the apartment in 
 which we had dined. I believe, however, that I should
 
 216 TROST IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 have slept very soundly had it not been for a whole 
 army of dogs which kept up a continual bark through- 
 out the night, as they scented the animals which came 
 prowling about the hiclosure or heard their cries in 
 the distance. As it was, I do not think I got an hour 
 and a half's sleep in the Avhole night. The next 
 morning the chaouch brought us coffee, and the Agha 
 came to bid us farewell ; but I do not believe he had 
 recovered his good humour, and after accompanying 
 us only as far as the top of his staircase, he returned 
 to his own room. 
 
 It was exactly six o'clock as the lieutenant and I, 
 with our attendants, rode out of the inclosure of El 
 Borj, and the pools of rain-water were covered with 
 ice, — the first I had seen since leaving Europe. Bat 
 the day broke beautifully, and we rode on enjoying 
 the fresh morning air, as we descended from plateau 
 to plateau, over ground of the same character as that 
 of the preceding day. After about an hour we came 
 upon a party of four gazelles, who moved oft' very 
 leisurely, and without the least display of fear. We 
 also sprang several coveys of partridges. As we got 
 lower, the ground became more thickly covered with 
 brushwood, and finally assumed exactly the character 
 of the Sahel of Algiers. The route we were taking 
 was the same as that pursued by the French army 
 after burning Maskara ; and small as the quantity of 
 rain w\as which had fallen in the last forty-eight hours.
 
 EFFECT OF THE RAINS. 217 
 
 it was enough to make one understand the difficulties 
 which they must have had to overcome in their 
 retreat. In several instances we found the path cut 
 by a gully of several yards deep ; and in one place 
 the piles of a w^ooden bridge across a rivulet were so 
 undermined, that the structure slanted, and the lead- 
 ing spahi halted on arriving, from fear of its coming 
 down. However, the scientific part of our body 
 sanctioning the trial, w^e all scrambled over one by 
 one, keeping close to the higher side, the sapper 
 taking the lead, and I, with a civilian's discreetness, 
 bringing up the rear. Indeed, except for the cer- 
 tainty of getting a wetting, I should undoubtedly 
 have forded the brook. The solitude of our ride 
 was almost complete; we met nobody for several 
 hours, and heard no sound except the cries of jackals 
 in the distance, in the early part of the morning. 
 Here and there we passed a patch of land which had 
 been cleared by the Arabs, and twice we saw their 
 burial-grounds, surrounded with bushes of the camel 
 thorn or wild jujube, which makes an excellent fence 
 against every animal but the camel. 
 
 There is a caravanserai about eighteen miles from 
 El Borj where we had intended to breakfast, and 
 before we arrived, its appearance had been anxiously 
 looked for both by myself and the tirailleur, who was 
 like ourselves going to Mostaganem and accompanied 
 us on foot. This poor fellow had not had even the
 
 218 A FEVER-STRICKEN CARAVANSERAI. 
 
 solitary cup of coffee with which a guest is dismissed ; 
 but he kept up merrily with us, cracking jokes with 
 the spahis, and occasionally acting as interpreter be- 
 tween me and them. When at last we rode into the 
 caravanserai, not a soul came to take our horses, and 
 presently a poor woman as yellow as a guinea made 
 her appearance, and said piteously in reply to my 
 demand for something to eat, " Monsieur, tout le 
 monde est malade : il n'y a rien." Everything we 
 saw confirmed her statement. The whole building 
 looked as if it had been attacked Avitli fever, so 
 shaky and dilapidated was it, with several windows 
 broken, and one leaf of the gate off its hinges. I 
 was hungry enough to have eaten my own horse ; but 
 there was no alternative but to mount and proceed 
 ten miles farther. Fortunately we had for the last 
 hour been clear of the mountains, and were no 
 longer confined to the shuffling walk which is the 
 usual pace on a long journey. As we cantered over a 
 broad flat plain in the middle of which was a shallow 
 river to be forded, we saw several encampments of 
 nomad. Arabs, and the surface of the countiy was 
 thickly covered with their herds feeding upon the 
 young grass. Another range of low hills was crossed, 
 and brought us to another plain of similar character, 
 and on descending from the broken ground which 
 bounded this, we found ourselves on a regular road 
 which the Government are making from Mostaganem
 
 ENDURANCE OF AFRICAN SOLDIERS. 219 
 
 along the southern side of the valley of the Cheliff 
 by the hands of the military. The lieutenant, whose 
 horse took the lead when we started from El Borj, 
 had announced to me his intention to go on to 
 Mostaganem without stopping; but the brisk pace 
 at which we had proceeded after leaving the fever- 
 stricken caravanserai had taken a good deal out of 
 the steed, and he fell into the rear some time before 
 we reached the village of Aboukir, and was well 
 content to stop and breakfast there with me. The 
 poor tirailleur had been thrown out by the rapidity 
 of our advance, but nevertheless he caught us up 
 before we had finished our meal, as good humoured 
 and merry as ever, although he had come twenty- 
 eight miles (and most of it over very rough ground) 
 without tasting a morsel of food. I ordered him 
 some coffee with my spahis, and when we started — 
 which was within half an hour of his arrival — he 
 appeared again as fresh as a lark, and performed the 
 remaining eight miles to Mostaganem without exhibit- 
 ing the least sign of fatigue. Yet I do not think he 
 was at all above the average of the seasoned African 
 soldier. 
 
 In the remaining part of our journey, the defined 
 plateaux one below the other which had characterised 
 the earlier portion, were succeeded by gentle undula- 
 tions. Cultivation is almost continuous in the neia-li- 
 bourhood of the road after passing Aboukir, and in
 
 220 MOSTAGANEM. 
 
 the immediate vicinity of Mostaganem it is carried to 
 a high point. There, too, are several country houses 
 to be seen, occupied by rich Arabs, and surrounded 
 with well-irrigated gardens. This is a circumstance 
 which tells much for the security afforded by the 
 French rule ; for so long as the war with Abd-el- 
 Kader lasted, this neighbourhood was the scene of 
 continual warfare. A melancholy relic of the times 
 which had so recently passed away met my eye in one 
 of the plains which we had crossed this morning, in 
 the shape of a human thigh-bone lying on the grass. 
 
 Mostaganem may be described as a military settle- 
 ment built upon a hill just over the old Arab town. 
 Two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry are 
 regularly stationed there, and of course this produces 
 a good deal of consumption of all kinds. There is a 
 jplace filled with cafes, two or three hotels, and a few 
 shops ; but except for the demand created by the 
 presence of the military force, and the Government 
 employes, all would fall into decay. The shops are 
 generally kept by Jews — probably the representatives 
 of the original camp-followers — and the cultivation 
 of the country in the neighbourhood, when it is 
 not efiected by the Arabs, is carried on mainly by 
 Spaniards. These are wiUing to work at forty sous 
 a day, while the French labourer grumbles at receiv- 
 ing only fifty. The French of this class think the 
 presence of the Spaniards a great evil ; but they are
 
 ILL SUCCESS OF FRENCH SETTLERS. 221 
 
 far more industrious than the others ; and a Guernsey 
 man whom I stumbled upon accidentally, who had 
 long kept a shop in Mostaganem, declared that if it 
 were not for the Spaniards, the colony could not last 
 six years. The women-servants are almost all of that 
 nation, and are said to be much more honest than 
 the corresponding class of French women. But the 
 common French colonist is almost sure to be either 
 a bad subject, or a ruined man whose friends have 
 made a purse to set him afloat in the colony, and get 
 him out of their way. He comes and loiters about 
 on the coast till he has spent almost all his money, 
 and when he has at last got his grant in the interior, 
 he is obliged to borrow to maintain himself while his 
 crop is growing. In this way mortgages spring up, 
 carrying interest at ten or fifteen per cent. ; the first 
 unfavourable season the creditor forecloses ; and the 
 land passes thus into the hands of some money-lender 
 in the towns, who lets it to a Spaniard or Mahonnais. 
 There is a good deal of speculation in grain ; and the 
 poor coIo?i generally enters upon his career of ruin by 
 merely mortgaging his crop, which is then sold as 
 soon as it is reaped, at the very time when prices are 
 lowest. The corn merchants know that all, or next 
 to all the corn in the colony is so sold ; and, accord- 
 ingly, raise the price artificially during the interval 
 which elapses before the next harvest. A great 
 number of Maltese have made large fortunes by
 
 222 STATE OF MORALS. 
 
 speculating in this manner. AVhen the ruined man 
 can return to France, he always does so, but he often 
 leaves behind him the female members of his family ; 
 and with a large military population their fate may 
 easily be guessed. 
 
 The state of morals appeared to me lower at 
 Mostaganem than at Algiers, — perhaps from the want 
 of that indirect influence which the tone of society of 
 Government House supplied at the latter place. One 
 little trait of manners is worth relating. The land- 
 lady of my hotel, apparently a widow-lady, who re- 
 tained some traces of having once been handsome, 
 was sitting in her bureau, listening to the civil 
 speeches of a middle-aged officer, when I entered to 
 obtain some information. There was also present her 
 daughter, a girl of fifteen or sixteen, who sat busily 
 engaged with a book. I had had occasion to call 
 upon an official person of some rank, and my plans 
 were put out of joint by the circumstance of not 
 finding him at his office. " Ah ! il est probableraent 
 chez sa maitresse," was the straightforward explana- 
 tion of my hostess, tendered without the least spice 
 of sarcasm. "Qui est sa maitresse?" asked the 
 young lady, raising her eyes from her book. I 
 turned to her in some surprise, and then observed 
 that the subject of her study was a volume of George 
 Sand. The mother simply answered, " Marie 
 L ;" informed me that the gentleman I wanted
 
 VISIT TO MAZAGRAN. 223 
 
 would no doubt be at his bureau by nine the next 
 morning ; and both the ladies at once returned to the 
 occupations which my entry had for the moment in- 
 terrupted. A French labourer, with whom I had 
 some conversation on the subject of his earnings, 
 declared positively that the reason why the Spaniards 
 of his class were preferred to his own countrymen 
 was, that they invariably emigrated to Africa with 
 their families, and that the female part at once 
 formed connexions with the employers of labour, and 
 then used their influence to promote the interest of 
 their brothers and fathers. I did not altogether 
 believe in his theory ; but I thought from all I saw 
 that his facts were not to be rashly rejected. At the 
 same time there is society in Mostaganem, as I can 
 testify from personal experience, where the polish and 
 wit of continental Europe is combined with the tone 
 of an English family ; but the circle which answers 
 to this description is a narrow one, and not likely to 
 exercise any influence beyond its own limits. 
 
 Very near to Mostaganem, on the road to Arzew, is 
 a village called Mazagran, whither I went in search of 
 some Roman remains which I had been told existed 
 there ; but, after a diligent search, I found nothing of 
 the kind. Mazagran, however, is remarkable as the 
 scene of a brave defence made by some French 
 soldiers against an attack of Arabs, in February, 
 1840. They were only 123 in number, and occupied
 
 224 FRENCH EEAT OF AEMS. 
 
 a small fort, wliich was suddenly attacked on all sides 
 by nearly 2,000 of tlie enemy. The attack was in- 
 cessant during four days ; and the garrison, finding 
 themselves too weak to defend the whole of the fort, 
 withdrew into a single redoubt, which they success- 
 fully maintained, losing — strange to say — only a 
 single man. But three-fourths of their assailants 
 were cavalry ; and the chief hope of the attack seems 
 to have lain in the belief that want of water would 
 cause the garrison to surrender. There Avas how- 
 ever, fortunately, a well within the redoubt. 
 
 The late French dynasty thought proper to com- 
 memorate this feat of arms by a memorial, somewhat 
 disproportionate to the acknowledgment which other 
 deeds, even more remarkable, had received. A public 
 subscription was entered into for the purpose of 
 placing a monument on the very spot which had 
 been so immortalized. With the produce of this a 
 communal school is erected in the very redoubt which 
 was the last hope of the besieged, and hard by a 
 Corinthian column is surmounted by a statue of 
 France surveying the scene with admiration. This is 
 not all. A church is built close by the fort, bearing 
 the inscription on its facade, " Get edifice a ete con- 
 struit avec le produit d'une souscription nationale 
 en commemoration du fait d'armes dc Mazagran." 
 But unhappily the subscription not being sufficient 
 for all these different objects, it was determined not
 
 AN ILL-FATED MONUMENT. 225 
 
 to build a new church, but to convert a mosque which 
 stood there into one ; and this is the real history of 
 what appears. It is to be hoped the Arabs of Maza- 
 gran are not attentive to omens : for otherwise what 
 has followed must induce in them the expectation of 
 a Nemesis hanging over their conquerors. Only 
 about a fortniglit before I was there, the frame on 
 which the organ was placed gave way, the organ fell, 
 and as I looked in I saw the whole of the church 
 filled with rubbish. I believe that really the founda- 
 tions had been undermined by water ; but such was 
 not the view taken by my cicerone. " Voila, Mon- 
 siem*," said he, " comme tout s'est fait en Algerie des 
 le commencement. L'architecte vole, I'entrepreneur 
 vole, les ouvriers volent, tout le monde vole." It was 
 very providential that the misfortune did not happen 
 during service ; as else all the Chiistian children in 
 Mazagran would have been buried in the ruins, their 
 seat being under the organ-loft. I went into the 
 communal school, where I found only nine boys and 
 eight girls. Two of the former were natives : but 
 the master informed me that the Arabs exhibited 
 great unwillingness to send their children, although 
 they are wxll aware of- the advantages they will gain 
 in qualifying themselves for Government employment 
 by learning the French language. The master com- 
 plained of the effects of " the fever " in diminishing 
 the numbers of his scholars ; and it seems that this 
 
 Q
 
 226 SOUK-EL-MITOU. 
 
 scourge has been more than usually vu'ulent m the 
 province of Oran during the last summer. Mosta- 
 ganem, where it was previously unknown, had suffered 
 from it. 
 
 I devoted one day to visiting Souk-el-Mitou, a 
 village which overhangs the river Cheliff, at about 
 seventeen miles from Mostaganem, and the same 
 distance from the embouchure. Here too I was 
 informed Roman remains existed. But although 
 there are remains of a fortification of considerable 
 extent, these are not Roman, but of the same time 
 and constructed by the same builders as the ruins at 
 Tlem^en. They appeared to me likely to have formed 
 part of a palace of some sultan of Mostaganem ; and 
 it is not impossible that their likeness in point of 
 material to the walls of the Mansourah led the Arabs, 
 in their traditionary account of the building of the 
 latter, to introduce the name of such a person. Con- 
 siderably below these walls in the side of the hill 
 is a fountain surrounded with trees, the water of 
 which is collected in a square stone basin which 
 may possibly be of the Roman period. In front of 
 it is the largest olive-tree I ever saw, resembling 
 in form a pollarded oak. The stem separates into 
 four branches, the circumference of two of which 
 I estimated at six feet six inches and eight feet six 
 inches respectively. I have no doubt the tree is 
 nearly 2,000 years old, and it is still vigorous, and
 
 ENORMOUS OLIVE-TREES. 227 
 
 throws out new stems from its roots. Just at tlie 
 entrance of the village on the Mostaganem side are 
 likewise some very large olive-trees, but they are 
 equalled by some I afterwards saw near Bona, It was 
 very hot weather when I visited the Roman fountain — 
 about like an August day in England — although only 
 the IGth of March, and I was enabled to enter into 
 the feelings with which this locality (probably sacred 
 to Pan and the Nymphs) would have been sought 
 during the heats of summer in the old pagan times. 
 
 Souk-el-Mitou is, like all the other villages in this 
 province, built within the enceinte of a loopholed 
 wall ; but this is already falling down from decay ; 
 and although the site was doubtless originally selected 
 without any regard for sanitary advantages, it is a 
 healthy and prosperous settlement. I should couple 
 it with Cheragas in the central, and Jemappes in the 
 eastern province, as places where the inhabitants 
 are really contented with their lot, and apparently 
 have reason to be so ; although even here I heard 
 complaints of interference on the part of the 
 Government in matters of detail, which had much 
 better have been left to the colonists themselves. 
 But the description given me of the fertility of the 
 soil was almost incredible. It is fruit that is chiefly 
 cultivated, and I was told of peaches the size of a 
 child's head, pears weighing more than a kilogramme, 
 grapes, figs, pomegranates, and olives in perfection, 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 VALLEY OF THE CHELIFF. 
 
 and, in short, everything which could move the 
 desires of a horticulturist. I have, indeed, no doubt 
 that, blessed with a soil something like that of the 
 Brohlerthal, and an unlimited supply of the most 
 delicious water, the sloping gardens of Souk-el-Mitou 
 are a veritable temple of Pomona. 
 
 Two or three miles from Souk-el-Mitou, on the road 
 to Mostaganem, is another village of very much the 
 same kind, called Ain Tedeles, the inhabitants of which 
 have grants of land that run down towards the 
 southern bank of the Cheliff. I should very much 
 have liked to explore the valley of this river along the 
 whole of its east and west course as far as the neigh- 
 bourhood of Mihanah, where it is crossed by a bridge, 
 as it is here by one three or four miles below Souk-el- 
 Mitou. The aspect of the country indicates great fer- 
 tility, the mouth of the Cheliff must in ancient times 
 have been an important port, and I have little doubt 
 that in this interval of ajaout one hundred miles 
 between the two bridges interesting traces of Roman 
 civihsation (of the time of the Antonines) would be 
 found. At Mostaganem, while paying a visit to 
 General Hugo, the commandant, I observed an ancient 
 tunuilary stone in the vestibule of his house, and 
 requested permission to copy it. As I was engaged 
 in this operation an aide-de-camp came in, and said 
 that two other large stones were lying face to face in 
 the street hard by, which possibly had inscriptions on
 
 TRACES OP THE EMPEKOR HADRIAN. 229 
 
 them ; and the General politely ordered them to be 
 turned for my inspection. The one proved to be a 
 mere complimentary inscription to the deceased Em- 
 peror Antoninus, and therefore probably set up imme- 
 diately after the accession of his adopted successors, 
 Aurelius and Verus (a.d. 161); but the other, which 
 was unfortunately much nmtilated, was of a more 
 important character. It was obviously intended as a 
 tablet to be put up over the gateway of a town, on the 
 occasion of either this, or some new street, being 
 thrown open. The Emperor Hadrian had bestowed 
 some special mark of his favour on the occasion — 
 what, unfortunately, the injuries the stone has sus- 
 tained prevented me from ascertaining — and the year 
 was A.D. 127 or 128. The efforts of Hadrian were, 
 as is well known, directed to the renovation of the 
 provinces of the Roman empire and the development 
 of their resources. Eour years before the tablet of 
 which I am speaking was put up, a new road from 
 Carthage to Theveste (the modern Tebessa) had been 
 completed under his auspices,* and the reverse of his 
 coins often bears the title of " Restitutor Africae." 
 There seems no doubt therefore that the work referred 
 to in the tablet (whatever was its exact character) 
 formed a part of the general plan for improving 
 the communications between the most important 
 
 * This appears from an inscription found at Carthage, which is 
 printed by Shaw.
 
 230 CARELESSNESS OF ERENCH ANTIQUARIES. 
 
 points in Northern Africa from Cyrene to the Atlantic, 
 of which the so-called Antonine Itinerary gives us the 
 results. I was exceedingly vexed at not being able to 
 learn the exact locality in which this interesting relic 
 had been discovered. General Hugo believed it was 
 brought from the lower bridge of the Cheliff, at the 
 time that excavations were making for its construction, 
 but it was not possible to obtain any certain informa- 
 tion on the subject. It is exceedingly to be regretted 
 that the remains of antiquity which the French are 
 continually discovering should not be carefully pre- 
 served, and if they are removed from their site, that a 
 well authenticated record of this should not be kept. 
 At present no thought is taken for anything of the 
 kind. Collections are made here and there, but no 
 note is taken of the places from whence the objects 
 collected have been brought, — as fruitless a proceeding 
 as that of forming a museum of fossils without 
 observing the geological strata from which they were 
 derived. Even with reference to the development of 
 the resources of Algeria, a correct knowledge of the 
 Roman routes would be extremely valuable ; for those 
 conquerors of the world had an eye for sites and 
 communications which is rarely found in our days. 
 If the matter were brought under the notice of the 
 reigning Emperor of the Erench, whose position is not 
 altogether unlike that of Hadrian, he would scarcely 
 fail to recognise an opportunity of furthering the
 
 VISIT TO ST. LEU. 231 
 
 accomplishment of a wise policy in his African 
 dominions, while contributing to the extension of that 
 knowledge of antiquity for which France (as the 
 Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions witness) was 
 once distinguished above all other nations. 
 
 But alas ! 
 
 Dixeris haec inter varicosos centuriones, 
 Continuo crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens, 
 Et centum Gi-secos curto centusse licetur ! 
 
 A diligence leaves Mostaganem for Arzew every 
 morning at three o'clock, and my friends advised me 
 to go by this as far as St. Leu, a village which the 
 French have built near the site of the ancient Arse- 
 naria, the ruins of which I proposed to visit. The 
 road is the same as that to Oran, until within a mile 
 or two of arriving at Arzew. It runs through the low 
 ground near the sea-shore from within a very short 
 distance of Mazagran, and although not by any means 
 so bad as the route to Tlemgen, is of the same 
 character, so that we several times had to quit the 
 main track, and proceed across the country for some 
 distance. We crossed El Makta, as the lower Habra 
 is called, very near to the sea, and two or three miles 
 below the place where the terrible defeat of General 
 Trezel by Abd-el-Kader took place, which has been 
 described above. The mouth of the river is, in the 
 summer, altogether sanded up. At about nine o'clock 
 I Avas put down half a mile from St. Leu, and the
 
 232 REMAINS OF ARSENARIA. 
 
 diligence proceeded to the modern Arzew, which 
 previously to the French occupation bore the name of 
 El Mersa (the port), and in fact was no doubt the 
 harbour of the ancient Arsenaria, which stood on au 
 elevated plateau about five miles to the east of it. 
 The walls of Arsenaria are distinctly traceable along 
 the north side of the ancient site ; and in following 
 these I came upon a subterranean chamber which 
 probably was a cellar or warehouse. By excavation 
 some remains Avould possibly be found, and no doubt 
 many mosaics laid bare ; but there is now nothing on 
 any great scale standing above-ground, as there seems 
 to have been in the time of Shaw, who describes some 
 arches which he saw as having the appearance at first 
 sight of belonging to an aqueduct, but without any 
 channel for the conveyance of water. The Trench 
 have laid bare the foundations of one house which 
 must have stood in the suburbs of the old town, and 
 have placed within the area a few capitals of columns, 
 and other fragments of sculpture which have been 
 found. But all of these are of very low times, and 
 some of the meanest execution. There are several 
 tumulary stones among them, but most are un- 
 mistakeably pagan, and none apparently Christian. 
 Yet Arsenaria appears among the list of African 
 bishoprics. It happens most unfortunately that in the 
 midst of what nuist have been the area enclosed by 
 the city walls, an Arab tribe is located, who as usual
 
 DIEPICULTY OF SEARCHING. 233 
 
 have made use of the rums to construct huts for 
 themselves. A close investigation here would pro- 
 bably bring something to light ; but such a thing is 
 not possible for an European, whose motives would 
 be altogether misinterpreted by the jealous denizens 
 of the huts. 
 
 I had intended to remain for the night in the new 
 town of Arzew, but having completed my survey 
 of Arsenaria soon after mid-day, I w^as induced to 
 change my plan, and endeavour to push on to Oran 
 the same afternoon. In order to do this, it was 
 requisite to obtain horses from the Arabs ; and there 
 being no official of the Bureau Arabe at so small 
 a place as St. Leu, this would have been a matter 
 of considerable difficulty, had I not fortunately made 
 the acquaintance of a French settler who spoke the 
 native language. This man, although quite uneducated, 
 seemed to take a great interest in my inquiries for 
 Roman remains. He left his garden to join me in 
 my exploration of the locality, showed me everything 
 which had been found, and was extremely delighted 
 when I explained to him the meaning of the inscrip- 
 tions and symbols on the fragments of stone. He 
 told me that at first there was a good deal of jealousy 
 of the settlers on the part of the Arab tribe ; but that 
 graduaUy they got used to each other, and were now 
 very good friends, so that the Prench used often to 
 pet the Arab children. By the aid of my new friend,
 
 234 MOUNTAIN OF LIONS. 
 
 I succeeded in hiring a horse and a guide ; but when 
 the two made then' appearance, I really repented 
 having changed my intention of remaining for the 
 night at Arzew. The former was a miserable looking 
 animal, like the starved pony of a bankrupt coster- 
 monger, with a bridle half chain, half plaited rushes, 
 and the latter a black half negro Arab, barefooted. 
 However, miserable as an Arab horse may appear, he 
 is always sure to possess great endurance ; and this 
 wretched looking creature, which seemed to stagger 
 with weakness as I got on his back, carried me and 
 my bag, which I had to put on the pummel of the 
 saddle, into Oran, a distance of more than twenty- 
 five miles, without stopping. It is true that nearly 
 seven hours were occupied in the performance ; but, 
 on the other hand, the animal walked more briskly 
 forward at the end than at the beginning of the 
 journey. 
 
 The first nine miles of our course lay through a 
 plain covered with pasture, and a few bushes here 
 and there ; but afterwards we began to ascend the 
 neck of that mountain mass, terminating in Cape 
 Ferratt, of which the Mount of Lions is the highest 
 summit. We passed through a region thickly covered 
 with brushwood, but I observed no traces either of 
 wild swine or lions, which Shaw remarked in this 
 region. In the highest part of our patli, there 
 appeared now and then a few patches cleared and
 
 HARSH TREATMENT OF NATIVES. 235 
 
 held by Maltese. But the bush continued, with few- 
 interruptions, until we got within half-a-dozen miles 
 of Oran, where the country appeared admirably 
 cultivated, and bearing corn-crops. On all sides of 
 Oran, these appeared to me better, and the land 
 cleaner, than any I had up to that time seen in 
 Algeria.* 
 
 The military road from Arzew to Oran turns the 
 mass of hills over which I had passed to the south, 
 and runs near the Sebkah of Arzew, the sight of which 
 I missed through the love which the Arabs have 
 for taking the old track rather than any new one. 
 Perhaps one reason for this preference is that, by so 
 doing, they see less of the European settlers, who 
 continually treat them with harshness and insult, 
 which they dare not resent, but at the same time 
 feel very bitterly. I have more than once seen the 
 driver of a carriage purposely guide his horses in 
 such a way as to compel a party of camels to step 
 into the fields by the side of the road, in order to 
 avoid him. These poor animals are extremely apt to 
 strain themselves in climbing over a bank, which they 
 do in a panic to avoid the strange machine which 
 they see bearing down upon them. A curse always, 
 and not seldom a blow with the whip, is certain to be 
 bestowed upon any muleteer or ass driver who is 
 
 * This was before my visit to Great Kabylie, described in an 
 earlier chapter.
 
 236 SEBKAH OF ARZEW. 
 
 slow in clearing his animals out of the road. These 
 are the sort of influences which neutralize, to a great 
 extent, the efforts of the higher ranks of the adminis- 
 tration ; and it is to be feared will long prevent the 
 possibility of retaining the African provinces without 
 the support of a large army. 
 
 The Sebkah of Arzew is of much smaller size than 
 that of Oran ; but its deposits are infinitely richer. 
 In the month of July it is generally quite dry ; and 
 the carts and mules which come to fetch the salt pass 
 freely over the surface. Its extent is about seven or 
 eight miles in length by half as much in breadth. 
 The salt is of the best quality, and is from three to 
 five feet in thickness. The marshes round about it 
 are extremely favourable to the fattening of horned 
 stock, probably from the impregnation of the soil 
 with salt. 
 
 I returned from Oran to Algiers by a merchant- 
 steamer which had arrived two or three days before 
 from Malaga. She was a very slow boat, and horribly 
 dirty ; and the captain had had but little experience 
 of that part of the Mediterranean. The wind being 
 slightly from the north, he thought it imprudent to 
 keep near the shore, and consequently the return 
 voyage added nothing to my knowledge of the coast. 
 The only incident which enlivened the voyage was the 
 falling in with two or three shoals of porpoises, not 
 rolling with the tub-like movement which characterises
 
 RETURN TO ALGIERS. 237 
 
 them in the neighbourhood of the shore, but in 
 full pursuit after small fish, at which they sometimes 
 leapt seven or eight feet, as a trout does at a fly. 
 Two or three gulls followed the course of the shoal, 
 hovering above the leading porpoise, to pounce upon 
 its panic-stricken prey if opportunity ofi'ered. One 
 shoal came so close alongside the ship, and followed 
 her course so exactly, that I was tempted to try 
 whether I could not hit one with a pistol while 
 leaping : but no sooner had I brought the weapon 
 on deck than, either from accident, or because (as the 
 sailors asserted) the porpoises smelt the powder, the 
 whole disappeared instantly, and did not show them- 
 selves again for some hours. 
 
 We did not arrive at Algiers until between nine 
 and ten at night ; but httle did I expect this circum- 
 stance to prevent us from landing. Such, however, 
 was the case. It was necessary we should be approved 
 by the officer of health ; and this functionary does not 
 exercise his powers after sunset, except in the case of 
 the mail-steamers. Accordingly, we were obliged 
 to make up our minds to endure the dirt and discom- 
 fort of the filthy steamer for another night. The 
 submission with which all the French passengers 
 acquiesced in this stupid piece of official pedantry 
 quite amazed me. But they showed their wisdom in 
 so doing ; for remedy there was none. In England 
 the certain result would have been an indignant letter
 
 238 NOTE ON THE KOUSKOUS. 
 
 to the Times ; but I should like to have seen the face 
 of the editor of the Algerian Akhbar on receiving a 
 similar communication. However, early the next 
 morning " la sante " made his appearance, and re- 
 moved the spell which bound us. I went at once on 
 landing to take a warm bath, and w^as fortunate 
 enough to carry nothing away with me from La 
 Henriette but unpleasant recollections, and a fixed 
 determination never again to renew our acquaintance. 
 
 Note to Page 214. 
 
 The kouskous is prepared in several different ways, but the sub- 
 stratum is in all cases the grain of fine wheat, which after having 
 been crushed is rubbed by the hand, previously dipped in water, on 
 a flat stone, till it presents the appearance of a small round seed like 
 miUet. This is simmered over a slow fire with oil, or else the fat 
 from the tail of the broad-tailed sheep. Rich people vary this simple 
 di.sh by putting figs and raisins in the mess, and pouring cold milk 
 or cream over it. Sometimes it is filled with cubes of mutton or 
 kid's flesh, or even pieces of chicken, which have been previously 
 boiled. It is flavoured with salt and pepper ; but that which 
 specially characterises it is the rancid taste from the fat or oil with 
 which the grain is stewed.
 
 VISIT TO EASTERN PROVINCE. 239 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Algeria is more than almost any country de- 
 pendent on the sea for its communications. The 
 Httoral may be described in general terms as an 
 aggregation of small provinces, insulated from each 
 other by mountain ranges of difficult passage. These 
 are formed by the several parts of what is called the 
 Northern, or Little Atlas. It is not so much a chain 
 of mountains as a chain of buttresses, supporting the 
 northern side of an elevated plateau, which extends 
 over a space of various breadth, but always consider- 
 able, to the south. The southern boundary of this 
 plateau is formed of a similar chain of mountain- 
 buttresses, which appears on the maps under the 
 imposing title of the Great Atlas, although, except in 
 one part, its summits are by no means so high as 
 those of the so-called Little Atlas. This latter starts 
 from the sea-board of Algeria, just to the west of 
 Bougie, and runs west-south-west, forming, first of 
 all, the craggy mass of Great Kabylie, in the 
 southern portion of which are the peaks of Djerjera,
 
 240 THE ATLAS RANGES. 
 
 already so often mentioned. Continuing its course at 
 a diminished elevation, and throwing off from itself 
 those lower hills which form the valleys of the Sebaou, 
 the Isser, and the Boudouaou, and are crossed by the 
 road from Algiers into Kabylie, the Little or 
 Northern Atlas attains its extreme southern point 
 shortly before it reaches the meridian of Algiers, from 
 which its direct distance is there about fifty miles. 
 It now takes a turn to the west-north-west, closely 
 approaching the sea in the neighbourhood of Cher- 
 chell ; and after two more sweeps of similar shape 
 but smaller extent, it terminates at Cape Ivi, the 
 northern boundary of the Cheliff, at its embouchure 
 near Mostaganem. 
 
 The Great, or more properly Southern Atlas, starts 
 from the seaboard at Cape Roux, which is the 
 boundary of Algeria towards Tunis, and runs in a 
 general west-south-west direction quite into the 
 territory of Morocco. It is supposed by geographers 
 — although it has never been accurately traced — to 
 terminate in a mountain mass on the shores of the 
 Atlantic, of which the most fabulous accounts were 
 prevalent in antiquity, and to w^hich the name was 
 given which has since been extended to the whole 
 series of elevations. So far, however, as it is com- 
 prised witliiu the limits of Algeria, which it divides 
 into two nearly equal portions, the Great Atlas is not 
 a chain at all. Its iiiountainous character is confined
 
 THE MIDDLE ATLAS. 241 
 
 to a peculiar assemblage of craggy elevations, sixty or 
 seventy miles in diameter, called the Aures, situated 
 between tlie meridians of 5° 45' and 7° east. Here 
 the peaks are some of them 7,000 and 8,000 feet in 
 heio-ht, and one has been estimated at no less than 
 9,373 feet. But to the west of this boss, the moun- 
 tainous character of the Southern Atlas is much less 
 clearly marked. It assumes, for the most part, the 
 features of a high plateau with irregular elevations ; 
 but it retains throughout one important characteristic, 
 namely, that the streams which issue from its southern 
 side all lose themselves, sooner or later, in the sands 
 of the Desert. 
 
 The Middle Atlas is a name that has been given to 
 two ranges which may be described as connecting the 
 Northern with the Southern Atlas. The one of these 
 leaves the former a few miles to the north-east of the 
 point noticed above as being the one where it is 
 farthest removed from the seaboard, and takes a 
 course nearly due east, with only one gap in the 
 rampart which it forms, until it meets the Southern 
 Atlas between the Aures and the sea. The other, 
 rising direct from the south-west bank of the Cheliff, 
 where that river takes a turn near Medeah, sweeps to 
 the south-west, and ultimately strikes the Southern 
 Atlas at an acute angle considerably within the 
 boundary of Morocco. Thus, if the Northern Atlas 
 be regarded as constituting the two sides of a
 
 242 ELEVATED PLATEAU. 
 
 depressed triangle of which the seaboard is the base, 
 the Hnes of the Middle and Southern Atlas may be 
 described as forming another larger triangle of similar 
 shape, but in exactly the opposite position. 
 
 This distinction of the mountains of Northern Africa 
 into separate ranges, has, it should be observed, no 
 foundation in their geological character, which is 
 identical for all. It is, however, a convenient distri- 
 bution for the purpose of giving a general idea of the 
 peculiarities of the region which they intersect. It 
 has been remarked that all the drainage to the south 
 of the Great Atlas is ultimately lost in the sands of 
 the Desert : it may be also noted that the whole of 
 that from the northern sides of the Little and Middle 
 Atlas finds its way to the sea. But with the streams 
 which spring from the southern inclines of the Middle 
 and the northern inclines of the Great Atlas, — in 
 other words, with the internal waters of the larger of 
 the two triangular areas just mentioned, — the case is 
 much more complicated. There are two, and only 
 two, outlets for these. The first is furnished by the 
 river Chelifi"; the second by the river which at its 
 embouchure (between Djidjelli and Cape Bougaroni) 
 is called Oued-el-Kebir (the Great River). If the 
 channel of the former were to be interrupted by a 
 dyke in the neighbourhood of Medeah, and that of 
 the latter to be similarly intercepted in the neighbour- 
 hood of Constantme, the whole of the space between
 
 REGION OF MARSHES. 243 
 
 the Middle and the Southern Atlas would be con- 
 verted into an immense lake.* Whatever watercourses 
 between these two ranges do not fall into one of the 
 two streams just mentioned, necessarily find their 
 termination in marshes and pools, which vary greatly 
 in their dimensions at the different seasons of the 
 year, and tend — partly by the rank vegetation which 
 under such circumstances soon forms a jungle, partly by 
 the miasma which an all but tropical sun evokes from 
 the exposed mud — greatly to curtail the space over 
 which human industry can be profitably employed. 
 To that portion of Algeria in which the soil is subject 
 to the conditions just described, the Erench give the 
 name of Landes. These landes, or elevated steppes, 
 constitute a kind of middle link between the Tel, or 
 hill country, and the Sahara, the former of which 
 may be regarded as universally susceptible of culti- 
 vation under favourable circumstances, and the latter 
 as altogether hopeless. 
 
 Two points have been mentioned as marking the 
 only outlets existing for the waters of the central 
 portion of Algeria. The extent of surface drained 
 
 * The state of things here supposed may be illustrated by the 
 condition of the plain of Thessaly before the gorge of Tenape was 
 formed ; by that of the plain of Bohemia antecedently to its drainage 
 by the present channel of the Elbe in Saxon Switzerland ; by the 
 basin of the Rhine between Basle and Bingen previous to the con- 
 vulsion which tapped the vast accumulation of waters by forming 
 the channel which now extends from St. Goar to the Drachenfels ; 
 and^by several portions of the valley of the Rhone. 
 
 R 2
 
 244 DRAINAGE BY THE CHELIFF. 
 
 throuo;li the westernmost of tliem bv the different 
 affluents of the Chehff, is about the same as that of 
 the lower basin of the same river, after it has passed 
 the narrow space Avhich divides the Little from the 
 Middle Atlas near Medeah, and commenced its west- 
 ward course to the sea. Between the meridians of 
 1° 15' and 3° east, a large number of considerable 
 streams from the north-west, west, and south-west, — ■ 
 but much fewer and less important from the eastward 
 — unite their waters and run nearly in a north-east 
 direction until they reach the outlet in question, 
 where the river first acquires the name which it 
 thenceforth bears. Both to the east and the west of 
 this upper basin of the Cheliff, the land rises so as to 
 form two new watersheds. The westernmost of these 
 converts the whole of the space between itself and the 
 junction of the Middle and Great Atlas in IMorocco 
 into one vast system of pools, while the easternmost 
 does the same for the greater portion of the remaining 
 space. But a small part of this forms an exception. 
 The Oued-el-Rummel (River of Sand) finds its way 
 through a tortuous split of enormous depth in the 
 limestone rock, where the capital of the eastern pro- 
 vince of Algeria, Constantine — the Cirta of Jugm-tha 
 — stands on a horse-shoe shaped peninsula, with preci- 
 pitous sides formed by the ravine in question. By 
 this river an area of moderate size in the hiffh 
 
 o 
 
 grounds south of Constantine is drained of its waters,
 
 DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION. 245 
 
 and itself, subsequently augmented by several tribu- 
 taries which take their rise in the Little Atlas, finds its 
 way into the sea under the name of Oued-el-Kebir.* 
 
 The difficulties of land communication between 
 Algiers and Constantine will be obvious from the 
 above description. The direct route lies through the 
 pass of the Biban, the passage of which by the Erench 
 army has been adverted to above. f It is never travelled 
 except by Arabs, or by Europeans from motives of 
 curiosity. Communication for practical purposes is 
 effected entirely by sea, through Philippeville, at 
 which place steamers which leave Algiers for Bona 
 every ten days, ahvays touch. There is also a weekly 
 service between Marseilles and Philippeville, by which 
 the voyage is performed in about three days, the 
 growing importance of the eastern province rendering 
 a direct communication with the mother country a 
 necessity. I embarked at Algiers, on the 30th of 
 March, in a steamer which was engaged, if the 
 weather permitted, to stay some hours at Dellys, 
 Bougie, and Djidjelli, thus giving an opportunity of 
 
 * This river is the Ampsaga of Pliny, the western boundary 
 according to him of the Numidia of Massinissa. The name is 
 obviously a native word with a Latin termination, and is, probably, 
 a Kabyle root. Bochart says that aphsach signifies "amplus" in 
 Arabic. If this be a word adopted by the Ai'abian invaders, and not 
 brought by them from their primitive settlements, the modem 
 name Oued-el-Kebir (Great River) wiU appear to be neither more nor 
 less than the translation of aphsach or amsach, the latter of which 
 would be a mere dialectal variety of the former. 
 
 t Page 119.
 
