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THE

JOURNAL

OF A

RESIDENCE IN ALGIERS.

BY
THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ.
AUTHOR OP
" THE PLEASURES OF HOPE."

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. IL

LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

M.DCCCXLn.

z

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

LETTER XVI. Page
Passage from Bougia to Bona — Description of Bona by
Leo — Ruins of the ancient Hippo Regius — The river
Boojeemah — Ruins of the ancient city — An Arab
Family — General Monck d'Uzer — Relative position
of the French and Natives — Ride from Bona vsdth the
General — Turkish Soldiers in French pay — Appear
ance of the Country — Its Fertility — Population —
Mortality at Bona — The Arab Escort — Return to
Bona — Encampment of the Arabs — The Arab Pa
triarch. . . .1
LETTER XVII.
Farm of Marshal d'Uzer — Situation of Bona — ^Ex
pedition of the French against it, in 1 830 — Description
of the Town — Recal of General Damremont in conse
quence of the Revol-ution of the Barricades — Conster
nation of the Inhabitants — Their successful defence
against the Kabylcs and Arabs — Anecdote of a French
a2

VI CONTENTS.
Artilleryman — Heroic resistance to the Native Tribes
by the Citizens — Provisions supplied by General Ber-
thezene — The Bonnese solicit a small auxiliary force
from Algiers — Folly of the French management of
Africa — The French Consul shot — The French driven
out of Bona — A third Expedition sent from Algiers —
Romantic history of Joseph. . . 18
LETTER XVIIL
French African Company — Coral — Ancient opinions
respecting it— Natural History of Coral — Period of the
Coral Fishery in the Mediterranean — Mode of fishing
it up — Remarks of Spallanzani — Sicilian Coral Fishers
— History of the French Coral Fishery — Estimated
revenue that might be derived from its cultivation —
Supply from the Red Sea — Coral much esteemed
among the Orientals — Formation of Coral Reefs —
Remarkable properties of the Coral Insect. . 45

LETTER XIX.
Return from Bona to Algiers — Insolence of the
Boatmen — Violent Storms — Numerous Wrecks — The
French Cobbler— Admiral Bretonniere and the Mo-
niteur Algerien— Intrepidity of an English Captain —
The Eclaireur Steam Ship — Heart-rending Spectacle
— The Vessel succeeds in getting into Algiers — Anec
dote of one of Mr. St. John's Daughters — Quotation
from .iEschylus . . . . .66

CONTENTS. Vll
Page
LETTER XX.
What profit will France make by her conquest of
Algiers ? — Expenses of the Colony — The French Army
— The cost to France at present uncertain — The con
fiscation of the Dey's Treasury — Convention made
at the surrender of Algiers — The Turks transported
out of the country in contravention of the Treaty — No
proofs alleged of a Turkish conspiracy— First Decree
of General Clausel — Effects of the Dey and of the
Beys put under sequestration — Estates of all absent
Turks sequestrated by a new Decree — Baron Pichon
reprobates the Decrees — M. Genty de Bussy modifies
his censure of them — French injustice — Mischievous
conduct of the Soldiers — Funds proceeding from
Legacies for religious and charitable purposes re
spected amongst the Algerines — The Institutions of
Mecca and Medina — Christians as well as Mussul-
men, objects of their charity — The twice a-week
distribution of Alms — Demolition of the largest
Mosque in Algiers by the French — Considerations on
the policy of the Decrees of Sequestration. . . 78
LETTER XXI.
Advantages to be derived from fostering a religious
and commercial intercourse with Arabia — Policy of
promoting Pilgrimages to Mecca — Inattention of the
French Government to this subject — Promotion of
the Medical and Surgical Art by the settlement of the
French — Bagdad^once the first Medical School in the
World— Diseases of the Natives— The doctrine of

Vlll CONTENTS. Page
Fatalism — Peculiarities of the Climate — Swampiness
of the Metidja — Intention of the French to drain the
marshes of the Regency — Number of Arabs who have
received medical treatment, with a list of the various
diseases — Civil Hospitals in a state of formation at
Bona and Oran — The Algerine Moors better educated
than is generally supposed in Europe — Algerine
Schools — Statistical table of pubhc tuition in 1834 —
The Jews more willing than the Moors to avail them
selves of European instruction . .109

LETTER XXII.
Embark at Algiers for Oran— Adventures of Peter
Dumont, who sojourned as a slave in Africa for thirty-
four years — His relation considered as authentic —
Remarkable incident which happened to him — Li
berated by Lord Exmouth — His entire ignorance "of
all that had happened in Europe since n84 — A
Tempest — The Captain of the Steamer — The immi
nent danger — Reflections, in the immediate prospect
of death — Anchor safely off Arzew — Description of
the Village — Anecdote of a poor Arab— The Harbour,
a retreat for Shipping in Autumn and Winter — Salt
Springs and Pits — Ignorance of the Natives in pre
paring the article — The dwarf Palm-tree — The white
Asphodel and wild Asparagus' — Purple Primroses —
Beds of Nettles — Nettle-cloth— Animal Curiosities —
The Mountain Cats — Arrival at Mers-el-Kebir— Pro
ceed to Oran . . . . ]32

CONTENTS. IX
Page
LETTER XXIII.
Description of Oran — Beauty of the climate — The
terraced or sloping Gardens — The Castle of Santa Cruz
— The Spanish Fortifications — Oran relinquished by
the Spaniards in 1791 — Tremendous Earthquake —
Mr. Dalzell, British Vice-Consul — The New Casbah —
Commandant General Trezel — The Fort of Santa Cruz
— A Salt Lake— Spanish population of Oran — Mag
nificent ruins — Native wild flowers — Hysenas and
Snakes — The Miotis Annua — Meat and provisions
cheaper than at Algiers — The Landlady and her vora
cious guests— The Spanish Priest — Lion's flesh and
roasted Jackal — French OflScers well-informed men —
Comparison of French and English manners — Accom
pany General Trezel and his brigade in an excursion
to the interior — The white Gazelle — An Eagle — The
reminiscences it elicits amongst the Soldiers — The
Arab herd-boy — Prevailing inebriety of the French
Soldiers — Military flogging^A group for a Sculptor
— A Lion — Anecdote of two French Soldiers — Story of
a Highland laird — The Lion shot — The young Jackal 153
LETTER XXIV.
Want of public amusements at Oran — French
punishment for Desertion — Description of a Military
Execution — Remark of General Trezel on English
flogging . . . . . .186
LETTER XXV.
Mascara — Abd-el-Kader, theTippoo Saib of North-

X CONTENTS. Page
em Africa — His treaty with the French — Peaceable
intercourse between Oran and Mascara — Spectacle of
the hundred heads — Character of Abd-el-Kader —
Description of his Camp — The Mascaran Consul —
The brave Sarmatians — Dangers of the road — Visit
to Mr. Busnach — Encouraged by him to venture on
the journey — His great kindness — Description of the
country — Sufferings of the French Soldiers— Anec
dote of an Infantry Officer — Arab encampments —
Description of an Arab tent — Aspect of the country
— A sample of barbaric simplicity — Description of
Mascara — Market-place — Villa and garden-grounds
of Abd-el-Kader — Return from Mascara — Encounter
three suspicious characters — The river Hammam —
The silk Umbrella and the phosphoric fire-kindler —
Bitten by an Arab dog — The Patriarch of the Dascra
— Return to Oran . . .195

APPENDIX.
Cattle . 225
Algiers Exports and Imports . 238
Comparison of the Prices of Provisions, &c. . . 240
Bombardment of Algiers in 1682 . . . 242
The arrival of the French in Algiers . . 249
Culture susceptible of improvement, or of being intro
duced . 254
Various Plants ... 269
Territorial Division . . _ 289

CONTENTS.

XI

Page

The Jews ....

. 294

Nephtaly Abousnach the Jew

. 301

Manners and Customs of the Berebers

. 302

Anecdotes of the Kabyles

. 305

Taking of Bougia

. 308

Maraboots

. 314

Military Occupation of Algiers

. 321

On the Advantages of a Civil Government

. 326

Abolition of the Tribunal of the Hanaphy

. 327

Administration of Bourmont

. 327

Police ....

. 330

Hussein Pacha

. 332

Plain of the Metidja

. 333

Government of Bougia and its Garrison

336

Hassan Venedic

. 341

Memmi Bacha

. 342

Considerations on the Colonization of Algiers

. 345

Sequestrations

. 348

School of Mihtary Medicine

. 349

Schools

. 350

Conduct of the French Officers

. 351

Anecdotes of Abd-el-Kader

355

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.

LETTER XVI.

Passage from Bougia to Bona — Description of Bona by
Leo — Ruins of the ancient Hippo Regius — The river
Boojeemah — Ruins of the ancient city — An Arab
Family — General Monck d'Uzer — Relative position
of the French and Natives — Ride from Bona with the
General — Turkish Soldiers in French pay — Appear
ance of the Country- — Its Fertility — Population —
Mortality at Bona — The Arab Escort — Return to
Bona — Encampment of the Arabs — The Arab Pa
triarch.
During our passage from Bougia to Bona,
I again amused myself vpith reading Leo
Africanus, particularly his account of the
place to which we were steering. Bona,
according to Leo, is situated more than a
mile (in secundo miliario) from an ancient
^ VOL. II. B

2 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
town called Hippo, which was founded by
the Romans, and where the divine Augus
tine held his bishoprick. At the fall of the
Roman empire Hippo, or Hippona, sub
mitted to the Goths ; but it was afterwards
burned by the Arabs. At the end of a great
many years, a new city was built out of the
ruins of the ancient one, which is still
called Bona by the Christians, but by the
Arabs Beld el Huneb, or the town of Jujebs,
on account of the vast quantity of that fruit
which is dried in the summer and preserved
for winter. " It numbers (says Leo) about
three hundred families, and its people are
ingenious and active both in merchandise
and the useful arts. Their looms supply
a great quantity of the cloth that is carried
into Numidia ; but the houses and even
public edifices are very mean, with the ex
ception of one temple near the sea ; they
have no fountains, nor any fresh water but
rain, which they keep in cisterns." After

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 3
alluding to the sordid rags and sanctity of
its Maraboots, he describes the spacious
plain in the neighbourhood of Bona, wliich
is forty miles in length and twenty-five in
breath. I was charmed with Leo's descrip
tion of this fertile expanse, and dreamed of
it all night.
Early next morning, we entered the har
bour of Bona. As you approach it, the
shore presents a singular and immense
rock, to which nature in her sport has
given such a likeness to a lion couchant,
that you remark the resemblance before
being told that this is called the Lion Rock.
On the whole, the view of Bona from the
sea is not unpicturesque, but the city has
remained faithful to Leo's account of its
miserable houses, which are lower than
those of Algiers, though the streets are
wider. We repaired to the principal inn,
where we breakfasted indiii'erently at the
charge of four francs a head, and were told
B -2

4 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
that each of our beds would cost five francs
a nisht. Ere noon, I sallied forth with Mr.
Brown and a French artist, who had come
from Algiers to take sketches of the coast
— and crossing the marsh that intervenes,
got to the fe'w ruins that remain of the
ancient Hippo Regius. The river Boojee
mah — which has a bridge of Roman work
manship built over it — runs along the
western side of this marshy plain, as the
Scibhouse, a much larger river, does to
the eastward — both of them having their
influx together into the sea.
The ruins of the ancient city are spread
over a neck of land that lies between these
rivers, which, near the banks, is plain and
level, but rises afterwards to a moderate
elevation. These ruins are about half a
league in circuit, and consist of large
broken walls and cavities beneath the level
of the soil, which are traditionally called
the Roman cisterns.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH, 5
My friend Neiikomm, who had visited
Bona before I met him at Algiers, spoke
to me about these enormous cavities, and
insisted that they must have been churches.
The French painter assured me that they
had been granaries ; but, with all respect
both for painting and music, your poetical
friend adheres to the old opinion that they
were cisterns : the remains of an aqueduct
between them and the river settle all
doubt upon the subject. Among the ruins
is shown the gable of a high building,
which is said to be that of the convent of
St. Augustine; some lofty trees overshade
the neighbourhood of the saint's abode.
Undefinable but solemn feelings came over
me as I trod the ground.
"We pursued our way beyond the ruins
along the eastern road, and came up with
an Arab family whose habitation was an
old ruinous house on the road side. The
father of the family was tending some cattle

6 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
in an adjacent field, and the mother, a very
good-looking woman, with the relics of true
Arabian beauty, was weaving a web of
woollen cloth on the grass near their habit
ation. The simplicity of her weaving was
worthy of the first ages of the world ; in
stead of a shuttle, she employed a needle,
which carried the woof along the threads
of the warp that were stretched along the
ground ; she had a rude sort of reed,
through which the threads of the warp
were run, and, by drawing in this reed, she
bound the woof and warp together.
How pleasing is human art in all its
stages, from simplicity to perfection ! With
full recollections in my mind of the won
derful power-looms which I had seen at
Glasgow, I could still look with interest
on the work of this poor female artisan.
Her two little sons and a daughter were
beside her — all three struck us as being re
markably beautiful. I made Brown, Avho

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 7
understands Arabic, put some questions to
her, and she answered them without inter
rupting her work, as gracefully and easily
as if she had been receiving us in a
drawing-room. " How old," I asked, "is this sweet little
girl ? " (she seemed to be about eight years
old.) " I cannot tell you," she ansM'ered ; " she
was born several summers and winters be
fore the French came here."
" Do you remember, then, how many
summers and winters have gone by since
the birth of either of your sons 1"
" No, I cannot tell you, but I was mar
ried not long after there was a battle in
this neighbourhood, and when many heads
were carried about on poles."
In fact, these Arabs take no note of time,
and have neither clocks nor registers ; yet
they are descendants of the people who
taught us algebra.

8 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
On returning to the hotel, we found a
polite note from the Governor-General
Monck d'Uzer, inviting us to dinner, and
requesting us to consider his table as our
own during our stay at Bona. We dined
with him, accordingly, the same day, and,
whether it was imagination or not, I thought
that the French General and his staff, sur
rounded by barbarians, were as glad to see
European visitants as we were to receive
their hospitality. I certainly remember
few pleasanter evenings. General d'Uzer
is a frank plain man. The French press
speaks pretty freely about the character
and conduct of the leading officers in this
colony, and confidential conversation speaks
still more freely about them ; but I have
never heard d'Uzer's name mentioned with
out respect; and even the Baron Pichon,
who blames certain proceedings of the
French with regard to Bona, exculpates
the present governor, and mentions him in
laudatory terms.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 9
I was therefore flattered with the Gene
ral's readiness, I could almost say zeal, in
my conversation with him, to inform me
of the relative position of the French and
natives in this part of Africa. I felt as a
compliment and as a good sign of the man
his obvious wish that I should appreciate
the justice and humanity of his principles
in governing this portion of the colony. He
said to me, " I have conciliated the natives
by kindness and probity; pray come out
with me to-morrow, and we will take a
morning ride over a part of the vast plain
to the east of Bona, where we shall pass
through encampments of the Arabs without
a single French musket to guard us : Ave
shall have none with us but native horse
men and yet you shall be as safe as if you
were in the streets of London."
Well, we waited on the General the next
morning, and set out on Arabian steeds,
with which he furnished us, one hun-

10 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
dred native cavalry preceding, and fifty
following us, all in their white bernousses*
We cantered out from Bona to the distance
of fourteen miles, in a procession that was
as regular as a funeral, though a great deal
quicker ; and, riding at the side of the
General, I had thus the advantage of his
conversation for a couple of hours. To be
sure when our horses snuffed the country
air, they showed a disposition to scamper
off without regard to order, but we reined
them in pretty well till the end of our
journey. We passed an eminence that was guarded
by a company of Turks. I will tell you
by and bye how it happens that the French
have Turkish soldiers in their pay near
Bona. The guard of Turks turned out in
long file to salute the General. They were
tall, fine men, and I admired their grace
fulness in performing the ceremony. They
did not present their muskets, but kept

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 11
them within their arms whilst they folded
their hands across their breasts, bowing
their heads as in the accustomed Oriental
salaam. The General described to me the
present produce and resources of the coun
try, and enlarged on the advantages that
might be drawn from it by European cul
tivation. He maintained his troops, he
said, not by exactions from the natives,
but by fair purchase, and at very slight
cost to the French government, meat being-
contracted for at two sous a pound, and
bread proportionably cheap.
As we proceeded on the vast plain that
stretches to the borders of Tunis, I was
struck with its verdure, and the appearance
of natural though neglected fertility. There
were here and there tall and dry shrubs,
and abundance of thistles ; but the soil, as
far as my eye could reach, was in general
grassy and of a vivid green : for miles toge-

12 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
ther I could have imagined myself riding
over the turf of Kensington-gardens.
I recalled to mind Joannes Leo's de
scription of it, " Huic oppido spatiosissima
quaedam est planities cujus longitude qua-
draginta, latitude autem viginti quinque
continet miliara — hsec frugibus ferendis est
felicissima." Leo then mentions the vast
affluence of its cultivators in herds and
flocks, and the quantities of butter and
grain which they brought to market. After
calculating in my own mind the number of
square miles and acres which this plain
must contain, I asked the General what he
reckoned the population of its present
cultivators to be, and he computed them
at two thousand souls. Here, then, are
one thousand square miles of richly capa
ble land, or six hundred and fifty thousand
acres, that would aftbrd comfortable farms
to six or seven thousand farmers, and

LETTTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 13
would maintain the population of a little
kingdom, inhabited by poor creatures who
can people it only in the proportion of two
heads to a mile. " And this plain must
be healthy, if I may judge by the air that
I breathe?" " It is less unhealthy," said
the General, " than the marshy land near
Bona, and than the town itself, where the
rubbish of uninhabited houses and other
causes have noxious influences ; but those
influences are declining, and I trust will
soon be removed."
The fee-simple of land may here be pur
chased at the rate of three francs an acre ;
but General d'Uzer was too candid to deny,
that the European settler would have to
encounter some danger of bad health on
the plain itself, until the cultivation of the
earth shall have improved the atmosphere.
When nature is abandoned to herself there
is always more or less insalubrity of cli
mate : there is, moreover, throughout the

14 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
whole region a scarcity of wholesome water,
for there are very few fountains, and its
rivers are turbid. At first, and for a con
siderable time, the mortality at Bona was
frightful; in the January of 1833 the gar
rison, four thousand in number, had ex
actly two thousand in the hospital. Even in
1834, the number of invalids was not dimi
nished, but the deaths were much fewer. A
repaired aqueduct now brings better water
into the town ; the hospitals have much
improved, as well as the barracks of the
soldiers ; greater attention is also paid to
prevent the soldiers from poisoning them
selves with strong liquors and with fruits.
At the distance of some fourteen miles
from Bona, we halted, and allowed our
horses to browse for half an hour on a
grassy spot, whilst the native cavaliers sat
smoking their pipes under groups of trees
as picturesquely as if they had been sitting
for their portraits to a painter. On return-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 15
ing, I was not so fortunate as to have much
of General d'Uzer's company. We had
scarcely remounted, when a portion of the
Arabs, who had to return to their own vil
lages instead of Bona, clapped spurs to
their steeds, and swept away like wild-deer
in a contrary direction to the route pur
sued by the General and his staff. Their
suddenly galloping off, caused, by some
accident, a report to be spread that a wild
boar had been started, and that the Arabs
were in chase of him ; and my steed catch
ing the rumour, neighed, as much as to say,
" Ha, ha!" and set off with me, as if he
had been willing to show the mettle of his
pasture. When I reined him in, he reared
on his hind legs, and gave me hints that if
I did not go forward with him he would
leave me behind — so I let him carry me
over bush and briar, whilst the hard dry
thistle-heads were banging against my stir
rups, till we came up with the native troop.

16 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
One of them, who understood French,
kindly acted as interpreter between me and
my horse. Clapping the buttocks of the
noble animal, he told him in Arabic, in the
first place, that I had no desire to hunt a
boar, and, in the next place, that there was
no boar to hunt. Having converted my
horse to the same opinion, I persuaded him
to turn round and rejoin the General's
cavalcade. On our way back to Bona, we
visited an encampment of the Arabs. One
of them came out to meet us, and presented
to me a cupof butter-milk, which he poured
out of a pitcher. The beverage was wel
come after a fatiguing ride ; but I turned
to the General and requested him to drink
first ; he refused, however, saying, " I am
at home here — this compliment is intended
for you as a stranger ;" and observing that
I had my hand in my pocket, he added,
" Don't offer any money — this man is the
Patriarch of the Adouar." Unlike the

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 17
generality of the Arab patriarchs, the man
before us had a mean appearance ; but of
course, after the General's information, I
thanked him only with a salaam.

VOL. II.

18 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.

LETTER XVII.
Farm of Marshal d'Uzer — Situation of Bona — Expedi
tion of the French against in 1830 — Description of
the Town — Recall of General Damremont in conse
quence of the Revolution of the Barricades — Conster
nation of the Inhabitants — Their successful defence
against the Kabyles and Arabs — Anecdote of a French
Artilleryman — Heroic resistance to the Native Tribes
by the Citizens — Provisions supplied by General Ber-
theztine — The Bonnese solicit a small auxiliary force
from Algiers — Folly of the French management of
Africa — The French Consul shot — The French driven
out of Bona — A third Expedition sent from Algiers —
Romantic history of Joseph.
On our way back to Bona, we halted a fcAv
miles from the town to see a farm which
Marshal d'Uzer has bought and begun to
cultivate, and on which he is constructing
a handsome house. This would seem to
indicate, at least, his belief, that the French
occupation of the country will be perma-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 19
nent. The soil of the flat part of the farm
is black loam, and it appears to be fertile.
He has planted thousands of young trees
in a spacious level orchard, the tender ver
dure of which is beautiful, and fills the
mind with pleasing associations. Here
the olive, the vine, the mulberry, and the
fig-tree have already displaced the osier
and the nettle ; and, amidst fruits and
flowers that vrill soon spring up, the song
of the nightingale will be heard, instead of
the yelping of the jackal. Looking over
the fair plantation, I recalled, and repeated
to myself, the lines of my favourite
Beattie : —
'Twas from Philosophy man learn'd to tame
The soil by plenty to intemperance fed ;
Lo, from the echoing axe and thundering flame.
Poison, and plague, and yelling rage are fled.
The waters bursting from their slimy bed
Bring health and melody to every vale ;
And from the breezy main and mountain's head,
Ceres and Flora to the sunny dale,
To fan their glowing charms, invite the flattering gale.
Minstrel — Book II.
c 2

20 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
On a hill above his farm, the Marshal
has opened a marble quarry. The vein
unfortunately produces hitherto only blue
marble; but he has explored it neither
widely nor deeply, and by extending his
researches he may come to pure white
stone. I returned to Bona, well pleased
with my excursion in all respects, except
that an untoward boot had pressed so
tightly on one of my ankles as to inflame
it, and occasion considerable pain.
Absorbed as I had been, in sublime spe
culations about the quantity of bread and
cheese, which the enormous plain might be
made to yield under good cultivation, I had
never thought of relieving myself by the
simple process of ripping up the galling
leather : on reaching the hotel, I found my
self quite lame, and, after despatching an
apology to the commandant for not dining
with him, I was glad to stretch myself on
the top of my bed, and to amuse myself

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 21
with reading the few books that I had with
me relating to the history of Bona.
I find that the latitude and longitude of
this place have been accurately ascertained
by a French officer of engineers, and that
it lies in 36° 53' 56" north latitude, and in
5° 24' 38" east longitude ; so that its dis
tance in a straight line is a little more than
ninety-five leagues from Algiers.
Bona is situated in a spacious bay,
bounded on the west by Cape Garde, and
on the east by Cape Rosa. The river Sei-
bouze, joined toward the end of its course
by the river Boojeemah, the ancient Armua,
falls into the sea within this bay, as well
as the Mafrag, a river rather less than the
Seibouze, which discharges itself half way
between Bona and Cape Rosa.
General Bourmont had no sooner pos
sessed himself of Algiers than he thought
of occupying Bona. The French having
long maintained an African company,

22 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
whose coral fishery was here, looked on
themselves as natural heirs to the posses
sion of this part of the coast ; an expedition
was accordingly fitted up, and General
Damremont was appointed to the com
mand of it. The land troops consisted of
two regiments of the line, and a proportion
able force of artillery : these were embarked
in ten vessels of different sizes, of which
two frigates, the Bellona and the Duchess
of Berri, set out ahead of the rest to recon
noitre the place, and to sound, not only its
harbour, but the disposition of the inhabit
ants. On the 1st of August, 1830, the whole
squadron anchored in the bay of Bona, and
the Admiral learned from the Captain of
the Bellona, which had previously arrived,
that the inhabitants, annoyed by the hos
tilities of vast hordes of Kabyles and Arabs
who beleaguered the place, would be but
too happy to receive the French as their de-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 23
fenders. By invitation from General Dam
remont, the Cadi and the chief inhabitants
of the city came on board the Commandant's
vessel. Promises of eternal attachment
were exchanged as liberally as between
lovers : it was settled that the French troops
should land, and they accordingly took pos
session both of the town and the citadel.
Bona is built at the bottom of what the
French call a mammelon, i. e., breast or
nipple of land, the sides of which terminate
in steep rocks along the shore. The city is
inclosed by walls, which are about sixty
feet in height, pretty thick, but not backed
with earth, and have the shape of a rect
angle slightly inclined towards the valley
of the Seibouze. This wall, though weak
in some parts, is still capable of a good de
fence against the Arabs ; its total circum
ference is three thousand four hundred
yards. The town has four gates, one lead
ing from the east to the harbour ; another,

24 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
called the Arab Gate, leading to Constan-
tine, and two that face the citadel. The
Kasbah, or citadel, with a wall of seven
hundred yards in circuit, crowns a high
hill to the south of the city : this wall is so
high and so thick, and so backed by the
natural soil, that it would be difficult to
make a breach in it ; it is capable of can
nonading the roadstead and the mouth of
the valley, and entirely commands the
town : its interior is very large, and con
tains a number of cisterns.
Posted here with two thousand regu
lar soldiers, besides artillerymen, General
Damremont congratulated his countrymen
on their prowess in beating off the Kabyles
and Arabs, who besieged the place very
actively during eighteen days ; but, if we
look to the history of a subsequent siege,
after General Damremont had deserted
Bona, we shall not be disposed to rank this
defence among the first-rate feats of hero-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 25
ism. On the 18th of August, a squadron
of four ships arrived from Algiers, bringing
at once intelligence of the revolution of the
Barricades in Paris, and an order for Gene
ral Damremont and all his force to re-em
bark for Algiers. It was supposed that
General Bourmont meditated throwing him
self with the whole French African army,
if he could persuade them to follow him,
into the South of France, and there to erect
the Bourbon standard.
Whether he entertained this project or
not, he at least thought it fife that the gar
rison of Bona should be recalled ; and the
inhabitants learned with consternation that
they must now depend on their own valour
for defending the town. Fear and grief,
say the French, and we can well believe
them, were depicted in the countenances
of the citizens when they saw the prepara
tions of the French for departing; and, by
way of encouraging their compatriots to a

26 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
more desperate resistance, a hundred and
twenty families of the richer class took the
noble resolution of flying away, and em
barked on board the French squadron for
Algiers. The remainder, thus left to their
fate, seemed to have but a small chance of
standing out against their besiegers ; but
the poor people of Bona, though thus
basely abandoned both by the French and
their own civic notables, were not thrown
into utter despair, but resolved upon and
accomplished their defence.
Una sal us victis nuUam sperare salutem.
They threw fifty men into the citadel,
and the rest kept watch and ward on the
city walls ; the continuance of fourscore
Turkish soldiers among them, the residue
of the ancient garrison, was no doubt an
important circumstance in their favour,
and it is possible that the occupation of
Bona by the French had spread an exas-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 27
peration among the native tribes, that may
have somewhat abated when they heard of
the Christians having departed . Neverthe
less, the Kabyles and Arabs still partially
invested the place, and the position of the
citizens was very perilous, as the Bey of
Constantine continued summoning them to
surrender. The number of men in Bona
at this time could not have exceeded three
hundred, if it even amounted to so much,
without counting the Turks ; for the French,
on first taking possession of it, reckoned
the whole population only at two thousand.
One thing was quite certain, namely,
that if the native tribes had got into the
town and found any unfortunate Chris^tian,
particularly a French soldier, within its
precincts, his head would have been the
first offering made to Mahomet. After the
embarkation of the French was completed,
and their sails were hoisted, a signal from
the land was given by the Bonnese, re-

28 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
questing a boat's crew to be sent ashore.
A boat was accordingly manned and sent,
and the cause of the signal was found to be,
that a French artilleryman had been left
behind in the hurry of embarkation, and
the inhabitants, though far from secure
themselves, had no wish that he should be
included in the massacre. There was cou
rage as well as humanity in this action, for
the citizens who brought dowh this artil
leryman to the sea-shore, and saw him into
the boat, both came and went back under
the fire of the besieging Arabs.
For more than a year after the first
abandonment of Bona by the French, the
little civic garrison continued heroically to
resist the hostilities of the native tribes, and
to refuse submission to the Bey of Con
stantine. In the beginning of July, 183],
General Berthezene, the then Governor of
Algiers, learning that they were blockaded,
and probably in want of provisions, sent

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 29
them a present of twenty sacks of biscuits,
and a few more of rice, together with a
cargo of provisions, which were offiered for
their purchase, at what the French con
sidered moderate prices. The Bonnese
accepted the present with many thanks,
but they declined the provisions that were
offered for sale, as they could import the
same articles at a cheaper rate from Alex
andria and Tunis : happily, their invaders
were too barbarous to have a single galley
at sea : the people of Bona had, therefore,
to endure only a land-blockade.
But how did the poor devils, you will
say, get money to purchase supplies from
Egypt and Tunis after all their richest
citizens had left them ? This question is
not perfectly insoluble. In the first place,
let a Moor or an Arab pass for being ever
so poor, and live ever so miserably, you
can never be sure that he is really poor, or
that he has not got a good deal of money

30 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
hid underground; and this was probably
the case with the majority of the citizens
of Bona,, who were reckoned in the poorer
class. In the next place, there are still
some manufactories of cloth and other
articles in Bona ; and the desultory warfare
of its besiegers, I believe, never entirely
prevented a trade with the interior which
carried the Bonnese exports into the inte
rior, and brought back, I believe, even gold
from the auriferous sands of the river Jum-
mel, in the province of Constantina.
Bona thus continued to hold out, and the
only mark of distrust in its own resources
which it betrayed was, the sending a re
quest to the Governor of Algiers for a
small auxiliary force, to be accompanied
with some arms and ammunition. The
deputation, however, who brought this re
quest, particularly insisted that no French
soldiers should be sent, but only Maho-,
metans in the French service. A hundred