 246 DELLYS. 
 
 seeing the settlements on the coast without trouble. 
 We arrived off Dellys after about six hours' steaming 
 in the calmest weather, and there I recognised from 
 the sea the mountain to the north of Tizi-Ouzou, 
 which when there I had felt a desire to climb, in the 
 conviction that I should have a good sea- view from it. 
 Dellys is on or near the site of an ancient town, 
 probably Rusucurium, to which the Emperor Claudius 
 gave the Roman franchise. Ancient coins and am- 
 phorae were discovered in digging the foundations of 
 a military hospital; and just before I left Algiers, a 
 marble sarcophagus, with a bas-relief in excellent 
 condition upon it, had been brought from thence. 
 From the subject of the bas-relief, it would seem as if 
 the corpse the tomb contained had been that of 
 a physician, and perhaps a Christian. I did not hear, 
 however, of any inscription having been discovered at 
 the same time. The style of execution seemed to 
 me to indicate a date not higher than the time 
 of the Antonines. Shaw speaks of the existence of 
 considerable remains near Dellys in his time;* but, 
 unfortunately, the approach of night rendered it 
 
 * He speaks of the native town as " built out of the ruins of a 
 large city at the foot of a high mountain, that looks towards the 
 north-east. The ancient city, which appears to have been as large 
 as that at Temendfoust (Cape Matifou), spreads itself quite over the 
 north-east side of this mountain, upon whose summit, to the west- 
 ward, there is a great part of the old wall, besides other ruins, 
 promising, at a distance, a lai'ge scene of antiquities." — Travels, p. 88, 
 ed. 1738.
 
 BOUGIE. 247 
 
 impossible for me to land to examine the locality ; 
 and it may very well be the case that in the con- 
 struction of new buildings by the Trench since the 
 year 1844, when they took possession of the place, 
 the ancient walls have disappeared, as they have done 
 at Bougie and Hippo. 
 
 At a little before eight in the morning we came to 
 an anchor in the harbour of Bougie, and I forthwith 
 went on shore. The commandant. Colonel Augeraud, 
 to whom I had letters, was kind enough to mount 
 both me and a friend who accompanied me on two of 
 his own chargers, in order that we might see as much 
 as possible of the place during the few hours which 
 alone we had to give to it. The beauty of the bay 
 is remarkable. It rather reminded me of the Gulf 
 of Spezzia, which, however, is inferior to it in the 
 grandeur of the mountain forms. We rode up to the 
 top of a rock which stands out in the sea, and is con- 
 nected by a narrow neck of land with the main. 
 There is a lighthouse upon it, the base of which is 
 830 feet above the sea. The light revolves in eight 
 minutes, and is said to be visible at a distance of 
 forty-eight miles. The path to this point is a zig-zag, 
 sometimes cut out of the rock, and now and then 
 artificially built up, which it would be a nervous 
 business to ride up on any other horse than an Arab. 
 But these sagacious creatures, though exhibiting 
 unmistakeable proofs of their mettle on the road.
 
 248 ROMAN TOWNS ON THE COAST. 
 
 became as tractable as lambs as soon as ever we got 
 to a dangerous part. Colonel Augeraud told me that 
 the vicissitudes through which Bougie had passed 
 had obliterated all trace of ancient remains above 
 ground, but that whenever excavations were made 
 some trace of former times generally appeared. The 
 neighbom-hood, however, contained many objects of 
 great interest to the antiquarian as well as the 
 geologer; the iron mines in the mountains having 
 been worked from very early down to quite recent 
 times. Bougie is the Salda of Pliny and Strabo. 
 It completely answers to the description of the latter 
 as "a great port," although it would only be such 
 for vessels of the kind used by the ancients. It 
 was once connected with Rusucurium by two roads, 
 the one of which passed along the coast, while the 
 other went inland, probably between the Djerjera 
 range and the northern bank of the Oued-el-Sahel, 
 the former of which it tm'ned, leaving it on the right 
 hand as it regained the coast. Between these two 
 roads would be included the whole of what is called 
 Great Kabylie, then, as now, a highly fertile country, 
 supplying large quantities of oil, honey and wax, 
 cereals, and wine, the whole of which would readily 
 find an outlet, either at Dellys or Bougie, by one or 
 the other of the roads in question. 
 
 From Bougie eastwards, the high mountains come 
 close down upon the shore, but they recede con-
 
 DJIDJELLI. 249 
 
 siderably in the neighbourhood of DjidjelH, which is 
 only five or six hours sail. Its approach is dangerous 
 on account of the proximity of a hidden shoal, called 
 La Salamandre, from a French vessel which was lost 
 upon it a few years ago. The dimensions of this are not 
 ascertained with exactness ; but when the wind blows 
 off" the land, as it did on the occasion of my visit, a 
 steamer can escape it by keeping close to the shore. 
 To speak of either harbour or roadstead at Djidjelli 
 would be a misnomer. There is a string of rocks in 
 front of the place, on one of which a lighthouse is 
 erected, and by uniting these a breakwater might be 
 formed which would furnish some shelter. At pre- 
 sent, nothing can look more dangerous than the port, 
 there being no shelter at all, and the rocks just 
 mentioned, which lie about a mile from the shore, 
 suggesting, by the foam which breaks over them 
 upon the least show of sea-breeze, what the result of 
 a gale from the same quarter would be. We cast 
 anchor off" Djidjelli at eight o'clock at night in a 
 perfect calm. But my barometer began to fall, and 
 by six the next morning it had gone down four 
 millimeters. At eight the wind began to get up, and 
 soon afterwards the vessel rolled from the efiect of an 
 underground swell, the result of wind out at sea. 
 The rocks to windward of us dashed the waves which 
 broke upon them into clouds of white foam, and 
 the sky began to look murky and mischievous.
 
 250 COLLO. 
 
 Obviously, it was desirable that we should lose no 
 time in getting up steam and securing a good oflBng. 
 There had been fortunately very little to land, and 
 nothing to take on board; the trade of Djidjelli 
 consisting of little else than military stores sent from 
 Algiers, and a small quantity of wheat and barley, 
 which is exported in small coasting vessels. The 
 town, in fact, is nothing but a row of buildings 
 subsidiary to the necessities of a military occupation. 
 Its site is very inferior in point of beauty to that of 
 Bougie, — the country around for a considerable dis- 
 tance consisting of sloping hills, cultivated in several 
 parts (though not continuously) until the ground 
 becomes too steep. On weighing anchor we stood 
 well out to sea, as tlie wind had greatly increased, 
 and rain came on with mist and hazy weather. The 
 ship was very light, and consequently rolled in a 
 way to send almost all the passengers below, until a 
 sufficient offing had been obtained to allow her head 
 to be put to the north-east, when some sail was made 
 on the foremast which produced something more of 
 steadiness. After doubling Cape Bougaroni, our course 
 was laid to the south-east, and we soon got into much 
 smoother water. The atmosphere too cleared, and 
 we were enabled again to benefit by our proximity to 
 the land to observe the aspect of the shore. The 
 mountains still appeared to come close down to the 
 coast, except at Collo, where a space intervenes
 
 ANCHORAGE OF STOKA. 251 
 
 which is filled with small conical shaped otfsets from 
 the main range, like skirmishers thrown forward from 
 a line of battle. Next to the Gulf of Bougie, Collo 
 appeared to me the most picturesque spot on the 
 whole coast. The point which is doubled just before 
 entering the Gulf of Stora, in which Philippevillc lies, 
 is formed by two or three islands, which perhaps in 
 early ages were united, in front of the mainland. 
 A lighthouse stands on one of them, similar in posi- 
 tion, but inferior in altitude, to the one at Bougie. 
 There is no protection for ships at Philippevillc, and 
 the steamer dropped her anchor at Stora, about three 
 miles off. From this point we proceeded in a row- 
 boat to Philippevillc, where the landing-place consists 
 of nothing but a flight of movable steps hanging 
 from a small temporary wooden pier. Up these it was 
 no easy task to make one's way ; for they were beset by 
 a crowd of Maltese and Arabs, ready to pounce upon 
 every article of baggage, without the least regard to 
 the inclination of the owner, and carry it off" to any 
 other quarter than its proper destination. But once 
 landed, I found comfortable quarters in the Hotel de 
 Prance, a house not fifty yards from the landing-place, 
 kept by a retired officer of the army. My apartment 
 was a small one, but it was perfectly clean, and com- 
 manded a noble sea-view ; and the attention of the 
 people of the hotel left nothing to desire, 
 
 Philippevillc occupies the site of an old Roman
 
 252 REMAINS OF RUSICADA. 
 
 town (Rusicada), of which some considerable remains 
 exist. The most important are the cisterns, by means 
 of which the modern town is supphed, as the ancient 
 one was, with an abundance of excellent water. The 
 reservoir appears to have been originally a large oval, 
 wtiich was afterwards divided into seven cisterns by 
 longitudinal partitions. Each cistern is arched over, 
 and has a door at both ends ; and when these are 
 opened, the effect of the light let in upon the water 
 and reflected from it is extremely curious. It is 
 impossible not to fancy that the fluid all comes 
 through a circular tunnel at the end of each cistern ; 
 whereas in fact the whole are supplied by a single 
 fountain at the side of the oval reservoir. This spring 
 did not appear to me particularly strong ; but it is 
 said never to fail even in the driest summer. The 
 cisterns were said, by the keeper of the reservoir, to 
 be 9.30 metres (nearly 80 feet) in depth. The 
 diameter of the arch which covered them did not 
 seem half as much. 
 
 Next to the cisterns, the remains of the ancient 
 theatre are the most interesting relic. Advantage was 
 taken of the side of a hill in scooping out the cavea, 
 or pit, of which nearly the whole is preserved, and if 
 cleared of rubbish would make a fine ruin. Unfortu- 
 nately, on the very place where excavations would be 
 sm'e to lay open the orchestra and stage, a house has 
 been erected for the communal school. The walls of
 
 ANCIENT RECORDS OF VULGARITY. 253 
 
 the proscenium Avere found in digging its foundations. 
 In the area occupied by these ruins are collected 
 various relics of the Roman times, — fragments of one 
 or two statues, capitals of columns, and several 
 inscriptions, a few of which are tumulary stones. 
 Among the last I did not see a single Christian one, 
 although the degenerate style of the decorations of 
 the theatre, as well as the emperors' names on the 
 inscriptions, indicate very low times. One of the 
 last- mentioned Avas intended as a piece of flattery to 
 the Emperor Caracaha. In the year when it was 
 put up (a.d. 215) he had come from Antioch to 
 Alexandria ; and doubtless it was expected by many 
 that he would continue his progress through the 
 north of Africa. This prospect would not fail to 
 stimulate the ingenuity of such provincials as desired 
 to recommend themselves. It was on the cards that 
 the emperor might go to the play at Rusicada, and in 
 default of better entertainment might listlessly read 
 over the inscriptions which met his eye; in which 
 case some small crumbs of favour might be cast to 
 those who showed how anxiously they desired them. 
 In the monumental records of this time throughout 
 North Africa, nothing is so striking as the proof 
 which they afford of a vulgar lust for petty dis- 
 tinctions, accompanied by an entire disregard of the 
 means by which these might be attained. One man 
 puts up a monument to his patron, by whose favour
 
 254 NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PHILIPPEVILLE. 
 
 lie had been enabled to fill the offices of his town at 
 an earlier age than the law permitted ; another makes 
 the same public acknowledgment to his, on behalf of 
 his son. But the most common form of a mean 
 ostentation is, for the holder of a provincial dignity to 
 proclaim to the world, that, in addition to the pay- 
 ment which he had agreed to make in consideration 
 for the honour, he likewise gave something or other 
 to boot, the money value of which is carefully set down 
 on the stone which has handed down the memory of 
 the whole transaction to posterity. 
 
 The country in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Philippeville, on the road to Constantine, is flat, but 
 both to the east and west of this plain the hills rise 
 steeply ; and to go direct by land, either to CoUo on 
 the west, or Bona on the east, is only possible on 
 horseback. I rode eight or nine miles out on the 
 way to Collo, under the guidance of a spahi, whom 
 the commandant of Philippeville, Colonel Lepasset, 
 had politely placed at my service. We reached a 
 col, not less (I should think) than 1,200 or 1,300 feet 
 above the sea, by paths winding in terraces up the 
 mountains, here covered with a rich underwood of 
 laurustinus, arbutus, myrtle, lentisque, and a small- 
 leafed laiu-cl, which at this time (the first week of 
 April) was in flower, and filled the whole atmosphere 
 with perfume. There was also a large quantity of 
 the yellow genista of Spain and tlio south of
 
 CIVIL AND MILITARY TERRITORY. 255 
 
 France, and, more remarkable than anything else, a 
 gigantic heath, rising to the height of six or seven 
 feet, and bearing a beautiful white flower. Out of 
 this miderwood cork-trees rise, and in it one heard 
 birds singing, and no frogs croaking— both rather 
 remarkable phenomena in Algeria. The ravines are 
 exceedingly steep, and in order to ascend them the 
 path is obliged to wind in all directions. Besides 
 the spahi who was our guide, another had been 
 ordered to attend us, as I was accompanied by a 
 friend. This man not being forthcoming when we 
 started, galloped after us, and when I first caught 
 sight of his grey horse and scarlet bournous among 
 the foliage, it seemed as if he was coming to meet 
 us. The col mentioned above commands an exquisite 
 view. To the east-north-east lay Philippeville, and 
 the route by which we had come from it : westward 
 we looked on the cape which forms the western 
 boundary of the Gulf of Stora; while inland there 
 were the mountains and valleys inhabited by the 
 Kabyles, of which we saw three or four villages in 
 the distance. At the point where we halted, is the 
 limit between what is called civil and military terri- 
 tory, — in other words, between the locality in which 
 offences are cognisable by the ordinary tribunals and 
 that in which the only appeal is to martial law. A 
 short distance before we reached it, we saw a Kabyle 
 girl gathering sticks on the side of tlie mountain.
 
 256 PANIC OF A KABYLE GIRL. 
 
 As soon as she observed the European dress, she 
 screamed out, threw down her bundle, and plunged 
 into the thicket. The scanty population of these 
 parts is apparent from the circumstance, that in the 
 whole of this ride the only human beings we saw 
 were two Spaniards cutting wood, three Arabs with 
 mules, a fourth (a very old man) that we passed, 
 sitting on a lump of quartz rock that stuck out of 
 the road-side, and this Kabyle girl. The underwood 
 furnishes excellent shelter for the wild boars which 
 abound there, as appeared by the traces left by their 
 tusks upon the roots of the trees ; and the spahis told 
 me that every fine evening there was a battue of 
 them. 
 
 On our return, after having got back about half- 
 way home, we left the regular track, and, turning 
 down a steep path, rode through a Kabyle village. 
 The only living creature visible at first, was a half- 
 naked child, with its neck hung round with amulets. 
 The little imp set up a scream, being obviously much 
 alarmed, and some dogs began to bark, which brought 
 half-a-dozen women out of the huts, the men being 
 all away at work. The spahi soon explained to them 
 that we intended no harm, and we proceeded on our 
 course over ground so steep that, for a part of the 
 way, the two soldiers got ofl" and led their horses, 
 although they afterwards insisted, that for an Arab 
 road, it was an extremely good one. At last, after
 
 DESERTED VILLAGES. 257 
 
 crossing a brook, we ascended to a road which led 
 into Philippeville by the other side of the ravine from 
 which we had just emerged, and saw very near us the 
 head of the fountain from which the PhiUppeville 
 cisterns are supphed. 
 
 The day after this ride, we took another in an 
 opposite direction, to the eastward of the town. 
 Here there were some attempts at European culti- 
 vation ; but, unhappily, fever is so prevalent in the 
 plain, that scarcely any but Maltese cultivators seem 
 to hold their ground. One French village through 
 which we rode, — Damremont, — was all but deserted. 
 The houses were in many instances tumbling down, 
 and one rather large building, an asphodel distillery, 
 had been actually shored up to prevent its falling. 
 It was abandoned, thongh some apparently valuable 
 plant, in the shape of vats, was still to be seen there. 
 Never have I beheld such a picture of desolation 
 as this village : but what must the character of the 
 masonry have been, when houses fall to the ground 
 within twenty years of their erection? We passed 
 within sight of another villao;e — Vallee — which the 
 spahi said was nearly in the same condition as Dam- 
 remont. Both the one and the other are between 
 three and four miles from Philippeville, and are, 
 or rather were — for, like Troy, they must be spoken 
 of in the past tense — included in the same commune 
 with that town. Philippeville itself has the reputa-
 
 258 SITE OF PHILIPPEVILLE. 
 
 tion of being comparatively healthy, but the plain in 
 the rear of it has almost a worse reputation than the 
 Metidja. All the sewage on the east side of the town 
 is drained into open ditches by the side of the road. 
 Into these ditches the sewers open at a distance of 
 not more than 100 or 150 yards from the town gate, 
 in the immediate vicinity of a corn-market which is 
 built there ; and the stench which arises on the spot, 
 and for several hundred yards of the road lower down, 
 was, even at the time of the year I experienced it, 
 insupportable. What it must be in the summer, it 
 is difficult to imagine. 
 
 The town of Philippeville is built within a sort of 
 gap in the steep hills which form the margin of the 
 sea. Both to the right and the left of the landing- 
 place which has been described, these descend almost 
 precipitously on the sea-side, but their slopes towards 
 the land are more gentle ; in these respects exactly 
 resembling the Sahel of Algiers. A good road has 
 been made on the western side as far as the town of 
 Stora. On the eastern the mountain is even steeper. 
 It is crowned by the military barracks, which are 
 built on an esplanade which has been artificially 
 levelled, the earth removed having been thrown into 
 the sea. AVith a great deal of labour a zigzag road 
 has been conducted up to the barracks on the sea- 
 ward face of the rock, and planted with trees where 
 it was possible to gain some small extent of level
 
 EARTHWORKS MADE BY SOLDIERS. 259 
 
 surface. This is intended for a promenade. It is 
 a great pity that the site of the ancient theatre of 
 Rusicada was not selected for this purpose : but the 
 whole of the earthworks have been executed by the 
 soldiers, without any additional pay ; and it was 
 perhaps more easy to induce them cheerfully to 
 devote themselves to a labour which seemed like 
 an embellishment of their own quarters. Before I 
 left Philippeville, a dinner in the open air was given 
 by the commandant to the whole force, as an acknow- 
 ledgment on his part of the way in which they had 
 executed their task. Unfortunately, I had made 
 arrangements for visiting Jemappes, an agricultural 
 colony about twenty-eight miles off, on the day on 
 which this banquet took place, or I should have been 
 much interested in observing the spirit manifested by 
 the soldiers towards their chief. If one may judge 
 by the ready respect on the one part, and the con- 
 siderate kindness on the other which were exhibited 
 on ordinary occasions, it must have been excellent, 
 and I was told that in fact it was so. One item 
 of the bill of fare, as related to me, was curious. 
 It consisted of 1,200 hares caught by the Arabs 
 of the vicinity, who had been set to work for the 
 purpose. 
 
 The roadstead of Stora is tolerably good, being pro- 
 tected from all winds except those between the north 
 and east, and there perhaps it might be possible to 
 
 s 2
 
 260 A PORT WANTED. 
 
 construct a port by means of an artificial breakwater. 
 But from the absence of natural stone fit for the 
 purpose, the expense would be enormous. An even 
 greater obstacle exists in the circumstance that the 
 hill descends so steeply in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, that there is no space for quays or ware- 
 houses. The whole of the flat surface available at 
 Philippeville for this purpose would not be sufficient 
 for the business of an ordinary London wharfinger ; 
 and yet Phihppeville is the natural, if not the only 
 possible outlet for the produce of the province of 
 Constantine, the richest portion of the possessions of 
 the French in Africa. At present, whatever is ex- 
 ported is embarked in barges at Philippeville, and 
 thus shipped on board the vessels lying at Stora. Of 
 course the expense of freight under such circum- 
 stances must be fatal to any extensive traffic. 
 
 Jemappes, one of the few successful agricultural 
 colonies of the Prench, dates from the year 1848 
 only. Like almost every other village, it is provided 
 with a loopholed Avail, as a defence against any 
 sudden attack of the natives, and its situation is 
 on a low mamelon, in the midst of a very fertile 
 plain, surrounded by hills as yet uncleared. The 
 water is excellent and abundant, and the whole popu- 
 lation appeared healthy, cheerful, and thriving. The 
 inn in which I found quartei's was a very humble 
 one, but it was perfectly clean, and [ got an excellent
 
 JEMAPPES. 261 
 
 dinner, and every attention that I could wish. The 
 population of the village is somewhat under 600. 
 There are several Germans among them, and some 
 Maltese, Piedmontese, and Spaniards ; but the bulk 
 of the population is French. Whether it will long 
 remain so is very doubtful, for although the locality 
 is healthy, from the abundant water-supply and the 
 hills around not intercepting the sea-breezes, and 
 although the fertility of the soil is such that the 
 people seem almost amazed at it, the Frenchman 
 always hankers after home. My host, who had not a 
 fault to find with his position, and acknowledged that 
 he had grown comparatively rich, told me that he 
 did not intend, to stay more than two or three years 
 longer. Yet this is in every respect a prosperous 
 settlement. The soil reminded me in appearance of 
 the lower part of the valley of the Brohl, near Roland s- 
 ecke on the Khine. 'The people say that it will 
 produce anything whatever, and that as soon as 
 ever a tree is put in, it seems to grow as by magic. 
 Two crops of potatoes are produced annually, and 
 three cuttings of tobacco. One man told me that 
 100 mulberry-trees, on which he had expended only 
 fifty days' labour, gave him a silk crop worth 4,000 
 francs. The vine and the fig also thrive admirably ; 
 and I was informed that the sweet chestnut was the 
 only tree which did not succeed. The only draw- 
 back to the locality seems to be the scorpions, which
 
 262 NUMBERS OF WILD BOARS 
 
 are very numerous, and the wild-boars, which find 
 shelter in the uncleared wood round about, and do 
 much mischief to the grain crops, which are chiefly 
 grown by the Arabs. There are also more lions 
 here than in any other part of the province of Con- 
 stantine except on the borders of Tunis ; but these 
 animals are not looked on as an evil, for they keep 
 down the numbers of the wild boars, which con- 
 stitute their favourite food, and the consequence is 
 that they are never attacked unless they do mischief 
 to the cattle of the Arabs. About a month before 
 I was at Jemappes two of these exceptional cases 
 occurred. One, a very fine lion, weighed 243 kilo- 
 grammes (about 530 lbs.). He was audacious enough 
 to attack a herd in the full light of day, at half-past 
 four in the afternoon, and kill two cows. Upon this 
 the whole tribe turned out, and in three-quarters of 
 an horn* the off'ender had ceased to live. My host 
 told me that his flesh tasted like beef, and that he 
 had salted a piece of it, and sent it as a present 
 to his father-in-law at Paris. The other lion was 
 killed while following his legitimate pursuit, by an 
 Arab boy of about fifteen years old. The latter had 
 been watching a piece of green corn in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of the wood, with a gun in his hand 
 to shoot the wild swine who might be tempted by 
 its proximity to their haunts. One of them appearing, 
 he fired at it, and immediately after wai'ds heard the
 
 AND LIONS. 263 
 
 roar of a lion, who was probably engaged in a 
 common cause with himself. He immediately got 
 up into a tree for safety, and reloaded his piece, 
 and just as this was done the lion appeared under- 
 neath, and roared at him. This was too tempting 
 an opportunity ; he fired, and the ball entered the 
 animal's mouth and struck a vital part, for he was 
 found dead the next morning four or five hundred 
 yards from the tree. 
 
 It is the common belief of the Jemappes colonists 
 that the lion will never attack a man unless he is 
 provoked. On returning to Phihppeville next day 
 in the vehicle which performs the service between 
 the two places — a sort of gardener's cart on two 
 wheels and drawn by three horses — we had a curious 
 proof of this. There were for our companions two 
 Jemappes settlers, and the wife of a third. About 
 a couple of miles from the village the wood of the 
 uncleared hills comes down very near to the road, 
 and as we approached this, a large animal appeared 
 standing in the middle awaiting our arrival. One of 
 the two men broke off the conversation which had 
 been going on with the words, — " Voila un lion!' 
 
 " Non" said the second, " cest un cliien ; ah oui ! 
 cest unjeune lion." 
 
 " Oui," joined in the lady, " cest un lion ; il y est 
 souvent." 
 
 The beginning of this discourse naturally awakened
 
 264 A DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 unpleasant sensations in one whose leonine expe- 
 riences were entirely derived from the Zoological 
 Gardens ; but the end of it eflPectually changed them 
 into a strong feeling of curiosity. The whole argu- 
 ment had been conducted with the same entire 
 absence of personal considerations, which w^ould cha- 
 racterise a discussion between two English farmers 
 as to whether a green crop in the distance was wheat 
 or barley ; and I really regretted w'hen it appeared 
 that on this particular occasion the " habitual lion " 
 had been replaced by an extremely large mastiff dog, 
 who had apparently lost his master, and was watching 
 in the most likely place to meet him. 
 
 This little incident gave rise to another lion story, 
 told by one of the Jemappes colonists. Two French 
 soldiers, who had been in the village for some purpose 
 or other, set off one day to proceed to El Arouch, 
 a settlement on the road between Philippeville and 
 Constantine, to which there is a direct route from 
 Jemappes by a path through the bush. They did 
 not start together, and the one who commenced the 
 journey first was much intoxicated. After proceeding 
 some distance, in the course of doing which he lost 
 his sword, he felt himself overcome with fatigue, 
 and stretching himself on the grass fell into a sound 
 sleep. His companion, who was perfectly sober, fol- 
 lowing after him a time, picked up his sabre, and at 
 last found the slumberer on the grass. He gave him
 
 A SOCIABLE LION. 265 
 
 a kick aud called to liim to get up, when, to his 
 horror there rose up — not the man but a huge lion, 
 that lay couched by his side, which he had taken 
 for part of the trunk of a tree covered with grass. 
 The sober soldier instantly ran off, under the 
 impression that his comrade had been destroyed by 
 the animal, after losing his sword in an unsuccessful 
 combat with it ; but the lion, instead of pursuing 
 him, resumed his place by the side of the still sleeping 
 man. After a time the latter awoke too, and got 
 upon his legs, much astonished at discovering the 
 company he had been keeping. The lion also again 
 rose, but without any sign of ferocity ; and when the 
 soldier set off on his route, accompanied him, walking 
 close by his side for several miles, as far as the 
 immediate neighbourhood of El Arouch, where, pro- 
 bably because the forest there ceases, he turned about, 
 and sought his old haunts again. 
 
 Outside the walls of Jemappes a market is held 
 once a week for traffic with the native population. 
 Arabs come thither from the south, and Kabyles 
 from the mountains on the coast. The latter manu- 
 facture a rude kind of pottery, as well as small 
 articles of smiths' work, and these are conveyed 
 by the former on the backs of camels far into the 
 interior. On my return to Philippeville at an early 
 hour in the morning, I met several of these Kabyles 
 on their way to the market with their wives. The
 
 266 ABYLE GALLANTRY. 
 
 general practice is for the husband to ride and the 
 wife to walk barefoot by his side ; but when the 
 beast of burden has not too heavy a load, this 
 relation is sometimes modified by taking the lady up 
 behind. I scarcely ever saw it reversed. The Kabyle 
 women not wearing veils, one was enabled without 
 difficulty to see how very frightful they are, although 
 they yield the palm of ugliness both to Arabs 
 and Mauresques. They seem, like all savages, ex- 
 tremely fond of ornament, especially of earrings, of 
 which they wear four or five inserted in the same 
 holes of the ears. These are enormous metallic rings, 
 some four inches in diameter, and to prevent their 
 weight stretching the ear down, they are made to 
 hang by a loop of hair or silk twist passing over the 
 head, which wholly or partially sustains them. 
 
 Although the distance between Philippeville and 
 Jemappes is only twenty-eight or thirty miles, and as 
 much as twelve of these are coincident with the main 
 road from Philippeville to Constantine, we were as 
 much as seven hours both in going and returning. 
 Of these, however, nearly tw^o were passed at St. 
 Charles in breakfasting and baiting the horses. This 
 is a dreary-looking village, originally selected for its 
 advantages as a military position near the confluence 
 of two small rivers. I had some conversation there 
 with a German labourer, who had formerly been a 
 soldier, but had married the widow^ of one of tlie
 
 ARAB VICTIM OF TRENCH SWINDLING. 267 
 
 concessionaires. She had lost five children by her 
 first husband, as well as their father, from the fever, 
 and had alienated the land which the latter had 
 received, but she still retained the house, and lived 
 in it. The second husband w^orked as a gardener, 
 and said he found no difficulty in obtaining good 
 employment as a labourer ; he generally had fever in 
 the summer, but not badly. There is a roofless 
 house of considerable pretensions standing on some 
 high ground which overhangs the greater part of the 
 village ; and this man informed me that it had been 
 built by a speculator, who had obtained a grant of a 
 large quantity of ground when the village was first 
 established ; but that its completion had been put a 
 stop to by the failure of this man, unfortunately not 
 before he had succeeded in defrauding an Arab of 
 consideration — the kaid of the district — of the sum 
 of 2,000 francs, for which he gave him forged bills. 
 The case was brought into court, and the swindler 
 outlawed; but the poor Arab's money was irre- 
 trievably lost. This transaction happened in the year 
 1849, and the house is rapidly falling down. I fear 
 that the original population of St. Charles cannot 
 have been brilliant examples of probity, — for the 
 landlord of the little inn where I breakfasted, one 
 Joseph Spitery, was equally remarkable for the extor- 
 tionate character of his charge and the bad quality of 
 the food he supplied. There were two or three
 
 268 AN UNPROMISING DOMESTIC. 
 
 loose fellows hanging about the house, one of whom, 
 a Maltese, expressed a great desire to enter my 
 service. He professed himself unable to get work, 
 which for an able-bodied man in Algeria is exactly 
 the same thing as proclaiming himself a worthless 
 vagabond. To be sure, the man's physiognomy was 
 singularly forbidding, and other persons may have 
 drawn the same inference from it that I did myself, 
 — that neither my life nor property would be very 
 safe with such a domestic. However, there was 
 plenty of outdoor work to be done, for which no one 
 would be very scrupulous in the choice of a work- 
 man ; but for this my new acquaintance did not 
 seem to have much taste, being desirous, as he said, 
 of travelling and seeing the world.
 
 JOURNEY TO CONSTANTINE. 269 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The traffic between Pliilippeville and the interior 
 of the province of Constantine is the most important 
 in Algeria, and is daily increasing, from the growing 
 disposition of the native population to devote them- 
 selves to agricultm-al pursuits. Nevertheless, the 
 road over which the whole of the produce of the 
 country must pass to be embarked, is in a very bad 
 condition, not from wilful neglect, but from an 
 apparently irreparable deficiency of stone for metal- 
 ling the surface. During the summer it is traversed 
 by an ordinary French diligence daily, as far as 
 Constantine; but in the rainy season the service 
 is often interrupted. The amount of rain which 
 falls on the northern coast of Algeria increases con- 
 siderably as one goes from west to east ; a phe- 
 nomenon for which I am quite unable to give a 
 sufficient reason, but which is ascertained beyond a 
 doubt.* The soil of the country, saturated with 
 
 * Observations extending over five years gave for the annual 
 rain-fall at Oran, 40 centimetres ; for that at Algiers, 81 ; and for 
 that at Philippeville, no less than 120.
 
 270 VILLAGE OF ST. ANTOINE. 
 
 moistui'e, changes into deep mud, and effectually 
 hinders locomotion. In default of stone for metalling, 
 great efforts are made in parts of the eastern pro- 
 vince to keep the routes in some sort of order, by 
 flattening them with an iron roller of enormous 
 weight. One of these machines, which I saw in 
 operation a few miles from Bona, had no less than 
 thirty mules harnessed to it. The cylinder was more 
 than six feet in diameter, and worked in a wooden 
 floor which had been heaped with stone to increase 
 the pressure. It was impossible to turn it, and, 
 therefore, means were provided for harnessing the 
 animals to either end as occasion demanded. 
 
 In going to Constantine, the country in the 
 immediate neighbourhood of the road presents the 
 appearance of being well cultivated for a considerable 
 distance from Philippeville. Four or five miles brings 
 one to a little village, St. Antoine, which is, unlike 
 its neighbours Damremont and Vallee, extremely 
 prosperous. As at Jemappes, the water is plentiful 
 and good, and the soil favourable to all products 
 except the chestnut. There are thirty concessionaires, 
 all French, whose grants were of not less than five 
 hectares each ; but, as elsewhere, the labourers are 
 mostly Germans, Piedmontese, and other foreigners ; 
 and in course of time these will probably become 
 tenants, the proprietors withdrawing into Philippeville, 
 or even returning to France, and leaving. the manage-
 
 PARISIAN COLONISTS. 271 
 
 ment of their properties to an agent. At El Diss, 
 wliicli is about nine miles from Philippeville, the 
 Arabs have become tenants of the French, paying 
 their landlords a corn-rent of half the produce. 
 
 The road for the first twelve or fourteen miles is the 
 same as that to Jemappes, and for this extent and 
 five or six miles farther, European cultivation appears 
 to be going on favourably, and the clearance of the 
 country to be proceeding steadily. The bush recedes 
 every year farther from the neighbourhood of the 
 road, as the requirements of the colonists for fuel or 
 fresh soil increase. Eor a few miles, before arriving 
 at El Arouch, it entirely vanishes, but at the latter 
 place it temporarily reappears. This is the site of a 
 fortified camp, which was established in 1844 to 
 secure the communications of Constantine with 
 Philippeville and Bona, to which latter place there is 
 a packhorse road from this point, passing through 
 Jemappes, which is about seventeen miles distant. 
 It was on this road that the adventure related in tlie 
 last chapter took place. Between St. Charles and 
 El Arouch is the village of Gastonville, where the 
 Republican Government, immediately after the revolu- 
 tion of 1848, established an agricultural colony of 
 Parisians. Such of these as remained naturally took 
 to keeping inns or cafes, and their land is cultivated 
 by Maltese and Spaniards. After passing El Arouch, 
 the character of the country changes. It becomes
 
 272 GRAFTING OF WILD OLIVES. 
 
 clear and open, with not a tree to be seen except the 
 wild olive. The traveller is in fact entering upon the 
 limestone which forms the substance of the plateau of 
 the Atlas. Still, however, the cidtivation of cereals 
 goes on, and the olive-trees are very generally 
 grafted. Wherever this last is the case, it bespeaks 
 an European proprietor or tenant. The grafting of 
 the wild olive has only been introduced recently, 
 and nowhere, that I saw, has been adopted to any 
 great extent, except in the Eastern province. But it 
 has been extremely successful, and is undoubtedly 
 one of the most likely means of developing the 
 resources of the country: for there is no natural 
 production to which the soil seems so universally 
 favourable as the wild olive. The magnitude of the 
 trees perfectly astonished me. They are often forty 
 or fifty feet high, and in some localities attain the 
 size of an elm of forty years' growth in England. The 
 colour of the foliage too is very different from that of 
 the Italian olive, being a much darker green. About 
 two miles from Bona there is a grove of these trees, 
 of such a size that I would not believe my eyes at a 
 distance ; and took the pains of going up to them to 
 make sure that I was not deceived. 
 
 From El Arouch the ascent becomes gradually 
 more marked ; and a short time before reaching El 
 Kantour (the gap), the skilful hand of the engineer is 
 visible in tlic terraces bv which the route is carried
 
 EL HAMMA. 273 
 
 up the mountains to the pass by which the traveller 
 enters upon the Atlas plateau. I estimated the 
 height of the col at El Kantour at about 1,950 feet 
 above the sea-level. Immediately after passing it, 
 the road descends again to the level of 1,450 feet, and 
 from thence as far as the neighbourhood of a point 
 called El Hamma, where a hot-spring of great force 
 bursts out of the ground, proceeds, rising and falling 
 alternately, over a limestone soil, which is bare of 
 every kind of tree, but in the vicinity of the road very 
 often broken up and bearing fairly grown grain-crops. 
 These are sown sometimes by Arabs, who are only 
 partially nomadic; but more generally by Kabyles, 
 who are altogether stationary, and much cleaner 
 farmers as well as more industrious than their 
 Mahometan brethren. Beyond the zone of cultivation 
 stretches away the bare steppe, grey with the leaves of 
 the wild artichoke dominating over the rest of the 
 herbage with which it is covered. The view is 
 bounded by low mountains of limestone, and the 
 general appearance of the whole reminded me a good 
 deal of many parts of Cumberland. 
 
 The Hamma (Water) is something more than fifty 
 miles from Philippeville, and about ten from Con- 
 stantine. It is at the head of one of the cracks (so to 
 speak) in the limestone stratum, which converge into 
 the main split through which the Oued-el-Rummel 
 bursts ; and the stream which issues forth falls into 
 
 T
 
 274 APPEOACH TO CONSTANTINE. 
 
 the valley of tlie latter, after running only two or 
 three miles. The change in the scene from the bare 
 sm^face of the limestone steppe to the rich vegetation 
 of the oasis caused by the Hamma, struck me very 
 forcibly, as it was the first thing of the kind I had 
 seen. Every kind of tree springs up luxuriantly; 
 among them the date-palm, the fig, and the pome- 
 granate. The road to Constantine now begins regu- 
 larly to descend, and at last, at about four miles 
 before arriving, turns suddenly to the eastward, and 
 the capital of the Numidian kings stands before us, 
 on the noblest site, I should think, in the whole 
 world. The descent still continues towards the bank 
 of the Rummel ; and at its lowest point, when within 
 a mile of the city as the crow flies, is betvv'Cen 900 
 and 1,000 feet below it. The gigantic pedestal of 
 rock on which the lordly Cirta is enthroned, is an 
 island on all sides but its south-west, and on the 
 greater part of that. The remainder is occupied by 
 an isthmus, over which alone a wheeled carriage can 
 enter the walls. On every other part the Rummel 
 runs through a deep ravine, the sides of which are 
 precipices, so nearly touching one another that here 
 and there they are actually connected half-way down 
 by a natural bridge of rock, 200 feet below which the 
 river (a brawling brook in summer, but in winter a 
 roaring torrent) rushes on to take its leap at the Falls ; 
 while for an equal or greater height above, the blue
 
 NOBLE SITE OF THE CITY. 275 
 
 limestone rises in perpendicular cliffs. The west side 
 of the peninsula faces the valley up which the road 
 passes ; and approaching it shortly before sunset, 
 glowing under the rays of a setting sun, which at the 
 same time poured floods of light through the rich 
 vegetation of the valley, my companion and I agreed 
 that we never had seen such a landscape. What must 
 it have been, when the esplanade on the top of the 
 rock was occupied by Doric edifices,* instead of the 
 frightful line of barracks which now crowns it ! 
 