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 31
and twenty-five Zouaves were accordingly
selected at Algiers, and the stipulation
respecting " no Frenchmen " was adhered
to as far as the privates were concerned,
but the twelve officers and subalterns were
all French.
Every man was provided with a hundred
and fifty European cartridges, besides forty
thousand Algerine ones for the whole corps,
and to these were added sixty grenades,
fifty howitzers charged, a hundred mus
kets, and sixty complete uniforms. A dis
tinguished officer, Captain Bigot, had the
chief military command of this little force,
whilst Lieutenant-Colonel Huder had in
reality a superior authority, under the title
of French consul at Bona. The expedition
arrived on the 14th of September, 1831 :
its details have not sufficient importance
that I should relate them to you, but, when
I put them together in my own mind, they
seem to me one of the thousand and one

32 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
proofs of the folly, and, what is worse, of
the folly made more foolish by fraud, that
has pervaded the French management of
Africa. Really, if ants and beavers had
risible faculties, they might well laugh at
the lack of wisdom with which the affairs
of men are conducted.
The French manifestly wished to make
themselves masters of Bona, and, all things
considered, I should say that they were
justifiable in that desire ; for, if their occu
pation of northern Africa is to be of any
use to the cause of civilization, it is obvious
that they must possess as much as possible
of the Algerine Regency ; but, if the pos
session of Bona was their wish, they should
have also made it their determination, and
the presence of a few frigates in the har
bour would have instantly decided the
matter, by laying the Bonnese at the mercy
of the French for supplies by sea ; whilst, at
the same time, two or three battalions would

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 33
have delivered the place from all land-
blockade, and would have imposed laws on
the Moors and Arabs.
If, on the other hand, France thought
herself bound, in conscience, merely to
protect the people of Bona, and to leave
them a free and independent community,
they ought not to have sent a French officer
at all amongst the Zouaves, and they should
have instructed Colonel Huder to act in no
other manner than as a mere consul. But
they chose a disingenuous middle part.
They pretended to treat the people of Bona
as allies, independent of everything except
the friendly assistance of the French ; but
the citizens very soon saw that Huder had
come as a would-be commandant, and not
as a consul. No blame, I believe, attaches
personally to Huder — he only obeyed his
instructions — but the intentions of the
French not to aid, but to rule, became so
evident, that the Turks, joined not only by
VOL. II. D

34 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
most of the citizens, but by the Arabs
without, caballed against the French, and
resolved to get rid of them. Prayers were
offered up in the mosques, beseeching God
to favour an insurrection against the Chris
tians. The issue of the affair was this, —
though a detachment of French military
arrived to relieve the forlorn consul, he
was shot through the head, in attempt
ing to swim to a French vessel in the har
bour — Captain Bigot was massacred in
one of the streets— and the French, and
all who were friendly to them, were chased
out of Bona.
In March, 1832, the Government at Al
giers equipped against this place a third
expedition, the diminutive nature of which,
I think, did as little credit to their saga
city as that of the last: but they, hap
pily, selected leaders of uncommon skill
and intrepidity, and, by almost miraculous
good fortune. Bona was taken without

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 35
bloodshed. This success was attributed
principally to three individuals. Captain
D'Armandy of the artillery, Lieutenant
Freart of the navy, and an adventurer
named Yousouf or Joseph, then a captain
of the Algerine chasseurs, whose history is
rather romantic*
Before I tell you the romance of Joseph's
historj^ I ought to state the exploits, either
real or but slightly, if at all, exaggerated,
which have brought him into notice. An
European by birth, he lived from childhood
* In a newspaper I have just seen, I find General Clau
sel mentioning the name of my friend Joseph with no
small approbation. The general dates from Oran an ac
count of a recent battle between the French and Abd-el-
Kader, Prince of Mascara, in which poor Abd-el-Kader
has been miserably cut up. General Clausel says, " The
Chef d'Escadron Yousouf, whom I brought from Bona,
was at the head of the native horsemen. Six times while
pursuing Abd-el-Kader he succeeded in cutting him off
from his men. He was afterwards separated from him by
a distance of only forty paces, and if his horse had not been
exhausted by a gallop of three hours, he would have cer
tainly taken him prisoner."
D 2

36 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
to manhood at Tunis, and repairing from
thence to Algiers, after the French had
conquered it, he entered into their service
and distinguished himself by his bravery.
He was employed by General Clausel, and
was one of his staff. The Duke of Rovigo
afterwards appointed him to take a share
in the last adventurous expedition to Bona,
the citadel of which was manned by the
Turkish soldiers already mentioned, who
threatened a determined resistance. Here
Joseph performed a feat which, unless its
narrators unaccountably embellish it, has
no parallel that I know of, except in the
annals of ancient Greece or of chivalry —
as for the story,
" I give it as 'twas given to me.''
He climbed the walls of the citadel
alone, threw himself amidst fourscore
Turks, harangued them dauntlessly in their
own language, which he had learned at
Tunis, and by his eloquence persuaded

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 37
them to join the cause of the French and
to make him (Yousouf) their commander.
Though I returned from Bona to Algiers
with the hero himself, I am sorry to say
that his temporary indisposition prevented
me from getting a distinct account of his
exploit from his own lips, and he failed to
fulfil a promise which he made me, to write
me out a full account of it in French, when
we should arrive at Algiers. From all that
I have heard, my impression is, that he un
doubtedly scaled the walls of the Kasbah,
but whether his escalade was supported by
followers, to back his eloquence, as I_ sus
pect it was, I cannot determine. At all
events, the enterprise was consummately
heroic. Joseph was rewarded for it by an
appointment to command the Turkish gar
rison, and he admitted many French Avith-
in the citadel walls. He had not, however,
been long in his authority, when he dis
covered that the Turks were conspiring to

38 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
assassinate him, and also to massacre all
the French in the town as well as in the
Kasbah. On this intelligence, he went immedi
ately to Captain D'Armandy, warned him
of the danger, and declared to him he knew
but one means of warding it off. " I must
march out of the citadel," he said, " with
all my Turks." " But the Turks will kifl
you," replied D'Armandy. " And what if
they do?" replied Yousouf ; "I shall still
have time enough to spike the artillery at
the marine. I shall die, I foresee, but you
will be saved ; and the French colours will
continue to float over Bona!" He had
scarcely uttered these words, when he sal
lied from the fort at the head of his Turks,
and the gates were instantly shut behind
him. After descending to the bottom of
the town, Joseph halted his troops and
addressed them thus : — "I know very well,"
he said, " that there are traitors among you,

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 39
who have conspired to despatch me, and
that the night after this day, was the time
appointed for executing your infamous pro
ject ; but I know who are the guiltiest in
this conspiracy, and now let them strike —
if they dare to lift a hand against their
commander." Then, turning to one of the
troop, he said, " You are one of the guilty !'"
and he shot him dead on the spot. His
resolution overawed the conspirators ; the
whole troop fell on their knees and vowed
to him a fidelity from which they have
never swerved.
Joseph was born in the island of Elba,
probably about the year 1807. He remem
bers, in 1811, when he was a little boy,
to have seen the Emperor Napoleon, who
noticed him and patted his head. He is a
handsome man, and, with his intelligent
countenance, must have been an exceed
ingly interesting boy. He gives out tliat
he has no recollection of hjs family, from

40 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
which it must be inferred either that his
parents died in his absolute infancy, and
that he was an orphan in the hands of
guardians ; or, that he has no wish to record
his ancestors, possibly intending to set up
for an ancestor himself. I lean to the
latter supposition, because he lived in Elba
long enough to be fit for school, and a child
of that age was not likely to be perfectly
ignorant about his parents. Be that as it
may, he was embarked for Florence, Avhere
he was to have been placed at college, be
ing then some seven or eight years old ;
but the vessel that bore him, falling in
with a Morocco corsair, our little hero was
taken to Tunis, and became the property
of the Bey, in whose palace he was placed,
and made a Mussulman — " d I'improviste."
Here his education, though different from
what it Avould have been at Florence, was
not neglected. He made rapid progress
in the Turkish, Spanish, and Arabic Ian-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 41
guages ; and, instead of learning the logic
of Aristotle, he became a proficient in the
logic of the sabre. At the age of manhood,
he was an accomplished soldier, and he
accompanied the Dey of Tunis in an ex
pedition as far as the desert, for the col
lection of those voluntary taxes, which the
loving subjects of the Dey always con
tribute at the point of the sword. He re
turned Avith a high character,
" Dreaded in battle and loved in hall ;"
and being exceedingly handsome, he cap
tivated the heart of one of the daughters of
the Dey.
All this is charming, you Avill say — but is
it all true? Yes, I oAvn to you, it looks
like a parody on that beautiful French
song " Le Beau Fernand aima la fille d'un
Rbi Maure," to Avhich aac have both listened
with admiration ; but I fully believe the
story of Joseph's courtship of the Moorish
princess ; and it is the more credible from

42 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
the circumstance, that the Bey of Tunis has
one hundred and fifty daughters constantly
living in his palace. Joseph and his prin
cess met and fell madly in love, and, as it
was leap-year, she made the first proposals.
According to the Tunisian version of the
story, they were one day surprised at their
place of interview by a eunuch of the pa
lace, whom Joseph took the bold resolution
of following into the adjacent garden, and,
as dead men tell no tales, of cutting off his
head. Having disposed of the body, so
says the story, by throwing it into a deep
fish-pond, he next day met his sweetheart,
who was a prey to the liveliest terrors ; but,
to assuage them, he opened a press in his
chamber and showed her the head of the
spy — " Behold ! madam," he said, at least
they say that he said ; " there are the eyes
that looked upon our love, and there are
the lips that would have revealed it." But
melo-dramatic and beautiful as this latter

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 43
part of the story is, I consider it as apocry^
phal. At least, Yousouf himself protested
to me, in the strongest terras, that the
murder and the press-scene were sheer
fictions. I made his acquaintance on board the
steamer in returning to Algiers. I was
struck with his appearance, and the vivid
expression of his countenance ; but, though
I will not call him absolutely a dandy, his
manners certainly struck me as exhibiting
no deficiency in self-estimation. How his
amour was discovered, I know not, but dis
covered it was ; and Yousouf, finding that
his presence could be dispensed with at
court, decamped as speedily and as secretly
as he could. The Consul of France as
sisted him in his escape.
In the May of 1830, there lay in the road
stead a French brig, to which a boat was
got ready for conveying him ; but five
tchausses (Moorish officers of police, next

44 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
in dignity to the hangman,) were posted
on the shore to speak a quiet word with
him before embarking. Yousouf, stealing
along concealed pathways, remarked that
those tchausses had piled their arms on a
rock at the sea-side. He got close to them
unobserved, he sprang on them like a cat
upon vermin, poked at them with his yata-
gan till they all ran belter skelter, then
tumbled their arms into the sea and leaped
into his boat. All this was done in a few
moments. The brig that received him was
under orders to join the fleet Avhich was to
invade Algiers. He was welcomed by the
French army, and speedily rose to distinc
tion. But what became of his poor dear
princess ? Alas ! I cannot tell you : — the
first time, however, that I go to Tunis, I
will make the strictest inquiries respecting
her.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 45

LETTER XVIIL
French African Company — Coral — Ancient opinions re
specting it — Natural History of Coral — Period of the
Coral Fishery in the Mediterranean — Mode of fishing
it up — Remarks of Spallanzani — Sicilian Coral Fishers
— History of the French Coral Fishery — Estimated
revenue that might be derived from its cultivation —
Supply from the Red Sea — Coral much esteemed
among the Orientals — Formation of Coral Reefs —
Remarkable properties of the Coral Insect.

More than a century before the conquest
of Algiers and down to a comparatively
recent period, the French had an African
Company, Avho, with factories at different
places on the coast, rented from the Alge
rine government a monopoly for the export
ation of wool and grain, as well as for the
fishery of coral which was principally con
ducted at Bona.
In the voyage thither, I sometimes amused

46 letters from the south.
myself with building castles, not in the air,
but under water. I am a great lover of
submarine prospects. Often in my boy
hood, when the day has been bright and
the sea transparent, I have sat by the hour
on a Highland rock admiring the golden
sands, the emerald weeds, and the silver
shells at the bottom of the bay beneath, till,
dreaming about the grottoes of the Nereids,
I would not have exchanged my pleasure
for that of a connoisseur poring over a
landscape by Claude, or Poussin. Enchant
ing Nature ! thy beauty is not only in hea
ven and earth, but in the waters under our
feet. How magnificent a medium of vision
is the pellucid sea ! Is it not like poetry,
that embellishes every object we contem
plate ?
On the way to Bona, I recalled old and
pleasing recollections of voyagers who de
scribe the splendour of coral groves, par
ticularly as they are seen on the shores of

letters from the south. 47
the Red Sea when its water is still ; and
though I was not going so far as the Red
Sea, yet I flattered myself that I might
enjoy some such spectacle on the shores of
the Mediterranean. Well, and got you a
sight of any coral groves, or pretty mer
maids sporting among them ? No, indeed
I must confess I came at the wrong time to
see the coral-fishery ; and, as to groves and
mermaids, on the only morning I could
spare to look out for them, the sea was not
so smooth or civil as to give me a sight of
either. Indeed, I am told that nothing is
so rare as the sight of a mermaid on that
coast, his marine majesty being as jealous
as a Moor about his females.
I however picked up some information
which was new to me, and which I hope
you will not think uninteresting, respect
ing that singular production of nature —
coral. In our own remembrance, a bit of
that substance used to be one of the first

48 LETTERS from THE SOUTH.
things, after the nurse's nipple, that was
put into the toothless human mouth ; a bit
of soft white wax is now more sagaciously
substituted : but yet, common as coral is, if
you ask the first ten persons you meet with,
to what kingdom of nature the substance
belongs, it is probable that nine out of the
ten will be unable to answer the question.
Coral was long believed to be a marine
plant, but it is not a vegetable. It belongs
to the animal kingdom ; that is to say, it
is the habitation of a minute animal, who
makes it his cradle, his castle, and I may
add his catacomb, for the substance does
not completely indurate or become suscep
tible of polish, till its tenant is dead.
The first ancient naturalists, looking only
to its appearance, Avhen formed into beads
and toys, considered it as a mere stone or
mineral ; and it is so called in one of the
Orphic fragments, and recommended as an
antidote to the bite of serpents. Aristotle

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 49
makes no mention of it ; but his scholar
Theophrastus, being a botanist, made the
poor thing very unjustly a subject of the
vegetable kingdom, and Dioscorides and
Pliny *, together Avith a host of botanists,
even down to modern times, followed Theo-
phrastus's example, Ovid was of the same
opinion, and in the following lines,
" Sic et coralium, quo primum contigit auras
Tempore durescit : mollis fuit herba sub undis" —
alludes to an error not very long exploded,
that the coral hardens by its transition from
water to air. The fact is, that the coral
which is fished up soft is only that part of
it which is inhabited by the living genera
tion of animals.
The botanists having remarked that coral
has a root, i. e., that it attaches itself to
any substance which will give it firm an-
* Plinyseems to allude to the coral when he says, " Nas-
cuntur et in mari frutices arboresque : minores in nostro :
Rubrum enim et totus Orientis oceanus refertus est sylvis."
VOL. II. E

50 LETTERS FROM THE SQUTH.
chorage under the sea ; that it has a trunk
as well as branches, and that the last layers
of these are less solid than the inner ones,
set down the former, that is, the last layers,
as the bark of the coral-tree. Even as late
as the last century, the Count de Marsigli,
an eminent naturalist of Italy, having re
marked some white little bits of substance
shooting out of coral Avhich had been re
cently brought out of the sea, pronounced
them to be the flowers of the coral plant.
After this, the botanists for a long time
considered the A^egetable nature of this
production to be unquestionable, till the
French naturalist, Peyssonnel, gained him
self just celebrity by the single discovery
that coral is not a vegetable, and that the
imagined blossoms are really animals. His
proofs to this eftect are now considered as
irrefragable ; but his theory Avas for some
time discountenanced by Reaumur him
self, who Avas looked up to at that time as