 The road which, after turning into the valley of the 
 Oued-el-Rummel, has proceeded along its northern 
 bank, crosses by the Pont d'Aumale, a bridge con- 
 structed by the French immediately under the city, 
 and winds up the hill by rather steep terraces to 
 attain the isthmus on the southern side. This is the 
 point at which the town was stormed in the suc- 
 cessful attempt of October 13th, 1837. General 
 Damremont, who had commanded the expedition, 
 had been killed the day before, while visiting one 
 of the breaching batteries, and the assault was con- 
 ducted by General Valee. During the actual storming 
 of the town, the inhabitants endeavoured to escape, 
 but the only gate which afforded them the chance of 
 
 * In the time of Shaw, some traces of these remained, showing 
 the scale on which they were built. " Upon the brink of the 
 precipice to the northward, there are the remains of a large and 
 magnificent edifice, where the Turkish garrison is lodged at present. 
 Four of the bases, each seven feet in diameter, with their respective 
 pedestals, are still in their places." — P. 126. 
 
 t2
 
 276 HORRORS OP THE STORMING. 
 
 success was the one wliicli opened on a bridge then 
 standing, but destroyed two years ago, which crossed 
 the ravine on the south-east side, resting upon the 
 natural bridge of native rock which has been described 
 above. But, besides the narrowness of the outlet 
 thus presented, the heights on the other side of the 
 gorge were occupied by the French, and the wretched 
 fugitives in their despair resorted to the frightful 
 expedient of lowering themselves by ropes from all 
 sides into the abyss below. Multitudes perished by 
 these breaking ; and when the French at last became 
 masters of the town, they were horrified at seeing the 
 ravine heaped with mangled corpses of men, women, 
 and children. The resistance was a desperate one, 
 and Colonel Lamoriciere, who led the storming party, 
 suffered severely from the explosion of a powder 
 magazine at the moment when his efforts were being 
 rewarded with success. 
 
 The space through which the French advance upon 
 the walls took place was occupied until 1S3G by a 
 fauxbourg, constructed mainly of old Roman mate- 
 rials.* It was, from military considerations, destroyed 
 in that year by Hadji-Ahmed, the Bey of Con- 
 stantine, after the unsuccessful expedition of the 
 
 * It must have been built within the previous century, for Shaw 
 describes the site thus : — " The neck of laud is about the breadth of 
 half a furlong, being entirely covered with a series of broken walls, 
 cisterns, and other ruins, which arc continued quite down to the 
 river."— P. 126.
 
 VAST REMAINS OF ANTIQUITY. 2/7 
 
 French, as the circumstances of the first siege showed 
 conclusively that the only vulnerable part of the city 
 was this point. When I entered, the sun was just 
 dipping, and several Arabs were performing their 
 devotions among broken capitals of columns and other 
 debris, which lay about on the edges of this neck of 
 land. It was a strange spectacle of the vicissitudes of 
 fortune, but only the first of many such that this inte- 
 resting city presented. In tlie siege and since the occu- 
 pation no less than 4,000 houses have been destroyed 
 by the conquerors, and an arsenal constructed, with 
 barracks for 10,000 men, in the Kazbah. In making 
 excavations for this purpose, the ancient cisterns were 
 discovered, which had probably remained concealed 
 ever since the Arab invasion. They are built partly of 
 tufo and partly of blue limestone, both of which exist 
 near at hand, and they required no repair before 
 being made available. So extensive are they, that it 
 has been found necessary only to use half of them, 
 and the remainder are employed as storehouses. But 
 recently another discovery has been made of vast 
 magazines in which corn was formerly laid up, spacious 
 enough to contain a year's consumption for the whole 
 population. These were being cleaned out at the 
 time of my visil, and I did not see them. Wherever 
 any excavation is made, old Roman work of some 
 kind or other is found, and everywhere portions 
 appear, built into the houses of the Arabs. In one
 
 278 THE CITY BY NIGHT. 
 
 of the three mosques still standing there are fifty or 
 sixty columns, no two of which are alike. All have 
 been constructed of fragments of the Roman town. 
 The walls of the Kazbah have been utilized as a sort of 
 museum. Some of the numerous inscriptions which 
 are daily dug up have been let into them, both 
 inside and outside of the precinct ; and one sees the 
 swarthy tirailleur indigene mounting guard under 
 some police notice in the French language, flanked by 
 a votive offering from a Roman freedman to the 
 honour of his patron, or one from a military officer 
 to the genius of a Roman emperor. I was fortunate 
 enough to have letters of introduction to one of the few 
 persons in Constantino possessing any taste for anti- 
 quity — M. Cherbonneau, who is professor of modern 
 Arabic — and, through him, not only to save the time 
 which I must otherwise have wasted in seeking for 
 objects of interest, but to enjoy much ampler means of 
 communication with the natives than would otherwise 
 have been possible. We made a tour of the Arab 
 quarter of the town by night ; and M. Cherbonneau, 
 who, from a perfect knowledge of the native language 
 and a habit of doing little kindnesses for the people, 
 seems to be extremely popular with them, was con- 
 tinually stopped for a conversation. My companion 
 and I excited a good deal of attention as Englishmen, 
 being no less strange an object to the people than 
 they were to us. The streets through which we
 
 THE BENI-MOZABITES. 279 
 
 passed are even narrower than the Moorish portion 
 of Algiers. Like them, they are filled with the low 
 shops occupied by the tradesmen, but the commodities 
 are of a much more various character, Constantine 
 being, in fact, the entrepot for the whole trade of 
 the eastern province. There is a perfect blaze of 
 light from the enormous number of small wax-candles 
 or oil-lamps with which each stall is illuminated. 
 One of the former is generally stuck in every sack of 
 grain, or nuts, or other production which admits of 
 such an operation, the mouth of the sack being 
 always turned back to exhibit the article for sale. 
 
 At one of these booth-like shops we stopped for 
 a considerable time. It was kept by a Beni-Mozabite 
 firm, the principal partner in which was extremely 
 courteous, and treated us with coffee. He had a 
 great admiration for the English, as the English 
 cotton manufactures, which are sometimes obtained 
 through Morocco, are much more highly valued than 
 the corresponding Erench ones. His appreciation 
 of the national character rose to a yet greater height 
 when I showed him a knife of several blades, or 
 rather containing several instruments, such as a cork- 
 screw, a file, and the like. In his country, he said, 
 such an article would sell for fifty francs, and he was 
 astounded when informed that it had cost me in 
 England little more than the tithe of that sum. Had 
 I been returning home, I would certainly have made
 
 280 MAHOMETAN QUAKERS. 
 
 him a present of the knife; but I was going into 
 uncivihsed regions, where I expected to need it, and 
 therefore resisted the temptation to estabUsh the fame 
 of Britain throughout the oases of the northern Sahara 
 at the small cost of five shilhngs. 
 
 These Beni-Mozabites are a most singular tribe. 
 They belong to the aboriginal race, and their chief town 
 is Gardaia, situate in about the thirty-sixth parallel 
 of latitude, and directly south of Algiers ; but they 
 constitute a sort of confederation of small republics 
 in the oases of the neighbouring region. Ever since 
 the invasion of Charles V. they have enjoyed great 
 privileges at Algiers, having been incorporated there 
 with an amin (or mayor) of their own, and enjoying 
 the monopoly of the baths, as a reward for their 
 services on that occasion. There are said to be no 
 less than 1,500 incorporated members at this time 
 among the stationary population of the town. But 
 commerce is their most important pursuit, and they 
 trade direct with Timbuctoo, Soudan, Morocco, and 
 Tunis, as well as with Algeria. M. Cherbonneau 
 described them as " Mahometan Protestants ;" and 
 there is some justice in the illustration, although 
 perhaps they might with even greater propriety be 
 called j\Iahometan Quakers. They resemble the 
 former, in the circumstance that they derive their 
 religious views exclusively from the Koran, and alto- 
 gether reject the fabric of traditional law and com-
 
 COMMERCIAL SPIRIT. 281 
 
 plicated ritualism which has been superadded in the 
 case of the tribes which came from the Arabian 
 peninsula. But the most salient characteristic is 
 their hatred of all forms. They never go to the 
 mosques, or use any form of prayer. Like the 
 Quakers, too, they have a great talent for money- 
 making, and are scrupulously just. The word of a / 
 Beni-Mozabite is a perfect security. They travel 
 about the country not only with wool of their own 
 production, but often as factors for stationary mer- 
 chants, who entrust them with goods to a large 
 amount, and an instance of fraud is a thing unheard 
 of. Their scrupulous honesty disposes them readily 
 to place confidence in others, unless they have seen 
 any reason against so doing. When the French first 
 occupied Constantine, they wished to pay for the 
 supplies of which they stood in need by bills. The 
 Arabs would have nothing to say to these ; but the 
 Beni-Mozabites at once entered into the spirit of the 
 transaction, and took them without the least difficulty. 
 As is often the case with scrupulously honest people, 
 they are rigid economists, and never omit an oppor- 
 tunity of saving a penny. In the course of con- 
 versation it came out that I was going to Batna, 
 and the chief Beni-Mozabite, who had just requested 
 M. Cherbonneau to add an address in French to one 
 in Arabic on a letter he had written to a corre- 
 spondent in that place, immediately asked whether
 
 282 AN ARAB WEDDING. 
 
 I would take the letter, and save him the expense of 
 postage, — a matter of twenty centimes. Of course 
 I consented, and on arriving at Batna I sought out 
 the other Beni-Mozabite merchant, and put the packet 
 into his hands ; but it struck me that the confidence 
 of my Constantine friend in the carefulness, not to 
 say the integrity, of a stranger, was, in a mercantile 
 man, at least as remarkable as his parsimony. How- 
 ever, I suppose he argued from the sterling qualities 
 of English merchandise to those of Englishmen, and 
 I hope subsequent experience may never lead him to 
 change his opinion on either subject. The second 
 partner was a man inferior in intelligence to the 
 principal, but equally disposed to be civil. " He 
 knew all about England," he said ; " it was close to 
 Morocco." I explained that Gibraltar, to which he 
 referred, was only a distant settlement. " Of course," 
 interposed the chief; " that man is as ignorant as a 
 camel. But what language are you speaking now ?" 
 " Erench." "Don't the Enghsh speak Spanish?" 
 " Very few, except the merchants that live in Spain." 
 His idea was not, I fancy, that we had no language 
 of our own, but were a biUngual people, as the Beni- 
 Mozabites themselves are, using Arabic for com- 
 mercial purposes, and their own tongue (a variety 
 of Kabyle) for domestic intercourse. 
 
 We were lucky enough in our nocturnal ramble to 
 fall in with a wedding procession. The bride is
 
 TOMB OF PRiEClLIUS. 283 
 
 carried to the house of her husband on a mule, shut 
 up in a box which prevents the smallest particle of 
 her person from being seen. The procession is led 
 by forty or fifty male friends or relatives carrying 
 lighted lanthorns of coloured glass. After these, just 
 in front of the lady, is borne a kind of chandelier of 
 tapers and artificial flowers. A man follows her with 
 a drawn sword to cut down any audacious ruffian 
 whose imagination may be so kindled by the sight of 
 the band-box as to produce an attempt to carry off 
 its contents ; and the whole train is closed by the 
 bridesmaids all closely veiled, and from time to 
 time uttering the shrill lij-lij-lij, which has been 
 traditional for millenniums.''' 
 
 One of the most remarkable objects of antiquity 
 which has been brought to light is a tomb of imposing 
 dimensions on the south-west side of the city, on a 
 sort of terrace, under .the escarped rock. It was 
 built of brick, on a base of rock ; so that the moun- 
 tain had, in fact, been cut away to allow of its 
 erection. The shape is an oblong of about nineteen 
 feet in length (in the direction of north by west and 
 south by east) and ten in breadth. There were two 
 stories; each was adorned with a mosaic floor and 
 
 * The imagery of the marriage procession in Psalm xlv. indi- 
 cates precisely the same customs. The chief's daughter, " all 
 glorious within,^' i. e. decked out in a profuse magnificence beneath 
 the covering which shields her fi-om the eyes of the vulgar, is 
 accompanied to her royal husband's palace by " the virgins that be 
 her fellows," with the "joy and gladness" of the hymeneal cry.
 
 284 PORTENTOUS LATINITY 
 
 painted walls. The entrance to the upper story 
 was effected by four stairs descending from its long 
 side. No doubt there existed formerly a door at the 
 top of these, but the whole of the wall in which it 
 was cut, as well as the roof of the tomb, is now gone. 
 The stairs descended externally on to a mosaic floor 
 extending the whole length of the facade, to a breadth 
 of seven feet. Another narrow strip of mosaic pave- 
 ment started from the middle of this, and ran for 
 about twenty feet, when it turned at right-angles, 
 and apparently surrounded another mausoleum. The 
 lower story, which is sunk in the native rock, was 
 entered by a door in its short end. The mosaic 
 floor of the upper tomb is almost entirely destroyed, 
 but it may be made out that its border consisted 
 of Maltese crosses, and at two of the corners are 
 traces of a human figure, and an ornament com- 
 posed of two fish. On each of two sides of the 
 lower tomb are two semicircular niches, and on the 
 third one, of about seven or eight feet in diameter. 
 On the fourth side three sarcophagi are still 
 lying. A fourth was taken from one of the niches, 
 and on it is an extremely curious inscription, re- 
 markable both for its portentous latinity, and the 
 blunders of the stonecutter in executing it.* It is 
 
 * I give the inscription exactly as it appears on the stone, -without 
 any division of the words. There are eight unequal lines, and two 
 or three gaps : —
 
 OE A PROSPEROUS CIRTA BANKER. 285 
 
 the epitaph of a Cirta banker, who Hved to the age of 
 more than a hundred years in the enjoyment of all 
 the good things of this world, and without any draw- 
 back except the misfortune of having become a 
 widower, how long before his decease we are not 
 informed. It seems, however, that the veteran money- 
 changer resolved to undertake the task of recording 
 his own good fortune, Avhen he found that at last he 
 was summoned to quit it, with an entire indifference 
 to the fact that his school experiences had been more 
 adapted for initiating him in the mysteries of his 
 
 liicegoavitaceoa'erslbvsmea--tademoxstrolvcemclailafilvi 
 
 tvsettemporasvmmapraecilivscietensilareargentam 
 
 amlxibviaktemtydesinmemirafvilsemperetverttasomnisom; 
 
 misbvscommv:nriseg0cyin0nmisertvsvbiqverisvsivxvriasempereevitvscvn 
 
 carisaxicistalempostobitvmdominaevalekiaenoninvenipvdicaevitamcvmpotvi 
 
 gratajihabvicv^^conivgesamctamnatalesiionestemeoscentvmcelebravifelices 
 
 atvenitpostremadiesvtspiritvsinaniamempraeeliavattittvlosavoslegistivvsmee 
 
 mortiparavivtvo'v-earevnamno-amedeservitipsaseqvimlnitaleseilcvosexorectovekitae 
 
 The old gentleman probably intended to write : Hie ego qiii taceo 
 versibus mea fata demonstro, lucem claram fruitus et tempora 
 summa. Prsecilius, Cirteusi Lai'e, argeutariam exbibui artem. 
 Fides in me mira fuit semper et Veritas omnis omnibus communis. 
 Ego cui non misertus ubique 1 Risus, luxuriam semper fruitus cum 
 caris amicis, talem post obitum Dominse Valerise non inveni. Pudice 
 vitam cum potui gratam habui cum conjuge sanctfi. Natales honeste 
 meos centum celebravi feUces. At venit postrema dies ut spiritus 
 inania membra relinquat. Titulos quos legis, vivus mese morti 
 paravi ut voluit Fortuna. Nunquam me deseruit ipsa. Sequimini 
 tales : bine vos exspecto. Venite. — There is certainly not much to 
 be said for his style ; but much of the grammatical regimen and of 
 the inappropriate selection of words which will shock classical 
 scholars was probably usual in the provinces. It is plain that at the 
 time of Prsecihus the final m of words was so little pronounced that 
 an uneducated man would constantly put it where it did not exist, 
 or leave it out where it did. After all, Marshal Saxe's French 
 appears quite as strange to the eye as Preecilius's Latin.
 
 286 KABYLE MARKET. 
 
 craft, than in those arts which find favour at Eton 
 and Harrow. Horace might have well had some 
 sucTi personage in his eye when he penned his well- 
 known lines in censure of the education of the youth 
 of his day.* In the remaining long side of the upper 
 tomb is but one semicircular niche. It is near the 
 southern end of the wall. At the northern end a 
 corresponding one is replaced by a niche of a dif- 
 ferent kind, as if for a statue, and the space left 
 vacant is painted. 
 
 A little below the tomb of Praecilius is an esplanade 
 upon which the Kabyle market is held.f It is 
 partly surrounded by the huts of these people, 
 to some of which there is attached a small plot of 
 garden, scarcely so big as a moderate sized table- 
 cloth, in which, by the help of plentifully watering 
 it, they contrive to grow a few pot-herbs. In 
 front of others lie little heaps of the wood which is 
 used for dyeing the hands and feet of the women 
 
 * Romani pueri longis rationibiis assem 
 Discunt in partes centum diducere. Dicat 
 Filius Albini, si de quincunce remota est 
 Uncia, quid superest ? Poteras dixisse Triens ; Eu ! 
 Rem poteris servare tuam. Redit uncia, quid fit ? 
 Semis. An hajc animos ajrugo et cura peculi 
 Cum scmel imbuerit, speramus carmina fiugi 
 Posse linenda cedro, et duro servanda expresso ? 
 
 Ep. ad Pison. 325. 
 f There is also a Kabyle market for oil within the walls of the 
 town. It is brought in goat-skins, and the natives may be seen 
 drinking it as an Englishman in the apple counties does cider. It 
 is produced from tlie wild olive.
 
 RED SALT. 287 
 
 a red colour, or lumps of red salt. This production 
 is brought from Milah, a day's journey from Con- 
 stantine, but the rock which furnishes it is at Rad- 
 gusie, about three leagues to the south-west of that 
 place, Milah being merely the entrepot from whence 
 it is dispersed over the neighbourhood, just as Stilton 
 is of the cheeses which go by its name. It appeared 
 to me to differ in nothing except its colour from the 
 salt which is sold in England as Maiden salt. The 
 Kabyles here were true to the character for industry 
 which distinguishes them from the Arabs. Not a 
 man was to be seen idle. Some were hammering 
 bits for mules and asses, having husbanded for this 
 purpose every particle of old iron they could find, 
 so that their booths looked like so many fractions 
 of a marine-store shop. Others were making bricks 
 out of earth collected by the hand, moistened with 
 water from a goat's skin. Of course, the results 
 were very scanty, and it is almost inconceivable 
 how such labour could support the artificer, even 
 on the wretched fare which alone he requires, to 
 which the diet of an English workhouse would 
 be princely luxury. The Arab market is held 
 higher up on the level of the gates of Constantine. 
 There the aspect of the people is altogether dif- 
 ferent. Tall impassive-looking figures stand about, 
 wrapt in then- long bournouses, or sit in a line 
 on the edge of the hill, perfectly motionless, and
 
 288 BLIND BEGGARS. 
 
 presenting from below the appearance of a string 
 of great white crows. As the thorouglifare into 
 the town passes across the space of which this 
 market occupies a part, the scene is diversified by 
 miUtary costumes, both European and native, among 
 the latter the blue Zouave uniform of the tirailleurs 
 indigenes predominating. If anywhere a close knot 
 of people appears, they are probably listening to some 
 blind singers, who, sitting on the ground, chant in a 
 plaintive tone verses from the Koran, inculcating the 
 practice of works of mercy. They are exactly the 
 same people met with in Egypt, accompanying their 
 ditty with a few notes on the flute ; and, if I may 
 judge of their general success from what I saw in a 
 few minutes, must, like all professional beggars, make 
 a very handsome thing of their trade. One of the 
 number who had the use of his eyes, continually 
 went round among the crowd to collect, and like- 
 wise ofl'ered for sale flutes such as those which were 
 used by L's companions. The leathern water-bottle 
 of the Bedouin, which I never saw in the central 
 province, here made it's appearance very frequently, 
 indicating the greater proximity of the waterless 
 desert. 
 
 Descending the hill below the esplanade on which 
 the Kabyle market is held, the traveller finds a i)nth 
 which will conduct him to the bed of tlic Oucd 
 Rummel, just below the falls. In going thither, I
 
 EXTREME FERTILITY. 289 
 
 had ail opportunity of observing the dip of the lime- 
 stone strata, in a quarry on the western side of the 
 rock supporting the city. It is from north by west 
 to south by east, at an angle of about 10°. The 
 colour of the stone where freshly broken is blue, but 
 the effect of weathering is to give it a reddish-brown 
 tinge. The last part of the descent is a scramble 
 down the sides of a ravine full of fig-trees, almond- 
 trees, olives, vines, and pomegranates, wherever the 
 sides are not too steep to permit cultivation. Nothing 
 could give a more forcible idea of the extreme fertility 
 of the soil. Small streams, either bursting out of the 
 earth, or the waste water of some of the channels into 
 which the stream of the Rummel is diverted, ran 
 rustling among the herbage ; lizards of a bright green 
 ever and anon darted across the path ; the song of 
 birds, chiefly the nightingale, filled the air, while the 
 constant dash of the waterfalls made up a running 
 bass. Where the ground was too steep for cultiva- 
 tion, there were myrtles and the flowering broom, 
 with a hundred other shrubs and flowers; and the 
 ledges left in the midst of the craggy rocks of the 
 ravine were covered with the prickly pear. Every- 
 thing seemed instinct with life and full of the enjoy- 
 ment appropriate to its nature. On arriving at the 
 bed of the river below the falls, we saw a number of 
 tortoises, which were basking upon a rock, plunge 
 at once into a pool below them. The whole scene 
 
 u
 
 290 FALLS OF THE KUMitEL. 
 
 was such as might have inspired Lucretius for his 
 description of the golden age. 
 
 The Falls themselves were at the time I saw them 
 but scanty, the bed of the river between the walls of 
 the ravine above them being for the greater part of 
 its breadth dry; but the enormous blocks of blue 
 limestone, and of a conglomerate in which large 
 pieces of the same limestone appear, which lay in 
 the channel below, proved how different they must 
 be, when the Oued-el-R,ummel is swollen by rain. 
 As a matter of beauty, however, the condition in 
 which they appeared was by far the best. A boiling 
 cataract would have altogether marred the surround- 
 ing scene. The water takes two slight leaps, and 
 then one of forty or fifty feet. The cliff of the rocky 
 peninsula on which the city stands, comes sheer down 
 to these, from a height of five or six hundred. It 
 was formerly the practice to throw criminals down the 
 precipice at this point. Such a mode of execution is 
 altogether foreign to Arabian habits, and was pro- 
 bably derived traditionally from the aboriginal inha- 
 bitants of the country. It may have been in some 
 way connected with another strange superstition, that 
 the tortoises which abound in the pool below the 
 Falls were evil spirits who inflicted fevers and other 
 diseases upon the population, and required propitia- 
 tion by human sacrifices. 
 
 Above the Falls, a narrow path is cut along the
 
 GORGE OF THE RUMMEL. 291 
 
 rocky side of the peninsula, for the purpose of giving 
 access to an aqueduct wliich has been excavated 
 M'ithin the side of the mountain, and conveys a part 
 of the water of the Oued-el-Rummel to turn a mill. 
 The aqueduct is probably of the Arabian times. 
 After performing its office, the stream, or at least 
 such part of it as is not diverted for the purpose 
 of irrigation, forms another waterfall flanking those 
 of the Rummel. From this path we descended into 
 the bed of the river, and walked up the slope as far 
 as the point where a dam is made for intercepting the 
 mill-stream. Above us rose the towering chfifs of the 
 peninsula and the main land, and we walked over a 
 smooth floor of limestone with pools in it here and 
 there, the Rummel having dwindled down to a mere 
 brook rushing through the mid channel, shallow 
 enough to be forded, but still so rapid that not a 
 single pebble great or small was to be seen. We 
 passed under two of the natural bridges which have 
 been spoken of above. Under them, in holes of the 
 rock altogether inaccessible by any means, numbers 
 of jackdaws have built their nests, and probably other 
 birds also ; for we saw throughout our walk, ravens, 
 falcons, and white vultures, soaring above us. The 
 last-mentioned bird is quite a distinctive feature at 
 Constantine, and probably is necessary as a scavenger, 
 for the Arabs always slaughter their cattle in the open 
 air. The second of the natural bridges of rock is 
 
 u 2
 
 292 BRIDGE DESTROYED. 
 
 immediately over the head of the mill-stream. It 
 would have been possible to proceed farther, but here 
 the bed of the river is turned into a gigantic cesspool, 
 the sewers of the town forming so many waterfalls of 
 filth. All this is swept clear away as soon as a heavy 
 shower of rain falls, so that the arrangement, however 
 unwelcome to the tourist, is not altogether a bad one 
 for the inhabitants. The third natural arch is of 
 much greater extent than tlie other two, but Shaw's 
 description of its dimensions is much exaggerated.* 
 It is in fact the top of a tunnel of the length (as I 
 should guess) of something less than a hundred yards, 
 with gaps here and there from the effects of weather. 
 Over it, at the southern extremity, was carried the 
 bridge which was standing when the French took the 
 town. It had been built in the latter part of last 
 century by an Italian architect, and consisted of two 
 stages of arches, one above the other, the lower one 
 resting on a third substruction of the Roman times. 
 The height of the whole was nearly 220 feet above 
 the soil upon which it rested, that being itself nearly 
 as many more above the bed of the river. The bridge, 
 being found unsafe, was battered down by the French 
 a year or two ago. This operation furnished a grand 
 
 * " The river nins for near a quarter of a mile in a northward 
 direction, through a rocky subterraneous passage, designedly laid 
 open in several places, for the greater conveniency of drawing up 
 the water or cleansing the channel." — P. 127.
 
 SIPHON OF THE AQUEDUCT. 293 
 
 spectacle, and crowds were assembled to see it. 
 Forty rounds of heavy cannon sufficed for the piu'pose. 
 The substructions have been made use of as a base 
 for the siphon of an aqueduct which brings water into 
 Constantine. Standing on this, one sees the Rummel 
 in the abyss below on one side ; but on the other one 
 only hears it, as it is concealed from view by the roof 
 of earth which covers the natural tunnel above men- 
 tioned. It is, indeed, a wonderful spectacle, with 
 vultm*es wheeling over your head between the steep 
 cliffs, and the Numidian stork standing fishing in the 
 river below. 
 
 The French, with a strange blindness to the peculiar 
 character of this locality, after destroying the old 
 structure did not replace it by a suspension bridge, 
 which one would have thought must have at once 
 suggested itself, but actually formed a causeway across 
 the roof of the tunnel, and cut a series of inclines, — 
 so steep that it is necessary to form steps in them, as 
 in the streets of Algiers, — to enable baggage animals 
 to descend to it. It is amusing to sit at the top of 
 either side, and watch the crowds of mules, horses, 
 and asses, and even herds of cows, passing up and 
 down. The traffic is very great, for it is the direct 
 route from the east to the west side of the valley of 
 the Rummel, and to go any other way involves a 
 circuit of two or three miles. Above the site of the 
 bridge the ravine grows narrower, and at the point
 
 294 JEWS OF CONSTANTINE. 
 
 where the crack begins I should doubt if the rocks 
 were fifteen feet apart from one another. 
 
 M. Cherbonneau has collected in a small garden 
 near the Jews' quarter, all the ancient remains which 
 are brought to him, there being no building appro- 
 priated to their reception. After spending some time 
 there one morning, I walked through this part of the 
 town. It happened to be a Saturday, and the greater 
 part of the population were sitting, dressed out in 
 their best, at the doors of their houses. Several of 
 the women were, for Jewesses, handsome ; at least 
 they appeared so in comparison with those I had seen 
 in Algiers and the western province, and a few were 
 very beautiful. These last had fair complexions and 
 auburn hair — a type which at the time altogether 
 puzzled me* — but the majority were dark. The 
 Moorish and Jewish populations live on very good 
 terms with one another in Constantine. They neither 
 of them eat pork, and both are much engaged in 
 commerce ; and under the strong but impartial rule 
 of the French neither can be jealous of the other. 
 The old traditional habits of separation of course 
 continue, but without implying any animosity. A 
 Jew does not go to a Moorish cafe, nor an Arab to 
 an ordinary one, simply because the customs of the 
 two places are different, and productive of discomfort 
 to those who have not been brought up in them. In 
 
 * See above, page 53,
 
 MAHOI^IETAN TEACHERS. 295 
 
 Algiers tlie Jews were treated with great cruelty by 
 the Moorish population before the French conquest; 
 but in Constantine, from some cause or other, the 
 beys appear to have pursued a more enlightened 
 policy, and there are no old grudges to revenge. In 
 the latter place, too, the principal Mahometan muftis 
 are men of learning ; and religious fanaticism is rarely 
 engendered except in empty heads. To the mosque 
 of Salah-Bey there is attached a kind of theological 
 college, of such repute that students come to it not 
 only from all parts of Northern Africa, but from every 
 part of the Mahometan world. The professor, a fine 
 venerable-looking old man, whom I saw delivering 
 a lectm^e, is on the best of terms with M. Cherbon- 
 neau, simply tlu'ough the community of ideas produced 
 by sympathy with one another's studies. 
 
 A more unsatisfactory feature in the social condition 
 of Constantine is the barrier which exists, and seems 
 to be continually growing more marked, between the 
 civil and the military population. The latter are 
 collected in the barracks of the Kasbah, the dominant 
 position in the town, and no civilian of whatever 
 social rank is allowed to enter these without an order, 
 unless on business to some of the official people. 
 Some regulation of this kind may possibly be neces- 
 sary, as a considerable portion of the troops are 
 African; and the unrestrained intercourse of the 
 native population with these would obviously be
 
 296 MILITARY AKD CIYILTAKS. 
 
 undesirable. But that au European of respectability, 
 and even a Frencliman domiciled in Constantine and 
 well known, should be challenged by the sentry at 
 the gates, bespeaks a necessity for constant vigilance 
 which one regrets to find still existing. Colonisation 
 can hardly go on with any activity when the new 
 settler finds himself as a matter of course massed 
 together with the subject population in his relations 
 to the governing powers; and, unless a very different 
 spirit can be infused into the latter, there will at no 
 long distance of time cease to be any French popula- 
 tion at Constantine except such as live by ministering 
 to the necessities or the pleasures of the military and 
 the officials. 
 
 Military government is undoubtedly a necessity in 
 Algeria, but it is so simply in order that civilisation 
 may grow up under its shelter ; and those who are in 
 high office are fully sensible of the part which it has 
 to play. But there can hardly be a greater difference 
 than exists between the French mihtary chiefs holding 
 those positions which involve administrative talents, 
 and the ordinary run of officers in what answers to 
 our marching regiments. The drill and the military 
 promenade are, in the latter case, varied only by the 
 billiard-table and the dreary cafe. Night after night 
 do well-educated young men meet in the same room 
 of the same miserable hotel, and endeavour to kill 
 time by the help of cards and dominoes, cigars and
 
 FRENCH SUBALTERNS. 297 
 
 eaii sucree. There seems to be none of that over- 
 flowing energy which sends our idle officers to break 
 their necks in steeplechases, and makes the vicinity 
 of a pack of hounds an essential element in the esti- 
 mation of country quarters. Almost everywhere in 
 North Africa there is fair shooting. A man told me, 
 that in the vicinity of the lake Aloula, near the tomb 
 of the Christian Queen, he had himself killed 1,700 
 woodcocks in three weeks. At Guelma, my landlord 
 came in one day, after about three hours' walk in the 
 immediate neighbourhood, and his bag consisted of a 
 woodcock, two ponies de CarlUage, a bird about as 
 big as a pheasant,* and nine quails. But when you 
 see a sportsman, he is sure to be a civilian, — perhaps 
 a colonist, who had better be doing something else, — 
 never a subaltern officer. For him, when not on 
 duty, you must look in the Cafe des Officiers or the 
 Cercle, and you will find him, with a cigar in his 
 mouth and a glass of beer by his side, playing ecarte 
 with a dirty pack of cards, or looking on at a couple 
 of brother-officers so employed. How many English 
 ensigns would wilhngly give two-thirds of their pay 
 to be stationed in a country where they might be 
 sure of wild-boar and jackals whenever they wished 
 for a few hours' exercise, with every now and then 
 the chance of a lion or panther. 
 
 * This bird is probably the " Afra avis," which Horace couples 
 with the " attagen" of Ionia, as a dish for the tables of the wealthy.
 
 298 TRENCH SCHOOLS 
 
 Such excitement, however, has no charms for men 
 who as boys have never caught a cricket-ball or pulled 
 an oar. The child is father of the man ; and the boy- 
 hood which is passed in a French school is cramped 
 and confined in all its movements. I visited the Lycee 
 of Algiers, which is the highest school in Algeria, and 
 one where the standard of education is nearly equal 
 to that of our great public schools, except that the 
 sciences occupy the same relative rank that classical 
 studies do with us. The quality of the instruction 
 was to all appearance excellent. I attended one 
 lesson in French history and another on elementary 
 hydrostatics, and in the latter was extremely pleased 
 with the manner in which one or two of the elder 
 youths explained the methods of ascertaining the 
 specific gravities of solid bodies. But when I came 
 to inquire what the boys did out of school, the 
 defects of the system showed themselves. There is 
 a minute subdivision with reference to age, and each 
 of the classes " amuses itself" separately, under the 
 surveillance of a master. There is no pretence what- 
 ever that I could see at any known game. The chief 
 sport seemed to consist in two or three boys suddenly 
 falling upon another fi'om behind, and weighing him 
 down by hanging upon his neck. The numbers 
 of the school are as great as those of Harrow, and 
 the harbour of Algiers (independently of the bay) 
 would be an excellent place for eight-oared gigs;
 
 WITHOUT BOYS' GAMES. 299 
 
 but such a thing as boating for amusement is never 
 dreamt of. The nearest ground on which cricket or 
 football could be played is indeed more than a mile 
 off, but still the Government might provide courts 
 for hand-fives on the spot. On the heights over St. 
 Eugene, I once found some of the boys of another 
 school, which is under the superintendence of the 
 clergy, feebly attempting a game of ball, as girls will 
 do in England ; but this was the only specimen of 
 combined amusement which I witnessed during my 
 sojourn in Algeria; and any satisfaction which I 
 derived from the spectacle was much abated by 
 meeting the same school on another day, when the 
 boys were walking two and two, and almost every one, 
 even to the ages of seventeen and eighteen, carrying 
 a huge wooden cup and ball in his hand, with the 
 practice of which he relieved the monotony of the 
 promenade.
 
 300 JOURNEY TO BATNA. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The road from Constantine to Batna regains the 
 bare limestone plateau soon after leaving the former 
 place, and continues with a gradual ascent throughout. 
 The country passed over becomes monotonous after a 
 time, but its first aspect is extremely curious. It 
 consists of an undulating steppe, altogether bare of 
 trees, but at this season of the year (the second week 
 of April) covered with herbage. Where the surface 
 is limestone, the predominating plant is the wild 
 artichoke ; but where this is replaced by sand (gene- 
 rally impregnated with salt), the wild artichoke dis- 
 appears, and wormwood is seen in its place. In 
 many parts the colours of the wild flowers in the 
 midst of the herbage are very gay. The different 
 sorts grow in large separate masses, so that from 
 a distance a hill will look something like an English 
 flower-garden, with patches of yellow, blue, and red. 
 There can be no greater contrast than exists between 
 the vegetation of the plateaux of the Tel and that of 
 these steppes. The dwarf pine and the lentisque
 
 OULED-EAMOUM. 301 
 
 have entirely vanished, as have all the liliaceous 
 plants, and in their place are seen various grasses, 
 overtopped either by the wild artichoke, or by a kind 
 of thyme of a grey colour, vi^hich the camels and 
 goats eat with avidity. 
 
 The first post-station is Ouled-Eamoum, about 
 eighteen miles from Constantine. As far as this 
 point the road runs along the eastern side of the 
 valley of the Bou-Merzoug, a little river, which, 
 flowing from the south-south-west, falls into the 
 E-ummel just before the arrival of the latter at 
 Constantine. The village, if it may be so called, for 
 it contains scarcely a house, except two inns and a 
 gendarmerie station, occupies the site of a fortified 
 post, but it only fills a very small part of the loop- 
 holed wall which still stands. The appearance is 
 melancholy in the extreme. One of the piers of the 
 southern gate has been half knocked down by a wagon 
 running against it; and so will remain till it falls 
 down altogether. Three or four miles farther is the 
 point where the aqueduct which supplies Constantine 
 with water takes its origin; and soon after this the 
 traveller reaches the region of the lakes which charac- 
 terise the middle portion of the plateau of the Atlas. 
 The first of these is nothing more than a large marsh, 
 only very slightly saline, standing in the midst of a 
 plain as flat as a cricket-ground, and covered with fine 
 grass, like that to be seen on the South downs, where
 
 302 SALT LAKES. 
 
 the clialk does not come up to the surface. I esti- 
 mated the height above the level of the sea to be 2,455 
 feet, being 1,317 above the Pont d'Aumale, which 
 crosses the Oued-el-Rummel just below Constantine. 
 The route still continues, with slight rise and fall but 
 on the whole ascending, till about forty-six miles from 
 Constantine, when we stopped for our midday meal 
 at a little inn, called from its situation the " Hotel des 
 deux lacs." These are two lakes strongly impregnated 
 with salt, and divided from one another by a bank of 
 sand too loose for anything to grow upon it. The road 
 passes along the side of the westernmost one, and I 
 estimated its surface at 2,538 feet above the sea level, 
 and about thirty-six below the " Hotel," which is 
 placed, as it were, on the rim of the cavity that con- 
 tains it. The salt is obtained without any trouble, 
 being left on the bank as the water evaporates under 
 the rays of the summer sun. Except for the water- 
 fowl on the lake, the view is rather a gloomy one. 
 There is a dreary monotony in the colom' of the vege- 
 tation which covers the surrounding mountains, the 
 soil of which is probably highly saline. A few Euro- 
 peans are living in the neighbourhood, employed by 
 the contractors for the salt, but their huts are not in 
 sight from the road ; and except the posts of the 
 electric telegraph which are continued along here, the 
 little inn is all that exists within many miles to remind 
 the traveller of Europe. But the neighbouring steppe
 
 THE GRAZING SEASON. 303 
 
 is no desert at this time of the year. Except just 
 where the sand is loose and driving, it is thickly 
 covered with herbage, and populous with the camps 
 of nomad Arabs who come with their flocks and herds 
 to eat this off. There are no longer any admixture 
 of gourhis to be seen. The tent is the only form of 
 dwelling. Neither are there any asses or mules, — the 
 animals best adapted for the Tel, — nor many horses, 
 but enormous flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of 
 camels. Of the last we saw some not containing less, 
 I should think, than 300 head. The young camels 
 run by the side of their dams, and are extremely 
 pretty little creatures, not being the gawky objects that 
 the foal of the mare is, but the exact image in minia- 
 ture of the full-grown animal, with all the sportive- 
 ness and disposition to gambol which belongs to their 
 age. The sheep and goats are not allowed to scatter 
 themselves about among the herbage. Profuse as it 
 is, the Arab knows he must economise it, and the 
 flock drawn up in line like a regiment of soldiers, goes 
 slowly on, eating all as it comes. Each tribe, and 
 subdivision of a tribe, has its own separate area for 
 pasturing, and the object is to make this carry as 
 much stock as possible, the wealth of a pastoral Arab 
 being derived from his wool. The number of doiiars, 
 or nomad camps, in this region, is at this season very 
 great. Prom the time of first entering upon the lake 
 country to the reappearance of trees, a few miles before
 
 304 ARRIVAL AT BATNA. 
 
 reacliing Batna, we never lost sight of tliem ; and on 
 one occasion I remarked three in view at once. Here 
 and there, generally in the immediate vicinity of a 
 mountain, a little cultivation of cereals goes on. The 
 crop will be ripe by the time the herbage of the plain 
 is consumed, and tlien the owner will reap it, and 
 move off to the swamps formed in the bottoms of the 
 larger lakes, which he will find covered with a coarse 
 rank vegetation, and on this he will support his stock 
 until the rains return in October. 
 