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 51
the chief of natural historians. A discovery,
however, somewhat analogous to Peysson-
nel's — namely, that by Trembly, of the
polypus in fresh water — recalled the atten
tion of the scientific to the theory of the
former philosopher : the Academy of Sci
ences sent two of their members, Messrs.
Guettard and Jussieu, to the coast where
coral Avas fished, and those eminent men
confirmed Peyssonnel's assertion, that these
little floriform things are living creatures.
Before I left Bona, a manuscript essay on
the natural history of coral was offered to
me for sale, and I purchased it. Though
the vender, who pretended to have written
it himself, was a shrewd-looking fellow, and
evidently was well acquainted with the coral
fishery, I had not read much of the work
Avhen I found that it could not be his com
position. As a scientific article, it is a per
fect model of concinnity and clearness ; brief
without abruptness, and full without super-
E 2

52 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
fluity. I derived so much pleasure from
reading this essay, that I have had half a
mind to translate it for you ; but it contains
matter that would cover several sheets, and
yet is too compact to bear abridgment *.
The time for the coral fishery in the
Mediterranean is from the middle of April
to the end of July. It is fished up in the
following way. There are generally seven
men to a boat, six of whom manage it,
whilst one is the fisher. The machinery
employed for tearing the coral from the
bottom of the sea consists first of all of two
beams crossed and tightly fixed at right
angles to each other, with a leaden weight
to press them down ; to these beams they
fasten a great quantity of hemp loosely
twisted, among which they mix strong nets.
When the machine has been let down into
the sea, and the coral is thought sufficiently
* I have since found that it is an article by M. de Blain-
ville, in a recently published Philosophical Dictionary.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 53
entangled in the hemp and nets, they draw
it out by a rope which they unwind accord
ing to the depth, and which sometimes re
quires half a dozen boats to draw it. The
operation is toilsome, and even attended
with danger.
Spallanzani says that the hollows and
caverns of rocks are the places, from which
they endeavour to bring up the coral with
their nets ; not but that it likewise grows
out of these and on the sides of rocks, but
usually in less quantity.
As to the position in which coral chiefly
loves to groAv — for the insect seems to build
his fortification not from chance, but from a
desire for security against the agitation of
the sea — it seems agreed, that the coral
prefers a southern aspect. The depth at
which it grows varies enormously, from ten
feet to seven hundred and fifty ; it may
even grow farther beneath the sea's surface

54 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
for aught that is known, but to fish it from
a greater depth would be too laborious.
It is further remarked, that the deeper
coral grows in the sea the smaller it is.
" This observation," says Spallanzani, " ap
pears to be universal and constant. To
what," he continues, " are we to attribute
this difference?- Were coral brought up
only from places to Avhich the heat, or at
least the light of the sun, can penetrate, we
might suspect that one or other of those two
principles might more or less influence its
growth. But it appears certain that corals
grow even on those bottoms to which not
an atom of solar heat, much less of light
can penetrate, if there be any accuracy in
the calculations of a celebrated philosopher,
Avho asserts that the light of the sun does
not enter deeper into the Avater than six
hundred feet, and that his heat does not
reach to a quarter of that depth." Yet

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 55
coral is sometimes fished up, according to
the observations of Marsigli, from a depth
of seven hundred and fifty feet.
If we reject these two principles as in
sufficient, it will be very difficult to dis
cover Avhat other can cause the greater
growth of coral at a less depth. " I have
sometimes thought," Spallanzani continues,
" that the pressure of water at these great
depths might possibly be an impediment
to its development; but this idea by no
means accords with the birth and growth
of numerous minute plants and worms not
inferior in the delicacy and tenderness of
their bodies to the polypi of the coral, at
equally low submarine situations."
The coral on the coast of Barbary, it ap
pears, is larger than that of Messina ; but
the latter, when it is red, has a more vivid
colour. Spallanzani adds, " that the Sicilian fish
ers divide the whole tract in which they

56 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
seek for coral into ten parts. Every year
they fish only in one of these parts, and
then do not fish for it again until ten years
have elapsed. This interval of time they
think necessary for the coral to acquire
its full growth in height and consistence.
When they transgress this law, they find,
in fact, the coral smaller and of less con
sistence, and the intensity of the colour is
also always in proportion to the number of
years in which they have desisted from
fishing. When the ten years have elapsed,
they believe that the coral no longer in
creases in height, but only in thickness :
this increase, however, has its limits, never
exceeding a third part beyond the common
size." ,
From all that I can learn, the old French
African Company derived no great profits
from the fishery of this article at Bona and
their adjacent factories, and the only bene
fit resulting to France Avas, that it afforded

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 57
a nursery for a few hundred seamen. The
fishers AA'ere generally natives of the south
of France, who were furnished with pro
visions and utensils, and bound to deliver
the whole product of their industry at a
stipulated price ; but, both their agents and
their fishers, cheated the Company. The
latter sold their finest pieces of coral at sea,
and brought ashore only those of an inferior
quality. In 1793, the revolutionary government of
France attempted to give new vigour to the
coral fishery, and, finding a lack of French
hands, they employed some hundreds of
Italian mariners ; but the latter, after the
honest example of their predecessors, con
tinued to fish morC' for their own benefit
than for that of their employers. By and
bye Napoleon's expedition to Egypt set
him at war with all the Barbary powers,
and put a stop to all the commercial specu-

58 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
lations of France on the north of Africa,
where her company was ruined, and its
agents clapped in irons. In 1805, a peace
was concluded with the Dey of Algiers,
and a ncAV attempt Avas made to renovate
the fishery, but without success. A fcAV
years afterwards, it came into the hands of
the English, and their sagacity revived it.
They adopted a new mode of remunerating
the fishers, and some tAvo hundred thousand
pounds sterling became the annual profit
of the fishery. In 1817, the fishery was
once more cultivated by the French, and
continued to be so down to the time of their
quarrel with Algiers, but with decreasing
advantage, owing to a great reduction in
the price of coral itself*.

* In stating these views as to the coral fishery I may
have failed, for want of clearness in my language, to have
explained the consistency of two assertions which are never
theless reconcileable — " Coral has fallen in value." It

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 59
" The conquest of Algiers," says Genty
De Bussy, " AAhich ought to have bene
fited the coral fishery, appears to have
been almost its death-blow. The few ship
owners who show themselves on the coast
in this trade have to borrow money at
usurious interest ; the coral is low in value
and of difficult sale, so it is no Avonder
that the fishers implore a diminution or an
abolition of the charges that weigh upon
them." " France," he continues, " being now
mistress of all the coasts which contain
coral, there cannot be two opinions about
its being her interest to encourage the
fishery of it ;" and he thinks that the best
means of encouraging it would be, since
native adventurers are so reluctant to come,
fell very much in consequence of the poverty in Eastern
countries, that resulted from pestilence ; but the price and
demand are now increasing, and it would be policy in France
to encourage the fishery of it.

60 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
to encourage foreign fishers by the reduc
tion of rent, and only to confine their ex
portation of it to France.
At the same time, this writer, whose Avork
on the statistics of the conquered Regency
is at once copious and authoritative, though
he wishes to see a great many coral-fishers
on the coast, very justly adverts to the fact,
that the- coral itself Avould be exhausted or
much deteriorated by over-crowded com
petition, and that the number of vessels
should therefore be limited, as well as that
the fishery should be pursued only suc
cessively in particular stations, in order to
give the article due time to reproduce itself.
Luckily it is found that there are coral beds
here and there along the whole coast from
Bona, and the borders of Tunis on the east,
almost to the confines of Morocco in the
opposite direction. Among so many sta
tions, it Avould be easy to afford several
years of repose to some of them, and to

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 61
cultivate the rest with great profit. France,
I should think, might thus derive from coral
alone above 200,000/. a-year, or about a
fifth of all the money that is requisite to
support her colony.
It is a curious fact, that though the Red
Sea abounds in coral, it is inadequate to
supply the constant demand for this article
in the East. Loads of it are constantly
transported from Europe to Alexandria
and Aleppo, and from thence to Bagdad,
through Avhich place it reaches Persia and
India. The cholera, it is true, by spreading
poverty and thinning population in eastern
countries, lately checked the coral trade in
that quarter ; but the demand is now re
viving, and you have only to look at all the
arms, coff'ers, and trinkets that come from
the East, to see what a favourite coral is
among the Orientals — adorning at once the
sword-belts of their warriors, and the necks
of their women.

62 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Do not hypercritically chide me, for
dwelling so long on the subject of this
substance. A bit of ornament and a bauble
it is, I grant you ; but remember that the
coral-insect, though a tiny little gentleman,
is more important in one respect than
Columbus himself He is not a finder of
islands and continents, but a founder of
them. This thing, though but recently
admitted to be a living creature, encroaches
on the ocean itself — diminishes his domi
nion — increases the proportion of habitable
land on our planet, and contributes with
the submarine volcano to change the aspect
of the globe. The volcano, as an agent of
nature, does his business with terrible de
spatch ; he heaves up the bottom of the sea
to a moderate distance from its surface, and
there leaves a submarine rocky bank ; but,
in a thousand instances, this bank Avould
never emerge from the ocean as an island,
unless the little coral-insect set to work in

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 63
building his house upon every hard sub
stance that he can find at the bottom of
the sea.
When the first generation of these ani
malcules ceases to live, their structures
adhere to each other by virtue either of the
glutinous remains within them, or of some
property in salt water, and the interstices
being gradually filled up by sand and shells,
a mass of rock is at length formed. Future
races of these animalcules erect their habi
tations upon the rising bank, and die in
their turn, to increase, but principally to
elevate this monument of their wonderful
labours. An able voyager *, aaIio has
AAritten on the formation of coral-reefs,
observes, that " the care taken to AVork
perpendicularly in the earlier stages, marks
a surprising instinct in these diminutive
creatures ; for, when their wall of coral,
* Captain Flinders.

64 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
which is erected for the most part in situa
tions Avhere the winds are constant, is ar
rived at the surface, it affords a shelter, to
the leeward of which their infant colonies
may be safely sent."
To be constantly covered with water
seems to be necessary to the existence of
the coral insects ; and, therefore, their habi
tations are always under the sea's surface.
But, above their habitations, matter accu
mulates till it overtops the waves at low
Avater, and this matter, being exposed to
the action of the air, loses its adhesive pro
perty, salt-plants take root upon it, and a
soil begins to be formed. Ere long, the
new bank is visited by the sea-bird ; by
and bye, the nut of the cocoa or the pan-
danus is thrown ashore, and the wearied
land-bird, resting his Avings on the soil,
deposits on it the seed of herbs and trees.
Every tide and every gale adds something
to the bank, and it gradually spreads into

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. ' 65
an island of luxuriant vegetation. Man
comes at last to take possession of the new
estate, and he may well say that the archi
tecture of an insect has laid the foundation
of his property.

VOL. II.

66 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.

LETTER XIX.
Return" from Bona to Algiers — Insolence of the Boat
men — Violent Storms — Numerous Wrecks — The
French' Cobbler — Admiral Bretonnifere and the Mo-
niteur Algerien — Intrepidity of an English Captain —
The Eclaireur Steam Ship — Heart-rending Spectacle
— The Vessel succeeds in getting into Algiers — Anec
dote of one of Mr. St. John's Daughters — Quotation
from .iEschylus. February 19, 1835.
I KNOW not what I can tell you of my
adventures in returning from Bona to
Algiers, unless you Avill excuse me for re
cording fan obligation that I OAved to the
Lieutenant of the steamer in which I em
barked. To carry me out to that steamer
with my servant and luggage, I hired a
boat with three boatmen, to whom, on
coming aboard, I offered as many francs
for the trouble of rowing me about the dis-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 67
tance of a stone-cast. One of the knaves
followed me up to the deck, and, throwing
down the money, begged leave to assure
me that I was no gentleman. I coolly
picked up my silver, collared the fellow,
took him before the lieutenant, and ex
plained the cause of our dispute. The
lieutenant, like a second Daniel, gave judg
ment against my adversary. " You rascal !"
said he to him, " have you dared to refuse
what is three times your fare ? But your
insolence shall be punished." He then
seized him by the shoulders, turned him
round, and gave him three of the hand
somest kicks that I ever saw bestowed on
the after-part of a human body. In a gene
ral, view, I disapprove of man kicking his
brother man ; but here there was a fair
exception to the rule. I had justice on my
side, and, with the picked-up francs in my
hand, I felt that I had " stoomd to conquer."
I gave them to the knave, and added,
F 2

68 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
" Remember not to keep the three kicks
that you have got, any more than the three
francs, all to yourself; two of them are due
to your companions."
When I look to the date of this letter, I
am afraid that, before it reaches you, you
will have been alarmed at my silence.
During the two past weeks, no packet has
sailed for France ; the intercourse with
Europe has been stopped by such tem
pests, as even the stormy winter of Algiers
has not witnessed for several seasons. The
11th and 12th of February were memorable
days. On the morning of the former day,
about one a.m., I was awakened by the
howling of the wind ;—
" That night a child might understand
The De'il had business on his hand" —
and, accordingly, the De'il was very busy
next day ; for, after having wrecked four
teen ships at Bona and Bougia, he paid us
a visit, and the storm has smashed one-and-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 69
twenty vessels in the harbour, or, I should
rather say, the roadstead, of Algiers — for,
properly speaking, there is no protecting
hal'bour. A pier, the improved erection of
which is said to have cost the French a
million of francs, or forty thousand pounds,
has been swept away like a loaf of sugar ;
and it is calculated that the entire loss by
these gales will amount to three times that
sum. But, what is most deplorable, four
teen human beings have perished.
Unable to get any repose on the awful
night of the lltb, I dressed myself and got
up to the house-top, where I could keep
my feet only by clinging to the breast
work. The moon hung low, and faintly
reddened the creamy whiteness of the
boiling deep. As the day advanced, the
north-west wind grew, if possible, more
furious, and the wrecks of seven vessels
came in by fragments to the beach below
the town. In spite of the tremendous surf,

70 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
there were persons hardy enough to ven
ture their lives in getting goods from the
wrecked vessels. A poor French cobbler
of Algiers, in imitation of the saint and
patron of his trade, King Crispin *, seeing
the " Troia gaza per undas," swam out to
the tempting treasure, and came to his last.
Nine Swedes belonging to a Russian ship
were drowned in their boat within sight of
us, and a French captain of artillery, a
much-lamented young man, perished in
bravely attempting to save them. Many
honourable traits of French courage and
humanity have been shown on this occa
sion, and it was quite proper that the ' Mo-
niteur Algerien' should record them ; but
there was surely no necessity for subjoin
ing the following anecdote respecting Ad-
* King Crispin, the saint of the shoemakers, was
drowned in consequence of plunging into a river, down
the stream of which a dead horse was floating, which his
Sutoric Majesty mistook for a :huge ball of rosin. — Vide
Sylburgius de Gestis Regum.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 71
miral Bretonniere as a proof of his saga
city. That worthy officer, it seems, was
going down to the beach wrapped up in
his great coat, when he had nearly been
blown into the sea, coat and all; but
luckily he met in his way a cannon fixed
erect in the ground, and he had actually
" the presence of mind," says the ' Moniteur,'
" to save himself by clasping this cannon
with both his hands." Without question
ing the Admiral's sagacity, why compli
ment him on doing what any creature
human or siraious, would have done in the
same circumstances ?
One glorious instance of intrepidity was
given, I am happy to say, by an English
man. The French have not published it,
but they speak of it with due and high
admiration. The captain of a British
merchantman, whose name I am sorry I
omitted to learn, though he was pointed
out to me, had confidence enough in his

72 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
own seamanship to weather the whole
storm, and, when a boat was sent out to
bring him ashore, he calmly said, " that it
was his duty to save the ship and cargo if
he could, and that he would do his duty."
His vessel, a puny-looking thing of some
fifty tons, had a crew of five men, four of
whom he sent ashore, and retained only
one sailor, besides his own son, a boy only
ten years old. " Why retain the poor
child ?" you will say. I tell you he was
no poor child, but a noble boy, and he
persisted in refusing to leave his father.
Nor Avas this a freak of rashness on the
part of the captain, but an act of cool
and calculating bravery. He knew the
strength of his little brig, and trusted to
the tenacity of both his anchors. He even
reckoned that he should be safe with one
of them, should it be necessary to cut the,^
cable of the other. This manoeuvre even
tually became necessary. During those

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH, 73
two awful days, the main cause of destruc
tion to the ships was their running foul of
each other ; accordingly, when one or two
of the miserable drifting wrecks were
coming down, and ready to bump him
to destruction, he cut his cable and
swung out of bumping reach.
When I saw this brave mariner and his
boy, the countenance of the former struck
me by its expression of mildness almost
amounting to simplicity : it reminded me
of one of Morland's best pictures of an
English peasant.
Yet, with all my pride in our native sea
men, I have been no indifferent witness to
the sufferings and fortitude of those of
France. The Eclaireur steam-ship, in
which I came from Bona, had gone again
thither, and, coming back, reached Algiers
on the second day of the storm. Never
shall I forget my sensations at seeing this
gallant vessel engaged in a combat with

74 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
the elements, which every spectator re
garded as utterly hopeless. The spray
flashed over her so as to make us believe
at times that her hull was irrecoverably
under water. Again she rose in sight, but
again the ruffian waves, like assassins
shouldering their victim, whirled her back
from her course. To think she had human
beings on board was sufficiently painful ;
but to those who had acquaintances and
friends among the seemingly-devoted suf
ferers, the spectacle was heart-rending.
For my own part, I had had but a short
acquaintance with the officers of the Eclai
reur ; but they had shown me every pos
sible civility, and I felt for them as for
friends. At last, in spite of all difficulties,
they got to anchor off Cape Matifou ; but
it was still uncertain there, whether her
anchorage would continue firm, or the
ship's timbers keep together. Rumour
says. that the highest marine authority at

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 75
Algiers signalled a command to them to
run in upon the sands of Cape Matifou,
about a league below the town ; an order
which was tantamount to bidding them
drown themselves. The captain, however,
knew better : he rode at anchor till the
tempest somewhat abated, and at last suc
ceeded in getting into Algiers. Happily
no lives were lost on board the Eclaireur ;
but she could only be brought in, in a state
so nearly approaching to a wreck, that it
has not been thought expedient to repair
her. She is English-built ; and I doubt if
French carpenters are up to the skill of
repairing a steamer. Be this as it may,
the unfortunate captain, though there is
not a shadow of reflection on his character,
retains only his rank in the service, and,
for the present, loses his livelihood.
During those terrible days— you may
easily suppose that we had scarcely any
other subject of interest or conversation in

76 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Mr. St. John's house than the fate of our
fellow-creatures at sea — one of his beautiful
little daughters, about seven years old, came
to her mother in the crisis of the danger,
and said, with tears in her eyes, " Mamma,
I wish to pray for these sufferers in the
ships, but I knoAV not how to compose a
prayer — do put words together for me that
I may get them by heart, and pray to God
for the poor people."
Now that the storm is overblown, I have
leisure to deliberate what I shall next do
with my humble self. As I wish to see as
much as possible of the Algerine Regency,
I should gladly venture once more into the
inland country as far as Constantina, if it
were possible either to travel unprotected,
or to find a protecting convoy : but it would
have been safer fifty years ago than it is at
present, for any European to have pene
trated so far from the coast as Constantina.
My object must therefore be to get to Oran,

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 77
the farthest western point of the Regency
of which the French have taken possession,
since it is accessible by sea. The sea,
however, has of late left no very seducing
impression on my mind ; and, although at
the moment I am writing he reminds me of
the glorious words of JEschylus, " ttovtIcov
T£ xupAreov 'Av*]g»9/*oi/ ¦ysXao-jU.a * " — whilst
his waves " interminably wreathe their
crisped smiles " — yet, I cannot think of
immediately trusting myself to his hospi
tality, and shall accordingly tarry a little
longer at Algiers.
* May a thousand curses light on the German critic who
first substituted K6.-)(\airpa for ysKatrpa in this inimitable
passage of the Prometheus !

78 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.

LETTER XX.
What profit will France make by her conquest of Algiers ?
— Expenses of the Colony — The French Army —
The cost to France at present uncertain — The con
fiscation of the Dey's Treasury — Convention made
at the surrender of Algiers — The Turks transported
out of the country in contravention of the Treaty — No
proofs alleged of a Turkish conspiracy — First Decree
of General Clausel — Effects of the Dey and of the
Beys put under sequestration — Estates of all absent
Turks sequestrated by a new Decree — Baron Pichon
reprobates the Decrees — M. Genty de Bussy modifies
his censure of them — French injustice — Mischievous
conduct of the Soldiers — Funds proceeding from
Legacies for religious and charitable purposes re
spected amongst the Algerines — The Institutions of
Mecca and Medina — Christians as well as Mussul-
men, objects of their charity — The twice a-week
distribution of Alms — Demolition of the largest
Mosque in Algiers by the French — Considerations on
the policy of the Decrees of Sequestration.
I COULD easily transcribe for you long com
parative statements of the expenses and
the receipts of the French Colonial Go-.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 79
vernmeht here, as well as tables of the
shipping, and of the exports and imports
of all the ports in the Regency ; and, if the
colony were in a settled condition, such
documents though dry reading, would be
well worth studying as the means of solving
the grand problem, namely, what profit
will France make by her conquest of
Algiers? Things, however, are not in a
settled condition. I have still, to be sure,
the same general impression that their na
tional pride will induce the French to re
tain the country, and to penetrate from its
littoral into its interior as far as they can ;
and I have still a further general belief,
that by good management a perspective of
splendid though remote advantages might
be opened to France, and to the civilized
world at large, from the French possession
of the Regency. But you must take this
opinion as a guess, .not as a dogma ; for
I repeat that things , are not in a settled
condition.

80 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
The public feeling of France itself, as to
the advisableness of retaining Algiers, is
divided between pride and frugality ; and
how the struggle is to end will depend
upon many contingencies. Among these
we may reckon the chief to be, the ba
lance of accounts from year to year, as to
the expenses and receipts of the colony.
Let us hear, then, perhaps you will say,
how much on the one hand the colony
costs France for soldiers and the civil ad
ministration ; and, on the other hand, how
much it yields in the shape of customs,
tolls, taxes on markets, and on the natives,
&c. &c.
As to the expense of the French army in
Algiers, that must depend upon its num
ber. At the time I write, the officers whom
I have consulted compute it, generally, at
twenty-three thousand*. Take that esti-
* Mens. Genty de Bussy states the whole effective force
of the army at 31,410 on the 1st of January, 1834.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 81
mate, and compute the expense of every
soldier at 35/. a-year, and the result will
be 805,000/. sterling. But when I recollect
the fact that a British War Minister once
expressed to me his belief, that what with
ordnance, hospitals, officering, accoutre
ments, ammunition, &c., our soldiers cost
not less to the nation than 80/. annually
per head, I cannot believe that France
maintains her military, (in Algiers at least,)
all things included, at less than one-half
of that sum. The expense, therefore, to
France in the event of her being obliged to
maintain twenty-three thousand fighting
men in the Regency, would exceed a mil
lion sterling a-year, besides the cost of her
civil government.
Query, would this force be sufficient to
over-run the country and to keep possession
of it ? I am no military man, but I would
stake my life on the truth of the opinion,
that, to sweep and keep the country, Na-
VOL. II. G

82 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
poleon himself, if alive, would demand dou
ble that number. It is wandering from the
question to talk of the British retaining
Hindostan with twenty and some odd thou
sand British troops ; for the Kabyles and
Arabs are not Hindoos, and we have two
hundred thousand native Indian troops of
the most warlike caste in our service.
No doubt, the French might keep hold of
Algiers, Oran, Bougia and Bona, and a
few miles round those cities, with fifteen
thousand men. But who knows what their
policy Avill be in this respect? and who
therefore can settle the question of what
the military expense of retaining this Re
gency Avill be to France.
It thus seems to me to be a matter if not
of vague, at least of wide, calculation how
much the possession of Algiers will cost
France in the way of pecuniary outlay.
The colony may ere long cost her half a
iiiillion sterling a-year, or it may cost her

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 83
two millions. This contingency depends
on other contingencies ; and I should say
the same thing of the profits that may re
sult and partially meet that outlay. Sup
pose I tell you, for instance, on the autho
rity of Genty de Bussy, that the French
Colonial Government of Algiers derived
from all its resources in the colony, namely,
from the public domains, the custom-house
dues, the post-office, the police fines, the
monopoly of hides, the sale of coals, the
impositions on the natives, and some other
items, the sum of 1,144,664 francs and
78 centimes, within the first six months
of the year, 1834 — and, by fair calcula
tion, double that sum during the entire
year: still, this information is far from
guiding us to any certain conclusions as to
how much may be the future receipts of
the colony. The importation customs
depend considerably on the size of the
army ; the tolls and exportation duties
G 2

84 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
depend on the friendliness or hostility of
the natives. EA^ery thing, in fact, depends
on contingencies, about which conjecture
must go to sea without a star or a compass.
The first profit which France derived
from the conquest of Algiers was, the con
fiscation of the Dey's treasury ; and to this
acquisition I can see no fair objection, con
ceiving as I do, that her attack on the
pirate chief was perfectly justifiable ; yet,
still it behoved her to use her victory on the
principles of civilized nations, and sacredly
to respect the faith of treaties. Have the
French done this? Certainly not ! They
have seized on some profits Avhich are for
bidden fruits in fair Avarfare, and they
show a mean hankering after other extor
tions, which they have neither the effront
ery to execute, nor the conscientiousness
to forego. I say this as a man, and not as
an Englishman ; for England, although her
colonial policy has been generally wiser

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 85
than that of France, has no right to call
herself sinless in Africa — as the hapless
Caffres can bear witness : but I have a
right to speak on this subject as a citizen
of the world.
By the convention made at the surrender
of Algiers to the French, the Dey was per
mitted to depart with all his private pro
perty. By the words "¦ richesses personnelks,"
in the second article of the treaty, it Avas
no doubt indicated that he was to leave be
hind him his state-treasures, which were
public property ; but it Avas announced
distinctly, that all the inhabitants, civil
and military, were to be protected in their
property, trade, industry, and religion.
Surely, by any honest interpretation of this
treaty, the Turks remaining at Algiers came
within its protection ; but the French had
scarcely fixed themselves in the city, Avhen
the Governor, General Bourmont, ordered
a general arrestation of the Turks — tore

86 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
them from their wives and families — and,
putting them on shipboard, caused them
to be transported out of the country. It
was rumoured that those Turks v.'ere con
spiring against the French, but as Sidy
Hamdan, in relating this affair, very justly
remarks — " Here was a handful of men
who a few days before had possessed arms,
ammunition, artillery, the castle of the Cas-
saba, and other forts — they had an army
and treasures to support them, and the
Beys of the provinces on their side : yet,
with all these advantages, they had pre
ferred surrendering to France to continuing
a hopeless struggle.
" Now that the tables were turned — now
that they were without arms, ammunition,
or a single stronghold — how improbable it
is that men with brains in their heads
should think of regaining in their weak
ness what they had given up in their
strength !" But there was a rumour of a

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 87
conspiracy brought to General Bourmont
by some of the lowest scum of the Jews
and Mussulmans, who were paid for their
espionnage — and we all know the skill of
spies to forge treason where they cannot
find it. In so grave a matter, however, as
the banishment of those men, justice de
mands proofs and not rumour — and of proof
or public trial ,not a shadow was exhibited
in their case.
In 1832, the French, for the first time,
declared, that they had documents of a na
tive conspiracy, which the then Governor
General, a most impartial judge to be sure,
considered authentic ; and by a charitably
strained inference it was concluded, that
all Turks whatsoever must have been con
cerned in it. Even granting that conclu
sion, however, it is clear that those Turks
were condemned and punished two years
before a tittle of proof was alleged against
them.

88 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
When the tri-color was substituted for
the white flag at Algiers, the natives found
no amendment in the colour of French
domination. The first decree of General
Clausel, dated the 8th of September, puts
under sequestration the effects Avhich had
belonged to the late Dey — (by these effects
is meant immoveable property, for the pub
lic treasury had already been secured) —
the effects also of the Beys, or provincial
governors, as well as those of the departed
Turks, and the funds of a corporation,
called that of Mecca and Medina. A se
cond decree of the same Governor dated
December 7, 1830, sequestrates the houses,
magazines, manors*, and establishments
of all descriptions whatsoever, the rcA'enues
of which are appropriated to the mosques,
or which may have any other special ap
propriations.
* I thus generally interpret the word " censives," which
means manors entitled to quit rents.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 89
The decree, it is obvious, lays its hands
at once not only on the immoveable pro
perty of the Dey, Avhich Avas a justifiable
seizure, and on that of the Beys, Avhich for
aught that I know, was also excusable, but
on the property of the departed Turks, and
on that of all corporations — civil or reli
gious — including even charitable institu
tions, — a proceeding of gross iniquity. In
September, 1831, a new decree Avas issued
by the then Governor for sequestrating
the estates of all absent Turks, Avithout
hinting at the slightest discrimination be
tween those Avho might be guilty or inno
cent. It is no Avonder that the Baron
Pichon, Avho appears a uniform advocate of
the rights of the natives, should reprobate
the above decrees ; but I am agreeably
surprised to find his opponent. Monsieur
Genty de Bussy, making a liberal confes
sion on the same subject, and blaming the

90 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
decree for making no distinction between
the guiltless and the convicted refugees.
Monsieur Genty de Bussy, according to
all accounts that I have heard of him, is
not particularly troubled with a dyspeptic
conscience ; but he is too shrewd a man to
be an out-and-out sophist in so glaring a
case of injustice. He modifies, neverthe
less, his censure of the decree by remarking
that, in as far as it applied to Turks actually
guilty of conspiring against France, it was
perfectly lawful, since they were, in the full
est sense of the word, traitors. But I deny
this position of M. Genty de Bussy. " Trai
tors " means persons who owe allegiance,
and have renounced it. If, after the French
had taken Algiers, they had treated the
Turks with common justice, they would
have owed them allegiance ; but what alle
giance had France a right to claim from
men, whom she dragged from their homes

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 91
and gardens and drove into banishment,
without a shadow of proof or the show of a
trial ? The French were the traitors, and
not they.
It is Avell known that, for several days
after the capture of the city, the Turks were
insulted, kicked, and spit upon by the Jews
wherever they found them. The poor
Turks met in a body in order to petition
the French Governor for protection, and
they sent him a deputation to prefer their
prayer ; but, by a sad fatality, they chose
for deputies some men who were either the
spies of Bourmont, or at least who specu
lated on being rewarded for discovering
new symptoms of Turkish treason ; and
those wretches, instead of bearing the peti
tion of the Turks, went and told him that
the Turks had congregated in order to raise
an insurrection. This fact has been re
peatedly stated to me by Moors, who were
no friends of the Turks, and by impartial

92 LETTEUS FROM THE SOUTH.
foreign consuls. And this Avas bringing
civilization into Africa, to try men by spies,
and to condemn them Avithout a hearing !
M. Genty de Bussy, in fact, assumes too
much in partially apologizing for the above
decree, when he alleges that there w^ere
guilty as Avell as innocent Turks among the
absentees, whose estates AA'ere sequestrated,
None of the absent Turks — whether they
had been dragged on shipboard to be de
ported or had fled from Algiers in a panic,
as I believe many of them did — could be
guilty of treason towards a poAver Avhich
had broken all faith with them, and to which
they owed no fealty. Allowing it even to be
true, as the French publicly announced,
that they had got indubitable documents,
in 1832, of many Turks abroad being en
gaged in plots against the French, and call
this treason if you will — still it is a treason
proved a year later than the infamous de
cree which sequestrated all Turkish estates

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 93
indiscriminately. Nay, even go farther,
and suppose that, in 1832, there was not
one untreasonable Algerine Turk among
the absentees, still Avhat caused their ab
sence, and what drove them into treason ? It
was French injustice ; and the French, for
sooth, are to punish the crime which they
have themselves created !
I am told, however, by Frenchmen
who, without justifying, Avould palliate
this treatment of the Turks, that the de
crees of governors are not laws till con
firmed by the Home-Government ; and
that the banished Turks might still, by a
proper appeal, get these sequestrations re
moved — but that they are barbarians, and
have no notion of legal appeals ! But, verily,
this argument is worse than a barefaced
mockery of justice. Does any man believe
that these Turkish gentlemen, robbed in
defiance of laws and faith of their estates,
will ever be restored to them ? I do not.