 The journey to Batna lasted fourteen hours, and we 
 did not arrive till past nine o'clock, although the 
 weather was the most favourable possible. In the winter 
 it commonly requires two or three days, and, after the 
 fall of heavy rain, can be scarcely feasible at all for a 
 wheeled carriage. This arises altogether from the 
 difficulty of obtaining stone for metalling ; and it is 
 an evil to which it seems scarcely possible to apply a 
 remedy. At Batna there is only one inn (the Hotel 
 de Trance) of the least pretension to comfort ; and it 
 was quite full. The landlord wished to give my com- 
 panion and me beds in the saloon, together with 
 three or four other travellers ; and as in the conver- 
 sation which ensued he displayed a good deal of 
 insolence, I determined to try if I could not get 
 quarters elsewhere. Most fortunately I saw a decent- 
 looking woman standing at a door, who tm'ned out to 
 be a German, and in Africa I invariably found that
 
 A BAD LODGING. [M) 
 
 to speak to any person of that nation in their own 
 language, gave me the command of their services. 
 The good woman immediately made her husband 
 come out and accompany me ; and under his guidance 
 1 succeeded, after some trouble, in getting a clean 
 room in a little inn about the size of an English 
 beer-shop. I was better off than my companion, 
 who, after much suspense, was put into a back 
 kitchen from which a servant- maid had been pre- 
 viously expelled, and perfectly eaten alive. Great was 
 my triumph the next day, not only on account of ray 
 better hick in this respect, but because I had obtained 
 butter to my bread and milk to my coffee for break- 
 fast, with both of which my friend had been obliged 
 to dispense. In fact, although my landlord looked 
 unpleasantly like a ticket-of-leave man from Lambessa, 
 and the Hotel de I'Europe — the name by which he 
 dignified his tenement — would hardly have procured 
 him the elective franchise in an English borough, 
 I was not at all uncomfortable during the three days 
 I was his guest, although I took the precaution of 
 barricading the doors — three in number — of my 
 room, and sleeping with a night-light burning, and a 
 loaded pistol by my side. 
 
 Batna is the military position which secures the 
 communication between Constantine and Biskra, the 
 most southern position occupied by the Erench on 
 this line. It is on the highest part of the plateau of 
 
 X
 
 306 PENITENTIARY OE LAMBESSA. 
 
 the Atlas, at an elevation (according to my estimate) 
 of 3,175 feet above the jMediterranean. From here 
 the route southward gradually descends, being a 
 repetition in an inverse order of that from El Arouch, 
 reaching the break in the southern rim of the Atlas in 
 about fifty-three miles, and from thence proceeding to 
 Biskra, an oasis in the edge of the Saliara, which is 
 ten metres (or nearly thirty-three feet) below the level 
 of the sea, and distant from Batna about eighty-seven 
 miles.* Beyond this extends the sandy desert as far 
 as the eye can reach, interrupted only by the oases of 
 palm-groves of which Biskra is the chief. 
 
 About seven miles to the south-east of Batna, 
 is the village and Penitentiary of Lambessa. It is 
 situated on the northern flank of the Aures, probably 
 300 or 400 feet his-her above the sea-level than 
 Batna, as, for the greater part of the way, the road 
 regularly ascends. The Penitentiary is a large ugly- 
 looking stone building three stories high ; each, 
 as well as the ground floor, being fitted up with 
 solitary cells. During the day the prisoners work 
 
 * A French gentleman, whose acquaintance I made at Bona, gave 
 me the elevation of Al Kantara, the southern gap of the plateau, as 
 406 metres, and that of Biskra as I have stated it. lie had obtained 
 them from an engineer with whom he had been travelling ; but he 
 did not know when or by what means his informant had ascertained 
 them, and of course there was no opportunity of comparing his 
 instrument with my own. Nevertheless, after making all allowance 
 for these drawbacks to exactness, sufficient data seemed to me to 
 exist for giving an appi'oximate section of the Atlas in this direction. 
 Batna is about 138 miles from Philippoville.
 
 TREATMENT OF INMATES. 307 
 
 together, without any particular check upon thcni, 
 and in their leisure hours they amuse themselves 
 with draughts or cards. They seemed cheerful and 
 healthy ; and in no one instance did I observe any 
 trace of former fever, such as is common among the 
 colonists of the Metidja. This is no doubt partly 
 owing to the high elevation of the Penitentiary, and 
 the ample water-supply; but in no small degree perhaps 
 to the sober and regular habits to which the prisoners 
 arc compelled. They have two meals a-day. The 
 repns du matin consists of 250 grammes of meat and 
 a pint of soup, and the repas du, soir of 50 grammes 
 of bacon and 150 of rice, together with onions and 
 other vegetables. Besides this, the daily allowance 
 of bread is 750 grammes (Irk lbs.). They are allowed 
 no beer, wine, or spirits, I had the curiosity to enter 
 one or two of the cells, of which there are 430. They 
 are clean and neat, and one of them was fitted up 
 wdth a degree of taste which would have done honour 
 to a lady's drawing-room. It belonged to a man 
 named David, a native of Marseilles, described as an 
 (krivain. He had been originally condemned to 
 twelve years' imprisonment in France for theft ; and 
 on being allowed a certain modified liberty, had 
 broken the rules and been sentenced to ten years' more 
 detention in the Lambessa Penitentiar}'^, where he had 
 been nearly four. The prisoners are employed in 
 carpentry, smiths' work, and various other trades, 
 
 X 2
 
 30H POLITICAL PKlSONEilS. 
 
 and are allowed something in the shape of wages 
 for what they do, when the work exceeds a certain 
 amount. It was with his earnings that David had 
 contrived to ornament his cell in the manner which 
 had struck us, and although it was the most remark- 
 able, it was by no means the only instance of the same 
 kind. Besides the inmates of the Penitentiary, there 
 are seventy-five political prisoners. They are divided 
 into three classes : the first, political offenders of the 
 year 184S ; the second, those of the year 1852 ; and 
 the third, those who have been deported in conse- 
 quence of being affiliated to secret societies. Of this 
 last class there were twenty-one in number. Their 
 treatment is not harsh in itself. They are allowed to 
 buy beer, wine, or any other luxuries ; and, if they 
 will submit themselves to the authorities, they are 
 allowed to walk within a radius of two leagues at 
 their pleasure. One of them, a man named Rabel, 
 had his wife in the village, and the authorities allowed 
 her the same rations as her husband. These are 350 
 grammes of meat, 300 of fine white bread, and 750 
 of tlie ordinary quality, daily. I tasted both the 
 bread and the soup, and found them as good as could 
 be desired, and the same may bo said of the other 
 articles of consumption. 
 
 If the political prisoners decline to make their sub- 
 mission, they arc not allowed to (|uit the precincts of 
 the prison, which however inchuk) a tolerable space
 
 IMPOSSIBILITY OV ESCAPE. H()<) 
 
 of ground. I saw two men who were stubborn on 
 this point. They had the wild eye, unkempt locks, 
 and enormous beards which are popularly supposed 
 to be the outward and visible signs of red republi- 
 canism, and were smoking and playing cards with 
 one another. One of the pair, a native of Rouen 
 named Gauthier, apparently an artisan, had endured 
 his self-imposed restraint for three years. I asked 
 if any either of the convicts or political prisoners ever 
 attempted to escape, and I was told that such was 
 very rarely the case; for that those who attempted it 
 were at once brought in by the Arab tribes, as soon 
 as ever they passed the limit of two leagues from the 
 establishment. This impossibility of getting away 
 may perhaps account for the absence of any stringent 
 surveillance on the part of the authorities, which 
 somewhat surprised me. But there w^ere ninety-five 
 empty cells at the time of my visit, and I heard that 
 some of the prisoners were engaged in forced labour 
 at Batna; and possibly these may have been the 
 worst subjects in the establishment. 
 
 Lambessa is the site of an important Roman for- 
 tified camp, the head-quarters of the third Augustan 
 Legion. It was formed, in all probability, in the year 
 IGl) A.D.* Nothing can be better chosen than its 
 
 * This date results from an inscription on a stone found in the 
 ■wall of the camp, in which the names of the emperors M. Aurelius 
 and L. Aurelius Verus appear united with the title "Sarmatici." 
 The war against the Sarmataj only broke out in 168, and before the 
 end of 109, Verus had been poisoned.
 
 310 REMAINS OF THE ROMAN 
 
 locality. Its elevation above the sea, and its exposure 
 to the breezes from the north, render it healthy in 
 the midst of summer; and it is sheltered from the 
 scirocco by the mountain masses of the Auics. Two 
 strong springs, bursting from the flanks of the hill, — 
 the Ain Boubennana on the south, and the Ain 
 Drinn on the south-east, — guarantee an abundance of 
 water at all seasons. The former of them supplies 
 the Penitentiary, and the engineer officer who was 
 entrusted with the duty of making the requisite 
 arrangements found the old Roman conduit in good 
 repau\ Similar arrangements had once existed at 
 Ain Drinn, which is now employed to turn a mill ; 
 but it would seem that the original water- chamber 
 here had been destroyed by the Vandals, and repaired 
 in a very inferior style by the Byzantine emperors 
 after their re-conquest of the country. The imited 
 supply from these two fountains has been estimated as 
 averaging 2,300 litres (or more than eighty cubic feet) 
 of water per minute. It was conveyed by means of 
 pipes to every part both of the camp and of a town 
 of considerable size which existed in the innnediate 
 vicinity. Important remains of the latter are still 
 above ground. Two gates, the ruins of a temple 
 dedicated to ^sculapius, those of a theatre, and two 
 family tombs are conspicuous. There would be little 
 difficulty in tracing the whole extent of the walls, 
 tlic whole area within whicli is full o{ c/c/jris. Outside
 
 CAML' AND TOWN. 311 
 
 of tliem is an amphitheatre. Its walls are entirely 
 decomposed and covered with vegetation, and it is 
 impossible to determine with any accuracy the dimen- 
 sions of the arena. But it is obvious that its ellip- 
 ticity was unusually small,* although the form is not 
 perfectly circular. The greater axis lies between the 
 points north-west by west and south-east by east. 
 The most curious, however, of all that still remains 
 standing is a building, Avhich Shaw took for a kind 
 of triumphal arch, but which is undoubtedly a por- 
 tion of the residence of the Roman commander of the 
 forces here, and the French have given it the name 
 of the Prsetorium. It has no roof, but has been 
 surrounded by a wooden palisade, and converted into 
 a sort of open-air Museum to receive the objects of 
 antiquity which are found from time to time and 
 thought worthy of preservation. On the re-entering 
 face of the capital of an engaged column in this 
 building are portions of an inscription which included 
 the names of the emperor Severus, his son Caracalla 
 (who is therein styled princejjs juventuiis), and the 
 empress Juha.f About 500 yards off, in the east- 
 north-east direction, is a small gate of the town, which 
 
 * I am told that in the immediate neighbourhood of Perla, iu 
 Sardinia, are the remains of an amphitheatre in which this same 
 peculiarity is remarkable. 
 
 t As Caracalla received the torja virilis in 201, the "Prtetorium" 
 must have been built before that year : and it would certainly not 
 have been erected before the fortification of the camp, which was, 
 as has been seen, in 169. The period therefore to which this
 
 ;312 TRIPLE GATEWAY. 
 
 npparcntly had a double opening; so that troops 
 passing in each direction at the same time might not 
 have their order disturbed, — an arrangement which the 
 French have introduced into all their African fortified 
 posts. To the south-east by half south of the small 
 gate is a triple arch by which the enceinte was entered 
 on another side— a much more pretentious structure, 
 and possessing a good deal of elegance. 
 
 The inscriptions discovered seem to indicate that the 
 
 edifice belongs is determined within very narrow limits. Near 
 the small gate I saw a large tablet lying, on which was the in- 
 scription : — 
 
 IMP. CAES. M. AVRELIO. COMMOI>[0. AVG] 
 C POMPONIVS MAXIMVa EX c[ONSVLT.] 
 DECVRIO COL. THAM0GADE[NSIVM]. 
 
 In the field not far off" was another with the following : — 
 
 IMP. CAESARI 
 
 M. AVRELIO 
 
 ANTONINO 
 
 AVG. ARMENIACO 
 
 MEDICO. PARTHICO 
 
 GERMANICO. 
 
 The latter is remarkable as containing both the titles Armeniacus 
 and Parthicus, and also that of Germanicus; whereas it has been 
 stated that M. Aurelius laid aside the two former in a.d. 169, on the 
 death of his brother Verus, and did not assume the last till a.d. 172. 
 See Clinton, Fasti Romani, on the two years. Thamogadi (or 
 Tamugadi), referred to in the former inscription, has not yet been 
 determined. But as, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus, it 
 was both on the road from Lambesis to Cirta (Constantine) and 
 upon that from Lambesis to Thevcste (Tebessa), it must have been 
 to the north-east of Lambesis. The Peutinger Table puts it upon 
 the northern of two alternative roads from Lambesis to Thoveste. 
 The distances dift'er, the Itinerary making it only fourteen Koman 
 miles from Lambesis, the Table as much as twenty four. I have 
 very little doubt that the road to it led by the tombs which have 
 been noticed in the text, and that the distance given by the Table is 
 the true one. The city was destroyed by the mountaineers of the 
 Aures soon after the Vamlal invasion of the couuti-y.
 
 ANCIENT SUBALTERNS' CLUB. 313 
 
 city Lambesis (the ancient form of the name), if existing 
 antecedently to the mihtary camp being formed, acquired 
 its importance from this. A milestone found between 
 it and Batna reckons the distance not from the town, 
 but from " the camp" (« castris). Indeed the soldiers 
 appear to have been actually employed in the con- 
 struction of at least one of the temples.* In the 
 " Prsetorium" there is an extremely curious monument, 
 a hemicycle, or circular bench, such as are found in 
 almost all old Greek or Roman towns, in which old 
 people, the ajnici senes of Horace, used to sit sheltered 
 from the cold winds, and enjoying the warmth of the 
 winter sun. In this particular instance it seems to 
 have belonged to what may be called " a subalterns' 
 club." Its inner face is covered wdth an inscription, 
 setting forth a resolution to which the members had 
 come, on the occasion of furnishing their club with the 
 statues of the reigning family and of their tutelary 
 deities ; and the purport of it indicates the possession 
 of common funds of considerable magnitude. It was 
 the practice in the Roman army to allow every cen- 
 turion to select a sort of deputy, or, as we might saj', 
 lieutenant, who, in the times of the Empire, was called 
 
 * Ou two broken pieces of a circulai- i'rieze, which obviously belong 
 to one another, but do not complete the whole, are the words : — 
 
 lOVI VALENTI SILVANO 
 
 HAS AEDES PER III LEG. AVG. FECERV . . . 
 
 which may perhaps be supplied : 
 
 Jovi valetiti, Silvauo [el, Aj/tiiphis] 
 
 Has cedes per teriiam legionem Aiirjustuin facer uSjd Dutaiicirt],
 
 314 OFFICERS' RING-MONEY. 
 
 his " optio." It would appear from the inscription 
 in question, that this appointment conveyed with it 
 some sort of claim to succeed the chief when a vacancy 
 occurred ; but that it was necessary for the claimant 
 to procure a confirmation to his appointment from 
 some superior, possibly the legate of the province as 
 the representative of the emperor. Appointments in 
 all ages have involved the payment of bribes, or their 
 successors, fees ; and, apparently in reference to this 
 necessity, the resolution in question determines that 
 every member, on setting out for securing the object 
 of his expectations, " ad spem suam confirmandam," 
 shall be paid 8,000 sesterces (about £62 lO.^.). If 
 any one reaches the limit of military service, and is 
 discharged, he is to be paid, every 1st of January, 
 "ring-money," to the amount of G,000 sesterces 
 (£4C 175. Gd.). Now this phrase is very remarkable : 
 for Septimius Severus, whose name appears on the 
 engaged column of the " Praetorium," is the very 
 emperor who bestowed upon every Roman soldier the 
 much-coveted right to wear a golden ring, — or, in 
 other words, gave him the social status of a gentle- 
 man.* The " ring-money," therefore, is in fact the 
 pension enabling the veteran to keep up this position. 
 Its amount is enormous, when compared with the pay 
 
 • The subject of the "jus aiinuli aurei" is very lucidly handled in 
 Smith's " Dictionai-y of (Ircck and Roman Antiquities," under the 
 word " lliuK."
 
 THE STATUS OF THE SOLDIER. 815 
 
 under the Republic ; and it is exactly the same as the 
 pension a retired centurion received from the emperor 
 Caligula.* But in this case, it is apparently not the 
 pension paid by the Government which is meant, but 
 merely an allowance from some fund over which the 
 lieutenants had an absolute control ; for the language 
 of authority is used in the resolution.! Neither are 
 the discharged veterans of the rank of centurion, but 
 (as it woidd seem) merely members of the lieutenants' 
 club. Nothing could more strongly mark the immense 
 importance which the profession of arms had acquired, 
 
 * Suetonius, Caligula, § 44. This sum, however, was a reduction 
 from what had been paid before, and caused great discontent. 
 
 -j- This inscription is so curious histoi'icaliy, that it is worth giving 
 at length. It runs as follows : — 
 
 Pro salute Augustorum, 
 Optiones scholam suam cum statuis et imaginibus domus divinsc, 
 item diis conservatoribus eorum, ex largissimis stipendiis et 
 liberalitatibus qute in eos conferunt, fecerunt ; curaute L. Egnatio 
 
 Myrone quasstore. 
 Ob quam solemuitatem decreveruut, Uti collega proficiscens ad 
 
 spem suam coufirman 
 dam accipiat HS octo milia-N-veteraui quoque missi accipiant 
 
 Kal. Jan. anularium singuli HS sex milia N. 
 quse auularia sua die qusestor sine dilatione adnumerare curabit. 
 At each extremity of the hemicycle is a square pilaster, and on it a 
 list of names (51 in all) of the " optiones," and on the returning face 
 of one pilaster 12 more. To only oiie is the sign indicating the rank 
 of centurion prefixed, and that is cut on the moulding ; so it is 
 obvious that the individual in question (one L. Cornelius Cato) was 
 promoted subsequently to the insei-tion of his name. A similar 
 change seems to have happened in the case of two others. The 
 letters cor (cornicen) and act. leg. (actarius legionis) are cut in 
 the moulding of the pilaster after their names. And the whole 
 name of one individual has been studiously erased with the chisel. 
 Perhaps he committed some disgraceful act, and was " expelled his 
 club" in consequence.
 
 316 DREAD OF EVIL OMENS. 
 
 under the despotic government of the Roman em- 
 perors 
 
 The extreme solicitude of pagan antiquity to avoid 
 as bad oraens all words suggesting evil, and to grasp 
 at the reverse, is well known to the student of the 
 Greek and Latin literature. The same feeling shows 
 itself very strikingly in the "cognomina" of the time 
 of the Empire, which every one chose for himself. Out 
 of the sixty-two subalterns of the 3rd Legion, whose 
 names appear on the heniicycle just described, there 
 are no less than nine Felixes, besides a plentiful 
 sprinkling of other names of good import, such as 
 Honoratus, Speratus, Hilarus {sic), Fortunatus, Geni- 
 alis, Donatus. Li fact, a Roman of the third century 
 had the same morbid desire for a lucky name, that an 
 Englishman of the nineteenth exhibits for an aristo- 
 cratic one, and would have shrunk with no less disgust 
 from an acquaintance of the name of Caducus or 
 Sinister, than Mr. Plantagenet Brown experiences when 
 his letters arrive directed to P. Brown, Esq. But of 
 all omens, a dream is of course the most irresistible. 
 A large block, apparently the base of a statue, lying 
 among the ruins of Lambessa, informs us that wluit- 
 ever had been supported by it was set up " at the 
 suggestion of Apollo" by a commandant r/rl interivi 
 of the Augustan Legion. Another individual, an 
 actual picufect of tho camp, furnished the genius of 
 Ills house with a new j)edestal, in consequence of a
 
 TIMBER TRADE OE BATNA. .'517 
 
 recommendation to that effect from tlie god of wine 
 conveyed to liim in his sleep ; and npon the strength 
 of this piece of obedience solicits his adviser to send 
 him and his family safe back to Rome, and prosper 
 them there.* 
 
 The only trade which appears to exist at Batna, 
 except such as is necessary for the supply of the 
 wants of the military, is in the timber which grows in 
 the surrounding forests with which the flanks of the 
 Aures are covered. The principal trees are holm oak, 
 and cedar. The latter is not the cedar of Lebanon 
 (at least it seemed not to me), but a different variety, 
 with leaves almost as stiff and prickly as gorse in 
 England. Its wood, is used for building. The oak 
 is for the most part converted into charcoal, and 
 in that state sent to Constantine for fuel. For some 
 miles before reaching Batna stunted cedars and Aleppo 
 pines began to show themselves, but the forests do 
 
 * Alfeno Fortunato 
 Visus dicere somnio 
 Leiber pater bimatus 
 Jovis e fulmine natus, 
 Basis banc novationein 
 Genio domus sacrandam. 
 Votum deo dicavi 
 Preefectus ipse castris. 
 Ades, ergo, cum Panisco, 
 Memor boc munere nostro ; 
 Natis, sospite matre, 
 Facias videre Romam, 
 Dominis munere bonore 
 Mactum coronatumque.
 
 318 MOUNTAINEERS OF THE AURES 
 
 not commence until the traveller has arrived at the 
 roots of the mountains. 
 
 The reasons were probably the same which induced 
 both the Romans and the French to establish a strong 
 military post in this neighbourhood, viz. the necessity 
 of keeping a sufficient force at hand to check the war- 
 like and high-spirited mountaineers of the Aures. 
 These are, beyond all doubt, of the same race which 
 the earliest Greek settlers found in Northern Africa. 
 They were kept in a certain subjection by the Romans,* 
 as they now are by the French ; but when the Romans 
 themselves fell before the arms of the Vandals, 
 the conquerors failed to maintain this supremacy ; 
 and during the greater part of the time that elapsed 
 before the re-conquest, were unable to set foot within 
 the Aures. The Turks only succeeded in raising 
 a tribute from the tribes of the northern side, and 
 from them with great difficulty. So far as one may 
 judge from a distant view, the character of the Aures 
 must not be unlike that of Great Kabylie, — extremely 
 fertile valleys, embosomed in mountains, and abun- 
 dantly supplied with water from the springs goshing 
 from tlieir sides ; and this is, in fact, the description 
 
 * Gibbon, however, falls into a great error in placing Lambessa in 
 the heart of the Aures (Chapter XLI.). It is on the lowest part of 
 the northern flanks of that remarkable mass, to which it bore the 
 same relation for military purposes as the French camps at Fonduck 
 and Kara Mustapha did to the Great Kabylie before the termination 
 of the war with Abd-el- Kader.
 
 AS YET UNSUBDUED. 319 
 
 wliicli Procopius gives of the country. But there is 
 as yet no Fort Napoleon in the Aures, and the 
 exploration of the country could hardly fail to be as 
 perilous as that of Great Kabylie was two years ago. 
 As is generally the case with regions with which there 
 is little or no intercourse, the Aures has the character 
 of being full of wild beasts. The woodcutters, how- 
 ever, go up into the forest and remain there for 
 several days, without any arms but an axe, and I 
 heard no account of any accident having occurred. 
 In Batna I was shown a tame lion, which had been 
 found when a whelp by the Arabs in the vicinity, and 
 was kept by a tradesman of the town as a pet. He 
 was about three years old, and allowed any person to 
 play with him and scratch his ears ; and indeed was 
 extremely fond of human society when his visitors 
 approached him ; but he did not like them to look at 
 him from a distance over the palisade wdiich sur- 
 rounded the shed in which he was chained up. The 
 owner told me that he fed the animal upon meat, but 
 always made a point of first boiling it. 
 
 I was extremely anxious to visit an ancient Numi- 
 dian monument at no great distance from Batna, 
 which some military antiquary, when it was first seen 
 by the French army on an expedition to the south, 
 thought proper to designate by the whimsical name 
 of the Tomb of Syphax. By the kindness of the 
 commandant, I obtained the escort of a spahi, and
 
 320 ANCIENT NUMIDIAN MONUMENT. 
 
 some mules, and spent a couple of hours in examining 
 it carefully. The name by which it goes among the 
 Arabs is Madraseu. To reach it, we left the road 
 between Constantiue and Batna at a caravanserai 
 called Ain Hedjar, and struck across the plain to the 
 eastward, passing several camps of nomads whose 
 dogs were more than usually ill-tempered, and fording 
 one or two of the marshy brooks which seam the 
 steppe. After a ride of two or three hours we crossed 
 a low ridge of limestone, and on a gentle elevation in 
 front of us beheld the object of our search. It is 
 a monument of the same type as the " Tomb of the 
 Christian Queen" on the Sahel of Algiers, but of 
 altogether different proportions. A circular base of 
 about 16 feet in height, and, according to my 
 estimate, 166 feet in diameter, is surmounted by 
 a circular truncated pyramid, consisting of 23 
 steps, each two feet high and three broad, the whole 
 formed of hewn stones of immense size. The base 
 itself is surrounded by a cornice, supported on 
 engaged columns, sixty in number. On ascending to 
 the top of the pyramid, we found ourselves on a 
 circular area, of about twenty-eight feet diameter, 
 having in the centre a circular hole of three or four. 
 This last my companion and myself, after examining 
 it with the greatest care, felt satisfied had never been 
 filled up ; — although, from the dislocation of the 
 stones immediatelv arouiul it, its real character might
 
 THE MADRASEN A FIRE TEMPLE. 321 
 
 easily have escaped the notice of a hurried observer. 
 It descended, we were convinced, quite into the 
 interior, and before the edifice was injured must have 
 remained open : for if it had been originally closed by 
 a circular mass, like the keystone of a vault, that 
 mass could never have been forced downwards ; 
 whereas it is in a downward direction that the neigh- 
 bouring blocks slope. If, however, the circular hole 
 is a part of the original design, the whole erection is 
 not likely to have been intended as a tomb, which all 
 travellers who have hitherto examined it have tacitly 
 assumed. It is to me more probable, that it was 
 built as a temple for fire-worship, and by Greek 
 orkmen. The immense labour required to move 
 the masses of stone of which it is built implies the 
 possession of great resources in the builder, and the 
 grand effect of the bold sweep of the cornice bespeaks 
 an artist of genius.* The building was entered by a 
 
 * My own conjecture would be that the "tomb" was built by 
 Micipsa, the eldest son of Massinissa, to whom Scipio the destroyer 
 of Carthage gave Cirta, over and above his share of his father's 
 dominions and accumulated wealth ; and that not improbably a 
 large proportion of the captive population of Carthage was used up 
 in its construction. In this case the Mauritanian monument on the 
 Sahel, described above, may very well have been taken as a type by 
 the architect of the Numidian one, as the ancient heads of Minerva 
 were by Phidias. The traditional form would be, perhaps even on 
 rehgious grounds, preserved ; but the alteration of proportions 
 shows, no less certainly than in a comparison between the archi- 
 tecture of Athens and Egypt, that here too the idea of the barbarian 
 had to pass through the mind of a Greek before its capabilities for 
 beauty could be unfolded.
 
 322 SEARCH FOR TREASURE. 
 
 small door ou the side facing east by north. This is 
 of an oblong shape, about four feet in height and two 
 in width. Its bottom coincides with the upper 
 surface of that course of stones which forms the 
 cornice of the lower part of the building. It is 
 effectually masked from a spectator below ; so that 
 it was obviously made for some necessary purpose, 
 incidental to a public ceremony, but not itself forming 
 a part of the ceremony. Yet there is no attempt to 
 conceal it from an explorer, as in the case of the 
 entrance to the Egyptian pyramids. It leads into a 
 corridor which is now choked up with rubbish, the 
 result of modern attempts to penetrate the monu- 
 ment. The Arabs, of course, believe the Madrasen 
 to contain treasure ; and the last Bey of Constantino 
 is reported to have brought some cannon and battered 
 it, in the hope of enriching himself by the operation. 
 One of our muleteers strongly sympathised with the 
 undertaking. He would himself, he said, gladly 
 devote his time to the task of forcing an entrance, if 
 he felt certain he should find two hundred francs 
 there. I told him that he might rest assured he 
 would find no money, whatever else he might light 
 upon ; but although he seemed to have a great respect 
 for me from seeing me make use of a compass and an 
 aneroid barometer, I fear avarice was too strongly 
 ingrained in him to allow him to believe me. 
 
 Some of the scientific visitors of this singular
 
 COLD NIGHTS ON THE PLATEAU, 323 
 
 monument have believed that there were traces of 
 inscriptions and even of rude figures on its sides. 
 J\ly companion and I were unable to discover any- 
 thing of the kind ; and yet we searched carefully for 
 them, especially in one part to which General Desvaux, 
 the commandant at Batna, had particularly directed 
 my attention. If anything was ever to be seen, it 
 must have been merely scratched on the surface of the 
 stone ; and with all its simplicity the execution of the 
 cornice is so admirable, that it is difficult to believe 
 any inscription or device, altogether out of keeping 
 with it, could have been allowed. If therefore these 
 rude figures ever existed, they were probably the 
 work of barbarous times, succeeding the era of greater 
 civilisation in which the edifice was built. 
 
 We returned to the main road by a different track, 
 over a low range of hills, from which we descended 
 on another caravanserai, that of Ain Yagout, after 
 a ride of an hour and a half, the mules quickening 
 their pace as they became sensible by the approach of 
 evening that they were coming to the end of their 
 day's journey. It turned out that we were the only 
 arrivals ; and we therefore were allowed to appropriate 
 the two rooms devoted to the use of the travelling 
 public. The day had been extremely hot ; but after 
 sunset the elevation of the plateau above the sea 
 caused a great change to be felt. I had put on a 
 shepherd's plaid over my great-coat before reaching 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 JOURNEY TO MTLAH. 
 
 Ain Yagout, and on arriving felt extremely delighted 
 with the fire which was at once lit for us. 
 
 I was advised, before leaving Constantino finally, to 
 see ]\Iilah, a specimen of a purely Arab town popula- 
 tion. The French took possession of it in 1838, and 
 it was extremely useful to them as a military position, 
 until the communication between Constantino and the 
 sea was secured by the building of Philippeville. Milah 
 is not only on the site of the Roman Milevium or Mileum, 
 but is the very town itself. The extent is small,* 
 but the foundations of the walls throughout, and their 
 whole height for a great part of the circumference, 
 are of Roman masonry. Mileum was the first stage 
 on the ancient road from Constantino to Setif, and is 
 set down in the Itinerary as twenty-five Roman miles 
 from the former place. By the track which we took, 
 it is a little more than this. The path runs for a con- 
 siderable distance along the western side of the valley 
 of the Rummel, and crosses one of the afiluents of 
 that river by a ford. Its general bearing is to the 
 
 * Mileum was however a bishop's see, and one of some note in 
 the ecclesiastical history of Africa. It was filled by Optatus, the 
 historian of the Donatist schism ; and was, as well as Carthage, the 
 place of meeting for a council which condemned the tenets of 
 Pclagius in the early part of the fifth century. But a bishopric in 
 Africa was more like the modem incumbency, as regards temporal 
 importance and area of jurisdiction, than anything suggested by 
 the same name at the present day. Hippo, the seat of St. Augustine, 
 could not have been much larger than Ilitchin in Hertfordshire ; 
 and even St. Cyprian at Carthage had probably not a quai'ter of the 
 spiritual charge laid upon Dr. Hook at Leeds.
 
 A ROMAN STATION. 325 
 
 west-nortli-west. On the right-hand, the horizon is 
 always bounded by the Hmestonc hills which form the 
 edge of the plateau above the Oued-el-Rummel; but 
 in the interval sandstone* and alluvium are often 
 seen, and the road passes over several low hills of this 
 last character, in some parts of which the soil has the 
 same peculiar rotten mudhke texture that has been 
 remarked elsewhere. The country is bare of trees, 
 but extremely well tilled, chiefly by Kabyles ; for 
 the Arab population of ]\Iilah employ themselves in 
 cultivating orange and lemon groves in its immediate 
 vicinity. Milah itself is most curiously situated in a 
 well-watered and w^ooded oasis, presenting a striking 
 contrast to the bare region which surrounds it. It 
 was apparently the stationary camp of a Koman 
 cohort, deserted, but entire, at the time of the Arabian 
 invasion. Its very small size is perhaps the reason 
 of its having been taken possession of bodily ; as it is 
 one of the very rare instances in which the ancient 
 buildings have not been broken up and huts built of 
 the materials.! 
 
 The kaid of Milah is a chief much in the confidence 
 
 * This is sometimes red or lake coloured ; reminding me of what 
 I have seen in the mountains on the borders of Bohemia, and on the 
 banks of the Moselle. 
 
 t The Kabyles round about stand in the same kind of relation to 
 the Arabs of Milah, that the periocciaus of Sparta did to the free- 
 men : but the identity of religion in the modern instance of course 
 has a great effect in promoting good feeling between the parties 
 conccrued.
 
 326 RECEPTION" BY THE KAID. 
 
 of the FreDch. He resides in Constantine ; but we 
 were fiiniisbed with letters from him to his son, and 
 with the escort of a spahi who was a man of some 
 rank in the tribe. The young kaid, a very sickly- 
 looking youth of about twenty, received us wdth great 
 politeness. He seated us on his divan, and sent both 
 for coffee and for his interpreter, a singularly intelligent 
 and well-mannered Arab, who spoke French fluently, 
 of which the kaid knew only two or three words. 
 After we had drunk our coffee we were asked whether 
 we would like to dine or to see the curiosities of 
 the place. It was the first day of the Ramadan, or 
 Mahometan Lent, and not only the gates of the town 
 as we entered, but the doors of the several houses in 
 it were thronged with the male population of all ages, 
 watching anxiously for the time when the sun should 
 set, and allow them to break their fast. We told the 
 kaid that we should prefer to postpone dinner till our 
 return, when the day being at an end we hoped we 
 should have the honour of his company. It is an 
 established piece of breeding in primitive Arab society, 
 that the host serves his guest, unless an inferior, with- 
 out touching a morsel himself if he be not specially 
 invited to do so. AVhere they have had much to do 
 with Europeans, their behaviour is much the same as 
 that of a courteous English gentleman. We were 
 attended in our walk round the town bv the vounsj 
 kaid and tlucc or four of his principal retainers,
 
 ARAB HOSPITALITY. 327 
 
 the interpreter showing us everything that he thought 
 interesting, — the mosque, the walls, a celebrated 
 orange and lemon grove, and above all, two springs 
 of water, which he obviously considered as the climax. 
 We passed a couple of tumulary stones of the Roman 
 times; and the kaid seemed much astonished when 
 I told him that the one of them had been put up by 
 a widower to his wife, and the other commemorated 
 a man who had died at the age of ninety years. No 
 doubt he thoaght the two facts equally remarkable. 
 There were no other remains of any kind, except 
 portions of ancient substructions, apparently cellars, 
 which could not be adequately examined without 
 excavation. 
 
 Dinner was served for my companion and myself 
 in a room within the one where we had been just 
 received. The young kaid, when the time came, 
 excused himself on the ground that he had himself 
 some of his own people to entertain. I believe the 
 true reason to have been that our sudden arrival had 
 prevented him from making any addition to the dinner 
 which would otherwise have been prepared, and that 
 he did not wish to impose any check upon our appe- 
 tites. Certain it is, that he took up his position in 
 the chamber of reception, and that no dishes were 
 introduced there until they had been first sent to us, 
 except it might be a bowl of kousJcous. The inter- 
 preter remained with us, but, like his chief, could
 
 328 VANITY IN AGE. 
 
 not be induced to join our meal. After dinner coffee 
 was brought in, wliicli the kaid flavoured with sugar 
 in our presence, carefully stirring it until the whole 
 lump was perfectly melted before presenting it. This 
 ceremony I had noticed before in the western pro- 
 vince, and I am told that a great point is made of it. 
 Possibly the origin of the custom may be, that as, 
 according to Arab notions, the host is responsible for 
 the life and property of his guest, he carefully ascer- 
 tains that no poison has been introduced into his 
 coffee. 
 
 My companion was desirous of sketching the assem- 
 blage of retainers around the kaid's divan; and far 
 from offering any objection to it, they displayed great 
 anxiety that the thing should be done, and gave us 
 every facility for effecting it. One old man, who had 
 made the pilgrimage to Mecca, was the vainest of the 
 party ; and took extraordinary pains to place himself 
 in what he thought a striking attitude. Some of the 
 faces were very fine ones, our spahi's perhaps the best 
 of all. The young kaid unquestionably looked the 
 worst of the whole company. He was however 
 extremely hospitable, pressed us to drink out of the 
 grace-cup which went round — containing only pure 
 water, and did everything in his power to make us 
 feel at home. AVhen the picture was finished, the 
 names and titles of the company were duly recited to 
 be written under their respective likenesses; and it
 
 EFFECTS OF FASTING. 329 
 
 was curious to find the machinery of a petty court 
 within a building not equal to the meanest English 
 farm-house. The metal pot out of which we had drunk 
 was brought with great ceremony by the cupbearer, 
 who wore a blue bournous by way of distinction. 
 Besides the interpreter mentioned above, there was also 
 a regular secretary, a grand ecuyer and other officials, 
 among whom the most important to a traveller is the 
 cofFee-chaouch, whose duties are those of the butler 
 in an English family. This functionary brings you a 
 cup of coffee in the morning before starting, and it is 
 to him you make the present which is intended as 
 an equivalent for the entertainment you have received. 
 The young kaid provided us for our return with 
 much better mules than those which had brought us 
 from Constantine, and we set off at a quarter before 
 six, to avoid the heat of the day. About half-way is 
 a spring, wdiere we had lunched the day before, and 
 where we did the same thing on our way back with 
 the relics of our repast. The spahi, who, as a con- 
 scientious Mahometan, had not broken his fast, was 
 tortured by a splitting headache, and when we reached 
 the fountain, threw himself on the ground, and cover- 
 ing his face with his bournous, tried to get a little 
 sleep. The day before he had apparently suffered 
 but slightly, but to-day he continually laid his head 
 on the pummel of his saddle as he rode, and appeared 
 completely exhausted. It had been, indeed, very
 
 330 OBSERVANCE OF THE RAMADAN 
 
 painful, on arriving at Milali, to see the gaunt wolfish 
 faces of hungry growing boys, who had probably been 
 out tending cattle for the whole day, or driving a mule 
 for twenty or thirty miles, without a morsel of food 
 or drop of water having entered their lips. Neither 
 may they smoke, nor — which an Arab values even 
 more — take a single pinch of snuff. The nearest 
 approach to a gratification of sense which I saw, is 
 the sticking of a wild flower in the nostril.* The face 
 and hands may be washed in water, but none must 
 be swallowed before sunset. After the commencement 
 of the Ramadan, I never passed an Arab in the after- 
 noon without his inquiring the hour of the day ; which 
 previously had not occurred even once ; so painful is 
 this regulation to those who cannot, as is the habit 
 with the rich, pass the day sleeping in their houses. 
 But like the judaical observance of the sabbath with 
 some English sectaries, the rigour of their fast consti- 
 tutes in the estimation of these poor people the test 
 stantis aut cadentis discipliiice. I have no doubt that 
 
 * The owner of the lemon-grove which we visited at IMilah had 
 been very desirous to present us each with a lemon. Not having 
 anything at hand which would have been suitable as a return for 
 this compliment, we declined with thanks ; but the kaid and the 
 whole party were extremely importunate that we should take the 
 fruit " to carry in our hands,"' if we did not wish to eat it. I could 
 not understand this suggestion at the time; but afterwards, when 
 I saw the sufferings of the common Arabs during the Ramadan, and 
 the expedient noticed in the text, it occurred to me that the offer 
 had been intended to diminish the presumed inconvenience of the 
 next day's fast to us, and I felt vexed not to have been alive to 
 a piece of delicate politeness.
 