94 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
It seems like a retribution of Providence
that these beautiful villas, thus wrenched
from their owners, have yielded but little
profit to the wrenchers. They are prin
cipally occupied by the military, and the
French soldiers, wherever they have taken
up their habitation, have made the houses
uninhabitable to all future tenants, by cut
ting up the wood-work in order to make
their fires. Some destruction in this way
was unavoidable, but the troops amused
themselves with superfluous tricks of mis
chief I was told so, at least, by one of
themselves ; a naive laughing corporal, who
said to me, " After all, we are a sad set of
felloAA'S : I found my camarades, les singes
diables, one day cutting down a tall, noble
palm-tree, and for what purpose do you
think ? — why, to get at a bird's nest : but
they got no living birds, for the nestlings
were all killed by the fall."
The sequestrated immoveable property

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 95
of the Deys, the Beys, and the banished
Turks comes all under the title of the " Na
tional Domain, or public property ;" and it
would seem that the French are disposed
to give a sweeping extent of signification
to that term : for the decrees of some of the
governors of Algiers sequestrate the pro
perty of native corporations, civil as well
as religious. The idea of sequestrating re
ligious funds, has struck the French them
selves as so impolitic and faithless, that
Genty de Bussy has, like a wise man, de
precated the fulfilment of those decrees.
But, for my own part, I can see nothing-
more unjustifiable in the sequestration of
funds belonging to civil corporations than
of those belonging to corporations that are
religious. Algiers capitulated on a promise
that the property, the commerce, and the
industry of its inhabitants should be pro
tected ; and what sort of protection is this,
which sequestrates the property of even

9d LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
civil corporations ? I grant, no doubt, that
there is something more glaringly impolitic
in alarming the natives about their reli
gious corporations than about their lay
ones; but the essential injustice is the
same. You will be surprised, perhaps, to hear
of corporations, vested rights and funds,
proceeding from legacies for religious and
charitable purposes, having been respected
from age to age among a people so despo
tically governed as the Algerines. But
there were limits to the despotism even of
a Dey of Algiers. It is true that when he
took a fancy to a man's head, he generally
succeeded in getting it removed from his
shoulders ; and afterwards he took the same
care of the beheaded man's property that
the conscientious bird takes of the silver
spoon in the story of the " Maid and the
Magpie." But the Dey could only be a
civil and not a religious robber.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 97
The Moors and the Turks in all the Re
gencies of Barbary, like all true believers
in Mahometan countries, had a number
of public foundations, both for piety and
practical charity, which Avere enriched,
from time to time, by gifts and legacies.
Over these foundations Religion threw its
guardian csgis, and Deys and Pashas were
compelled to hold them in veneration.
The most important of these institu
tions is that of Mecca and Medina : — " It
contributes to the expense of supporting
mosques in those sacred cities ; it distri
butes charity to the poor, and it m.akes
advances to Mussulmans," says Genty de
Bussy, " who wish to go as pilgrims to
Mecca." But it is strange, considering the
general clearness and accuracy of that gen
tleman, to find him, after he has made this
statement, referring us to a document Avhich
contradicts it, on the subject of pilgrims
VOL. II. H

98 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
going to Mecca being assisted by the afore
said institution.
This document is a series of questions
addressed to the Mufti of Algiers respect
ing that endowment, together with the an
swers given to those questions.
One of the questions is, " Do the Mussul
mans of Algiers who go on a pilgrimage receive
any assistance from the endowment of Mecca
and Medina ? The answer is, simply. No.
The only way in Avhich I can reconcile
this seeming discrepancy, between De
Bussy's statement and the document to
which he refers, is by supposing that poor
Mussulmans accidentally coming to Algiers
from the holy cities may have been as
sisted to return home thither out of the
Mecca and Medina fund ; in which case,
however, those paupers could hardly be
called pilgrims from Algiers.
But the most curious fact that meets us
in the examination of the Oukils, i. e. the

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 99
stewards of this Mahometan fund, by the
French " Intendant civil," is, that Christians
as well as Mussulmans were the objects of
its charity.
Question put by the Intendant : — " In
distributing the alms of this endowment,
do you establish distinctions among the
poor, or are the distributions made indiscri
minately to all who present themselves ?"
Answer : — " Alms are distributed to each
according to the misery and destitution of
the applicant ; and the circumstances of
the applicant are inquired into and appre
ciated by the Oukil."
Another question : — " Are there fixed
periods for the distribution, and how are
they regulated?"
Answer: — " There are fixed periods for
the distribution of alms ; namely, the morn
ings of Monday and Tuesday. The poor
are divided into three classes; namely, the
H 2

100 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
men, the women, and the Christians— eRch
of the three classes receives separately."
A charitable Algerine in the last century
— honour be to his memory ! — bequeathed
a large sum to be laid out in bread for the
Christian slaves on that day of the week
when their allowance of food was the scan
tiest. It was probably to the religious pro
tection of the above endowment that he
confided this legacy.
Well, whilst I know your heart is thank
ful, that there are some redeeming traits in
the Algerine character, let me not uninten
tionally lead you to too much indignation
at the French, from supposing that they
have cut off every stream of charity to
wards the poorest class of the natives. No :
— the Baron Pichon describes the twice-a-
Aveek distribution of alms Avhich he had
himself seen ; and Avhich, I am confident,
are still continued, though I have not wit-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 101
nessed them. At these distributions the
Oukil sits in public Avitli two assessors : a
troop of perhaps two thousand indigents—
mostly women carrying or leading infants
— defiles before him ; and a pittance —
AYOuld that I could say it Avas more, of
about a sous and a half is doled out to each
individual. In the olden time, when a sheep cost but
fifteen-pence at Algiers, this sum Avas, per
haps, not much less than an equivalent to
the scantiest parish charity in England ;
but noAV that prices are raised, it is no aa^ou-
der that the mendicants look gaunt. M.
Pichon certainly means that this charity
comes out of the Mecca endoAvment, for
he says that the surplus, after the beggars
have been served, is turned into the public
treasury, and no longer goes to the Holy
City, in order that the funds originally in
tended for a religious purpose may not be
perverted from their destination, and em-

102 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
ployed in paying for intrigues and insur
rections against the French. With equal
justice and humanity the Baron remarks
that the enemies of France, who are
abroad among the Mussulmans, could, by
no stretch of ingenuity, invent means of
fomenting native discontents more effica
cious than this iniquitous detention of
funds appropriated to religion.
The French entered Algiers on the faith
of the national religion being sacredly pro
tected ; but this tribute to Mecca is a vital
part of Islamism. It is very well to talk of
Mahometan superstition, and if the people
of Algiers should choose to become Pro
testant Mahometans, let them get rid, if
they will, of the tribute ; but the French,
without perjuring themselves, cannot inter
fere with the tribute as it is now esta
blished. And be it remarked, that, in out
raging the religion of a Mussulman, you
are not interfering merely with his super-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 103
stitious dogmas, but with the whole sources
of his moral consolations. The Koran is
the Mussulman's code of laws and juris
prudence ; the compass that guides his
actions in this world, as well as his hopes
towards the next.
It is but fair to say, that although I
despair of ever seeing justice done to the
expatriated Turks, I have hopes that the
sequestration of the corporation funds will
not be universally and permanently sanc
tioned by the French. Baron Pichon says,
" That the sequestration on properties hav
ing special appropriations is only partial and
nominal ; that the funds for supporting
the mosques of Algiers, for example, have
never been taken possession of" So far
so good ; and though the name of mosques
reminds me that one of the largest in the
city was demolished by the French, and
another converted into a Catholic church
(of course without consulting the inhabit-

104 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
ants), yet for the former proceeding, viola
tion of the treaty as it was, one can allow
something like a palliation in looking at
the improvement which it has made in
Algiers. The demolition of the mosque
and its adjacent buildings has enlarged the
only public market-place in this gloomy
city, and opened a view from it towards
the sea; it has therefore made the town
healthier as Avell as pleasanter. Moreover,
as long as the African Commission con
tinues,* I shall not consider the question of
the sequestrations as hopelessly set at rest.
But, Avithout denying to M. Genty de
Bussy the merit of having generally spoken
Avith truth and candour on this subject, I
cannot quite agree with him, that the
French Government stands exculpated in
the AA-hole affair. "The French Govern-
* A Board appointed to inquire into the state of the
African colony, and to give in reports on the subject to
Government.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 105
ment," he says, " has never given its sanc
tion to «// the decrees of the Generals-in-
Chief, or to the acts of the Intendants at
Algiers." This is a vague sort of exculpa
tion. It may be, that no one act of the
French Government has sanctioned all the
decrees of the Governors — at one SAveep ;
but in September, 1831, did not the French
Minister-of-War send to Algiers an order
for the sale of all the onerous domains,
with the exception of the property ap
propriated for the mosques of Mecca
and Medina ? He made no other excep
tion to Clausel's decree of the 7th of
December, 1830, which sequestrated the
houses, magazines, manors, and all esta
blishments A^'hatsoever, under what title
soever, having special appropriations. After
this order of the War-minister, it is need
less to speak of the French Government
never having sanctioned those iniquitous
sequestrations ; but it is singular to find

106 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Mons. Pichon, just after he has admitted
the sequestration to be in part only nomi
nal, immediately adding, " Mais le sequestre
existe sur les Mens de Mecque et Medina." If
he means anything by this sequestration,
he surely means that it is real, and not
nominal. The truth seems to be, that in this medi
tated robbery of corporation property at
Algiers, the French authorities on the spot
have been about as timid as those at home,
when they came to the practical point of
executing the decree of 1830 and 1831.
Monsieur de Bussy himself is amusingly
honest on this subject ; I cannot but laugh
when I find him confessing, " The seques
tration is quite a measure of exception,
(une mesure tout exceptionelle) — a measure of
public safety, in opposition to law (etrangere
au droit), and which policy alone could
make advisable." In other words, the apo
logist might have said, that, under certain

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 107
circumstances, honesty is not the best policy
— but policy is the best honesty.
The Governor's decree of the 10th of
June, though made public, and supported
by a ministerial decision that came subse
quently from Paris, has not received an
entire execution. " At no period," he adds,
" have the rules of sequestration been
rigorously applied, and it is only with a
sort of timidity and groping that those who are
engaged in this business have gone on."
Now, Frenchmen, if you will be rogues,
put a bold face upon the business. Do as
we did in England : when Ave heard of the
Caffres being robbed of their cows, and
bayoneted by our brave soldiers, our Mem
bers of Parliament went down to the House
and maintained that the Caffres had been
too mercifully used ; but you are mealy-
mouthed in this affair, and grope about in
a game of blind-man's buff at cheatery.
Yet the French have, undoubtedly, done

108 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
some good at Algiers ; and as I have dealt
so freely Avith their delinquencies, it Avill
be but fair, in my next letter, to describe
to you some of their Institutions which pro
mise to foster civilization, and, like the red
streaks in the sky after a stormy evening,
bespeak a pleasant to-morrow.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 109

LETTER XXI.
Advantages to be derived from fostering a religious and
commercial intercourse with Arabia — Policy of pro
moting Pilgrimages to Mecca — Inattention of the
French Government to this subject— Promotion of
the Medical and Surgical Art by the settlement of the
French — Bagdad once the first Medical School in the
World — Diseases of the Natives — The doctrine of
Fatalism — Peculiarities of the Climate — Swampiness
of the Metidja — Intention of the French to drain the
marshes of the Regency — Number of Arabs who have
received medical treatment, with a list of the various
diseases — Civil Hospitals in a state of formation at
Bona and Oran — The Algerine Moors better educated
than is generally supposed in Europe — Algerine
Schools — Statistic table of public tuition in 1834 —
The Jews more willing than the Moors to avail them
selves of European instruction.
Before I mention a fcAV French institu
tions, which may be considered as the
seeds of civilization in Africa, allow me to
advert to some speculations which I find
in that shrewd Avriter Genty de Bussy,

110 letters from the SOUTH
respecting the advantages which this colony
might derive from fostering a religious and
commercial intercourse between it and
Arabia. The pilgrimages to Mecca have been, in
all ages of Islamism, a principal bond be
tween Mahometan nations. It is but fair
to believe that the promotion of piety was
not the only object which the legislator
had in view, when he enjoined those
pilgrimages upon the faithful, but that he
meant to civilize them by trade as well as
to cement them by religion. At all events,
in point of fact, commerce sprung up out
of this religious institution.
A great many Mahometans used to visit
Mecca, both from the Regencies of Barbary
and more Western Africa, and returned to
their homes with a halo of sanctity ac
quired by their pilgrimage, which placed
them distinctly in the highest rank of
society. They re-entered their native cities

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. Ill
in formal triumph: — grand functionaries
and sovereigns themselves were the first
to Avelcome them Avith honour and to load
them Avith presents ; processions went out
to meet them, and flowers Avere strewn be
fore them on their path.
Genty de Bussy remarks, as if it Avere
a reproach to Christianity, that only a fcAV
Christians, and those few merely from curi
osity, visit Jerusalem, Avhilst multitudes of
Mahometans flock to Mecca from piety ;
but this establishes nothing as to the com
parative sincerity of believers in the tAVO
faiths. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem is no
Avliere enjoined in the Gospel of Christ,
nor even recommended by him ; — he pro
nounced his kingdom not of this Avorld.
He came, therefore, to sanctify the earth
in a spiritual, not a material sense — not
like bigots falsely calling themselves his
folloAvers, Avho hold up their hands to con
secrate some spot of dirt and clay, or the

112 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
stones and sticks that are built over it. His
mission was to cleanse and consecrate the
pure immortal substance of the human
soul: — hence, pure Christianity is exalted
and philosophical; — it enjoins no reve
rence to earthly localities, or to earthly
relics. With these conceptions of the superiority
of Christian over Mahometan faith, I deny
not your right to dispute abstractedly the
propriety of favouring Mahometan pilgrim
ages to Mecca. But take the question
practically, and let me ask you, if there be
any probability of bringing these Arabs
and Kabyles to be pure, i. e., philosophical
Christians ? There is none. You might
make Methodists and Jumpers of some of
them, but that Avould not be making them
pure Christians. Were you to suggest
that, at all events, we ought to cleanse
them of their Mahometan superstition, I
should say no; for their Mahometanism,

LETTERS FROAI THE SOUTH. 113
at least, keeps them sober — and until you
can make them pure Christians, better
make them the best Mahometans you can
than leave them irrational and irreligious
barbarians. Such is almost the case of
many of the Kabyles and Arabs. A sen
sible 3Ioor of Algiers assured me that, for
Avant of intercourse with more civilized
belicA'ers, whole native tribes, though be
lievers in the Koran, are only nominal Ma
hometans, and in practice fierce and im
moral savages. Therefore, I say, make the
best Mahometans that you can of the Afri
cans ; and the best Avay to civilize them is
to promote pilgrimages to Mecca, and the
commerce, which from thence accrues
would also be promoted.
A portion of the Algerine pilgrims to
Mecca used to join the caravans that set
out from 3Iorocco, and which, traversing
the sea of sand from Avest to east, came at
last to encamp under the Avails of Cairo.
A'OL. II. I

114 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
But the Arabs who are called Fellahs,
i. e., those who cultivate the fertile plains
enclosed between the ramifications of the
grand chain of mountains to the south;
as well as the Kabyles, the indomitable
masters of the crests of Mount Atlas, and,
in fine, the inhabitants of the cities and
villages in the northern part of the Re
gency, when they Avish to make the Mecca
pilgrimage, come doAvn to the principal
ports of the coast, from whence they freight
vessels for Alexandria.
Algiers has thus been accustomed to see,
every year, several ships depart with pil-
snrims for the east ; and when any distin
guished person was of the company, the
Dey gave them his own vessels to conduct
them. I argue, that it would be the best policy
of the French to remove every obstacle in
the way of pilgrimages from hence to
3Iecca. They ought to equip ships for

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 115
conveying the pilgrims to Egypt at stated
periods. The expense of their conveyance'
M. Genty de Bussy thinks, might be de
frayed out of the funds of the Mecca and
Medina Institution. I have already quoted
the evidence of that writer against himself,
with regard to those funds having been ever
appropriated to the assistance of pilgrims
going to the holy shrine from Algiers ; but
it is of little importance from what source
the French might derive the money ad
vanced to pilgrims — for, supposing them to
be helped only as far as Egypt, the cost
would be trifling ; and in order to defray
the rest of their journey, as well as to pro
cure some articles of merchandise to dis
pose of in the east, the devout Moslems
would be obliged to bring the products of
their pastoral industry to the markets of
Algiers, and thus to supply the French
abundantly with provisions, as Avell as
to purchase their goods imported from
Europe. i 2

116 LETTERS FROAI THE SOUTH.
It Avould be supreme policy in the French
to foster this intercourse between Algiers
and Arabia ; and to concert means not only
for giving the pilgrims a comfortable de
parture, but an equally comfortable return.
Formerly, the pilgrims had covered places
for stowing away their merchandise at Al
giers, as well as fountains of running water
for refreshing their beasts. Tl\e suburb of
Bab-azoun once contained many of these
caravenseries, but since the conquest they
have disappeared, and been replaced by
military barracks and hospitals. It Avas
important, no doubt, that the soldiers
should be lodged ; but it is equally so that
they should be fed, and the best way to
feed them, is to attract the Arabs to the
French markets.
The French government has been grossly
inattentive to this subject. One would not
wish them, to be sure, to imitate in all re
spects our policy with regard to the super-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 117
stitions of India, in dealing Avith those of
Algiers. It Avas carrying our complaisance
too far to permit the burning of Indian
widows. But still it is advisable as gene
ral policy to respect the native faith — and
to restrain none of its innocuous practices.
The only thing I ever heard said in favour
of the French among the Moors Avas, that
they thanked them for not alloAving pro
selytizing fanatical preachers of Christia
nity to come amongst them. If such mis
sionaries were alloA^'ed to settle here, their
first converts would be the loAvest scum of
the people, Avho would embrace Christianity
for the sake of getting drunk.
One certain blessing which we have a
right to look for from the settlement of the
French in Africa, is the importation of me
dical and surgical art. It is true that the
Mahometan doctrine of fatalism is opposed
to the healing science, but we have a proof
that that opposition is not inA'incible, in the

118 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
fact of Bagdad having been at one time the
first medical school in the world ; and, in
truth, there is no superstition that can en
tirely eradicate man's instinctive desire to
have his death postponed, and his sickness
mitigated. It is but fair to confess that the
natives in the interior of the Regency have
given no sort of encouragement for Euro
pean doctors to settle amongst them ; on
the contrary, several who had opened shops
at Mascara and elsewhere, after exhibiting
rainbows of coloured bottles in their win
dows, and pounding innumerable stuffs for
the Lybian bowels, have been obliged to
return for want of patients.
It is true, moreover, that the simple
habits of the barbarians make them more
independent of doctors than the wine-drink
ing Europeans are generally apt to be ;
for, though Apollo may be the God of phy
sicians, it is Bacchus perhaps who mainly
provides them with customers. Neverthe-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 119
less, the natives have several disorders to
which they are peculiarly subject, and
which no temperance can avoid, or indeed
which abstemiousness itself tends to aggra
vate. Thus, in the fevers arising from
marshy miasmata, wine has been often
found an efficacious medicine.
I ought further to remark, that almost all
the Kabyles and Arabs who have come in
contact with the French at Algiers have
shown no reluctance to being relieved in
a French hospital. They overcome their
scruples of fatalism by arguing thus : — " It
was fated that I should be sick ; — it was
fated that I should be carried to the French
hospital ; — it was fated that the French doc
tor should feel my pulse, and make me
show my tongue ; — it was fated that his
apprentice should bring me drugs that were
to pass through my body, and restore me ; —
all this was the will of God, or else it could
not have happened."

120 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
In speaking of disorders at Algiers, I
ought rather to call them disorders inci
dental to the country, than peculiar to it,
or inseparably connected with the climate.
The climate of the Regency is noxious only
in particular parts. I believe Algiers it
self to be as healthful, as the most of the
towns in Europe. The sultriness of sum
mer throughout the whole Regency is miti
gated by north winds that come across the
Mediterranean, as well as by the south-
westers, which, traversing the table-lands
on the double chain of mount Atlas, refresh
the atmosphere with the breath of the At
lantic Ocean.
It is true that in this country, as every
where else where there are marshes, there
are fevers. The Pontine marshes as well
as those around Mantua, and on the plains
of Sardinia, — nay, the coasts of Holland
and Essex — have but too much febrile cele
brity ; and in like manner the evaporation

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 121
from numerous swampy tracts on the Me
tidja plain along the river Arratch, in face
of the southern and eastern line of the
French cantonments, have been exceed
ingly fatal to their soldiery. The natives
themselves Avho are enlisted as Zouaves in
the French service suffer also from this
marsh fever ; but it is remarkable in how
small a degree comparatively with the
French. Nine out of ten Frenchmen are
seized with it, but only one out of four of
the natives : the African Zouaves are also
more speedily cured of it than Europeans?
and are less subject to renewed attacks.
But there is nothing incurable in the
swampiness of the Metidja. That plain,
by a little industry, might be brought once
more to deserve the name which it once de
rived from a young and beautiful princess.
By digging channels for its moisture, and
by embanking its principal river, it would
soon be converted from the head of Medusa,

122 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
to the breath and bloom of Hebe. The
same may be said as to the perfect practi
cability of making Bona itself more health
ful. Human industry is God's vicegerent,
in sanitizing, if I may dare to coin a word,
the earth we tread, and the air we breathe.
The French intend to drain all the acces
sible marshes of the Regency — I hope they
will neither trifle Avith this design, nor
abandon it ; for humanity at large is inter
ested in their civilizing this part of Africa.
Let them remember that there is no glory
in merely intending well, for hell itself they
say is paved with good intentions.
The Arabs themselves, as I have said,
are beginning to open their eyes to the
blessings of the healing art. I have before
me a list — name and surname, of all the
males and females Avho have received me
dical treatment from the surgeon-major of
the Zouaves in the months of March, April,
and May of 1834. The number of patients

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 123
was two hundred and seventy-four, of whom
two hundred and thirty-three were cured,
thirty-two continued in the hospital till a
later period of the year, and only nine were
found incurable. This gives one heart and
hope as to future civilization.
I subjoin a list of the relative number
of diseases, as it forms an interesting do
cument in the natural history of the native
population. Of Abscess by Congestion,
there were 2 cases ; of Mental Alienation,
1 ; Amaurosis, 1 ; Aphthae, 2 ; Ascitis Ab-
dominalis, 3 ; Bronchitis, 4 ; Cancerous
affection, 3 ; Carious Bones, 5 ; Pulmonary
Catarrhs, 2 ; Cataract, 1 ; Cephalitis, 2 ;
Impeded Circulation in the Limbs, 1 ; En
teritis, 6 ; Epilepsy, 1 ; Cutaneous Erup
tion, 1 ; Exostosis, 2 ; Fevers, 46 ; Inter
mittent ones, 42 ; Quotidian ditto, 2 ;
Putrid ditto, 1 ; Destructive ditto, 1 ; Sub
maxillary Fistula, 1 ; Boils, 1 ; Fluxion, 1 ;
the Itch, 2 ; Gastritis, 0 ; Gastro-Cepha-

124 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
litis, 1 ; Gastro-Enteritis, 4 ; Gastro-Pneu-
monitis, 4 ; Inflammation of the Liver, 1 ;
Neurosis, 1 ; Inflammation of the Matrix,
6 ; Ophthalmia, 40 ; Inflammation of the
Ear, 4 ; Pneumonia, 3 ; Obstruction of the
Spleen, 1 ; Rheumatic Affections, 15 ; Sci
atica, 1 ; Scorbutic Affections, 3 ; Schirrus,
1 ; Syphilitic Affections, 7 ; Scald Head,
24; Tumours, 2; Ulcers, 11 ; Uteritis, 1.
The surplus of cases consisted of Wounds,
Contusions, Fractures, and Sores, the result
of accidents.
During the months of April and May,
1834, thirty-one Arabs of both sexes, of
ages varying from eighteen months to
twenty years, have been vaccinated.
Independently of those patients who have
been attended to by the surgeon-major of
the Zouaves, and independently also of
their military hospital, the French have
established in Algiers a civil hospital as
well as a dispensary. To the civil hospi-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 125
tal are admitted French colonists, Jcavs,
and Moslems, without distinction. The
number of patients, since the opening of
the institution, in August, 1832, down to
the first of January, 1834, is stated by M.
Genty de Bussy at eight hundred and forty-
nine. The number of deaths, I am sorry
to find, has been very considerable ; but
the care that is taken of the patients, — who
cost the government on an average little
less than two shillings a head per day, —
and the good report which the Kabyles and
Arabs Avho have been healed in this asylum
will necessarily spread throughout the Re
gency, must be deservedly beneficial to the
French. Whilst the French Avere in possession of
Coleah, they humanely projected an hos
pital for the Arabs ; and Avhat is equally
agreeable to relate, the Maraboots, or saints
of the country, showed a strong interest in
the project. This is the true way to con-

126 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
quer Africa. Of all apologues, that of the
sun and the wind contending which should
first make the traveller open his cloak, best
illustrates the means of civilization ; and
how beautiful is the spectacle of charity
uniting those whom religion separates !
At Oran and at Bona civil hospitals are
already in a state of formation.
It is allowable also to hope that France
will diffuse moral as well as medical know
ledge over Algiers. I told you, what I still
believe, that the Algerine Moors are a
better-educated people than we generally
suppose them to be in Europe ; that is,
that all their children learn to read and
write, and many of them to cast up ac
counts; nay, I have met with Arabs and
Kabyles who could write and calculate by
figures. But it is not contradicting this
fact to add to it that a European child ac
quires infinitely more by learning to read,
than a little Mussulman can do under the

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 127
present native mode of education. The
European is taught language by grammar
and principles ; the African here is taught
only the words of the Koran — his master
being too ignorant himself to explain
even the difference between a noun and a
verb. The Algerine pedagogues are not cruel,
and they abstain from one odious mode of
flagellation which still disgraces some of
our schools : but still the rod is the school
master's sceptre in Algiers, though he flou
rishes it over the shoulders of his pupils,
instead of more exceptionable parts. I
have been witness to an hour's tuition in an
Algerine school. On my entrance, I found
the schoolmaster and his scholars all pros
trated in prayer upon the ground. I re
tired for some minutes until they had
finished their devotions : on re-entering, I
found the boys all squatted, and bowing

128 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
see-saw over their slates, some of them
writing Arabic characters, and all of them
mumbling Avords A^diich of course, Avere
those of verses of the Koran. For a long
time all Avent on smoothly ; but at length I
recognized the truth of Juvenal's remark,
that the teacher has an arduous task in
watching tot manus puerorum. The orien
tal gravity of the pupils began to re
lax, even to visible cachinnation and
audible tittering. It was then that the
schoolmaster went abroad, and by some av ell-
timed hits he restored them to a state of
serious and see-saw mumbling over the
Koran. I repeat to you my belief, that there was
no such thing as the Lancasterian system
of tuition discovered in Algiers by the
French, but schools of mutual instruction
have been established, early after the con
quest, at Algiers, Oran, and Bona. Those

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 129
schools are open to the native children, both
Jewish and Mussulman.
The following is no unpleasant statistic
table of public tuition in the Regency,
dated the 1st of July, 1834:—
At Algiers, taking in the village of
Delhy-Ibrahim, and at Oran and Bona,
there are educated in gratuitous schocfls, on
the mutual-instruction system, three hun
dred and seventeen pupils, of Avhom a third
are natives ; forty-eight of these are stu
dents of the Arabic language. Of private
institutions of education (of course not gra
tuitous), there are two for boys, avIio fill
them to the amount of seventy-two ; and
four for girls, three at Algiers and one at
Oran, the pupils of VA'hich amount to one
hundred and sixty-nine.
It is worth remarking, that the Moors
show themselves much more baclcAvard than
the Jcavs in availing themselves of the
VOL. II. K

l.'iO LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
means of European instruction that have
been thus opened up. This is a pity, no
doubt, for the Moors ; but it bespeaks als
our praise for the Jews, and they will reap
the advantage.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 131

LETTER XXII.
Embark at Algiers for Oran — Adventures of Peter Du
mont, who sojourned as a slave in Africa for thirty-
four years — His relation considered as authentic —
Remarkable incident which happened to him — Li
berated by Lord Exmouth — His entire ignorance of
all that had happened in Europe since 1784 — A
Tempest — The Captain of the Steamer — The immi
nent danger — Reflections, in the immediate prospect
of death — Anchor safely off Arzew — Description of
the Village — Anecdote of a poor Arab— The Harbour
a retreat for Shipping in Autumn and AVinter — Salt
Springs and Pits — Ignorance of the Natives in pre
paring the article — The dwarf Palm tree — The white
Asphodel and wild Asparagus — Purple Primroses —
Beds of Nettles — Nettle-cloth — Animal Curiosities —
The Mountain Cats — Arrival at Mers-el-Kebir— Pro
ceed to Oran. Oran, March 5th, 1835.
On Saturday last, I embarked for this place
on board the steamer at Algiers. The
worthy St. Johns made me promise to
K 2