 A CHIEF POINT OF RELIGION. 331 
 
 the murder of a whole family (if not tribesmen) would 
 sit very lightly on the conscience of many an Arab, 
 whose soul would be utterly crushed by the reflection 
 that he had drunk a mouthful of water between 
 sunrise and sunset during the Ramadan, even to save 
 himself from death.
 
 332 JOURNEY TO GUELMA. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I TOOK my final leave of Constantine, a locality 
 unparalleled in the objects of interest it presents, with 
 much regret, although I was about to visit a region 
 which I particularly wished to see. My object was 
 to strike the sea-coast again at Bona, the Hippo of 
 St. Augustine, taking on my way the hot-springs of 
 Hammam Meskoutin (the Enchanted Baths) and 
 Guelma, the ancient Calama. I had brought letters 
 to the chief of the Bureau Arabe at Constantine ; but 
 unfortunately at my first arrival I found this gentleman 
 on the point of setting off on a promenade miliiaire 
 with the general commanding the Constantine division. 
 I was, however, promised the means of making the 
 expedition ; and the day before I finally set out, the 
 otticials at the bureau assured me that a spahi and 
 two muleteers should be with me by half-past five in 
 the morning. At a (piarter before six, two Arabs of 
 the kaidat of Guelma arrived with a nude and a horse 
 for myself and my baggage, but without any escort. 
 AVhat occurred aftcrwiu-ds induces me to believe that 
 
 1 
 I
 
 BREEDING GROUNDS OF THE TRIBES. 333 
 
 the spahi who had been ordered to attend me had 
 shrunk from the prospect of two long days' march 
 during the Ramadan, and been wilfully unpunctual ; 
 but at the time, being anxious to escape as much of 
 the heat of the day as possible, I assumed that the 
 people at the Bureau had judged a military attendant 
 unnecessary ; and after making the Arab employe, who 
 brought the mnleteers and spoke Trench, repeat to 
 them in Arabic the route which had been laid down 
 for me, I set off cheerily, although alone, my late 
 companion having returned to Philippeville on his 
 way back to Algiers. The road we took for the first 
 three or four miles coincided with that to Batna. It 
 then turned off to the left, and ascended over hills of 
 alluvium to the limestone plateau, gradually assuming 
 an eastward direction. At first there was a good 
 deal of cultivation by Arabs to be seen, the crops being 
 exclusively cereals ; but afterwards, when we were 
 fairly on the limestone, these ceased and were suc- 
 ceeded by a sea of pasturage, covered as usual by the 
 wild artichoke. But the herbage was most luxuriant, 
 and the number of brood mares, which appeared here 
 and there, showed that I had got into the breeding 
 grounds of the tribes. We pushed on briskly, the 
 two men being in good spirits at the thought of 
 returning to their own tribe, and not yet exhausted 
 by fasting and fatigue. They chanted alternately 
 what I suppose were verses from the Koran, in which
 
 334 SAVAGE DOGS. 
 
 one of them was a great adept, but the other, who 
 was the stouter fellow, and had withal the honester 
 face, was frequently at fault, and obliged to stop in 
 the middle of his strain. After about three hours' 
 riding and fording a small stream, we passed two or 
 three European farms, with a few fig and olive trees 
 planted in the immediate neighbourhood of them. 
 The owner of one of these met us, mounted on a fine 
 Arab horse, with a gun on his shoulder, and he 
 proved, contrary to my expectation, to be a French- 
 man. Then we plunged into a fresh series of plains, 
 here and there broken up in small plots for cereal 
 cultivation by the Arabs, but for the most part covered 
 with excellent pasture, and full of Arab douairs, with 
 herds of sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. Several 
 small parties of mounted Arabs also appeared from 
 time to time in the distance. My men did not seem 
 at all acquainted with the people in the douairs, in 
 the immediate neighbourhood of several of which our 
 track led us. They were extremely sulky, and rarely 
 replied to my salutation, or made any attempt to 
 restrain the savage onsets of theii' dogs, which were 
 very troublesome. I had unfortunately no long whip, 
 and to defend myself from the brutes was obliged to 
 make the muleteers give me, from time to time, a few 
 stones to hurl at them when they threatened to leap 
 at my legs, which as they hung down instead of being 
 tucked up after the fashion of the natives, — who sit
 
 . MULES AND CAMELS. 336 
 
 on their packsaddles as an Englisli costermonger does, 
 — presented an apparently irresistible temptation to 
 these curs. One incident, which amused me much at 
 the time, was nearly proving serious. A little camel 
 foal, breaking away from a herd nearly a mile off, came 
 bounding after us, with a fixed determination for a game 
 of play. The mule, however, seemed to entertain a 
 singular aversion for this new companion, and on its 
 approach began to kick and plunge violently, and 
 exhibit the greatest alarm. It was as much as ever 
 the two Arabs could do to secure the creature, and 
 prevent her from setting off at full speed with my 
 baggage ; while I tried my best by stones and vitu- 
 perative language to repulse the unwelcome visitor, 
 who obviously enjoyed the joke. Fortunately the 
 mule's halter held, and before the men were quite 
 exhausted, the little camel, with its tail stuck up 
 vertically, and uttering the most unearthly sounds, set 
 off at full speed to rejoin its mother; or my shirts 
 would infallibly have enriched the wardrobe of some 
 members of the douairs we had just seen. 
 
 After between five and six hours' riding we reached 
 the caravanserai of Oued-el-Aria, which was half-way 
 from that of Oued Zenati, where my instructions 
 were to pass the night. I found there a few French 
 soldiers in charge of some stallions, which the Govern- 
 ment send into the plains at this season for the use 
 of the tribes. There were four of them in the stable.
 
 336 GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENON. 
 
 which was large enough to contam twelve or fourteen, 
 all greys. One was a very beautiful animal, but 
 apparently vicious. It was the thickest Arab horse 
 I saw during the whole time I was in Algeria. 
 Another was hkewise a fine horse and quite gentle, 
 but the remaining two seemed to me unworthy of the 
 purpose for which they were intended, being alto- 
 gether commonplace animals. 
 
 Close to this caravanserai are the ruins of a 
 marabout's tomb, and also some foundations which 
 are probably those of a mosque. The tenant of the 
 tomb most likely built the water chamber for the foun- 
 tain from which the caravanserai takes its name. The 
 building, as usual, is loopholed for better defence. In 
 its immediate neighbourhood some most remarkable 
 rocks crop out, at an angle of forty-five degrees. 
 They are obviously the continuation of strata equally 
 striking, which are visible on a hill a little to the 
 north-east of the caravanserai, presenting the curious 
 appearance of two vast leaning walls of limestone 
 rock, running parallel for several hundred yards, with 
 a green walk between them. The dip is from south- 
 east to north-west. I could not help remarking to 
 the gardien, as a geological phenomenon, the strange 
 aspect of the masses near the caravanserai. " Ah ! 
 yes. Monsieur," he replied ; " they completely domi- 
 nate the whole court. The position is wretchedly 
 chosen." It seemed impossible for any idea to enter
 
 FALL FROiAI A MULE. 337 
 
 the man's mind unconnected with warfare against 
 the natives. 
 
 After breakfasting I resumed my journey, and as 
 it is an article of popular faith in Africa that the pace 
 of a mule is easier than that of a horse, and I had 
 seven leagues more before me, I determined to exchange 
 animals with my portmanteau. But it was not a 
 very easy thing to mount the mule, who obviously 
 disliked a Christian rider no less than a camel. With 
 the help, however, of two of the French soldiers, I at 
 last succeeded in effecting a lodgment on her back, 
 after which she allowed me to make myself as com- 
 fortable as circumstances permitted. These were, 
 however, very unpropitious. The Arabs had thrown 
 my poncho and shepherd's plaid over the harre, or 
 packsaddle, and, doing to others as they would be 
 done by, had piled them in such a way as to convert 
 the seat into a truncated cone, tapering towards the 
 mule's tail. For the Arab mode of riding, this was 
 all very well ; but I found it extremely uncomfortable, 
 and about an hour afterwards got a bad fall by it, 
 while climbing a wall of dipping strata which crossed 
 our track. On our left hand we had, for four or five 
 hours after leaving Oued-el-Aria, cliffs of limestone, 
 apparently the edges of plateaux rising one above 
 , another. Our general course was eastward, but 1 did 
 not take the bearings minutely. At about eight or 
 nine miles from the caravanserai we crossed a second 
 
 z
 
 338 
 
 LIMESTONE CLirFS. 
 
 wall, like that which occasioned my tumble, and 
 descended into an alluvial plain. Over this several 
 masses of tufo were scattered, and in two or three 
 instances there was a large collection of them crowded 
 together, presenting the appearance of a heap of 
 sea-worn rocks honeycombed by marine zoophytes. 
 The limestone cliffs on the left hand (or north) still 
 continued. Occasionally large masses of them a})peared 
 standing separate as if detached from the rest. One 
 most remarkable instance of this occurred about ten 
 miles from El Aria. Prom a mile off on the south- 
 west side, it presented the aspect of the annexed 
 
 sketch, being probably not less than fifty feet in 
 height ; but afterwards on passing it, I observed that 
 it was connected with the neighbouring cliffs on its 
 north-east side. During the afternoon we passed 
 several douairs, with the tenants of which I was glad
 
 WO:\IEN'S TENTS. 339 
 
 to observe that my Arabs were on better terms, 
 although there was still no display of cordiality. In 
 the doors of some of the tents women appeared 
 sitting ; and I remarked that in all these cases there 
 was the distinction of a crimson hanging of some sort. 
 In the entrance of one tent I saw a lady very gaudily 
 dressed, apparently engaged in measuring out white 
 linen or woollen cloth ; but the distance at which 
 good breeding requires an Arab gynaeceum to be 
 passed prevented me from minutely verifying the 
 description one reads in the words of the prophecy 
 which king Lemuel's mother taught him.* 
 
 During the whole of this afternoon's ride we passed 
 no cultivated soil, but the pasture was throughout 
 extremely rich. After however five hours of travel- 
 ling, when I began every minute to expect the 
 caravanserai of Oued Zenati to appear, four mounted 
 Europeans met us, and from one of them I learnt 
 that the caravanserai was still an hour and a half's 
 ride farther. It was evident that we had since 
 leaving El Aria diverged from the proper route, and 
 probably gone too far to the south ; for the limestone 
 cliffs, which we had so long seen on our left hand, for 
 some time past had been no longer visible. Very 
 shortly after this meeting we came upon a river 
 
 * Proverbs xxxi. 22 — 24. " She maketh herself coverings of 
 tapestry ; her clothing is silk and purple. She maketh fine linen, 
 and selleth it ; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant." 
 
 z 2
 
 'MO MIXTURE OF LANGUAGES. 
 
 running from west to east, and continued our course 
 along its northern bank over an alluvium which had 
 subsequently to its deposition been thrown into rather 
 steep ascents and descents. From every elevation I 
 hoped to see the caravanserai, being in a good deal 
 of pain from the effects of my fall ; and I was very 
 happy when at half-past six o'clock the Arabs pointed 
 out a white building in the distance as it. The poor 
 muleteers had not tasted food during the whole day ; 
 and as soon as ever the sun dipped, they produced 
 one or two flat cakes, and ate them with avidity, not 
 however without first offering me a share. I of | 
 course declined to diminish their scanty store, and | 
 reminded them that I had breakfasted at El Aria, i 
 " Toi makasch tiene careme : toujours mangiaria," 
 said one of the poor fellows, in the polyglot dialect 
 which is growing up out of the intercourse between 
 the natives and the illiterate European settlers of the 
 interior.* The taste of food and the prospect of soon 
 
 * There are a few Arabic words which the European children 
 habitually make use of at Guelma, even when placing with each 
 other. Makasch, 710, shuiya, gently, I found invariably took the place 
 of the corresponding French terms. On the other hand the Arabs 
 constantly use the words ora, hour, and buouo or bueno, rjood, to one 
 another. lauh, yes, a Kabyle word, pi'onounced exactly like the 
 German affirmation, is also very common among the lower orders of 
 Europeans. One day at Algiers I called out in French to a boy who 
 was below, to know whether I could get down from a part of the 
 fortifications by a path of which I could only see the beginning. He 
 saw what I wanted by my sign, and answered "ja." When I got 
 down, I asked for some further piece of information in German, 
 thinking that to be his mother tongue, when he replied in Spanish 
 that he did not speak French.
 
 A BIVOUACK IN PROSPECT. 341 
 
 reaching the quarters for the night restored their 
 spirits, and they re-commenced their song, at the same 
 time urging on the animals at a rate which for the 
 sake of humanity I felt myself bound to check. 
 
 After all, we did not arrive till eight o'clock, and 
 then, to my horror, I found that the building which 
 had attracted our attention was shut up. I thought 
 of a former experience in the province of Oran, and 
 concluded that the tenants had been obliged to aban- 
 don it from the unhealthiness of the locality, a theory 
 which the croaking of a legion of frogs, that had filled 
 our ears ever since we approached the river, seemed 
 to favour. We knocked and knocked again, but could 
 obtain no answer. Seeing a fire a few hundred yards 
 off, I thought it might be a smithy, which would 
 imply the presence of some European, and walked up 
 towards it, for the purpose of ascertaining the fact. 
 But before I got near I was assaulted by a pack of 
 dogs and obliged to beat a retreat, and make up my 
 mind to what I expected would turn out a bivouack 
 in a feverish locality ; for it was plain that the ani- 
 mals, which had been in march for thirteen hours, 
 could go no farther. However, just as I had pitched 
 upon the most sheltered spot to pass the night on, an 
 Arab appeared and unlocked the gate of the building, 
 which turned out to be no caravanserai, but a stable, 
 with an elevated brick platform in the middle. To 
 this he caused my baggage to be transferred, and
 
 342 A riilEND IN NEED. 
 
 lighting a fire of artichoke stalks on the floor, spread 
 a mat by the side, and motioned for me to take my 
 place on it. I was parched with thirst, and made 
 signs that I wanted something to drink, pointing to 
 my mouth, and repeating the word " hamma" (water) 
 several times, besides translating it into every modern 
 language of which I had the least knowledge ; but, to 
 my great disgust, my new friend, although obviously 
 desirous to make me comfortable, took no notice of 
 my necessity, and, I fancied, seemed rather to pooh- 
 pooh it. However, in a few minutes he went away, 
 and returned with a large bowl of sheep or goats' 
 milk, which, thirsty as I was, was more than I could 
 drink, I now felt quite independent of any further 
 commissariat, having in my pocket a cake of chocolate, 
 which I had provided myself with against contin- 
 gencies ; and, spreading a poncho on the brick plat- 
 form, with a carpet-bag for a pillow, I looked forward 
 to a fair night's rest, taking the precaution of lighting 
 a mortar night-light, of which extremely useful articles 
 for a traveller I happened to have one or two remain- 
 ing. But at this instant another Arab arrived, who 
 spoke French, and informed me that I was not at 
 Oucd Zenati, but at another place, Embadis, three 
 leagues oil" it ; that he himself was a commis of the 
 Bureau Arahe, and that my muleteers had lost their 
 way. He told me that he would have some supper 
 sent to me, and some breakfast the next mornincr, and
 
 STRANGE QUARTERS. 343 
 
 also a spahi to be my guide to Hammam Meskoutin ; 
 but that for the last I must wait till seven o'clock. 
 Having said his say, this good genius vanished into 
 the surrounding darkness ; but the promised supper 
 soon arrived, in the shape of a bowl of kouskous, and 
 another of milk. These I shared with the muleteers ; 
 and, wrapping myself up in my plaid, slept on my 
 hard couch as soundly as I had ever done in bed, 
 and really was quite sorry to rise the next morning, 
 when, at half-past five, the men came to wake me. 
 On turning out I saw at once what the real state of the 
 case was. The fire which had attracted me the night 
 before belonged to a small Arab douair, the inmates 
 of which had the charge of the breeding stable, for 
 such it was in which I had slept, on the platform in- 
 tended for a similar use by the grooms who brought 
 the stallions for the mares of the tribes in the neio-h- 
 
 o 
 
 bourhood. My entertainer of the previous night 
 brought me a cup of coffee and another bowl of milk, 
 and was delighted with a two-franc piece with which 
 I presented him. I also gave him the tin-case in 
 which I had carried ray stock of night-lights, and 
 readily acceded to his request for the empty paper 
 mortar, which seemed to please him scarcely less. 
 Possibly he took the printed directions for its use for 
 a verse from the Koi'an, and the whole apparatus for 
 an amulet. 
 
 My men were so anxious to be off, and the previous
 
 344 HAMMAM MKSKOUTIN. 
 
 day had been so hot, that, having got some informa- 
 tion from the commis as to the route, I determined not 
 to wait indefinitely for the promised spahi, but set out 
 at once. This rashness was very near carrying us 
 again astray. A market was held very near the place 
 where we had passed the night, and this producing 
 a concourse of Arabs from many miles around, the 
 muleteers had several opportunities of getting infor- 
 mation. But, unfortunately, as is often the case, they 
 did not like to betray their own ignorance. After 
 riding a couple of hours, therefore, I was extremely 
 dehghted to have an opportunity offer of informing 
 myself on the subject. A large party of mounted 
 Arabs met us, three of whom were obviously chiefs, 
 accompanied by a spahi who wore the insignia of the 
 Legion of Honour on his bournous. I concluded at 
 once that this man must speak French, and riding up 
 to him, told him my story, when he informed me that 
 I was at the moment in the right track to Hammam 
 Meskoutin, which was three hours off, but that the 
 muleteers were altogether ignorant of the neighbour- 
 hood. I therefore determined to take the command 
 myself; and, steering by the compass, with the addi- 
 tional luck of finding another adviser at a critical point, 
 I succeeded, after four hours more of riding, in reaching 
 the French military hospital which has been established 
 in this singular valley. It ap])carcd in the distance 
 just after wv had passed to tiic northern side of a crest
 
 INCORRECT INFORMATION. 345 
 
 of rock J but we soon lost sight of it, and were so long 
 a time traversing the wood of wild olives which sur- 
 rounds it, that I began to fear some fresh blunder had 
 been made. However, at a little after eleven o'clock 
 a turn in the path suddenly showed us a long, ugly- 
 looking building close at hand, on the other side of a 
 brook. Hard by were several tents, some occupied 
 by soldiers, others by Jewish families who had come 
 for the purpose of taking the mineral baths. A lodge 
 at the entrance to the hospital was the habitation of 
 the porter, himself a discharged soiis-officier of the 
 French army, and now possessing the privilege of 
 keeping a canteen and restaurant for the benefit of the 
 inmates. 
 
 I repeatedly had occasion to remark in Algeria 
 how very inaccurate the information often was which 
 related to any moderately distant locality, even when 
 furnished by official people of some station. Here 
 was an example to the purpose. I had been posi- 
 tively assured at Constantine, that whatever dis- 
 comforts I might suffer on the way, at Hammam 
 Meskoutin I should find a good hotel with every 
 comfort ; and I had quite made up my mind to pass 
 the night there and proceed the next day to Guehna. 
 But on arriving I found that there was no hotel at 
 all, and that if I wished to stay the night it could 
 only be as an occupant of a bed in one of the wards 
 of the hospital, and that by the special favour of the
 
 346 MINERAL SPRINGS 
 
 iutendant. I natui-ally preferred going on to Guelma, 
 which I did when the heat of the day began to 
 diminish, after visiting the exceedingly curious springs, 
 which throw Carlsbad completely into the shade. 
 
 The water supplying the baths rises in great force 
 from the top of a rock which is formed entirely of 
 deposits from the springs. The temperature at the 
 point of issue was no less than 97° centigrade (more 
 than 206" Fahrenheit), so that, taking into account 
 the elevation above the sea-level, the water may be 
 said literally to issue at boiling heat. Several yards 
 below the orifice it was scarcely possible to stand on 
 the leeward- side of the stream from the heat of the 
 vapour which rose from it. At the time of my visit 
 three holes only were used, but another had been 
 discovered about a fortnight before, and if required 
 will doubtless be made available. But, in fact, almost 
 anywhere in the vicinity, if a hole were bored, there 
 is little doubt mineral water w^ould be found. The 
 whole place is full of cones of carbonate of lime 
 deposited by the water around the lips of the funnel 
 through which it rises, until the elevation becomes 
 such that the force of the spring is no longer sufficient 
 to run over, when the orifice gradually fills up. It is 
 a large group of these cones which has given rise to 
 the name Ilammam Meskoutin, or at least to the 
 fantastic legend which has been coined to account for 
 the name, and which reminds one of a storv in the
 
 OP EXTRAORDINARY EFFICACY. • 347 
 
 " Arabian Nights." A brother and a sister, say the 
 Arabs, formed the monstrous desire to unite them- 
 selves in wedlock, and even persuaded the kadi of 
 their tribe to sanction the proceeding. The relations 
 assembled to take part in the marriage ceremony, 
 and the other members of the tribe stood some way 
 off to witness it ; when, just as the words were spoken 
 which ratified the impious contract, the wrath of 
 Heaven fell upon the whole assemblage, and changed 
 them into the figures which now remain as a lesson 
 to posterity. 
 
 The deposit of these springs is chiefly carbonate of 
 lime, but the water from one of them is strongly 
 impregnated with iron. This one is said to be 
 extremely efficacious in healing obstinate wounds, 
 sore backs of horses, and the like. About three- 
 quarters of a mile off" is another spring of ferruginous 
 water, of a much lower temperature, which is taken 
 internally. The efficacy of the hot springs in rheu- 
 matic complaints, or pains arising from gunshot 
 wounds, is said to be almost miraculous. The porter 
 told me that he had originally come there bent nearly 
 double in consequence of a fall from his horse, and 
 with his left side paralysed ; but that in a fortnight 
 he had perfectly recovered. He certainly was to all 
 appearance straight in figure and sound in limb. 
 
 This locality was frequented by the Romans, and 
 is in my opinion the Aquce Tihilitcmce of the Antonine
 
 348 ANCIENT ROUTES. 
 
 Itinerary, placed in it at fifty-four miles from Constan- 
 tine, and forty from Bona.* If I had not wandered 
 from the route which had been laid down for me, 
 I should have reached it in about fifty-six miles 
 from Constantine ; and the Roman roads generally 
 ran straighter than the tracks in present use. By 
 deviating to the southwards, I had extended the 
 journey to nearly seventy miles. The old Roman 
 road is nearly identical with the line of march taken 
 by the French in their first expedition against 
 Constantine which terminated so disastrously. The 
 army passed to the north of those limestone rocks 
 which I had seen on my left hand during the after- 
 noon of the day on which I left Constantine, and 
 suffered terribly from the cold; for the expedition 
 was undertaken in the middle of November, and the 
 country is absolutely bare of wood, so that not a 
 fire could be made even to cook the soldiers' food. 
 Marshal Clauzcl, who commanded, had been altoge- 
 ther deceived by the false expectations held out to 
 him, that the Arabs were favourable to the French 
 cause, and that the gates of ('onstantine would be 
 opened to him as soon as ever he appeared. So entirely 
 confident was he of success, that on arriving before 
 
 * The Peutinger Tabic makes Hippo (Bona) forty-five miles from 
 the Aqu£E Tibilitante. Neither in it, nor in the Itineraiy, does this 
 route pass through Calama (Guelnia). Nor is it at all necessary to 
 do so. It is easy to see on tlio old road to the latter place the point 
 where travellers going to Bona would have turned ofl" to the north.
 
 ROMAN BATHS STILL USED. 349 
 
 the town, he published an order of the day which 
 had been hthographed in Bona, announcing that the 
 expeditionary force would forthwith enter it. But 
 not the least overture was made to him, and after 
 two fruitless attempts at storming, the marshal was 
 compelled to commence a retreat under such un- 
 favourable circumstances, that except for the presence 
 of mind and gallantry of General Changarnier, then 
 commanding a battalion, who with less than 300 
 men effectually checked the advance of a body of 
 6,000 Arabs, it is supposed the whole French army 
 w^ould have been destroyed. As it was, they were 
 compelled to leave some guns and all their wounded 
 in the hands of the enemy, and were at last only 
 saved by the weather, which had been extremely bad, 
 suddenly changing. 
 
 The baths which the Romans made at Hammani 
 Meskoutin are still used. They are cut in the tufo, 
 which itself is the ancient deposit of the waters. One 
 of them is of a large size, and is used for the common 
 soldiers, who bathe in it by batches of fifty at a time. 
 Another is devoted to the officers in the hospital. 
 I obtained permission to use this ; and felt some 
 satisfaction at the thought of occupying the very 
 chamber which had been used by a Sempronius or 
 Csecilius seventeen centuries before. The tempe- 
 rature was about 96° Fahrenheit, and the water 
 had been cooling ever since the previous evening.
 
 350 EXTREMELY FERTILE VALLEY. 
 
 There is a third bath, hkewise Roman, which is 
 divided into three pools, all however under the same 
 roof. This the French appropriate to women and 
 children ; and although there is no separation of any 
 kind, carry their love of making regulations to the 
 extent of compelling married Avomen to use the first 
 of the pools, single women the second, and children 
 the third. Besides these, there is a hot douche 
 (also Roman), which is applied with the water 
 at the heat of 37° centigrade (98-6" Fahrenheit), 
 and a vapour bath. There were sixty-one patients 
 in the hospital at the time of my visit, of whom 
 nine were civilians and the rest common soldiers, 
 except one, a cantiniere, the only female patient. 
 There are four wards for soldiers, each containing 
 fifty beds, and four rooms in another part of the 
 building for officers, each intended for four beds ; but 
 at the time of my visit there were only five officers 
 altogether. 
 
 The valley of Hammam Meskoutin is one of the 
 loveliest spots I saw in Africa, and if it ever becomes 
 a fashionable resort, which the Algerian newspapers 
 are continually proclaiming as its approaching destiny, 
 it may be made almost a fairy-land, the abundance 
 of water and the temperature of the soil admitting of 
 the cultivation of even tropical plants. In some parts 
 there are still visible old foundations which appear to 
 be the remains of Roman villas. The place is very
 
 GUELMA THE ANCIENT CALAMA. ;i51 
 
 tolerably accessible, there being now a good road 
 made between it and Guelma, which is only ten or 
 twelve miles off, and itself connected with Bona on 
 the coast by one of the best routes in Algeria. But 
 at the present time there are no appliances whatever 
 for the reception of visitors. The flowers bloom and 
 the nightingales sing only for the delectation of the 
 invalids in the hospital, who would infinitely prefer a 
 cigar and a cafe chantant. 
 
 The town of Guelma is entirely modern. When 
 the French arrived there in 1836, nothing whatever 
 existed but some of the ruins of the ancient Calama ; 
 and these were made use of for the purpose of con- 
 structing a fortified position, to serve as a military 
 hospital and a depot of stores for the operations 
 against Constantine. Of course whatever building 
 materials came to hand were seized without scruple ; 
 and no doubt the old Roman remains suffered much. 
 There is still however to be seen what appears to 
 have been an edifice containing public baths, and 
 the walls of a theatre, besides several traces of ancient 
 substructions in different parts of the town, and what 
 looks like the foundation of the cella of a temple. 
 The theatre is the most interesting relic, as exem- 
 plifying the tact of the ancients in the selection of 
 a site. The concave of the pit is turned towards 
 north-north-west by north, and in its construction, 
 as always happens where circumstances permitted,
 
 352 BEAUTY OF THE SITE. 
 
 advantage has been taken of the hill side to cut out 
 the benches. From a terrace which occupies the site 
 of the ancient facade, the view is charming. Imme- 
 diately in front runs a brook through a ravine. 
 Behind this is broken ground covered with trees, 
 from which the song of nightingales arises ; and yet 
 beyond runs the Seybouse, with precipitous banks on 
 the north side. The river is backed by undulating 
 hills rising one behind the other, and on the left and 
 right, at the distance of six or seven miles, the view 
 is closed by the Atlas thickly clothed with wood. 
 Everything wears a smiling aspect of fertility, and 
 bespeaks a well-watered country without anything 
 like marsh. The Atlas range just opposite to the 
 fagade is comparatively low, so that the cool breezes 
 from the littoral refreshed the promenaders under the 
 portico which once existed. To stand on this lovely 
 spot as the sun is just setting, and then turn round 
 and look at the mean houses and loopholed enceinte 
 of the modern Guelma, with its public promenade 
 laid out in complete defiance of the climate, certainly 
 does not impress one with a very high idea of the 
 nineteenth century in what concerns architectural 
 taste. 
 
 At this place, where a considerable number of the 
 natives have been induced to settle, a gun is fired at 
 sunset during the Ramadan ; and at the signal the 
 fast of the day is put an end to without loss of time.
 
 ARAB COFFEE-CRUSHING. 353 
 
 An Arab chief connected with the Prench Government 
 dined the day I arrived in the saloon of the only 
 hotel, and ate an enormous dinner without asking 
 any inconvenient questions. But at the termination 
 some roast mutton was brought him, and being by 
 this time completely gorged, he made anxious inquiries 
 as to whether the sheep which furnished it had 
 been slain by an Arab butcher. The waiter averred 
 solemnly that it had ; and no doubt would have been 
 equally ready to pledge himself that the animal had 
 expired under the knife of a Red Indian, had such 
 an assertion been desired. But his testimony came 
 a' quarter of an hour too late to be unquestioned, and 
 the Arab pushed away the dish with the air of a man 
 who felt himself capable of any sacrifice for conscience 
 sake. I could not help thinking of the Spanish fable 
 of the two cats, who after devouring a fowl they 
 find roasting, recoil with horror from the suggestion 
 to eat the spit. During the few hours which follow 
 sunset, the Arab cafes are full of visitors, sitting 
 cross-legged on benches, and listening to the strains 
 of the native flute, while they sip their coffee out 
 of small teacups without handles, apparently made of 
 very fine porcelain. The coffee is not ground, but 
 pounded in mortars with heavy rammers of metal, 
 nearly three feet in length. This instrument is held 
 by the middle and raised by the operator, stripped 
 naked to the waist, above the height of his head. It 
 
 A A
 
 354 MARKET OF GL'ELMA. 
 
 is then let fall upon the coffee with the ejaculation 
 " Ha-reeah," the first syllable being drawn out long, 
 while the rammer is being elevated, and the latter 
 synchronising with its fall upon the berries. Some- 
 times two or three persons are employed at the same 
 time in the task ; and when the work goes on well, 
 the syllable "reeah" is repeated by each in such 
 quick succession, that no interval is left. The mean- 
 ing of the term, as it was interpreted to me, is 
 "tres-fort." I suppose it is in fact the hortatory 
 " Hard all," of the English. In an establishment 
 which I saw, the process was carried on by two 
 negroes, the Arab proprietor sitting by their side 
 smoking, while his ear informed him of the least 
 relaxation in the efforts of his workmen. " 
 
 Just outside the walls of Guelma a market is held, 
 to which the Arabs come from a considerable distance, 
 with salt, grain, oil, the wood for the red dye of 
 women's hands and feet, poultry, vegetables, and 
 fruit, besides cattle, horses, and mules. The camels 
 which bring the articles of commerce are made to lie 
 down in rows side by side, and remain so as long as 
 the market lasts. Generally one of the fore-legs is 
 tied up ; and sometimes, but more rarely, two, when 
 of course the creature cannot rise at all. AYhen only 
 one is confined, it can rise on its legs, and sometimes 
 does so to obtain the ease of a change of position, 
 but never attempts to move from the spot on which
 
 DEPRECIATION OF HORSES. 355 
 
 it has been ordered to remain, although its disgust is 
 ever and anon expressed by the same growl in which 
 it never omits to protest against the original infringe- 
 ment on its locomotive powers. The hinder parts 
 present a most singular appearance as the animal lies. 
 The camel, as is well known, rests upon that part of 
 its hind-leg (answering to tlie knee in the human 
 being) whicli is in all other quadrupeds partially con- 
 cealed by the skin of the belly. The effect of this is 
 to raise the hock nearly to the level of tlie crupper, 
 while all the nart of the leg below the hock is tucked 
 beneath out of sight, and the appearance is the same 
 as if it had been cut off. There were some good 
 horses for sale in the market for about 200 or 250 
 francs ; which I was told was at a heavy depreciation 
 below the ordinary price. I saw likewise some brood 
 mares in foal, one of considerable beauty, but none 
 of any stature. The depreciation in horses may 
 perhaps arise from the greater utility of mules, now 
 that the country is becoming settled. At Guelma, 
 as at Tlem^en, the Government keep a considerable 
 number of stallions for the use of the tribes ; but 
 together with these they also keep some fine male 
 asses; and the demand for these is much greater 
 than for the horses. Except for the purposes of war, 
 the mule is a much more valuable animal to an Arab 
 than the horse; and the great increase in mule- 
 breeding as compared wdth horse-breeding is one of 
 
 A A 2
 
 '.^bd REMAINS UE CALAMxV. 
 
 the most convincing proofs of the natives becoming 
 reconciled to French supremacy. Sometimes tlie male 
 mules become troublesome ; when they are castrated, 
 no matter at what age the sexual disposition begins 
 to display itself. I saw one which had just been 
 sold, undergo this horrible operation in the open 
 market ; and although it could hardly have been less 
 than six or seven years old, the occurrence was 
 obviously an every-day one and excited not the least 
 notice. The animal uttered no cry, and struggled 
 very little, except just after it was cast. 
 
 The stone of which the ancient Calama was built 
 is a tufo, obtained in the immediate vicinity. Indeed 
 the whole neighbourhood abounds in it. It is excel- 
 lently adapted for building purposes, as it works very 
 easily, and grows harder with exposure to the sun. 
 Large blocks of it form the skeleton, as it w^ere, of the 
 remaining portion of the ancient baths, which are 
 situated within the precinct of the modern citadel. 
 Of the edifice the most striking feature is two large 
 arches, which enter the sides of what was a high 
 apartment with cylindrical roof, serving, perhaps, as a 
 saile d'aitente, if the baths were public. Over the 
 rectangular pieces of tufo, masses of the Roman flat 
 brick alternate, by no means regularly, w4th blocks 
 united by cement. I observed — what I do not 
 remember ever remarking in Italy — that the bricks 
 have lines channelled on their sm'face in patterns, that
 
 EFFECTS or AN EARTHQUAKE. 357 
 
 is, the mould in which they were cast must have been 
 cut. Probably this was done in order to give a better 
 hold for the mortar. In these baths was found, as I 
 was told, an inscription of some interest which I saw 
 with others lying in the yard of a house where the 
 chief ofticer of engineers at Guelma has his bureau. 
 Tlie last line was imbedded in the earth, so that only 
 just the tips of the letters could be seen ; but from 
 the part above ground it appeared, that a weak spring 
 of mineral water had, in the sequel of an earthquake, 
 become much stronger, and overflowed the bounds of 
 a stone piscina in which it had been hitherto received. 
 The line concealed from view contained a notice of the 
 special arrangement by which the inconvenience had 
 been remedied. But the curious part of the matter 
 is that, the names of the emperors Valens and Valen- 
 tinianus appearing upon the stone, it becomes clear 
 that the convulsion referred to is the remarkable one 
 which occurred on the 20th of July, a.d. 3G5, the 
 effects of which St. Jerome, speaking of it from his 
 boyish recollections, says extended over the seaboard 
 of the whole world. The sea suddenly receded, leaving 
 vast tracts of its bottom bare. It afterwards returned, 
 and overwhelmed the land in the neighbourhood of 
 the parts which had been thus denuded, Alexandria 
 in Egypt, the coast of Laconia, and that of Sicily, are 
 mentioned by the historians as places which suffered 
 in this way. The inscription of Guelma gives another
 
 358 PAGAN RIOTS AT CALAMA. 
 
 point at which volcanic action was felt. The mineral 
 spring {aqua 2ylcra) began, it says, to overflow after 
 shocks of earthquake accompanied by subterranean 
 noises {intonantihm terrcB motihus). I made every 
 possible inquiry, but could not hear of the existence 
 of any mineral spring at the present time; so it is 
 probable that the fountain, which increased in the 
 earthquake of Valens's reign, disappeared — as is often 
 the case — in some subsequent convulsion of a similar 
 kind. 
 
 The ancient Calama must, judging from the fertility 
 of the neighbourhood and the character of the remains 
 which still exist, have been a flourishing city. So 
 much as this, too, is implied in a letter from a pagan 
 of some wealth and position to St. Augustine, which 
 is inserted among the epistles of the Latin father. 
 But morally and religiously there was not much to be 
 said for the inhabitants. The letter in question is 
 written to deprecate the influence of the Bishop of 
 Hippo from being exerted to the prejudice of the 
 people of Calama, who in a riot which began by a 
 collision between the participators in a pagan festival 
 on the 1st of June and the Catholic party, had burnt 
 the houses of the orthodox clergy, damaged the church, 
 and compelled the bishop to save his life by flight.* 
 
 * This was Possidius, a friend and prot6ge of Augustine's. He 
 took refuge in a manor-house near ; upon which his assailants set 
 tire to this, and he narrowly escaped being burnt alive. The 
 Donatists, who had a bishop of their own at Calama, were believed
 
 APPEAL TO ST. AUGUSTINE. 359 
 
 Augustine's correspondent (one Nectarius) possesses 
 a perfect readiness to make good all losses which may 
 have been suffered, and only deprecates any additional 
 punishment. But, if we may trust the bishop's reply, 
 a life had been lost in the course of the affair, and the 
 pagans had been manifestly the aggressors, by bringing 
 a troop of dancers past the church. He gives very 
 little hope that the satisfaction to be exacted will, so 
 far as he is concerned, fall short of the just standard ; 
 although it is impossible to be blind to a hint that, by 
 becoming a Christian — as it seems his father had 
 done before him — Nectarius might obtain a greater 
 influence with those in whose hands the fate of his 
 townsmen rested. Neither at Guelma, nor Philippe- 
 ville, nor Arzevv, did I see among the tumulary 
 
 to have encouraged the mob in their attack, — a precedent which 
 has not remained without imitators even in the most enb'ghtened 
 ages and tolerant countries. Crispinus, however, who was fined ten 
 pounds of gold for the share he had (or was accused of having) in 
 the outrage, seems not to have been the Donatist bishop, but a priest 
 of the same name. Possidius took the magnanimous part of obtain- 
 ing the remission of the fine ; but Crispinus, instead of exhibiting 
 thankfulness, appealed to the emperor against the justice of the 
 sentence altogether. It so happened that the proconsul of Africa at 
 the time was a zealous Catholic, and so unsparing in the use of the 
 secular arm, that Augustine is obliged to beg him not to put heretics 
 to death, but to confine his efforts to correcting their errors. " Ex 
 occasione terribilium judicium ac legum, ne in £eterni judicii poenas 
 incidant, corrigi eos cupimus non necari ; nee disciplinam circa eos 
 negligi volumus nee supplicia quibus digni sunt exerceri. Sic 
 igitur eorum pecccita compesce id sint quos pceititeat peccasse. (JEp. ad 
 Donatum, C, vol. II. p. 354.) If he continues to be so severe, Augus- 
 tine adds, the churchmen, who are the only persons that care to 
 appeal to him, will become unwilling to do so, and their enemies 
 learning this will grow even more audacious.
 
 3G0 HEALTHY NEIGHBOURHOOD OF GUELMA. 
 
 inscriptions, that were in existence, any of a Christian 
 character. Some, indeed, betray, very painfully, quite 
 an opposite feeling. One at the first-named place 
 speaks almost with bitterness of the disappointment 
 of a father, who had educated two sons expensively, 
 and lost them both after launching them in life. By 
 way of consolation in his old age he begins to erect a 
 magnificent tomb for himself, and the only hope he 
 expresses is that he shall live to finish it. The space 
 for his age is left unfilled up, and the latinity in which 
 his sentiments are expressed is as miserable as the 
 spirit from which they proceeded. 
 
 Between Ilammam Meskoutin and Guelma there 
 are several European farms ; and 1 can conceive no 
 more favourable position for a settler, if only good 
 roads could be made to connect the place with Con- 
 stantine and Philippeville. With the latter, perhaps, 
 it will be attempted, by extending the route which is 
 in course of formation between Philippeville and 
 Jemappes. I heard no complaints of fever at Guelma, 
 and the beauty and fertility of the country, the abun- 
 dance of water, and the plentiful supply of building 
 material at hand, arc points which must strike the 
 most casual observer. Yet the people complain that 
 there is no commerce. Their proposed remedy for 
 the evil is thoroughly French. It is to make Guelma 
 the head-quarters of a division of the army ! 
 
 The road from Guelma to Bona crosses the Seybouse
 
 JOURNEY TO BONA. 361 
 
 on a substantial bridge, and almost immediately begins 
 by a gradual ascent to wind among tbe hills which 
 intervene before finally descending from the plateau of 
 the Atlas into the plain to the south of Bona. The 
 traveller first reaches Heliopolis, an extremely thriving 
 French village of about 400 houses, well supplied with 
 water, and healthy. The inhabitants turn their atten- 
 tion chiefly to the growth of mulberry-trees for silk, 
 — the most profitable investment for capital in this 
 part of Africa. Beyond Heliopolis is Guela Bousba, 
 and yet further Nechimaya, the latter containing only 
 about thirty houses, the former (I should say) even 
 less. The inhabitants of Nechimaya are almost all 
 Germans, either from Alsace or the Black Forest. 
 They cultivate cereals, and appear quite contented 
 with their success ; and they do not complain of any 
 fever in the summer-time, which is the general topic 
 of conversation with a stranger in those localities 
 where it prevails. All these villages, as well as 
 Penthievre, which is something less than half-way 
 between Guelma and Bona, are really in their origin 
 fortified camps, constructed to maintain the line 
 of communication between Bona and Constantino. 
 About thirty-five miles from the former place the road 
 begins to descend into the plain, and when it reaches 
 this it becomes very bad, having before been good 
 all the way from Guelma. At Penthievre, with the 
 exception of an inn, there are within the enceinte
 
 362 WILD BOARS AND LIOKS. 
 
 only two or three shops kept by Maltese, and a gen- 
 darmerie ; but the inn is really comfortable for Africa, 
 and one might very well pass the night there. North 
 of Penthievre the wood, which covers the flanks of the 
 Atlas in the central province, reappears ; and in every 
 respect the soil seems similar to that of the Sahel of 
 Algiers. In the immediate neighbourhood of the road 
 the ground has been brought under cultivation by the 
 Arabs, but the wild boars from the thicket do them 
 much damao;e. One of these creatures was disturbed 
 in his work of destruction, in the middle of the day, 
 by our horses, and set off at full speed for the neigh- 
 bouring wood. He was the largest boar I ever saw, 
 — far bigger than the wild boars of Germany. But 
 the African variety is by no means so formidable an 
 animal as the European. The African boars, when 
 hunted by battue, get away if they possibly can with- 
 out charging the sportsman, unless they be wounded 
 ineffectually. The lion, on the other hand, unhesi- 
 tatingly attacks the beaters ; and for this reason the 
 Government does not allow him to be attacked in this 
 way, which General Youssouf, when commandant of 
 Bona, made for a time fashionable. There was scarcely 
 ever a lion hunt at which a native or two were not 
 destroyed.* In tlie ordinary method of killing the 
 
 * An account appeared in (laliijnaiii, about three months after I 
 passed along this road, of the Guehna diligence (which ia the 
 summer travels by night) having been stopped by a lion who was 
 lying down in the middle of it, and who did not suffer himself to be
 
 DESCENT UPON BONA. 363 
 
 animal there is no risk to any one but the hunter, and 
 very httle to him, if he chooses to shoot the lion from 
 an ambuscade. 
 
 In descending the hills to the plain of Bona, the 
 large lake Avhich makes the place a centre of attraction 
 to the sportsman Avho is fond of duck-shooting, shows 
 itself in the distance to the north-west. The imme- 
 diate neighbourhood of the town is very pretty. 
 Owing to the wet soil there are a good many trees, 
 and among them a few palms. The acacia is parti- 
 cularly abundant, and the difference of climate showed 
 itself strikingly in the circumstance of this being in 
 full bloom, although it was only the 22nd of April. 
 
 The vicissitudes which the name of this town has 
 undergone while retaining its identity, are an emblem 
 of its fortunes. Ubbo, the Punic name, is analogous 
 to Velia, or Velletri, and indicates the character of its 
 site in the midst of marshes. The two rivers, the 
 Boujermah from the south-west, and the Seybouse 
 from the south-east, enter the sea very near to each 
 other. Between the two, about a mile from their 
 present mouths, rise two mamelons, partially united 
 with each other, but altogether insulated from the 
 
 frightened away by the bui'ning of paper, by means of which the 
 passengers hoped to get rid of him. He soon, however, relieved 
 them of his unwelcome presence by walking off. I have no doubt 
 this lion was thoroughly gorged with the flesh of the wild swine 
 which abound here, and had lain down to sleep on the road, as a 
 drunken man will do, from sheer inability to go farther.
 
 364 SITE OF ANCIENT HIPPO. 
 
 higher hills which separate the valleys of the two 
 rivers. These two raamelons, or perhaps the western- 
 most of them, which is the higher of the two, was, it 
 cannot be doubted, the site of the original Ubbo. 
 The irregular triangular-shaped area, which is now cut 
 oflF between the mamelons and the two rivers, is even 
 at the present time little better than a marsh, and in 
 former days was no doubt both lower and less exten- 
 sive, having been for many centuries increased by the 
 deposits brought down by the rivers whenever their 
 streams w^ere swelled by heavy rains. The Greek 
 merchants converted the Punic Ubbo into the word 
 in their own language which came nearest in sound, 
 viz. Hippo or Hippon.* This latter was changed 
 into the form Hippona, from the instinctive tendency 
 to give a feminine form to the name of a town ; Hip- 
 pona in its turn was corrupted into Bona by the 
 Spaniards of the middle ages ; and this, in its French 
 shape Bone, is perhaps doomed at no distant period 
 to suffer some fresh change. Bone is not the actual 
 city of which Augustine was bishop, but about a mile 
 and a half from it, on the other side of the Boujermah. 
 It occupies the site of a Saracen town, built at the 
 close of the seventh century, ])artly from the ruins of 
 
 * This was also the name of ouc of the ten towns of the Pales- 
 tinian Decapolia, probably, also, a Phcunician settlement (Pliny H. 
 N. V. 19), and, I suspect, it constitutes the last part of the word 
 Bors-ippa, the name of the tower of Babel, — the " tower of the river," 
 — which appears in the inscription upon it.
 
 MILITARY PRISON AT BONA. 365 
 
 Hippo ; but tliis latter was destroyed by the Vandals, 
 with the exception of the episcopal palace and library. 
 The new position, although not so fitted for commercial 
 purposes as Hippo, is much stronger as a military 
 post, for it is protected by a high and steep hill, upon 
 the top of which a kasbah, or citadel, was built by the 
 kings of Tunis ; and this, before the invention of gun- 
 powder, must have been nearly impregnable.* The 
 French acquired the possession of this fortress by the 
 courage and address of two individuals, Captain 
 Armandy, who commanded a brig of war lying in the 
 roads of Bona, and Youssouf, then a subaltern officer 
 of spahis. These officers, with 130 French soldiers 
 and marines, occupied the citadel on the 26th of 
 March, 1832, at the instant of its temporary aban- 
 donment by each of two conflicting claimants to the 
 obedience of the people of Bona; and for some time 
 had to hold their ground against enormous odds. 
 They were at last adequately supported, and Bona has 
 since remained in the hands of the French, who made 
 it the base of their operations against Constantine. 
 The kasbah is now converted into a military prison, 
 which appeared to me excellently conducted. A great 
 deal of work is got through by the prisoners. I 
 saw them performing the operations of stone-cutting, 
 
 * The hill of the Kasbah at Bona," is probably the Casfellum 
 Sinitense, which St. Augustine describes as "Hipponensi Colonise 
 vicinum."_ {De Ckitute Dei, xxii. 11.)
 
 366 EXCELLENT DISCIPLINE. 
 
 carpentry, and smith's work, with a steadiness and 
 alacrity which would have been creditable to paid 
 labourers in England, and this with very little appa- 
 rent supervision. Their appearance, too, was perfectly 
 healthy, and I w^as informed by the intendant that 
 even in summer-time they suffered very little ; 
 although the plain of Bona is considered one of the 
 most unhealthy spots in the whole of Algeria. Their 
 diet slightly differs from that of the Lambessa prisoners. 
 Together with their soup they are allowed 150 
 grammes (between 5 and 6 oz.) of fine white bread. 
 They get only 120 instead of 150 grammes of rice ; but 
 on the other hand they are allowed thirty-two grammes 
 of coffee, and a very small quantity of salt, sugar, and 
 wine. In all other respects the allowance is exactly 
 the same as at Lambessa. But this liberal dietary is 
 not extended to those who either refuse to work, or 
 are prevented from doing it by injury or bodily 
 infirmity. Such receive only 150 grammes of meat 
 instead of 250, and ten grammes of bacon instead of 
 fifty, and no wine, sugar, or coffee whatever. Por 
 punishment the diet is reduced to 750 grammes of 
 bread and water ; and this, together with sohtary 
 confinement, sometimes extended to a period of three 
 months, is found altogether effectual. At the last 
 inspection, out of 400 prisoners only three were under 
 punishment, and these were released by an order of 
 the general. Yet there are among these men several
 
 ANCIENT CISTERNS AT HIPPO. 367 
 
 sentenced for a very long period, and some even for 
 life, and under sucli circumstances it is difficult to 
 conceive that there should not be many desperate 
 characters. Certainly, however, if manners and 
 physiognomy are any test, the discipline was very 
 effective.* It should not be omitted, from the 
 description of this prison, that, although excellent 
 provision appeared to be made for the spiritual ame- 
 lioration of the prisoners, no diminution of the time of 
 imprisonment ever follows as the reward of real or 
 supposed moral improvement. This regulation is, in 
 my opinion, an extremely wise one, not only as a 
 protection against hypocrisy, but in the interests of 
 the character of the penitent himself. No man who 
 really repents of a crime wishes to be spared the 
 temporal punishment for it. On the contrary, its 
 expiation by suffering is essential to the recovery of 
 his self-respect ; just as no honest bankrupt, if fortune 
 afterwards smiles upon him, is easy till he has repaid 
 his creditors in full. 
 
 The only visible ancient remains of Hippo consist 
 of a set of cisterns on the north-east side of the 
 mamelon which has been described above, and a 
 bridge across the Boujermah, about a furlong below 
 them, the Boujermah running close under the western 
 side of the mamelon. The town probably extended 
 
 * At tlie time I visited the Kasbah of Bona, there were only 251 
 inmates ; 200 had been removed to Toulon a few days before.
 
 368 MOUTH OF RIVER CLOSED. 
 
 to tlie south-east of the latter, taking in the other Httle 
 hill, and reaching as far as the Seybouse, on the banks 
 of which is a quay of Roman foundations. Very near 
 here must have been the mouth of the Seybouse, and 
 the port of Hippo, in the fifth century of the Christian 
 era ; for at that time there was free entrance for sea- 
 going ships, Avhereas the deposits of the two rivers 
 have now closed the Seybouse even to coasting vessels 
 of more than five or six tons, and the Boujermah to 
 everything but quite small boats. One day while I 
 was at Bona, a native procession took place for the 
 purpose of supplicating for the removal of the drought, 
 and some Arab boys, carrying flags, walked across the 
 mouth of the river. Yet this stream appears to bring 
 down greater deposits than the other. It has left a 
 bar extending continuously from the town quite across 
 the line of the stream of the Seybouse ; so that to pass 
 out to sea, a boat from the latter river would be obliged, 
 after passing the mouth of the Seybouse, to stand to 
 the eastward for some distance in order to get round 
 the extremity of the bar of the Boujermah. 
 
 The cisterns themselves seem to have originally 
 consisted of two blocks containing three each, a thick 
 wall being built between the two blocks, on the top 
 of which a passage ran for the purpose of affording 
 access to the interior for repairs or cleansing. It 
 communicated with a similar one that ran along the 
 backs of the two blocks, and separated them from
 
 TOMB OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 369 
 
 a large swimming bath, which might have been 120 
 feet long and near 50 broad. This bath was not 
 supplied from any one of the six original cisterns (which, 
 I conceive, were appropriated for the drinking water 
 of Hippo), but from a seventh smaller cistern, built 
 on to the north-west side of these. As the swimming 
 bath and the six original cisterns form a parallelogram, 
 the regularity of the whole area is preserved by a 
 mass of buildings in continuation of the seventh, 
 which appear to have contained vapour baths, and 
 apartments for attendants. On an esplanade above 
 the level of the cisterns, the French ecclesiastics have 
 erected a kind of altar tomb to the great bishop of 
 Hippo, and surmounted it with a statue of diminutive 
 size but fair execution, representing the saint bestow- 
 ing his benediction on the French town which lies 
 before him. I was told that a portion of the genuine 
 relics was preserved there ; but however this may 
 be, there can be no doubt that the site is destined for 
 a future cathedral; and it is difficult to conceive a 
 more striking position for such an edifice. From 
 hence the hill of the Kasbah is a mile or a mile and 
 a half to the north-north-east, with the Boujermah 
 entering the sea immediately after passing close under 
 its south-east foot. Sweeping eastwards from this 
 point the eye passes over the roads of Bona, until 
 at the east-north-east appears the termination of the 
 hills which form the eastern side of the valley of the 
 
 B B
 
 370 SEARCH POE THE AQUEDUCT. 
 
 Seybouse. On the western side of the Boujermah is 
 a low fertile plain extending about a mile in breadth 
 from the river, backed by steep mountains covered with 
 wood. Immediately below the spectator is a grove 
 of wild olives of many hundred years old, growing 
 in all probability over the ruins of the ancient Hippo. 
 Here and there are clearances, occupied by small 
 European farms, belonging to Frenchmen, but in 
 almost all cases let to Maltese. The other mamelon 
 which has been mentioned is crowned with a building, 
 which I believe the French have converted into an 
 hospital ; but I did not visit it. On the top of the 
 hill of the cisterns is also a building apparently of 
 Moorish construction, which has been used as a 
 block-house, but it is now in ruins. I took a great 
 deal of pains to discover some trace of the aqueduct 
 which supplied the cisterns of Hippo with water, 
 but did not succeed. It must, I think, have come 
 from the hills which divide the two rivers; but 
 although the mamelon from which the cisterns are 
 excavated is entirely detached from these,* not a 
 vestige of any constructions remains in the plain 
 
 * Sir Grenville Temple erroneously describes the hill of the 
 cisterns as connected with the mountains which back it. But at 
 the time he was on the spot, it was dangerous to proceed even a 
 mile from Bona without a strong military force, and his inspection 
 was obviously confined to the north side of the mamelon. The 
 danger from wild beasts of which he speaks must, I think, have 
 been imaginary in the day-time ; although it is possible that the 
 battues of General Youssouf have, since the time of his visit, altered 
 the character of the neighbourhood in this respect.
 
 IRON MINES. 371 
 
 between ; nor could I find any in the hills. As these 
 latter however are covered with wood, detection of 
 anything of the kind is much more difficult. 
 
 There are some iron mines in the mountains eight 
 or nine miles from Bona, the ore from which is 
 brought to a smelting-house on the bank of the 
 Seybouse by a tram-road, which however is not yet 
 completed for the whole of the way. The works 
 belong to a company whose operations seem as yet 
 to have been confined to the making their own 
 machinery : for no iron has yet been sold, aUhough 
 the company has been in action for ten or twelve 
 years. The work at the smelting-house seemed going 
 very languidly, although the superintendent told me 
 that the ore was rich. I saw some negroes at work 
 breaking it with hammers for the furnace. These 
 men are satisfied to work for two francs and a half 
 a day, and are preferred to Europeans, as they do not 
 cease their operations on Sundays. There were also 
 three Germans there, who seemed much dissatisfied 
 with their position. They told me they never earned 
 more than three francs in the day, — miserable payment 
 indeed for the work of a smelting-house in Africa ! 
 
 The hills in the immediate neighbourhood of Bona 
 are composed of a limestone which in several instances 
 is crystallized into marble ; and I was told that there 
 were several quarries in the neighbourhood which 
 promised to be profitable. But here, as everywhere 
 
 B B 2
 
 3/2 WANT OF A PORT. 
 
 else, good roads are wanted; and even if they were 
 made, it seems impossible that any port can be 
 created without an enormous expenditure. The roads 
 of Bona are very unsafe, — far more so than those 
 of Stora. The wrecks of two vessels on the bar 
 were a melancholy proof before my eyes of this fact. 
 Yet at the present time whatever is embarked has to 
 be conveyed in quite small boats to ships in the 
 roads. At Bona itself, there is no space for wharves. 
 Possibly extensive quays might be constructed by the 
 help of piles on the low plain between the rivers. 
 But the expense would be frightful. An artificial 
 channel would have to be made, and kept open : and 
 this would involve engineering operations on a great 
 scale. And in the meantime, the French go on 
 blasting rocks and constructing batteries to defend 
 the town against some imaginary enemy, although the 
 whole trade of the place is not equal to that of the 
 poorest fishing-town on the south coast of England.
 
 /y?ajti.?tf*j^TO 6rrtAm£?i 
 
 ^
 
 VOYAGE TO TUNIS. 373 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 On tlie 28tli of April I embarked for Tunis 
 on board the French mail steamer, and found 
 the accommodations very clean and good, but the 
 commander the most uncivil Frenchman it was ever 
 my fortune to fall in with. We steamed out from 
 Bona at about one o'clock in the afternoon, with 
 a strong although favourable wind. The ship was 
 very narrow and quite light, and rolled terribly; 
 to such an extent that when I lay down in my berth 
 at night I was thrown from side to side, and should 
 have been actually pitched out had I not pulled 
 up the board at the side of the berth to considerably 
 above its proper height, and converted the bed into 
 a regular child's crib. However we made a remark- 
 ably quick passage; and on waking early in the 
 morning, and finding no motion, I concluded that 
 we must have got round Cape Farina (the Promon- 
 torium Apolhnis of Pliny), which forms the western 
 extremity of the Gulf of Tunis. I therefore got up, 
 and on reaching the deck found my conjecture verified.
 
 374 PILGUIilS TO ilECCA. 
 
 It was about four o'clock, and as the light gradually 
 appeared, the low flat land of the beach of the Goletta 
 showed itself, Tvdth high mountains (as they seemed) 
 rising on the eastern side of it. Soon after four o'clock 
 we dropped our anchor about a mile from the Goletta. 
 This is the name given, originally by the Venetians, 
 to the narrow entrance in the bank of sand which 
 separates the Lake of Tunis from the sea. It was, 
 however, not till nearly .eight o'clock that we were 
 enabled to land. We had about fifty Arabs on board 
 as deck passengers, who were going on a pilgrimage 
 to Mecca; and they were here to be transferred to 
 another vessel which was to take them on to Alexan- 
 dria. The poor creatures were treated with a degree 
 of discourtesy and want of common humanity which 
 was very painful to witness. Soon after the ship 
 let fall her anchor, the agent of the other steamer 
 boarded us, and the captain immediately requested 
 him " avoir la complaisance de me debarrasser de ce 
 vermin la." It was very natural that he should wish 
 to get rid of any or all of his passengers, and no 
 doubt it is rather difficult to make an Arab stir from 
 any position he has taken up : but ruffianism never 
 helps matters on. I came afterwards from Malta to 
 Gibraltar in an English steamer where we had nearly 
 a hundred pilgrims returning from Mecca to Morocco; 
 and although the class of skippers is certainly a lower 
 one socially in England than in France, the constitu-
 
 RUFFIANISM OF FRENCH SAILORS. 375 
 
 tional good nature and good feeling of the British 
 seaman exhibited itself in the conduct both of com- 
 mander and crew to these poor people throughout 
 a tedious voyage of six days ; and when we reached 
 our destination, I believe not a man, woman, or child 
 quitted the ship without a friendly feeling towards 
 the English. But in the debarkation at Tunis, 
 when a boat at last came alongside, the packs of the 
 pilgrims were fished up from the hold and tumbled — 
 not seldom kicked — with an ostentatious carelessness 
 into it. Of course the owner continually poked 
 himself forward, with the nervous manner of an 
 unprotected female, to snatch at some pot or pan 
 or basket which he fancied in peril; and this pro- 
 ceeding, which a very few words of Arabic would 
 have prevented altogether, was met by seizing him 
 by the neck and hurling him back by main force. 
 At last, when the luggage was safely stowed in the 
 yawl, the pilgrims had to follow it. By bringing 
 the boat round to the ladder-side of the steamer the 
 whole party might have descended in an orderly 
 manner in three minutes. This however would, I 
 fancy, have been considered a breach of etiquette, 
 and disrespectful to the cabin passengers. The Arabs 
 were sent down the rope-ladder, and when this pro- 
 ceeding, from their nervousness, their exhaustion from 
 sea-sickness, and the encumbrance of their huge 
 bournouses, naturally occasioned some delay, the poor
 
 376 HOTELS AT TUNIS. 
 
 wretclies were forced by menaces to jump from the 
 side of the steamer into the boat as she lay sm'ging, 
 a height of ei2;ht or nine feet. Some of them were 
 aged and even infirm men, of sixty or seventy years 
 old, who fell and rolled on the pile of luggage ; and 
 in several instances a very unseemly spectacle was 
 presented and even danger incurred. Fa^ vidis, 
 when the Gaul is the conqueror ! The French sailors, 
 and, I am ashamed to say, some of the passengers, 
 considered the whole affair as an excellent joke. One 
 of the greatest obstacles, in fact, which the Govern- 
 ment have to surmount in reconciling the native 
 population of North Africa to their newly imposed 
 yoke, arises from their treatment generally by the 
 hourgeoisie, who hate them as the Calcutta shop- 
 keepers do the Hindoos, the more for the fear which 
 underlies their dislike. By the military the common 
 Arab is rarely ill-treated, although the insolence of 
 command sometimes unnecessarily galls the pride of 
 some ancient native chief; and the high offices of 
 administration are generally filled by persons who 
 feel the responsibility of their position, and act as 
 statesmen, if not as Christians, in then- relations to 
 the subject class. 
 
 There are only two hotels at Tunis in which an 
 European can find quarters, and in one only of these 
 are the bedrooms provided with doors, and the doors 
 with fastenings. This, the Hotel de France, is kept
 
 JEWISH TAX-FARMERS. 377 
 
 by a very obliging person, but the accommodations 
 are extremely inadequate when there is any pressure 
 produced by the arrival of a steamer. I was obliged 
 to content myself with a small room in which I was 
 nearly suffocated by the heat, the summer weather 
 having set in earlier than usual this year. Tunis is 
 eight or ten miles from the Goletta, and the traveller 
 may proceed thither either in a carriage, or by a boat 
 across the lake. I preferred the latter, as there was 
 a capital breeze ; and we ran the distance in less than 
 an hour, being obliged to tack once only. There 
 are a few houses at Goletta, of the same kind which 
 may be seen at Gosport, and a custom-house where 
 the luggage is searched without any vexatious rigour. 
 On landing at Tunis, you are introduced into another 
 custom-house, where the same form is repeated, and 
 a small fee demanded. The customs are farmed by 
 Jews, — the "publicans" under Turkish conquerors 
 in the nineteenth century, as their forefathers were 
 under the Romans in the first. A fine looking middle- 
 aged man, whose grave features might have served 
 Leonardo for a study of St, Matthew, sat by superin- 
 tending the operations of the clerk, and bowed me 
 out of the apartment with a dignified courtesy which 
 it was certainly worth more than a couple of piastres 
 to witness. 
 
 After making my toilette and breakfasting, I 
 devoted the remainder of the day to rambling about
 
 378 INTERIOR OF TUNIS. 
 
 the city; but although the Frank dress does not 
 expose its wearer to insult, much greater circumspec- 
 tion is requisite in the indulgence of ciu"iosity than 
 at Constantine. No mosque can be entered, — a 
 circumstance which is unfortunate, as more than in 
 any other city of North Africa, except perhaps Con- 
 stantine, would one be likely to find the remains 
 of antiquity imbedded in modern erections, the ruins 
 of ancient Carthage having furnished for nearly 2,000 
 years an almost inexhaustible quarry. But with 
 the exception of one or two rows of columns, and 
 walls supporting a tottering entablature, no traces of 
 the Roman times appear in the streets of Tunis. 
 The upper part of the town contains the habitations 
 of the Moors, and several bazaars ; the lower, which 
 is comprised between an inner and an outer line of 
 fortification, is appropriated to the Jews and Chris- 
 tians, of which latter the chief part are Maltese. 
 No words can describe the filth of this portion of 
 Tunis. Dirt of every description chokes up the 
 streets. It is never removed by any other agency 
 than that of the storm rains; and I was told that 
 when these occurred, the town could not be traversed 
 except actually on stilts. In the space between the 
 two lines of wall, one continually comes on the ruins 
 of houses which have fallen, and, according to Turkish 
 precedent, been invariably allowed to remain ; and 
 through it there creeps a ditch, the natural outfall
 
 ITS REPUTATION FOR HEALTHINESS. 379 
 
 of the accumulated filth, fouler than even the Fleet- 
 ditch of the Dunciad. The mephitic exhalations of 
 the place would, one would think, render the plague 
 perennial; but, singularly enough, Tunis has a high 
 reputation for healthiness as compared with other 
 Mahometan cities. This has been accounted for in 
 the prae-sanitarian times by the large amount of 
 fragrant plants consumed in heating the baths of 
 the place; but if the salubrity be real, and not as 
 imaginary as the celebrated salmon with whose pro- 
 perties King Charles is said to have puzzled the 
 Royal Society, it is perhaps in some degree due to 
 the fresh breeze which every day blows over the neigh- 
 bouring lake. The streets, too, in very many instances 
 meet overhead, and the layer of dirt with which 
 they are lined is thus protected from the quickening 
 influence of the sun, while the inhabitants, living in 
 houses of which the windows open into square courts, 
 are only exposed to the miasma of the streets when 
 they have occasion to pass through them. At the 
 same time, nothing can be more uncertain than the 
 true rate of mortality in any Mahometan city. The 
 repugnance which the Moslems feel for any shadow 
 of interference with the privacy of their family life 
 precludes the possibility of all accurate information. 
 Even in Algiers the French have never ventured to 
 enforce the registration of births and deaths among 
 the Moorish population.
 
 380 TRADE WITH THE INTERIOR. 
 
 The bazaars of Tunis are very extensive and much 
 frequented, and the shopkeepers have the reputation 
 of being fair dealers. Tunis is the staple of the 
 native woollen and leather manufactures throughout 
 the beyhk, and also receives those of Tripoli. It is 
 likewise the natural outlet of the trade with Ghadames 
 and Fezzan. Besides slippers and bournouses, the red 
 cap, called a fez, w^hich the natives wear over their 
 bare heads, is a chief article of commerce. The 
 Tunis caps are said to be dyed a finer and more 
 lasting colour than any others. A similar supremacy 
 exists in the matter of perfumes, especially attar 
 of roses, for which there are a great number of 
 shops in the bazaars. It has been mentioned above 
 that Hadrian made, or restored, the road between 
 , Carthage and Theveste ; and by this route opened a 
 ■ communication with the oases of Biskra. This is the 
 course which the trade with that part of Africa would 
 even now take if Algeria were not in the hands of 
 the French, and undoubtedly will take should their 
 conquests extend eastward. But in the meantime, 
 the unsettled state of the country south of El Kef 
 (the Sicca Veneria of the Itinerary) effectually pre- 
 vents the passage of caravans along this route. The 
 whole of the frontier between Tunis and Algeria is 
 as unsafe as that between Algeria and Morocco, and 
 for the same reasons. I was informed, however, by 
 Mr. Wood, the English Consul at Tunis, that the
 
 EXPEDITION TO CARTHAGE. 381 
 
 interior of the beylik might, in his opinion, be safely 
 visited by an English traveller vidth the protection of 
 a small escort of Tunisian soldiers ; and few localities 
 present a more interesting field for the scholar. It 
 would be necessary however in such an expedition to 
 be furnished with a tent, and even with provisions; 
 and it would be rash for any one to enter upon it 
 who was not fairly master of the native language, and 
 tolerably familiar with the manners of the wandering 
 tribes. And after all, the following up the line of 
 the ancient cities would necessarily carry the traveller 
 across the frontier, and expose him to the risk of 
 attack from the bad subjects on both sides, while 
 under these circumstances he would probably find he 
 must rely upon himself and his European companions 
 for any eflPectual defence. 
 
 I set off very early the next morning after my 
 arrival at Tunis for the site of ancient Carthage, 
 with the intention of spending the whole of the day 
 on the spot, returning at night, and repeating my 
 visit the next day. There is a good road passing 
 across the plain, on the western side of the Lake of 
 Tunis, and in less than two hours a one-horse 
 cabriolet driven by a Maltese took me to the hill 
 of St. Louis, a point which in the flourishing days 
 of Carthage was probably the highest part of the 
 Byrsa (citadel). I differ however from those who 
 beheve that it is the locality Virgil had in his eye
 
 382 HILL OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
 in the description he gives of the early settlement 
 effected by Dido. Its modern name is derived from 
 the circumstance that King Louis of France pitched 
 his camp here in his ill-fated expedition against Tunis 
 in the year 1270. The French obtained a grant of 
 the hill from the Tunisian Government shortly after 
 their capture of Algiers, and within the last three or 
 four years have prepared the locality for conversion 
 into a military position by building a wall around it. 
 On the summit a chapel, which forms a landmark 
 from a considerable distance around, is erected 
 over the remains of the monarch, who was carried 
 off by a fever soon after his arrival. The saintly 
 virtues he exhibited in his first crusade, procured him 
 such a reputation throughout Islam, that the natives 
 at this day believe he became on his death-bed a 
 convert to the religion of the Prophet, changed his 
 name to Bou-Saed (Father of Happiness), and is 
 actually interred in a village three or four miles 
 to the north, called after him, Sidi Bou-Saed. To 
 this village, on that very account, a character of 
 extraordinary sanctity is attached. 
 
 About one-third of a mile from the hill of St. 
 Louis, in a north-east direction, are the so-called 
 Small Cisterns of Carthage, an oblong mass of 
 building containing eighteen reservoirs for water. 
 Sir Grenville Temple gives as the dimensions of 
 each —
 
 THE SMALLER CISTERNS. 383 
 
 Length, 93 feet. 
 
 Width, 19 feet 8 inches. 
 
 Depth, 27 feet 6 inches. 
 Of this last but seventeen feet were filled with water, 
 the remainder serving only to support the vaulted 
 roof with which the tanks were covered. I had no 
 time to verify these measurements ; but there is every 
 appearance that they are correct. In another par- 
 ticular, however, I think Sir Grenville is in error, 
 viz. in believing that these cisterns were supplied 
 not by an aqueduct, but merely by rain-water. There 
 is no trace (I think) of that which under such circum- 
 stances is essential — a filtering tank for allowing the 
 water to leave its deposits. From the elevation of 
 the cisterns, too, it is not easy to point out any 
 considerable area of surface which could be made 
 to drain into them ; none (I think I may safely say), 
 the annual rainfall upon which would fill them 
 to anything like the height of seventeen feet. On 
 the other hand, they are obviously intended for the 
 supply of a large area. Only a few yards in their 
 rear is a hill of which the top has been levelled. 
 In the middle of the flat space is a parallelogram 
 of stone, which can hardly be anything else than the 
 base of the cella of a temple. The hill in question is 
 connected by broken ground with the hill of St. Louis, 
 which is certainly considerably higher, and commands 
 the whole neighbourhood. But between it and the 
 cisterns there is a slight ravine, and before the
 
 ^4 THE BYRSA AND MAGAUIA. 
 
 invention of gunpowder, tlie hill with the levelled 
 top would be a natural citadel. Upon it, overlooking 
 the sea, is a small Turkish fort called Burj Jedeed, 
 and between this and the sea may be traced most 
 distinctly the foundations of an ascent from the 
 water's edge. The very moment that I saw this site, 
 it struck me as being evidently the spot upon which 
 the first permanent settlement would be made by 
 trading adventurers. Just to the south of the hill, 
 the Phoenician merchants would run their ships ashore 
 on exactly such a beach as attracted ancient navi- 
 gators. Scarcely under any circumstances would the 
 least surf break upon it. The north-east by east is 
 the only wind, if there be any at all, from which 
 it is not effectually protected. The nomads who 
 brought their wool, dates, slaves, and precious stones 
 from the interior would pitch their tents, and the 
 inhabitants of the immediate neighbourhood erect 
 their goiirbis, upon the wide flat space to the west 
 and south-west of the hill of St. Louis ; while the 
 marsh which formerly existed, where now is the 
 shallowest part of the lake of Tunis, would furnish 
 abundance of food for the animals and reeds for the 
 gourhis. Here then were obviously the sites of the 
 Magaria* and tlic Byrsa — of the Libyan fonduck 
 
 * Magaria (or Magalia) became in Greek fieyapa, by which name 
 Polybius and Appian call the fauxbourg of Cai-thage which subse- 
 quently occupied this site. Bochart has pointed out the relation- 
 ship of the word, which was obviously a native one, with the 
 Hebrew maf/iirim (habitations).
 
 THE COTHON. 385 
 
 and the fortified factory of the "■ African Company" 
 of the great commercial nation of antiquity. The 
 whole scene mapped itself out to the imagination 
 at a glance, in reply to the mental question, where- 
 abouts on the line of coast could vessels, navigated 
 as those of the ancients were, be safely brought to 
 shore? I felt perfectly satisfied as to the answer, 
 even before mounting the levelled area on the hill of 
 Burj-Jedeed. When I did this, and found the founda- 
 tions of the cella in the middle, it became obvious 
 to me that here was the temple of ^sculapius, the 
 aspect of which from the sea was a characteristic 
 feature of ancient Carthage. Equally impossible is 
 it to doubt of the position of the Cothon, the artificial 
 dock — not really harbour — of the ancient city. The 
 two portions into which it was divided may be 
 distinctly observed from the top of the hill of St. 
 Louis, as well as the island in the middle of the 
 interior portion. Even the communication with the 
 sea is still traceable ; although the disintegrated 
 remains of the buildings which once surrounded it 
 have left this a mere ditch, as similar causes have 
 enormously diminished the size of the Cothon itself. 
 
 The elevated ground, of which the hill of St. Louis 
 forms the southern extremity, continues along the line 
 of the coast for three or four miles, its crest being on 
 an average about three-quarters of a mile from the 
 sea, towards which the ground falls gently, intersected 
 
 c c
 
 :iS6 PROBABLE ALTERATION OF LEVEL 
 
 here and there with ravines. For the distance just 
 mentioned, the direction is about north-north-east; 
 but on arriving at Sidi Bou-Saed, where its elevation 
 is the greatest, the plateau turns suddenly to the 
 north-west, and soon descends rapidly to the level of 
 the plain. Presently another hill rises, called Djebel 
 Gomart, and beyond this is a large tract of low 
 marshy ground, extending as far as the foot of the 
 mountains which run in an easterly direction, and 
 end in Cape Farina. All along the sea-line, from 
 the immediate neighbourhood of the Cothon as far 
 as this marsh, foundations of buildings are traceable 
 in the water ; and between the hills of Sidi Bou-Saed 
 and Djebel Gomart, a village in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of the sea, where the present Bey of Tunis 
 has a country palace, is at this day called El Mersa 
 (the Port). The marshy ground just noticed extends 
 to the south-west as far as the low hills, upon one of 
 which the kazbah of Tunis stands. If we suppose the 
 level of the whole neighbourhood to sink some twenty 
 feet, the low prairie would be converted into a sort 
 of sea-loch, winding in the direction of south-east by 
 south, and reducing the present wide plain of Tunis 
 to a narrow strip of land. The bar of sand which 
 separates the lake of Tunis from the sea would be 
 washed away, and the latter would come up nearly to 
 the walls of the present town. Such an imaginary 
 state of things corresponds, I believe, very nearly to
 
 IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 88/ 
 
 that which actually existed at the time when Carthage 
 the Great was destroyed. It is necessary as an hypo- 
 thesis for the purpose of understanding the accounts 
 of Polybius and Appian, almost all the details of 
 which are brought into perfect harmony by it ; and 
 as the former was, so to speak, on the staff of the 
 Roman commander when the city was taken, while in 
 this part of his history, unfortunately lost, he is repre- 
 sented by the latter, these two authorities stand on 
 a totally different footing from any others which have 
 came down to us, whose accounts are in all cases at 
 best second-hand.* 
 
 At the time of the third Punic war, it seems certain 
 (if we take Polybius, and, where he fails us, Apj)ian, 
 as adequate evidence) that the harbour of Carthage 
 was on the western side of a peninsula of which the 
 north-west and north-east extremities are represented 
 by Djebel Gomart and Sidi Bou-Saed respectively, 
 while its neck was no more than twenty-five stades 
 (two-and-a-half geographical miles) across. And not 
 only was the harbour on the western side of this 
 peninsula, but its mouth looked to the westward, and 
 vessels sailing out of it got at once into the open sea, 
 
 * Strabo is, I believe, no exception. He sailed along the coast, 
 but there cannot be a greater contrast than the description he gives 
 of this, and that of a part of Egypt which it is certain he per- 
 sonally visited. The remark in the text is not, however, intended 
 to apply to Procopius ; but the Carthage of his time is the city 
 Augustus and Hadrian restored, not that which Scipio destroyed. 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 TOPOGRAPHY GIVEN BY 
 
 Utica, which was so situated that the two cities could 
 be seen from one another, was also at this time upon 
 the sea. The Romans made use of it as the base of 
 their naval operations, and there was so much water 
 in the immediate neighbourhood of Carthage, that 
 they could bring their ships close up to the shore of 
 the latter, and from them not only use their missiles 
 with effect, but constantly menace — and in one 
 instance actually attempt — escalade of the wall of the 
 town. In the neighbourhood of the mouth of the 
 harbour, there ran off from the Isthmus a long spit 
 of land, about 100 yards broad, called "the Tongue," 
 in a westerly direction, separating the open sea from 
 " a lake." Across this lake Scipio carried a part of 
 the troops with which he captured the military camp 
 at Nepheris ; so that it must have been navigable at 
 least for boats.* The spit ran so near to the mouth of 
 the Carthaginian harbour, that he formed the idea of 
 preventing the egress of their galleys by running a 
 mole from it across the mouth; and he proceeded 
 sufficiently far in his scheme to alarm the enemy, and 
 induce them to cut another opening while he was so 
 engaged.! Outside of the harbour, and seaward of 
 
 * Strabo says that the distance from Carthage across to the 
 opposite shore was sixty stades, and from the landing-place to the 
 town of Nepheris, high up in the mountains, 120 more. 
 
 f It is generally assumed that Scipio actually closed the mouth of 
 the harbour, and this was the way in which his operation was talked 
 of at Rome (Appian, viii. 134). But in the narrative of the actual 
 proceedings this does not appear ; and in fact rather the contrary is
 
 POLYBIUS AND APPIAN. 389 
 
 the old mouth (and probably of the new one also), 
 was an extensive quay, running along in front of the 
 town-wall, upon which the merchants frequenting the 
 harbour used to pile up their cargoes. It was so 
 broad, that in their apprehension that the Romans 
 might occupy it in force, the townspeople built out a 
 low fort in front of it to prevent such a catastrophe.* 
 Scipio did eventually attack this quay from the water- 
 side by means of floating towers and other machines 
 of the like kind ; but on his first attack the Cartha- 
 ginians got at these, some by wading and some by 
 swimming, and succeeded in burning the whole, and 
 infusing an almost fatal panic into the attacking force. 
 On the south of the town, looking in the direction 
 of the mainland, was the Byrsa, with a triple line of 
 
 implied. The larger ships of the Carthaginians were prevented from 
 getting back into the harbour by the new mouth, because the smaller 
 vessels preceding them fell foul of one another. Several of them 
 were captured from this circumstance ; but yet, after night-fall, 
 those which remained "escaped into the town" (Appian, viii. 123). 
 Scipio, after this affair, changed his tactics, and succeeded in effecting 
 the object for which he had desired to close the harbour by other 
 means. 
 
 * Traparei'x'f/ia ^paxv is the expression of Appian ; and he once 
 afterwards calls it biaTfixi-<Jiia. The commentators are sadly puzzled 
 to explain the matter. I conceive it to have been a redoubt built 
 out into the sea from the middle of the face of the quay. It cannot 
 have been merely a breastwork alonff the quay ; for wheu it was 
 attacked, the Carthaginians resisted (says the historian) by missiles 
 both from the quay and from it. And it must have run out into the 
 water ; for Scipio attacked it with battering-rams, brought on floating 
 rafts. The term Biareixi-crna seems very appropriate to it as breaking 
 the line of the quay, especially if the redoubt were comiJleted, and 
 armed on its inner side as well as its outer.
 
 390 DEFENCE OE CARTHAGE 
 
 fortifications. Each wall was forty-five feet high and 
 thirty thick, strengthened by towers of double the 
 height. The walls contained a double range of case- 
 mates, in which was stabling for 300 elephants arid 
 4,000 horses, and barrack-room for 20,000 infantry 
 and 4,000 cavalry, besides stores of provision for the 
 whole. From this immense fort a line ran past 
 " the Tcngue," and bent towards the harbours. The 
 " angle" so formed was the only low and weak part 
 of the fortifications.* 
 
 The defence of Carthage was in many respects an 
 anticipation of that of Sebastopol, In both cases the 
 assailants were masters of the sea, and at first only of 
 a few points on the land, while the besieged defended 
 themselves by means of fortified camps established 
 in commanding positions outside of the town. The 
 principal of these was under the walls of Nepheris, a 
 city high up in the mountains, to be looked for in 
 the direction of Djebel Ksharpta, to the north-west of 
 Carthage. It cut ofi* all communication between Utica 
 and the interior of the country, and served as a point 
 on which to accumulate stores from the whole of the 
 neighbourhood. The next most important station 
 was one not far from Carthage, apparently on one of 
 the hills to the west of the modern Tunis. Under its 
 
 * ycovia Se */ Trapu ■n]v ykuxrcrav (k ToOSf tov Tflxovs «7rt roiis 
 XiHepas irfpuKajXTTTfv, dcrOfurji i]v ^lovi] Ku\ randvi] Koi i}fii\r]TO (^ dp)(^s. 
 Appian, viii. 95.
 
 LIKE THAT OF SEBASTOPOL. 391 
 
 protection convoys of provision were constantly enabled 
 to enter Carthage by land, passing along the narrow 
 isthmus of less than three miles broad. On their 
 part the E^omans had also two fortified camps, one 
 close by the root of "the Tongue,"* menacing the 
 vulnerable point of the enemy's fortifications between 
 the Byrsa and the harbours ; the other on the isthmus, 
 but resting on the eastern side of it.f Both were 
 
 * This either was, or was iu close juxtaposition to, a naval camp 
 (vavcTTadnos) like that of the Greeks in the neighbourhood of Troy, 
 according to the description in the Iliad. In the latter case, it can 
 hardly be doubtful that the naval camp was actually on " the Tongue." 
 
 ■f The position of the Roman camps is clearly marked out by the 
 following passages. At the outbreak of hostilities the consul 
 ManiUus attacked the enemy on the land side, uno rfjs rjnflpov Kara 
 TOP av)(€va, eyxcjicrap re ttjv rdcppnv, Koi ^paj(v (Tvirelxicrp-a to in' avrfj 
 ^laaonevos kuI eir (Kelvo) ra vyj/rjXa. reixr], while at the same time 
 Censorinus attempted to storm it from the sea at the weak angle 
 (KkljiaKas SK re yrjs Kol veav iire(f)epe Kara Trjv evreXfj tov reixovs yoavlav). 
 They had not expected any resistance, and after being twice repulsed 
 by the townspeople, they began to apprehend serious consequences 
 from Asdrubal, who had fortified a camp close in their rear {oinaOev 
 a-(^u>v vTTip TTJV X'ip.vT]v ovK €K jxaKpov diacTTTjpaTos). Accordingly they 
 each entrenched themselves, Censorinus on the lake under the 
 town walls (eVi Ttjs }<ipvt]s imb rols Tfix^ai tcou irdXepicov), and 
 ManiUus in the isthmus (eV rw avxevi ttjs is ti)v rjireipov oSou, Appiau, 
 viii. 97). Censorinus then increased the breadth of the spit by a 
 mole, and brought two enormous rams, each worked by 6,000 men, 
 to bear on the wall. A partial breach was made, and the Romans 
 attempted to storm, but were repulsed, and the rams destroyed 
 (§ 98). Then came the hot weather, and Censorinus's troops began 
 to die of fever, from being stationed on the lake, and close under 
 very high walls, which kept oS' the sea-breeze. He therefore moved 
 his camp on to the sea {i. e. moved further along " the Tongue," so 
 as to get from under the lee of the high walls, and catch the sea- 
 breeze). Then the Carthaginians in their turn took advantage of the 
 sea-breeze, and sent fire-rafts before the wind on to his ships, which 
 burnt the greater part of them (§ 99). For the production of this 
 effect, the wind must have been north, or nearly so. A line drawn
 
 392 SUCCESS OP THE BESIEGED. 
 
 supplied ^\ith provisions by sea from Utica, coming 
 in the one instance to the western, and in the other 
 to the eastern side of the peninsula of Carthage. 
 Galleys also from Utica watched the mouth of the 
 harboiu' of Carthage when the weather permitted; 
 but when a strong wind blew from the sea, this 
 became impossible, and advantage was taken of these 
 occasions to run cargoes of provisions. Thus, in spite 
 of the unparalleled perfidy of the Romans at the out- 
 break of the war, by which the Carthaginians had 
 been induced to give up all their ships, the chances 
 of success were for two years balanced, or, if anything, 
 appeared rather to lie with the besieged. The Romans 
 were baffled in every attempt to force the Cartha- 
 ginian lines, and an expedition against Nepheris nearly 
 cost the consul who undertook it the whole of his 
 force. No ground had been gained by the assailants ; 
 and with the stores they had in their arsenal, the 
 besieged were enabled, by the spring of the third year, 
 to equip a new fleet, by means of which they all but 
 succeeded in turning the tables on their assailants, who 
 
 from the western extremity of the hill of Sidi Bou-Saed to the low 
 land below the Great Cisterns, will, I believe, towards its southern 
 extremity, approximate to the limits of the coast, and from near 
 there I conceive " the Tongue " to have run out westward. Between 
 this locahty and El Mersa I should search for indications of the 
 Carthaginian harbour and its quay, the wind which enabled the 
 besiegers to burn Ccnsorinus's ships blowing through the gap 
 between the hill of Sidi Bou-Saed and Djebel Gomart. That the 
 camp of ManiUus approached the eastern side of the isthmus appears 
 from Appian, viii. 100.
 
 THE MAGAEIA. 393 
 
 had in the meantime become terribly demoralized. 
 Fifty triremes, besides smaller vessels, had been built 
 without the Romans entertaining the slightest sus- 
 picion of the matter ; the new mouth of the harbour, 
 which had been secretly cut,* was opened in the 
 night, and when the fleet, called into existence as if 
 by magic, sailed out, the besiegers were struck with 
 panic. Not a ship was manned, and if the Cartha- 
 ginians had at once attacked them, the whole " naval 
 camp" of the Romans (says the historian) would have 
 fallen into the hands of the enemy. Unfortunately, 
 they contented themselves with merely making a 
 demonstration, and returned into the harbour. Two 
 days afterwards they again rowed out and offered 
 battle, but now their enemies were prepared for them. 
 In the action which followed, they were unsuccessful, 
 and Scipio, who had the command of the besieging 
 force, gave them no more breathing-time. 
 
 The Magaria at this time consisted of a kind of 
 fauxbourg, surrounded by a wall of no great strength, 
 and laid out in gardens intersected with hedges, and 
 watered by artificial irrigation. Probably the Great 
 Cisterns — which stand in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood — supplied a part of their water for this purpose 
 
 * Livy^ in his account of the operation, represented the besieged 
 as actually digging a new jiort, not merely a new mouth to the exist- 
 ing one. This was in one of the lost books, but the epitome of it 
 proves the fact. See the second note on page 388.
 
 394 THE GREAT CISTERNS. 
 
 These enormous reservoirs form now the habitation 
 of a whole village, — Malakah. They are altogether 
 dilapidated, and some entirely choked up, but their 
 magnitude fills the spectator with amazement. Shaw 
 says there are twenty of them, each of them above 
 100 feet long and 30 broad. I very much doubt 
 the exactness of these numbers,* but at the same 
 time do not believe them to be in the least 
 exaggerated. A road passes over a portion of the 
 reservoir, and caution is requisite to avoid some large 
 holes in the roof, which gape in the middle of it. 
 Indeed, the whole of this locality abounds in dangers 
 of this kind. On a later day, in walking on the side 
 of the hill of St. Louis, I observed several openings. 
 
 * He says tliat their level is lower than that of the "Small 
 Cisterns." To me it appeared, judging by the eye, that the reverse 
 was unquestionably the case. My belief is that the latter received 
 their overflow, and the pipes by which this arrangement was effected 
 have been mistaken for an apparatus to collect rain-water. I unfor- 
 tunately broke my barometer before leaving Constantine, and conse- 
 quently could not ascertain the variations of level — the most import- 
 ant of all elements in a topographical question — with any accuracy. 
 But I have no doubt that Shaw is mistaken, and Mr. Davis, to whom 
 I mentioned my view, informed me that it was certainly correct as 
 to the relative elevations of the two systems. I may add, that my 
 opinion as to the hill of Burj-Jedeed being the original Byrsa, and 
 the ruin on it the temple of .^sculapius, was confirmed by that 
 gentleman, who had independently come to the same conclusion. 
 With regard to Shaw, I cannot help saying that his description of 
 the site of Carthage is so vague, that unless I had been over the 
 ground myself I could scarcely form a conception of what he means, 
 and so inacciu-ate that it becomes necessary to suppose it written 
 from an old recollection assisted by no notes taken on the spot or at 
 best by very imperfect ones. And this is far from the only part of 
 his book in which a want of exactness has excited my surprise.
 
 THE AQUEDUCT. 395 
 
 which, on a slight examination, showed themselves 
 unmistakably to be holes in the vaulted roofs of 
 huge storehouses or cellars. The Great Cisterns are 
 the termination of the gigantic aqueduct which 
 brought spring-water to Carthage from the mountain 
 of Zaghwan. All that part of the latter which is 
 visible from the site of the town bears the stamp 
 of wilfid destruction. Huge masses of stones fixed 
 in cement lie along the plain, showing the direction 
 which the aqueduct followed. Its whole course, 
 which extended for no less than fifty-two miles, 
 may be traced; and in some places the piers and 
 arches still stand, rising sometimes to a height of 
 more than ninety, but generally to between fifty and 
 sixty feet above the plain. In estimating the utility 
 of this stupendous work, it should not be forgotten 
 that it was probably constructed not only to supply 
 Carthage with water, but to irrigate at least some 
 portion of the land between its two extremities. The 
 whole of the country between Dalikil Bashir (the 
 promontory which forms the eastern side of the gulf 
 of Tunis) and the lake which existed to the west of 
 Carthage, was filled with the mansions and model 
 farms of the Carthaginian citizens, whose passion for 
 agriculture was equal to that of the English. But 
 in Barbary successful cultivation implies copious irri- 
 gation ; and ample as the stream might be which was 
 poured into the cisterns at Malakah, this was only the
 
 396 FRENCH COLLECTIONS. 
 
 balance which remained after the soil for many 
 miles had been fertilized by the precious fluid. 
 
 The French have collected a few tumulary inscrip- 
 tions, and one or two others of a more interesting 
 description, in a little garden within the inclosure of the 
 chapel of St. Louis. Among these is a very curious 
 one which much puzzled me, from the reiterated 
 assertion of the gardien of the chapel that everything 
 I saw had been found on the spot. It is in a frag- 
 mentary condition ; but it relates to the completion 
 of some arrangements for the water supply of the 
 " Colonia Thysdrensis," which included the laying 
 on the water to some private houses, under certain 
 conditions. As Thysdrus is, according to the Itinerary, 
 by one road 141 Roman miles and by another 155, 
 distant from Carthage, it excited no small wonder in 
 me that a piece of stone should be brought so great a 
 distance. The man persisted in his assertion, and 
 actually went so far as to point out the very spot where 
 the block, as well as a portion of a statue (probably 
 of Apollo, who is mentioned in the inscription as the 
 patron-god of the colony), had to his own personal 
 knowledge been extracted from the soil. It certainly 
 seemed unjustifiable scepticism to doubt any longer ; 
 yet this story proved to be a gratuitous circum- 
 stantial falsehood. I was fortunate enough the same 
 morning to fall in with Mr. Davis, who is engaged in 
 excavations at Carthage with the assistance of the
 
 ENGLISH EXCAVATIONS. 397 
 
 British Government, and from liim I learnt that the 
 collection I had seen came from different parts of the 
 Beylik. I had already had ample experience of the 
 utterly untrustworthy character of local information 
 proceeding from uneducated men ; but I own I was 
 unprepared for a resolute fiction, suggested by no 
 conceivable motive — not even that of saving trouble. 
 
 I found Mr. Davis hard at work with half-a-dozen 
 Arabs, engaged in the task of removing a mosaic 
 which he had recently laid open in the lower floors 
 of a dwelhng-house which had apparently belonged 
 to an ordinary citizen of the Roman town, though 
 one well-to-do in the world. The great merchants 
 of Punic Carthage, like the millionaires of London, 
 had their magnificent country seats, sumptuously fur- 
 nished, several miles out of the city. The discoveries 
 now making relate, I apprehend, to a much later 
 period, and tell the story of a class coming as little 
 into competition with their predecessors as the shop- 
 keepers of Genoa or Venice do with the owners of 
 the argosies which lay in those ports four hundred 
 years ago.* It is very natural that strong interest 
 
 * When the Romans destroyed Pimic Carthage, they laid a solemn 
 curse upon any future settlement that should be made either on the 
 Byrsa or the Magaria ; that is, in that quarter which if fortified 
 would command the isthmus, and secure the harbour against the 
 attacks of a land force. The colony which Gracchus sent out 
 attempted to settle upon this tabooed quarter, and hence, in the 
 opinion of the Romans, the bad luck which cut short its existence. 
 When Augustus founded Roman Carthage — the town of which Pliny
 
 398 APPIAN A GUIDE 
 
 should attacli to everything great or small that comes 
 from Carthage ; and probably the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer would find some difficulty in obtaining 
 grants of money for purely topographical investiga- 
 tions producing no rapid returns in the shape of 
 accessions to the British Museum. But here, as 
 everywhere, a large basis of action w^ould in the 
 end give the most profitable results. Investigations 
 so directed as to enable the explorer to define the 
 ground-plan of the Punic city, would guide at once 
 to the particular points where excavations could 
 scarcely fail to produce a far more valuable harvest 
 than any that is likely to reward a mere "pro- 
 specting" for antiquities. I should greatly rejoice 
 
 and Strabo speak — he was particularly careful to avoid the part 
 imder ban (Appian, viii. 136). If therefore the wall of Augustus's 
 town can be found, it will necessarily exclude the Byrsa and the 
 Magaria. This would lead me to look for no traces of it south of 
 Malakah, and of the hill of St. Louis. The Roman element was a 
 very small one in the new town ; for all the settlers, except 3,000, 
 were taken from the Libyan population in the neighbourhood. In 
 the account Procopius gives of the Vandal war, he invariably calls 
 the inhabitants of the towns on the coast Libyans. They were 
 Romans in the same sense in which St. Paul was, and strongly 
 attached to the Roman cause ; whereas the inhabitants of the 
 interior, whom Procopius calls Moors, readily joined with the 
 Vandals. The policy of Genseric was in fact to destroy the mer- 
 cantile character of North Africa. The invading race became great 
 landed proprietoi'S on a military tenure, and the native population 
 were conciliated by being encouraged to practice piracy on the coasts 
 of Italy, Sicily, and Southern Greece. There is a considerable 
 analogy between his system and that pursued by the Turks at 
 Algiers. There the commercial Jews were oppressed as the 
 " Libyans" were at Carthage and in the towns of Byzacium, and they 
 hailed Bourmont as a deliverer just as the " Libyans" did Belisarius.
 
 FOR THE TOPOGRAPHER. 399 
 
 to find the activity and intelligence of Mr. Davis 
 employed in carrying out more liberal instructions, 
 than simply to dig for objects of amusement to 
 holiday folk in England. 
 
 The account which Appian gives of the course 
 of events in the actual storming of Carthage is very 
 clear, and apparently likely to furnish a clue to the 
 topographer, although it has its difficulties. During 
 the year v^^hich preceded the arrival of Scipio to 
 command the besieging army, the Romans seem 
 to have entirely altered their plan of operations. 
 The consul who commanded the camp on the isthmus 
 employed the fine season in plundering the country, 
 apparently giving up the idea of maintaining an 
 effectual blockade of Carthage by land, or believing 
 that to lay waste the country was the best means 
 of stopping the supplies which came into the city. 
 When Scipio arrived with his new levies, he found 
 the army so demoralized by the way it had been 
 employed, that he compared the camp to an assem- 
 blage of hawkers at a fair, and began his reforms 
 by expelling an enormous multitude of sutlers and 
 camp followers. Asdrubal, who had previously been 
 with the fortified camp at Nepheris, was now com- 
 manding in Carthage itself; but the camp still 
 remained with a very large force in it under another 
 general. The other Carthaginian camp in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Tunis appears to have been broken
 
 400 OPERATIONS OF SCIPIO. 
 
 up ;* but on Scipio's arrival and encampment in 
 the neiglibom'hood of the town, the besieged formed 
 a pahsaded entrenchment at a distance of live stades 
 (half a geographical mile) from their walls, and 
 occupied it with 6,000 foot and 1,000 horse — all 
 picked men — to watch him. 
 
 The first blow which he struck was an attempt 
 upon the Magaria by night. He succeeded in occu- 
 ])ying it ; but was afraid that his troops would be 
 thrown into confusion by the obstacles which the 
 ground within presented. He accordingly withdrew 
 them, but his success had caused such a panic, 
 that the Carthaginians retreated into the Byrsa. 
 Their fears were even shared by the garrison of 
 the entrenchment, which joined the flight of the 
 rest, and the whole burst into the Byrsa together. In 
 the morning Scipio immediately seized the opportunity 
 given by this retrograde movement, burnt the palisade, 
 and having the command of the whole isthmus, at 
 once formed an oblong camp extending nearly across 
 from sea to sea, the side next the town being only 
 a bowshot from the enemy. f In the middle of this 
 
 * The object of this camp having been to secure the arrival 
 of convoys of provisions by the way of the isthmus, it would 
 naturally be abandoned as soon as the diflSculty of getting them in 
 ceased. Appian does not mention the breaking up of the camp ; 
 but it is implied in the fact of Asdrubiil forming another entrench- 
 ment outside the walls (viii. 114). 
 
 t The width of the isthmus here was twenty-five stades : conse- 
 quently, the southern wall of Punic Carthage (or a fausbourg) must 
 have come down quite to the narrowest part.
 
 HIS WINTER CAMPAIGN. 401 
 
 " a very high tower" was built, and above it again, 
 a wooden scafFohl four stories higli, from the top of 
 which Scipio could see what was going on within 
 Carthage. The construction of these works occupied 
 twenty days, the whole army being employed, and 
 working night and day, under the enemy's fire. 
 When they were at last finished, the communication 
 by land with the toAvn was entirely prevented. 
 
 The next step was the attempt upon the mouth 
 of the harbour, and the quay beyond it, which has 
 been already mentioned. The besieged repulsed the 
 first attack upon the redoubt, but it was repeated with 
 a dififerent result ; the quay was occupied, and a 
 work erected upon it as high as the town wall, 
 from which the Roman soldiers, being on equal terms 
 with their enemies, plied their weapons successfully. 
 This work was garrisoned with 4,000 men. 
 
 The winter now impended, and Scipio ventured 
 on a bold move, which proved decisive. By a com- 
 bined operation, himself crossing the lake with some 
 troops, and sending another officer round it with 
 others, he assembled a formidable force in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the entrenched camp at Nepheris, threw 
 up a work two stades from it, and left a Numidian 
 force in this, with orders to harass the camp of 
 the enemy incessantly. In the sequel, he succeeded 
 in forcing the Carthaginian entrenchment under 
 circumstances which produced a general panic ; and, 
 
 D D
 
 402 ATTACK ON THE COTHON 
 
 after almost annihilating the army which occupied 
 it, he captured Nepheris, at the close of a siege 
 of twenty days in mid-winter. This exploit completed 
 the operations which had for their object the starving 
 Carthage out. On this capture of Nepheris and 
 the destruction of the army, the whole of Libya soon 
 passed over into the hands of the Romans. 
 
 Early in the spring, Scipio made an attack on the 
 Byrsa and the Cothon.* Asdrubal, in fear that he 
 could not defend it, "set fire to the square portion 
 of the Cothon;" and still expecting that Scipio would 
 attempt to get in, suffered his attention to be diverted 
 from the " circular" part, into which Laelius, attacking 
 it from the other side unexpectedly, forced his way. 
 The whole wall of the Cothon was mastered; and 
 from thence Scipio seized the agora, "which was 
 near." Here he passed the night under arms. The 
 next morning he sent for 4,000 fresh men. They 
 came, but at once fell to plundering a temple of 
 Apollo which stood there, and could not be induced 
 to act against the enemy till they had secured the 
 gold with which the image and the shrine were 
 overlaid. 
 
 From the agora, three narrow^ streets, "filled with 
 
 * There is nothing at all in Appian to show that there was any 
 connexion between the Cothon and the harbour of which Scipio had 
 attempted to block the mouth. 
 
 f oTfvanoi, The streets were doubtless like those described above. 
 (Chapter II.) The Carthaginian mansions were built on the same
 
 AND THE BYRSA. 403 
 
 houses of six stories high," led up to the Byrsa, 
 where the greater part of the troops had taken refuge. 
 The Romans forced their way into the houses next to 
 the agora, mounted to their tops, crossed from one 
 side of the street to the other by planks as occasion 
 required, and thus fought their way up. 
 
 On arriving at the Byrsa, Scipio commanded the 
 three streets to be set on fire simultaneously, in order 
 to throw down the houses, and obtain a sufficiently 
 level area for military operations. This result was 
 effected in six days and nights, the general " seeing 
 what was going on from a high position," where he sat 
 down when at last overcome with fatigue. 
 
 On the seventh day, some individuals came to him 
 wearing the garb appropriate to suppliants of ^scu- 
 lapius, the temple of which deity was " in the acro- 
 polis, conspicuous in appearance and rich above all 
 others," They proposed to leave the Byrsa if only 
 their lives were spared, and Scipio consented, ex- 
 cepting none but deserters from the terms. Upon 
 this fifty thousand men, women, and children imme- 
 diately passed out through a narrow opening in a 
 redoubt ; the deserters, to the number of about nine 
 hundred, with the wife and two sons of Asdrubal, 
 threw themselves into the temple of iEsculapius. To 
 
 type as at present in Barbary, but on a much larger scale, — of six 
 stories instead of two or three. The " narrow streets" are the mere 
 interval left between these houses. 
 
 DD 2
 
 404 LIMITS OF THE BYRSA 
 
 the precinct {reiMevos) of this, a staircase of sixty steps 
 led up, the remaining part of the circuit being preci- 
 pitous. Consequently the small band were able to 
 defend themselves for some time ; and when hunger 
 and fatigue diminished their numbers, they retired 
 from the precinct into the temple itself, and mounted 
 to the roof. Here was the end of the resistance. 
 The deserters set the temple on fire and destroyed 
 themselves in it, the wife of Asdrubal stabbing her 
 two children, and casting their bodies and herself 
 with them into the flames. 
 
 It seems impossible to doubt, from this description, 
 that whether the hill of St. Louis is, or is not, iden- 
 tical with what Appian understands by the Byrsa, it 
 was at any rate included in it. The garrison of the 
 Magaria, and that of the palisade half a mile to the 
 south of the town wall, retreated into the Byrsa on 
 the occasion of Scipio's night attack. It must, there- 
 fore, have been near to the scene of his operations, 
 and it would be useless to look for it far away to the 
 north in the direction of Sidi Bou-Saed. But if the 
 hill of St. Louis be identical with the Byrsa, it is 
 difficult to conceive fifty thousand persons within its 
 walls. The temple of ^sculapius, too, must in this 
 view be supposed on its summit, where the chapel of 
 St. Louis now is. But neither is there a sufficiently 
 flat surface there for the precinct of a large temple, 
 nor do the sides of the hill immediately below the
 
 IN THE FIRST AND LAST DAYS. 405 
 
 summit answer to the description given above. If we 
 adopt the alternative, and suppose the hill of St. Louis 
 to be occupied by a fortification, and to constitute a 
 sort of citadel within the Byrsa, the key to the whole 
 — dominating as it does the whole neighbourhood, — 
 many difficulties will be removed. My own idea, 
 derived from the cursory survey I was enabled to take 
 of the locality, is, that the original acropolis, the 
 Byrsa of the first settlers mythicised in the story of 
 Dido, is the hill of Burj-Jedeed. As the trading 
 factory grew into a powerful city, it would soon 
 include the hill of St. Louis within its circuit, and 
 then the necessity of making this the citadel becomes 
 obvious. Hence, quite naturally, would arise that 
 state of things which may be conceived to have 
 existed in the flourishing times of Punic Carthage. 
 The fortifications of the new Byrsa would include the 
 old one, and the name be extended to the whole.* 
 Thus the temple of ^sculapius might properly be 
 said to be on the Byrsa (or the acropolis) — even on 
 the hypothesis that it occupied the hill of Burj-Jedeed 
 — not only in the wider sense of the word, but 
 because it stood on the ground which originally had, 
 and in common parlance very likely retained, that 
 name.f The levelled top of Burj-Jedeed, the founda- 
 
 * Just as the " city" of Paris grew from the island on the Seine to 
 its present dimensions. 
 
 ■j- It must be remembered that Byrsa simply means "fort," 
 answering to the Burg, or Bury, or nvpyos, or Perg-ama of the Indo-
 
 406 DJEBEL GOMAET. 
 
 tions of the cella in the middle of the area, and the 
 steep sides (making due allowance for the accumula- 
 tion of debris) fully justify the character of strength 
 which Appian attributes to the site as a temporary 
 position for the desperate band which seized it. 
 
 On the other hand, it was to be expected that 
 Scipio, looking to the grand result, should direct his 
 operations against the dominating point of the Byrsa 
 • — the hill of St. Louis. Possessing that, the reduction 
 of the remainder of Carthage was only a question of 
 time. Having secured this point, he might without 
 risk yield to the demands of nature for rest \ and the 
 besieged seeing him in possession of it, had nothing 
 left but to beg for their lives. It may be added that 
 this is the only " high position, from which he could 
 have a view of all that was going on." 
 
 Mr. Davis was polite enough to invite me to spend 
 a day at his country-house, a Moorish villa in the 
 neighbourhood of Djebel Gomart, which has been 
 noticed above as occupying the north-west extremity 
 of the peninsula over which the Punic Carthage was 
 built. He has for his immediate neighbours a village 
 of stationary Arabs, with whom he is on the best 
 terms \ and his knowledge of their language enables 
 him to exercise an influence over them, which without 
 
 Teutonic languages. Al Jcrmanbury, Bucklcrsbury, Aldgate, and New- 
 gate are names which rcmaiu long after their original appropriate- 
 ness has ceased.
 
 DJEBEL KHAWEE. 407 
 
 this accomplishment would be quite impossible. They 
 supply him with game, chiefly quails, in return for 
 a little gunpowder ; and it is from among them that 
 he obtains workmen for his excavations. They are 
 not inferior in physical appearance to the English 
 labourer, but their powers of endurance are by no 
 means equal, and their dislike of regular work is even 
 greater than their avarice. Sometimes they will slink 
 away in the middle of some task, especially during 
 the Ramadan, when they rigorously observe the com- 
 mand to fast, and of course are enfeebled for any 
 vigorous exertion before the middle of the day. 
 
 The hill Djebel Khawee, a part of the Djebel 
 Gomart, is apparently one vast necropolis. Prom it 
 was no doubt excavated some at least of the limestone 
 used in the building of the town, and the quarries 
 served, as in many similar instances, for catacombs. 
 The existence of tombs here was a matter of notoriety 
 many years ago, but it is only recently that the wide 
 extent of the cemetery has been made apparent, and 
 the passages under ground traced to some extent. 
 Continually a fresh opening appears in the hill, as the 
 rains in course of time wash the weathered limestone 
 away, and the first notice of this generally is the occu- 
 pation of the vault within by a jackal. 
 
 The view of Carthage from the top of this hill is 
 very striking, and perhaps it is from it that the visitor 
 will do best to take his first survey, in order to gain
 
 408 GENERAL VIEW OF CAETHAGE. 
 
 a general idea of the whole locality. Looking south- 
 east by east, he will have the village of Sidi Bou-Saed 
 on the top of a hill immediately opposite to him, with 
 a valley intervening in which is the village El Mersa, 
 and the Bey's country palace. A little to the left is 
 the sea, washing the foot of Ras Sidi-Bou-Saed, called 
 on the maps Cape Carthage. His eye, pursuing the 
 line of high ground from the village of Sidi Bou-Saed, 
 will, as it travels southwards, first be attracted by the 
 white walls of a new palace on the crest of the plateau, 
 where it is rather lower than elsewhere. At no great 
 distance from this point it is that the excavations 
 were made, in which the last mosaics were discovered. 
 Proceeding still further, the attention is arrested by 
 the liill of St. Louis with its enclosure, and the 
 chapel rising from within. Burj-Jedeed is invisible : 
 it lies between the elevated plateau and the sea. 
 From the chapel of St. Louis, the plateau descends 
 gently into the plain. Just beyond its foot (as 
 appears to the eye) is the village Dowar es Shat, 
 represented by a single small house, in which a 
 gentleman resides, who is (I believe) an American — 
 a co-operator with Mr. Davis in his researches. Almost 
 exactly in this line comes the most picturesque mass 
 among the mountains of the Dahkil Bashir, Avhich form 
 throughout a background to the plateau just described, 
 with the gulf of Tunis intervening between the two. 
 The notched summit of one of the peaks, which from
 
 REMAINS OF AMPHITHEATRE. 409 
 
 many parts of the plain of Tunis (and indeed from 
 the roadstead also) stands out a most conspicuous 
 object, bears south by east of our imaginary spectator. 
 Just beyond Dowar es Shat stretches out the long 
 strip of land which separates the sea from the lake of 
 Tunis. The buildings of the Goletta appear in the 
 middle of the bar. Turning still to the right, Tunis 
 itself is seen to the south-west, at ten or twelve miles' 
 distance. In the intermediate space is the flat plain, 
 planted here and there with olive groves, and in some 
 places sown with corn, but for the most part covered 
 with grass rather fine than luxuriant. Along it lie 
 the huge masses of the great aqueduct, which Sir 
 Grenville Temple has very happily likened to the 
 " bleached vertebrae of some gigantic serpent." 
 
 The remains of an amphitheatre are to be seen at 
 no great distance from the cisterns of Malakah, and 
 bearing about south south-east from them. They are 
 not very easy to find, for the land all about is sown 
 with cereals, and it is necessary to wade through the 
 crop in order to reach the ruins. The amphitheatre 
 was of small size — a circumstance which confirms the 
 notion of the little importance of Roman Carthage 
 during the time that gladiatorial exhibitions were 
 popular. The shape is more than usually elliptical, 
 and the major axis would lie between the points 
 north by east and south by west. The edifice is so 
 entirely ruined that the limit of the arena becomes
 
 410 PROCOPIUS'S ACCOUNT 
 
 very difficult to define. I estimated the length and 
 width as about eighty and fifty yards respectively; 
 but these numbers do not pretend to accuracy. There 
 is a considerable depression in the middle of the 
 arena, which very probably was filled with water for 
 the naumachia), or boat-fights; but it is now com- 
 pletely piled up with rubbish. If used for this pur- 
 pose, the water would be supplied from the cisterns 
 at Malakah. Indeed the site of the amphitheatre is, 
 in my opinion, within the limit of the Punic Magaria, 
 which, as has been related, was artificially irrigated ; 
 and consequently the architect of the amphitheatre 
 very likely found a water apparatus ready to his 
 hand. 
 
 The narrative which Procopius, likewise an eye- 
 witness, gives of the expedition under Belisarius, 
 indicates that a great change had taken place in the 
 condition of Carthage. The whole nomenclature of 
 the neighbourhood seems to have altered. Still, as 
 the historian gives the distances with an air of careful 
 precision, his account is valuable for the topographer. 
 Belisarius, after landing his army at Capudia (Caput 
 Vada) a spit forming the northern boundary of the 
 Lesser Syrtis, marched as near as he could to the 
 coast, in order to keep up a communication with his 
 fleet. Thus he proceeded, through Leptis and Adru- 
 metum, until he arrived at a place called Grasse, 
 situated 350 stades from Carthage, where there was
 
 OF THE VANDAL WAR. 411 
 
 a country palace and pleasure grounds of Gelimer tlie 
 king of the Vandals, a marvel for the abundant irriga- 
 tion, the productiveness of the fruit trees, and extent 
 and beauty of the timber. From Grasse he proceeded 
 towards Carthage, and on the fourth day approached 
 a place which Procopius calls Decimus,* seventy 
 stades from the city. Thirty-five stades short of this 
 point, lie halted and encamped. 
 
 It was at or near Decimus that Gelimer had formed 
 the idea of crushing the invading army by a combi- 
 nation of movements, and the details of these furnish 
 materials for determining its situation with tolerable 
 accuracy. At the time Belisarius landed, he himself 
 was with a part of his forces in the neighbourhood of 
 Tripoli, and he followed the invaders by a route 
 which lay more inland and debouched in this place 
 on the one which Belisarius had taken. His brother 
 Ammatas was to stop the enemy's advance upon 
 Carthage by means of the force left under his com- 
 mand in the town. Gehmer also sent on two thousand 
 Vandals, under Gibamund, to the left of the course 
 which he himself pursued, to take up a position in 
 " the plain of salt," forty stades from Decimus, and on 
 the left hand of the road which Belisarius would have 
 
 * This is, I conceive, a corruption of the Latin, Ad decimum (i. e. 
 milliare). The miles would be measured from some point within the 
 city, but Procopius is speaking of the distance from the walls. Ten 
 Roman miles would be, making this allowance, almost the same 
 thing as the distance the author gives, {Bell. Vandal, i. § 17.)
 
 412 THE LAKE IN HIS TBIE 
 
 to follow in advancing upon Cartilage. The design 
 of the Vandal king failed, owing to the carelessness of 
 Ammatas and the prudence of Belisarius. The latter 
 had sent a strong force of cavalry in advance of his 
 columns, and likewise moved his auxiliary Huns at 
 a considerable distance from his own left. The result 
 was that the Huns came upon the Vandal detachment 
 and cut them to pieces, while the advanced guard of 
 Roman cavalry surprised the troops of Ammatas, as 
 they arrived in small bodies from the town, and 
 entirely defeated them. But the nature of the ground 
 where these operations took place was such that none 
 of the parties engaged perceived what the others were 
 doing. The Roman cavalry were unaware of the 
 success of the Huns, and Gelimer, when he reached 
 Decimus, was still ignorant of the misfortunes which 
 had happened, or of the position taken up by Beli- 
 sarius. These conditions can only be satisfied by 
 supposing that the Decimus of Procopius (which he 
 calls a suburb * of Carthage) included the hills to the 
 south and south-east of the modern Tunis, and that 
 the "plain of salt" is represented by the marshy 
 ground to the west of that town. 
 
 Gibbon, in giving his account of the invasion under 
 Belisarius, assumes that the Roman fleet found shelter 
 in the lake of Tunis. For this, however, he has not 
 the authority of Procopius, nor, so far as I am aware, 
 
 * npodarfiop.
 
 NOT USED AS A HARBOUR. 413 
 
 of any other author. It is true that the fleet entered 
 a lake, which then Lore the Roman name " Stagnum," 
 but if this were the same which existed in the time 
 when Punic Carthage was captured by Scipio, it could 
 not have been the modern lake of Tunis.* If, on the 
 other hand, it was this, the great alteration of level 
 which has entirely changed the face of the locality 
 must have then already taken place, — possibly in 
 the volcanic convulsions of which a record has been 
 noticed in the description of Guelma. But whatever 
 the "lake" of Procopius was, it was not used by the 
 Vandals, or thought worth taking the pains to guard. 
 The harbour of Vandal Carthage, which bore the name 
 Mandracium, was closed with a chain. It seems to 
 me likely to have been the same as that which in 
 former days was called Cothon. It was too small to 
 hold the Roman fleet, which would hardly have been 
 the case with the harbour of Punic Carthage. One 
 may perhaps suppose that this was destroyed by 
 Scipio, and that the Cothon sufficed for the wants of 
 the Roman town of the times of the Empire. Another 
 suburb, or suburban village, bore the name of Adas. 
 It seems to have lain on the route from Carthage to 
 the southern part of Numidia: for it was in it that 
 
 * See above, page 388. Gibbon no doubt simply followed Shaw, 
 who tacitly assumes that the lake spoken of by Procopius {Bell. 
 Fund. i. 15) must be the one he saw.
 
 414 DESTRUCTION OF THE AQUEDUCT. 
 
 Gelimer, on his way to Carthage from the Aures as 
 a prisoner, found Belisarius.* 
 
 It seems at first rather singular that in the descrip- 
 tion given of the siege of Carthage by Scipio, no 
 mention should occur of the enormous aqueduct, the 
 ruins of which constitute at the present time so 
 striking an object. It seems to have been cut for the 
 first time by the Vandals, in their efforts to recover 
 Carthage from Belisarius. This destruction took place 
 close under the walls of the town.f But the assailants 
 do not appear to have at all furthered their object by 
 the step. The stores of water in the cisterns would 
 last for a very long time ; and, besides this, water may 
 be obtained by digging in any part of the locality 
 near the sea, — although no doubt of an inferior 
 quality to that which was supplied by the fountains of 
 Zaghwan. This might have been the reason why, 
 when Scipio tried to starve the city, he did not (as it 
 would seem) interrupt the water supply. It would 
 have been ineffectual for his purpose ; while injury to 
 the aqueduct would have diminished the produce of 
 the country, and weakened his own commissariat. 
 
 * Adas is possibly a Byzantine substitute for Perttcsa, the name 
 given by the Antonine Itinerary to the first station from Carthage 
 on the route which led through Sicca Veneria to Tagaste, the birth- 
 place of St. Augustine. It is placed at fourteen Roman miles from 
 Carthage. Tagaste may perhaps be the modern Souk-Aras. The 
 Itinerary puts it at fifty-three miles from Hippo Regius (Bona) and 
 fifty-seven from Sicca Yencria (El Kef). 
 
 f Procopius, Bell. Vaud. ii. 1.
 
 COST OF ALGERIA. 415 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A VOLUME upon the subject of Algeria can hardly 
 be brought to a termination satisfactorily to an English 
 reader, without some reflections upon its present and 
 probable futui'e value to its conquerors. This is a 
 topic, however, which it is difficult to handle within 
 the space which can fairly be allotted to it here. 
 I shall not attempt, therefore, to strike a balance 
 between the advantages and disadvantages of such 
 a possession, but merely point out some of the most 
 important considerations which suggested themselves 
 to me during the period of my stay. 
 
 As a mere question of pecuniary profit or loss, 
 there is no doubt that the cost of Algeria to France 
 is very great. The balance of the expenses of main- 
 taining the colony over the receipts amounted, at the 
 end of 1847, to 775,164,202 francs. A further loss of 
 not less than 498,000,000 francs was incurred during 
 the next seven years. It thus appears that the outlay 
 during the first twenty -three years of the occupation 
 came little if at all short of £51,000,000 sterling.
 
 416 PERMANENT WORKS. 
 
 Since the commencement of 1854 it is not likely that 
 the excess of expenditure has diminished : for though 
 the resources of the colony have increased, the public 
 works have been pushed on with much greater vigour 
 than ever before ; and it would probably be under the 
 mark to estimate the cost of Algeria to France up to 
 the present moment at £60,000,000 sterling. In 
 return for this enormous outlay may be put the forti- 
 fications and harbour of Algiers ; the roads which 
 diverge from that town, Oran, Bona, and Philippeville ; 
 the lines of electric telegraph which now connect all 
 the military stations with one another and with Paris ; 
 works of drainage and irrigation (of which the prin- 
 cipal are in the plain of the Metidja and the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bona) ; and various works of utility, such 
 as aqueducts, fountains, and lavatories for the use of 
 the several villages which have been formed as " centres 
 of population." To these may be added a few light- 
 houses, and the works by which an attempt has been 
 made to establish some kind of substitute for a port 
 at Oran, Arzew, Mostaganem, Dellys, and Bona. A 
 great deal of money has been spent in works of defence, 
 as at Maskara, Oran, Philippeville, and Bona, or in 
 barracks for military, as at Medeah, Constantine, and 
 Batna, to say nothing of the loopholed wall which 
 surrounds every new settlement, although its destiny 
 is to fall to the ground in the course of a few years. 
 And, finally, a very large sum has been laid out in
 
 PRODUCTS OF ALGERIA, 417 
 
 churches, orphan refuges, and other establishments 
 connected with the moral improvement of the colony, 
 in hospitals, in schools both for Europeans and natives, 
 and even in mosques and colleges for the use of the 
 Arabs. 
 
 But amid all this outlay, it is impossible not to 
 be struck with the very small portion which can be 
 regarded in the light of a profitable investment. 
 There is scarcely a single road upon which produce 
 can be cheaply conveyed to the coast from forty miles 
 distant, or a single port at which it can be conve- 
 niently shipped. The difficulties which have stood in 
 the way of establishing ordinary routes, arising as they 
 do out of the want of proper materials, must be an 
 equal obstacle to the formation of embankments for 
 railroads ; and the configuration of the coast is most 
 unfavourable to the construction of ports exactly at 
 those points where they are most required. If one con- 
 siders, too, the nature of the most important products 
 of North Africa, the prospect of any advantageous 
 commerce is not great. The tobacco of Algeria can- 
 not compete in the open market with that of the West 
 Indies. The cultivation of cereals has indeed in- 
 creased in the last four years, having received an 
 extraordinary stimulus from the demand for the use of 
 the army in the Crimea during the late war ; but the 
 conclusion of this having set free the ports of the 
 Black Sea, discourages any expectation that the im- 
 
 EE
 
 418 EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION. 
 
 provement in this respect will be carried much fiu'ther. 
 The cultivation of olives, and of mulberry trees for 
 silk, seems the most promising field for industry ; but 
 these branches of agricultm'e require European labour. 
 The Arab cannot be induced to graft his olive trees, or 
 to sort tlie fruit for the press, regarding any such pro- 
 ceeding as a contempt of the gifts of God ; and, as 
 has been several times remarked, the European, or at 
 least the Erench colonist, clings obstinately to the 
 towns on the coast, and shrinks from the hardships 
 attendant on a settlement in the interior. Indeed, 
 up to the present time, it may be doubted whether 
 the number of able-bodied Europeans engaged in 
 the cultivation of the soil throughout the whole of 
 Algeria much (if at all) exceeds 10,000 ;* and of tliem 
 the far greater part consists of Spaniards and Maltese. 
 To maintain half-a-dozen soldiers for the purpose of 
 protecting each one of these cannot but be an un- 
 profitable transaction in a pecuniary point of view. 
 
 Even if the immigration of Europeans for the pur- 
 pose of permanent settlement should greatly increase, 
 and the problem of providing them with land without 
 exciting the discontent of the native population should 
 be satisfactorily solved, it appears likely that the 
 issue of this will be to create a large population of 
 tenants from the south of Europe cultivating the 
 
 * See the note at the end of the chap/ter, for the grounds of this 
 opinion.
 
 SPANIARDS AND MALTESE. 419 
 
 land of non-resident French proprietors, and gradu- 
 ally getting possession of it themselves. This will 
 not be a very safe tenure for France, in the event of 
 a general European war. The Spaniards and Maltese 
 get on very much better than the French do with the 
 native population, who are much more accustomed 
 to them, and seem to have forgotten their former 
 feuds with them under the overwhelming influence 
 of hostility to the French invaders. In fact, by the 
 conquest of Algeria, France has in some sort served as 
 a conductor to draw off the hatred of the African 
 Mahometans from the other Christian races. More 
 than once have I found in Algeria the conventional 
 civility of the Arab to an European change into an 
 unmistakeable expression of goodwill, when it ap- 
 peared that I was an Englishman ; and in Tunis a 
 notification of the fact at once drew forth a " Buono 
 Inglese : non buono Francese," from the mouth of a 
 native. It was to Tunis that the largest proportion of 
 the Moorish emigrants from Algiers retired in the 
 times which immediately succeeded the conquest, 
 when the conduct of the victors was for a while 
 characterised by a recklessness for the feelings of the 
 conquered scarcely to be paralleled in the wars of 
 civilised nations. This arose mainly from the extreme 
 ignorance of the Government that planned the ex- 
 pedition, which was so astounded by the magnitude 
 of a success that took it entirely by surprise, as 
 
 E E 2
 
 420 ARAB EMIGRANTS FROM SPAIN. 
 
 to be incapable either of framing a policy for 
 itself, or deputing its powers to the General on the 
 spot. 
 
 The Government which fell before the French inva- 
 sion was indeed one of a very extraordinary character. 
 When the empire of the Caliphs in Africa broke up, 
 two new important centres of pow^r arose, the one at 
 Pez, the other in Egypt; but between these two a 
 number of independent states grew up, of which 
 Algiers was one. The tide of victory had now tm-ned 
 against the Arabian conquerors of Spain, and num- 
 bers of Moors emigrated from that country to all 
 parts of the coast of Africa. They were received 
 hospitably everywhere ; and the habits of industry 
 which they brought wdth them from Europe contri- 
 buted greatly to the prosperity of their adopted 
 country. The pure Arabian population of Africa 
 still retained, to a great extent, the tastes and feelings 
 of their nomad ancestors ; but the emigrants had 
 been accustomed in Spain to the settled lives of 
 agriculturists and traders, and carried altered habits 
 with them back to Africa. It is these emigrants, 
 modified in character, and doubtless also in blood, 
 by their long residence in Europe, whose descendants 
 constitute the staple of the population in the towns of 
 the littoral of North Africa. 
 
 This emigration of Moors commenced long before 
 the final expulsion of the race from Andalusia; but
 
 THE ORIGINATORS OF PIRACY. 421 
 
 when that event took place, the numbers were of 
 course considerably increased. The exiles brought 
 with them, not only the desperate feelings of ruined 
 men, but the bitter animosity which, for generations 
 afterwards, never fails to cling to the descendants of 
 all who have been made victims of religious bigotry. 
 They spread themselves along the coast, and took 
 revenge upon the nation which had wronged them, 
 by acts of piracy upon all Christian traders. The 
 crews of the ships they captured were converted into 
 instruments for carrying on the horrible trade of the 
 corsair. Chained to the benches of the Moorish 
 galleys, they were compelled, by lashes, to toil at the 
 oars until they often fell dead from exhaustion. Less 
 able-bodied captives were sold in the market, and 
 made available for agricultural or handicraft labour. 
 It has been mentioned above, that a mosque which 
 stands in the principal square of Algiers is said to 
 have been built by a Christian architect. 
 
 But the hostility of Spain did not cease with the 
 expulsion of the infidels from Europe. From being 
 victims of hatred, they became objects of dread. They 
 were followed to the African shore, where Oran, Bou- 
 gie, and other points were occupied by their enemies. 
 Among these latter was an island upon which the 
 present lighthouse of Algiers is built. On this, which 
 is within musket-shot of the shore, a fort was built, 
 and a garrison left therein to harass the nest of
 
 422 THE TURKISH DYNASTY. 
 
 pirates, whose galleys had, up to that time, found 
 shelter between the island and the main. So galling 
 did this measure prove, that the Emir of Algiers at 
 last resolved to call in the assistance of a renegade 
 pirate, Haroudji Barbarossa, to rid him of his trou- 
 blesome neighboiu's. The post was ultimately cap- 
 tured, but the unhappy chief, who had invited an 
 ally, first had to learn that such a one might be 
 worse than an enemy. He was assassinated while 
 bathing. Haroudji succeeded him, and left the 
 supreme power, on his death, to his brother, Kheir- 
 eddin, who prudently secured his position by acknow- 
 ledging the supremacy of the Porte, by which 
 he w^as formally nominated Pacha of Algiers. This 
 step made Algiers an integral part of the Turkish 
 empire, and, in the state of irritation against the 
 Christian Powers which then existed throughout the 
 whole of Islam, was no doubt a popular one, and 
 greatly contributed to secure the adhesion of the 
 neighbouring provinces to the new Government. The 
 pacha showed no want of zeal in preparations for war 
 against the hated enemy. After obtaining possession 
 of the Spanish fort above mentioned, he carried into 
 execution a plan which, considering the resources of 
 those days, may be called a gigantic one, — that of 
 uniting the island on which the fort stood to the 
 main by a solid pier of stone, and thus providing 
 shelter for a much more numerous navy. This work,
 
 A MILITARY OLIGARCHY. 423 
 
 which exists at the present time, and still bears the 
 name of its projector, was executed by the hands of 
 30,000 Christian slaves, who were employed upon it 
 for the space of three years. 
 
 The power of Algiers had now become extremely 
 formidable, when the Emperor Charles V, of Spain, 
 emboldened by the success which had crowned his 
 efforts at Tunis, determined to attack it in person. 
 Two Spanish armies had already perished in the 
 attempt ; and the third was no more successful than 
 the others. 
 
 At this period, the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 the Algerine power had assumed the same character, 
 and extended over very much the same area, as in the 
 time of the French invasion, three centuries later. 
 Although nominally subject to the Porte, the Regency 
 (as it came to be called) had grown into a military 
 despotism, supported by a small army of Turks, 
 whose numbers were recruited from Constantinople 
 and other parts of the empire, especially Smyrna. 
 It was a rule of the service, that no Moors should be 
 introduced into it. Each company (or odd) was com- 
 manded by an officer called bidcabashi (colonel). On 
 his entrance, the young recruit was subjected to a very 
 strict discipline, closely confined to barracks, from 
 which he was only allowed to go out on one day of 
 the week, and then under the superintendance of an 
 officer. He received two pounds of bread a-day, and
 
 424 THE MOORS AND KOULOUGLIS 
 
 about threepence in money. But after having passed 
 through a sort of noviciate on these hard terms, his 
 fortunes assumed the brightest hue. He was ahowed 
 to marry, to follow a trade, or hold a civil appoint- 
 ment, and to live with his family free from almost all 
 the restraints of discipline, subject only to the con- 
 ditions of being ready to take service when called 
 upon until reaching the age of fifty. His pay, and 
 his chances of promotion, went on all the same. He 
 often married a Moorish heiress, or became rich by 
 commercial speculation, the commonest form of which 
 was the taking part in fitting out corsairs, — a most 
 profitable employment of capital, under which the 
 Moorish merchants grew as rich as the Bristol traders 
 of last century by the parallel occupation of fitting out 
 vessels for the African slave-trade. There can be no 
 doubt that the easy acquisition of wealth by this 
 means — evidence of which appears in the costhness 
 of the interiors of the Moorish houses in Algiers, and 
 in the numberless villas with which the country round 
 about is studded — operated strongly in reconciling 
 the natives (an avaricious race) to the domination of 
 one of the narrowest oligarchies of which history pre- 
 sents an example. The Turkish force in the whole of 
 Algeria is said never at any time to have amounted to 
 16,000 men, and very generally to have been little 
 more than half that number. 
 
 The children of the Turkish soldiers and the
 
 A SUBJECT CLASS. 425 
 
 Moorish or Christian women with whom they coha- 
 bited, were called Koulouglis. For some time they 
 were allowed to enter the military service, but not 
 permitted, as w^as the case with the pure blood, to rise 
 to the higher ranks. Dissatisfaction at this restriction 
 produced, in the middle of the seventeenth century, 
 a conspiracy having for its object the expulsion of 
 the oligarchy from the country. This was discovered 
 before it was ripe for execution : the Koulouglis were 
 massacred, and, from that time forward, the separa- 
 tion of the two classes became more marked, and the 
 government of the military aristocracy more rigorous. 
 Still some exceptional cases occurred of Koulouglis 
 acquiring high positions. The last Bey of Constan- 
 tino was one. 
 
 The supreme power in this singular constitution 
 was reposed in a council of sixty, consisting of bul- 
 cabashies and other great functionaries. They elected 
 the Regent, or JDey, without reference to anytliing 
 else than their own opinion of his fitness. The new 
 functionary informed the Porte of the fact, and re- 
 ceived, in return, a firman appointing him Pacha, 
 and a kaftan of honour. The council, however, pos- 
 sessed the right of deposition as well as of election, — 
 a right which was often exercised, and, as might be 
 expected in such cases, deposition was generally soon 
 followed by death. In fact, ever since the massacre 
 of the Koulouglis, the appointment of the Deys, like
 
 426 ADMINISTRATION BY THE DEYS 
 
 that of the Roman emperors by the praetorian guards, 
 assumed the character rather of a tumultuous pro- 
 ceeding than a legal election. Assassination was the 
 inevitable fate of each as soon as he became unpo- 
 pular, or, from accidental circumstances, found himself 
 without funds to satisfy the demands of the Janis- 
 saries. On tlie occasion of the death of one Dey (in 
 1732), six successors were chosen, and each after- 
 wards murdered in the course of the forenoon. The 
 seventh contrived to keep his seat for nine years, and 
 to die in his bed at the end of that time. This, how- 
 ever, was an unusually long tenure of power. Between 
 1808 and 1815 three Deys were strangled, and 
 two years later a fourth, — the one under whom 
 Algiers had to endure the bombardment by Lord 
 Exmouth. 
 
 Criminal justice was administered within Algiers 
 and the surrounding territory by the Dey, or his 
 deputies, but the judges of civil suits were two kadis, 
 the one called El Hanephi, for suits in which Turks 
 were concerned, the other El Maleki, for those between 
 Moors. The words Hanephi and Maleki indicate two 
 different sects or schools of jurisprudence, to the one 
 of which the Turks belong, and the Moors to the 
 other. From these there was an appeal to a higher 
 court, consisting of two Muftis, the one a Hanephi, 
 the other a Maleki, joined with the two kadis above- 
 mentioned ; and it is a remarkable circumstance that.
 
 AND THEIR SATRAPS. 427 
 
 in spite of the jealousy which sectarian differences 
 generally inspire, this arrangement seems to have 
 worked well. 
 
 Beyond the limits of the home jurisdiction, the 
 duties of government were performed by the Beys of 
 the three dependent provinces, Tittery (of which the 
 capital was Medeah), Constantine, and Oran. These 
 satraps, which were appointed by the Dey of Algiers, 
 were responsible to him for the proper maintenance 
 of their provinces. They had, like the Dey, a body- 
 guard consisting of pure Turks, which were employed 
 from time to time in overcoming any serious resistance 
 to their authority, and every two or three years they 
 were obliged to present themselves in person at the 
 seat of central power, render an account of their 
 administration, do homage to their superior, and 
 make such presents to important officials, as are in- 
 separable from the machinery of despotic governments. 
 But the population of the provinces over which they 
 were placed was of a very different kind from the Moors 
 of the coast. The greater portion of it consisted of 
 tribes leading a purely or principally nomad life, in 
 exactly the same state as that in which they had 
 issued from Arabia many centuries before. Under the 
 Caliphate the whole of these owed obedience to the 
 viceroy of the caliph, or Ouali, who, under the title 
 of the Chief of Africa, resided at Kairwan, near Susa, 
 in the beylik of Tunis. Each province was, for the
 
 428 GOVERNMENT OF THE TRIBES 
 
 purposes of administration, divided into a certain 
 number of Outhans (circles), and in each of these was 
 placed a Kaid (or prefect), nominated by the Ouali. 
 But on the decline of the Caliphate, the tribes of the 
 Sahara relapsed at once into a condition of absolute 
 independence, while those of the Tel, or hill country, 
 fell into a subjection, more or less complete, to the 
 great chiefs of Tlem^en, Bougie, and Tunis. AVhen 
 the Turkish domination commenced, the Beys of the 
 several provinces took the place of the Ouali, and 
 nominated kaids to the several outhans ; but some of 
 the more powerful tribes obtained an exemption from 
 this arrangement, and their Sheiks, confirmed in 
 authority by the Bey, occupied the place of the kaid in 
 the several outhans to which they belonged. The laid 
 must not in any way be confounded with the hadi. The 
 latter is the local judge who, in conjunction with the 
 Mufti, administers justice between man and man. 
 The former, in his origin, is the imperial tax-collector, 
 armed with the power requisite for enabling him 
 to execute his function. In the case of the pastoral 
 or partially agricultural tribes, he appears in person 
 or by deputy in the place where the weekly market 
 is held, and receives certain dues on all merchan- 
 dise, amounting to about two-and-a-half per cent, on 
 its value. 
 
 These arrangements, which had existed long before 
 the beginning of the Turkish rule, were maintained
 
 DEPENDENT ON ALGIERS. 429 
 
 by the new government.* The great bulk of the 
 Arabs, finding no change introduced in the mode 
 of hfe to which they had so long been accustomed, — 
 the lucrative offices being still held by their co- 
 religionists, and, where a new appointment was made, 
 that appointment being judiciously conferred upon 
 persons of great local influence — acquiesced readily in 
 the supremacy of Algiers, the more so as the Turks 
 were undeniably, at the time, the champions of their 
 common faith in the battle-field of Europe. The 
 conduct of the Beys towards the tribes was charac- 
 terized by great forbearance and prudence. The only 
 demand made upon them, beyond the payment of the 
 market dues to which they had been used (the value 
 of which was, in fact, returned to them in the shape of 
 the additional security afforded to travelling traders), 
 was for a subsidiary force of cavalry (the Goum) from 
 time to time, to coerce some refractory tribe ; and as 
 this service always implied the plunder of the ofi'enders, 
 the demand was readily complied with. Occasionally, 
 although very rarely, some severe punishment was 
 necessary by way of example ; and the Turkish body- 
 guard of the Beys was called into action, and un- 
 
 * It is most likely the Arabian conquerors found them existing 
 in the country. In the arrangements which Scipio made between 
 the sons of Massinissa, one may recognise the same distinction of 
 functions which exists at the present day. The eldest son was made 
 (to speak in modern language) Bey of Cirta, the second, Agha (War 
 Minister), and the third Kaid, his jurisdiction extending over all 
 the dependencies. (Appian, viii. 106.)
 
 430 INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 sparing vengeance inflicted upon all in any way 
 connected with the offenders. But insulated and 
 independent of one another, as the tribes have always 
 been except in those instances in which religion 
 evoked a strong common feeling, these exceptional 
 cases of severity never engendered permanent hostility 
 towards the central power. 
 
 The very rapidity of the French successes prevented 
 tliem from being acquainted with the real nature 
 of the government which had fallen before them. 
 Within a month from the landing of the first soldier, 
 they found themselves installed in the stronghold of 
 the Dey. The professed object of the invasion had 
 only been to obtain satisfaction for an insult offered 
 to the French consul, to put an end to the practice of 
 piracy on the sea, and to regain certain privileges of 
 fishing for coral on the coast of Barbary, — the real one 
 (it has been said) was simply to strengthen Polignac's 
 ministry by the prestige of mihtary success. How- 
 ever this may be, it is certain that, when Algiers fell, 
 not only had Bourmont no instructions what to do, 
 but the Home Government had formed no plan. The 
 General sent home a proposal for demolishing the 
 fortifications and the port ; and the general expecta- 
 tion was that the conquerors would place Algiers and 
 its dependencies at the disposal of the Porte, and 
 content themselves with retaining one or two points 
 on the coast. In the meantime it was of course
 
 OF THE TOWN. 431 
 
 necessary to establish some sort of provisional govern- 
 ment for the city, and the expedient resorted to vras, 
 of all others, the most likely to alienate the minds of 
 the conquered population. 
 
 The internal administration of Algiers had been, 
 like that of the country, conducted by a hierarchy of 
 responsible officials, each invested with nearly absolute 
 power within the limits of his own sphere. Each 
 different class of the urban community had its chief, 
 responsible to a high Turkish official, the Khasnadji, 
 an office which may be roughly described as uniting 
 the functions of Home Secretary and Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer. Every trade had its mum (or 
 master), who administered its affairs and its police. 
 These guilds consisted of even diverse races. 
 One of them, the porters, is made up of the tribes 
 of Biskra and its neighbouring oases. Another tribe, 
 the Beni Mozabites, has already been described. The 
 guild of these, domiciled at Algiers, had the mono- 
 poly of the native baths. The free negroes formed 
 another separate community under a Kaid of their 
 own ; and even the despised Israelites had their chief, 
 who was called, perhaps in mockery, " the king of the 
 Jews." By this machinery the action of the central 
 power upon the several elements of a heterogeneous 
 population was rendered simple and effective ; and the 
 central power was now the Erench General. All that 
 was required from him was to preserve the machine from
 
 432 INJUDICIOUS POLICY 
 
 injury, and to secure his own position at the centre j 
 and the inheritance of the Deys would have passed 
 over unimpaired to the conquerors. Unhappily, no 
 one knew anything about the facts of the case. M. 
 Bourmont, heartbroken at the death of his son, shut 
 himself up and left the work of organisation to his 
 subordinates ; and they, under the influence of one 
 Ahmed Bouderbah, a Moor who had resided for some 
 time in Marseilles, superseded all existing agencies 
 by a mixed commission of Moors and Jews. Of this 
 the adviser — a man compelled to leave France 
 in consequence of a fraudulent bankruptcy — was 
 made president. The immediate result was that 
 robberies attended wdth violence, wdiich had been 
 previously unknown, began to prevail to a frightful 
 extent. The property of the State vanished ; the public 
 archives were destroyed. Under the very eyes of 
 the officer in charge, the French soldiers used to 
 light their pipes with the contents of the State-Paper 
 Office in the Kasbah. The whole country between 
 Sidi Ferudje and Algiers was pillaged, the gardens 
 laid waste, and the villas pulled down wantonly, 
 or to save the trouble of collecting firewood. Duties 
 were levied and not accounted for; the skippers 
 of the transports helped themselves to the stores 
 in the arsenal ; the aqueducts by which Algiers was 
 supplied with water were damaged, and the fountains 
 failed in consequence. In short, everything went
 
 AITER THE CONQUEST. 433 
 
 on in the way which might be expected where an 
 army finds itself in an enemy's country which it 
 believes itself to be on the point of leaving for 
 ever. 
 
 The Government of Charles X. determined to retain 
 Bougie, and that place was accordingly occupied at 
 the expense of some blood ; but the revolution of 
 July followed, and Bourmont, anxious for his own 
 position, drew all his outlying forces back into 
 Algiers. The new dynasty superseded him. His 
 successor. General Clausel, arrived at Algiers on the 
 2d of September, and found the victorious army 
 crowded in a disorganised town, hemmed in by a 
 hostile population, and suffering much from disease 
 and privation. Had the design of abandoning Algiers 
 to the Sultan been persevered in, the wdiole result of 
 an unexampled success would have been to excite the 
 contempt as well as the hatred of the entire population 
 of North Africa against Prance. This misfortune was 
 indeed prevented by a more courageous policy on 
 the part of the Orleans dynasty ; but, in estimating 
 the aggregate success of Trance up to the present 
 time, it is only fair to remember that all the expense 
 of blood and treasure which was incurred during 
 the eighteen years succeeding the conquest, served 
 merely to place her (and that only materially, not 
 morally) in the position which she might have 
 occupied in the year 1830, had her statesmen at 
 
 F F
 
 434 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION 
 
 that time possessed half the knowledge and the talent 
 for organization which belonged to the Outrams, 
 Lawrences, Colvins, and the thousand other names 
 of this and the last century to whom England owes 
 it that her career in India has not been a parallel on 
 a large scale to that of her great rival in Africa. 
 Fortune gave the empire of the successors of Khair- 
 eddin over to the Polignac ministry, as one might 
 put a necklace of pearls into the hands of a boor. 
 All that was wanted was to hold fast the clasp ; but, 
 instead of that, the string was wantonly cut, and 
 the beads, rolling in every direction, have perhaps 
 not been recovered altogether even yet. 
 
 It would be however a shallow judgment which 
 should estimate the value of Algeria by a simple 
 reference to the balance-sheet. As a training-school 
 for the French army it is difficult to over-estimate 
 its value ; and that not merely in producing hardy 
 and helpful soldiers, but in exercising those who 
 command them in the duties of administration. 
 The whole of the country over -which the control of 
 the French extends is subjected to a division, which 
 has been noticed above,* into military and civil 
 territory. With the exception of the Phaz of Algiers, 
 and the greater portion of the Metidja, the latter 
 only extends for a very short distance round each 
 of the towns or principal villages. In the mihtary 
 
 * Page 255.
 
 AT THE PRESENT TIME. 435 
 
 territory, the commanding officer has to exercise the 
 functions of a justice of tlie peace as well as the 
 duties more peculiar to his profession; and as this 
 system prevails over by far the larger portion of 
 Algeria, and involves the jurisdiction over nearly two 
 millions of Kabyles and Arabs of all degrees of 
 civilisation, it is eminently adapted for the develop- 
 ment of the administrative talents which, in positions 
 of high command, are as necessary as military skill. 
 The agency which plays the principal part in the 
 government of the tribes is the Bureau Arabe, the 
 originating of which, it has been above remarked, was 
 due to the sagacity of General Lamoriciere. There 
 is a principal oflfice of this in every province at 
 the seat of Government, with branches in the chief 
 place of every circle. All questions between the 
 native population Avhicli occur in military territory 
 are brought primarily before the members of these. 
 If the case be a simple one, it is decided on the spot ; 
 if otherwise, it is referred, according to its nature, 
 to the kadis of the native tribes, or to a military 
 tribunal. Of course, in such an arrangement, absolute 
 power must, directly or indirectly, rest with the 
 French officers ; and that this power is on the whole 
 well employed, appears from the system working satis- 
 factorily to the Arabs. Many of them are growing 
 rich, and imbibing a love for the arts of peace, 
 becoming more stationary, and sowing a greater
 
 436 THE NEW CONSTITUTION 
 
 breadth of grain every year. A few of the principal 
 chiefs are attached to the department, and draw 
 salaries from the Trench Government, to which there 
 is every reason to beHeve they are well affected. 
 Lamoriciere Avas so much beloved by one native chief 
 of great influence, a marabout of Koleah, that on his 
 death he bequeathed him an orange-garden of great 
 celebrity in the immediate neighbourhood of that 
 town. When the general quitted Africa, he presented 
 this to the officers of the battalion quartered there; 
 and it is one of the prettiest pleasure-grounds I saw 
 in Algeria. As regards, indeed, the relations between 
 the military and the natives, it appeared to me that 
 there was always a consideration shown for the latter, 
 which in time might obliterate the memory of past 
 sufferings. The greatest difficulties in this respect 
 arise from the low European civilians, who are too 
 coarse to understand the feelings of the native and 
 too lazy to learn his language. 
 
 The new constitution for Algeria will, I greatly 
 fear, not be found to work well. Its distinctive cha- 
 racter is to insulate each of the three provinces, and 
 to establish a Council for each, consisting partly of 
 Europeans and partly of native notabilities. This 
 Council has the privilege of communicating directly 
 with the Minister tor Algeria at Paris, but in other 
 respects is almost absolutely under the control of the 
 Prefect of the province. It is to vote the ways and
 
 OF ALGEllIA. 437 
 
 means for meeting the provincial expenditure, but 
 the budget itself is prepared by the prefect and the 
 military commandant ; and if the Council does not 
 make provision for what are described as the " ordi- 
 nary expenses " of the province, its acquiescence 
 is dispensed with, and the defect supplied by the 
 prefect, the military commandant, and the minister. 
 Among these " ordinary expenses " is included the 
 cost of getting in the revenue, that of the central 
 police, and the salaries of native officials, items which, 
 it is obvious, may be made to include the cost of 
 pretty nearly all the machinery of Government. Even 
 with such precautions against any independent action, 
 — although the members of the Council are actually 
 nominated by the Emperor, — a nervous anxiety is 
 displayed lest the newly-constituted bodies should 
 assert their independence. The time and the duration 
 of their session is to be regulated by decree from 
 Paris, and it is made penal for them to pubhsh any 
 address, or to communicate with the Council of either 
 of the other provinces. But if their power is null in 
 opposition to the wishes of the Government, it is 
 enormous for the purpose of giving the colour of 
 consent to them. They may vote sums of money in 
 advance to meet possible requirements on the part of 
 the prefect and military commandant ; and they may 
 grant concessions of public works to either companies 
 or individuals. It is obvious that, with such pro-
 
 438 EETUUN TO A SYSTEM 
 
 visions as these, the Council can only be regarded as 
 a machine for raising such funds as the minister may 
 require ; and that however they may mask, they cannot 
 really check, the most extortionate exactions and the 
 most absurd monopolies. The will of the Govern- 
 ment is, just as before, the sole arbitrator both of the 
 burden to be laid on the backs of the governed, and 
 of the manner of its distribution. But if the new con- 
 stitution is no nearer an approach to self-government, 
 neither does it provide more efficient machinery for 
 absolutism. On the contrary, it seems a return to the 
 false system which prevailed before the discovery was 
 made that the natives could be ruled by the agency 
 of their existing institutions. The authority of the 
 Sheik over his tribe, the most precious of instruments 
 in the hands of those who know how to govern men, 
 is avowedly sought to be destroyed. Some of the 
 members of Council already named are Jews, a fact of 
 itself enough to prejudice every native against the 
 new scheme. If anything could add to the absurdity 
 of this step, it would be the grave official announce- 
 ment, that it was taken to establish the supremacy of 
 the principle of religious toleration in the estimation 
 of the natives. These will bow to the superior force 
 of the Frenchman, although they hate his religion ; 
 but to set up an Israelite in a position of authority 
 over them will be regarded simply as a gratuitous 
 insult. One might as well attempt to increase an
 
 ALREADY FOUND TO PAIL. 439 
 
 English nobleman's sense of Christian brotherhood, 
 by forcing him to dine in his own servants'-hall. 
 
 There are doubtless many who, if a fresh outbreak 
 of the native population of Algeria should be the 
 issue of the new constitution, will not be sorry to see 
 the power of Prance weakened, and her resources 
 exhausted in the efforts to restore tranquillity. Of 
 that number I shall certainly not be one. Whatever 
 crimes may have been committed, and whatever 
 amount of suffering inflicted, in the conquest of North 
 Africa, the present state of things is a gain to the 
 native population, and a benefit to civilised Europe. 
 Let our neighbours for another generation be satis- 
 fied with the possession of a well-administered 
 dependency. Let them allow it to develop itself 
 into a colony in the natural course of events, as 
 security for life and property, a settled policy, and 
 the removal of absurd restrictions, gradually attract 
 capital, and with capital emigration across the sea. 
 Let them patiently await the disintegration of the 
 old institutions, which will assuredly follow in time 
 under the influence of increased wealth and long- 
 continued peace. To cast seed upon the waters, 
 even though many days must pass before the harvest 
 be reaped, is a nobler policy for a ruler, than, out 
 of a morbid impatience for results, to sow a crop 
 of worthless thistles.
 
 440 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Note from Page 418. 
 
 The following is a comparative view of the civil European popula- 
 tion of Algeria at the beginning of the yeai's 1854 and 1857 : — 
 
 1854. 1857. 
 
 French 74,558 100,407 
 
 Spaniards 36,61.3 41,441 
 
 Italians 7,573 9,117 
 
 Maltese 5,966 6,818 
 
 Germans 4,663 5,565 
 
 Swiss 1,656 1,747 
 
 Others 2,163 2,040 
 
 133,192 167,135 
 
 In the former year the numbers were distributed among the 
 provinces, as follows : — 
 
 Algiers 62,440 "^ 
 
 Oran 41,464 )> = 133,192 
 
 Constantine 29,288 J 
 
 Divided according to sex, they consisted of — 
 
 Men 48,467 "^ 
 
 AVomen 37,457 )► = 133,192 
 
 Children 47,268 J 
 
 Of the principal towns of Algeria, the European civil population 
 was— 
 
 On the coast, ir 
 
 I Algiers . . 
 
 . . 30,403 
 
 » 
 
 Tenez . . 
 
 . 1,.385 
 
 
 ChercheU . 
 
 . 1,119 
 
 » 
 
 Dellys . . 
 
 471 
 
 » 
 
 Oran . . . 
 
 . 22,528 
 
 » 
 
 Mostaganem 
 
 . 5,720 
 
 » 
 
 Bona . . 
 
 . 7,740 
 
 » 
 
 Philippe viUe 
 
 . 7,863 
 
 yj 
 
 Bougie . . 
 
 . 1,477 
 
 78,706 
 
 Near the coast 
 
 Koleah . , 
 
 876 
 
 }) 
 
 Blidah . . 
 
 . 4,204 
 
 5,080 
 
 Inland . . . 
 
 Medcah . . 
 
 . 1,176 
 
 
 Milianah . 
 
 . 1,385 
 
 j> 
 
 Orleausville 
 
 998 
 
 >j 
 
 Maskara . 
 
 . 1,705 
 
 » 
 
 Tlem9en 
 
 . 2,892 
 
 >j 
 
 Constantine 
 
 . 2,364 
 
 10,520 
 
 01 ^flR 
 
 
 
 In all other parts of Algeria 
 
 38,786
 
 NOTE. 441 
 
 As in all the above-named places a considerable military force is 
 maintained, it is only reasonable to suppose that the European 
 population exists mainly for the purpose of ministering to their 
 necessities, and contributes little or nothing to the products of the 
 colony. In fact, the official return for the year 1854, puts the 
 European population engaged in the cultivation of the soil at only 
 30,080 persons. 
 
 On the assumption that the same proportions held in the civil 
 population on the 1st of Januai-y, 1857, the European inhabitants of 
 the towns on the coast will have then been 98,311 out of the whole 
 number of 167,135, and the population engaged in agriculture only 
 37,659. Deducting three-fourths of these for women and children, 
 there remain but 9,415 active labourers or overlookers. The army 
 in Algeria on the 1st of January, 1857, consisted of 62,865 of 
 all ranks, which gives nearly seven soldiers for every European 
 producer. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 R. CLAY, PRINTEB, BREAD STREET HILL.
 
 METRES 
 
 looo' 
 
 E SAHARA, IN THE 
 
 Trees again appear 
 (h the flanks of the Aiu-es 
 
 Batua 
 
 CitltivatioD of 
 Vines, Pigs, 
 iMulbeny Trees 
 Tlem.^ and cereals, but 
 7W- V^spec'iallytjioiJrst^ 
 
 .»</»• 
 
 300- 
 20V- 
 ]00' 
 
 ftsiiai' 
 
 TCflf^JJi^on of TiiiP.-i 
 ^ /* M ulVierrv- Trees 
 
 120 j go 
 
 kilombtre] 
 
 12S in i4.es.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
 
 h 
 
 iiiii 
 
 3 1 158 00931 9 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAClLir 
 
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