132 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
come back to them instead of returning to
England, as I had once thought of, by Avay
of Spain. I had every symptom of a plea
sant voyage that the sea and sky could
promise. Mr. BroAvn, the American consul,
came out to shake hands Avith me on board
the steamer, and so did the frank-hearted
General Bro, — a true and truth-speaking
soldier, whom I am proud to call my friend:
at parting, he presented me Avith some
drawings of Algerine scenery, which his
son had kindly sent me from his port
folio. The weather was propitious to us for
several hours, and I had a great many
fellow-passengers to beguile the time with
in conversation. At intervals, I amused
myself with reading, and got particularly
interested in an account of the Adventures
of Peter Dumont, a Frenchman, who so
journed as a slave in Africa for thirty-four
years. Mr. Brown, who considered the

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 133
relation as authentic, had transcribed it
from Rile's Register of Baltimore, where it
appeared in August, 1818.
Poor Dumont left his native city, Paris,
at the age of fourteen, in the year 1782,
and went to America, but returning to
Europe, found himself, after successive
adventures, on board the Li^vre, a French
brig of fourteen guns, which sailed to join
a squadron that Avas blocking Port Mahon ;
but the unfortunate brig was shipwrecked
on the very coast Avhich a^'c were now pass
ing, between Algiers and Oran. Of her
crew, amounting to a hundred and forty
men, one half were droAvned, and the other
half were massacred by the Arabs on the
coast, with the exception of eighteen, of
Avhom Dumont Avas one.
The natives took them on foot a journey
of several days into the interior, as far as
the residence of their Sheik, where they
were chained two and two ; and, " during

134 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
twenty-eight years," says the adventurer
in his narrative, " I was compelled to sup
port night and day, with my miserable
fellow chain-mate, the weight of fetters that
made us inseparable. Every morning at
four o'clock," he continues, " we AA'cre taken
out to work, sometimes at the mines, some
times at cutting down trees or ploughing
the ground. We were bound to work until
twilight, and we had not any other rest,
than to smoke during a quarter of an hour
some tobacco we could pick up in the fields
by the way. In the morning when we were
getting out of our prison, which was totally
dark, and where we had only a little straw
to sleep on, we received each of us tAvo
rolls — which were black, tough, and very
often mouldy — and some rotten olives.
This was our only meal every day. We
had but once in the whole year — the day
of the circumcision of the children of the
tribe — a small piece of meat and a little

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 135
broth. If any one of us, exhausted with
fatigue and hunger, discontinued working
a few minutes, the chief guardian thrashed
him unmercifully : in short, so miserable
was our fate, that many of the sufferers
killed themselves. I remained twenty-eight
years in this dreadful situation. My life
was constantly uniform. I am going to
give the recital of the only incident which
happened to me during the whole of that
time. " A maraboot (so they call a Turkish
monk) who was travelling through the coun
try where we lived, gave us in alms about
thirty sequins, about two hundred francs.
Our chief guardian wanted to get his part
of it. I was the only one who refused giv
ing him anything ; filled with indignation
on account of my refusal, he treated me in
the most cruel manner. Every day Avhen
I was getting out of the prison, he over-
Avhelmed me with injuries and blows. Tired

136 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
of my life, I resolved to put an end to it by
taking vengeance on my persecutor, whom
I determined to kill the first blow he
should give me. The next day when I
Avas going to work, he came and struck me
— I seized a large stone, I threw it against
his face, and beat the right eye out of his
head. I was instantly surrounded by Ara
bians, who tied me to a mule, and, after
having been thrashed in a dreadful way, I
was brought before the Sheik. I had hap
pily learned to speak Arabic, and I was
able to explain to the Sheik the motives of
my conduct. I made him perceive the
cruel proceedings of the guardian towards
me. The Sheik, penetrated with the jus
tice of my remonstrance, condemned him to
be hanged. Then, advancing himself to
me, he said, ' Which hand of yours struck
your enemy? He has infringed on the
laws of the Koran, and must suffer his
punishment, but you also must suffer

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 137
yours.' As I foresaAv the chastisement I
was reserved for, I answered that I had
thrown the stone with my left hand, in
order to save the right. He ordered my left
hand to be tied to a plank and struck till
the skin and flesh were taken off, which
was executed immediately in the most cruel
manner. After I had suffered this dread
ful torture without being allowed to dress
my wound, I was compelled that very day
to move round a mill-stone, which I was
condemned to do for a whole year.
" The Sheik of the Conbaly tribe was
always at war with the other tribes, and
when he was forced to march his troops
against them he took along with him a
hundred slaves to pitch the tents, to load
and to unload the camels, and generally
for the most tiresome and painful duty.
" I remained twenty-eight years among
these barbarians, until the Bey of Titery,
Avho was tributary to the Dey of Algiers,

138 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
after some negotiations entered into with
the Sheik, had us conveyed into the coun
try under his jurisdiction : we were then
five hundred in number, and walked eight
days to get to Titery, where Ave remained
about five months.
The Bey sold us to the Regency of Al
giers for a sum of money which Avas de
ducted from what he was bound to pay for
his annual tribute. After the bargain was
concluded, we set out and arrived after a
journey of four nights at Algiers, where I
remained a slave about six years. I was
liberated by the glorious expedition under
Lord Exmouth, to whom I owe my restora
tion to my country after a period of thirty-
four years."
Mr. Brown, the American consul, who,
I think, had seen this man, told me a cir
cumstance Avhich is not mentioned in his
narrative, but which carries credibility in
its face ; namely, that when he returned to

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 139
Christendom, the history of all its revolu
tions since 1784 was a matter of entire no
velty to him. In all his years of slavery, he
had never heard of the French revolution
nor of Napoleon. If the story of the Cretan
philosopher, Epimenedes, taking a nap for
fifty years in a cave had been true, it would
have been a prototype of Dumont's case,
only that the philosophical sleeper had a
happier time of absenteeism from the world
than the Christian slave.
After reading this narrative, I walked
the quarter-deck during dusk, and stood
near enough to the main-deck to hear a
group of soldiers talking about the cruel
ties committed by the Arabs on some un
happy Frenchmen, who had lately fallen
into their hands. The coincidence between
the topic on which I had been reading, and
that upon which they were speaking, was
more pat than pleasant, and I silently
agreed in opinion with one of the sjpeakers

140 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH,
in the French group, that drowning at sea
would be preferable to being stranded on
these barbarous shores. In the meantime,
the wind set in strongly from the west, and
I retired to my berth almost as ill from the
swelling of the sea, as I had been in cross
ing from Blarseilles. The chairs made
voyages across the cabin, changing sides
like so many vacillating jjoliticians — only
those wooden-headed politicians differed
from those of the human breed in this re
spect, that they ahvays went over to the
lower or losing side.
On Sunday evening, the gale increased
to a perfect tempest, and, by the meanings
of some female sea-sick passengers, Avhich
I could hear in the neighbouring berths,
being changed into supplications to Hea
ven, it Avas CAddent that though there might
be little danger there Avas much fear. I
felt no particular apprehension till at
midnight, Avhen the captain of the steamer

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 141
came down to the cabin. He was a tall,
thin man, of a ghastly white complexion.
How it happened I know not, but so it did
happen, that though I had been on board a
good many hours, I remarked not till now
the extreme paleness of his face, which is
not Avonderful, as he had not long ago the
misfortune to be run through the stomach
in a duel, and since that time has been able
to digest no other aliment than milk and
gum, and a little vermicelli. Ignorant both
of his customary complexion and of the
cause of it, I mistook his spectral paleness,
Avhich was heightened by lamp-light, for a
symptom of dismay ; and Avhen, in answer
to my question, " Is there any danger? " he
answered " Yes," I concluded that it could
be no small matter that could blanch the
cheek of an experienced officer.
" But what sort of danger ? " I said,
" What are the symptoms ? "

142 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
" Why, only that the wind has carried
away our two half-sails."
" And have you any to replace them ? "
" None at all."
" Goodness ! " I exclaimed, " English
seamen would not have been unprovided
for such an accident."
This speech of mine, most uncalled for
and imprudent, I dare say, nettled him.
"What then do you mean to do?" I
asked. " You will not run us on shore
among the Arabs ? "
" No, we Avill be drowned first. What I
shall do will depend on circumstances. If
the storm continues, I must either return
to Algiers or make for Spain."
" And how much coal have you on
board ? "
" Only as much as will serve for twenty-
four hours."
" Why was there not more coal ? "

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 14.'?
" Monsieur Anglais, the coal comes from
England, and it is scarce at Algiers. But,
as I hear you are a poet, let me tell you, I
fear that this will be a tragic episode in
your history."
He then left me to my meditations.
Another officer soon after came down for
a moment to the cabin. I troubled him
only with two questions.
" Are we on a lee shore ? "
" No, the wind is nearly ahead of us."
" Are we near the coast?"
" No, considerably out from it."
Ah ! then, methought, we are at least clear
of the horrible natives. Still, 1 had heard
from the bloodless lips of the captain, what
forced me to conjecture that we might
founder at sea, and I summoned my soul's
forlorn fortitude to face the catastrophe.
True, it will be hideous to be suffocated in
the howling waters, and I felt in fancy the
first gushing of them into my ears and

144 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
nostrils. But I recollected that by far the
greater number of persons recovered from
drowning have described it as not an ago
nizing death ; and then, though some Avill
miss me, AA'hat is the loss of life, thick soAvn
as it is Avith vexations and pain, and long
hours of ennui. Though in a reverie only,
and not a dream, my mind's eye saAV Du
mont standing before me with his beaten
and bleeding hand upon the plank. In
short, all the cruelties of man to man, and
all the horrors of life, rose up as officious
support ers to my courage against the pros
pect of death. But on brief reflection I
said to myself, " This is not a state of
mind in which a man should either live or
die." So I struggled for better thoughts,
and in some degree obtained them.
And didi really rally and marshal my
broken thoughts ? you Avill ask me, under
the immediate prospect of death. No, I
pretend not to having stood that awful pro-

LETTERS F'ROM fUE SOtJTH. 145
bation ; I had the fear, but not the certain
prospect, of death before my eyes. I had
still a latent hope that Ave should be saved,
and a suspicion that the captain had exag
gerated matters. At one time, no doubt, I
thought that all was over with us ; the ship,
struck by a wave, heeled and shook as if
she were going to pieces, and a shriek arose
from one or more of the passengers. But
the shock subsided, and, from finding that
the ship had not gone down, my hopes be
gan to mount up most saucily.
Before daylight, the sea-swell was sensi
bly abated. Our captain came down once
more to the cabin, and forgetting all offence,
if he had been offended, told me he consi
dered the crisis of our danger passed. I dis
posed myself to sleep, and, Avhen I awoke,
found that Ave were anchored off Arzew.
ArzcAV is a tolerably safe haven, thirty-
six miles to the east of Oran. I was de
lighted to go ashore, though the village is
VOL. II, L

146 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
small and miserable. Here the French
have a military station, and a little fortress
with two hundred men. Ten new houses
have been built by the settlers, two of whom
have set up as innkeepers, and supply the
military with more wine and brandy than
does them good.
As I was passing one of these cabarets, I
observed the French soldiers hustling and
insulting a wretched, ragged Arab, and
even setting a dog upon him. The poor
Numidian had been begging from them a
morsel of food, and they backed him out of
the door by offering him wine. I repri
manded the French for their inhumanity,
and ordered the landlord to bring the starv
ing creature some bread and meat, which
he devoured with avidity. After his meal,
I offered him a draught of wine : his man
ner showed that he knew I was not mean
ing to insult him, but bowing, to thank me,
he pointed with his finger up to heaven, as

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 147
much as to say, it is forbidden. We stop
ped here till the following day (Tuesday)
when I took a stroll of five hours' length in
the neighbourhood of the village, in com
pany with a French officer of the station,
who is an expert botanist.
Arzew is a roomy haven, that is still
considerably frequented by European ship
ping, as a retreat in winter and autumn.
The place was called Arsenaria by the
Romans. It is described by Shaw as, even
in his time, a small city ; but fifty years
later, Leweson found upon it only a few
huts and tents, with a corn magazine be
longing to the Bey of Mascara. The sur
rounding country is waste and marshy,
and, according to Leweson, inhabited only
by lions, hysenas, and jackals. I saw no
samples of species of this rural population,
but the Frenchman told me that their voices
are sometimes heard.
Some miles south of Arzew, there are exu-
L 2

14B LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
berant salt springs and pits, which are sup
posed to contain as much salt as Avould
supply all Barbary ; but, in Leweson's time
this source of wealth A\'as so much neg
lected by the natives, and such Avas their
ignorance of preparing the article from
briny springs, or of cleansing it in its fossil
state, that the natives used very little salt,
and that little Avas imported from Europe;
it was not even used in preserving their
cheese and butter, and salted meat or fish
was unknown. I asked my botanical com
panion Avhether the natives continue as
ignorant of the art of making and purify
ing salt as LcAveson described them. He
could not be positive on the subject, but
said, he believed that they noAV manufac
ture the article, though only to a small
extent. A little to the east of ArzcAv, the river
Mukdah discharges itself into the sea. It
is probably the ancient Castennus. It

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 149
receives several tributary streams, one of
which is the Oued-el-Hamam, or River of
Baths, — so called from a warm spring in
the neighbourhood. There are close to
Arzew the vestiges of a small village, and
farther off those of a considerable town,
both of them palpably Roman ruins.
Here there is no such beauty of land
scape as at Bougia or even Bona, but still
the scene is not destitute of interest. The
plains and ravines are by no means so
marshy as I expected to find them, but
abound in alluvial earth, which irregular
streams bring doAvn from the mountains.
This gives birth to numberless dwarf palm
trees, which, though a humble shrub, is not
valueless to the Arabs. They find its root
a nourishing vegetable, and they Aveave its
leaves into ropes and baskets. Next, in
abundance, to the dwarf palm tree, is a
peculiar species of lentisk. I culled also*

150 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
many heads of the white asphodel and of
the wild asparagus. The latter eats plea
santly when boiled, and I even prefer it to
the garden asparagus, though it is slightly
bitter, lavender and wormwood grow in
plenty, and every here and there I met
with patches of rich purple primroses, and
of a species of vetch, which has a blossom as
rich in colour as the wall-flower. Last of
all, my eye luxuriated in looking on large
and beautiful beds of nettles. " Oh,
wretched taste !" your English prejudice
perhaps will exclaim ; "is not the nettle a
weed if possible more vile than even your
Scottish thistle ?" But be not nettled, my
friend, at my praise of this useful weed. In
Scotland, I have eaten nettles, I have slept
in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle
table-cloth. The young and tender nettle
is an excellent pot-herb, and the stalks of
the old nettle are as good as flax for mak-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 151
ing cloth. 1 have heard my mother say
that she thought nettle-cloth more durable
than any other species of linen.
The only animal curiosities I saw at Ar
zew were a noble eagle, who looked con
temptuously on his spectators, though he
was chained by the foot ; and a couple of
caged mountain-cats. If there was poetry
in the eagle's mien, there was a still more
indescribable beauty in the emerald eyes
of the feline captives, and in the black
spots upon their rich and fawn-coloured
fur. They were each about twice the size
of a house grimalkin. Whilst they were
rolling on their backs in rage, and opening
their red mouths to snap at any reed or
stick that was thrust at them, I so ad
mired them, that I was sorry I durst not
insert my hand to caress them; I have no
doubt they would have caressed my hand
in return, if I had.
This morning at ten, our steamer arrived

152 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
at Mers-el-Kebir, tAvo leagues from Oran,
where there is a large fortress built of old
by the Spaniards, and now surmounted by
the tri-colour, but at which there is no safe
anchorage for shipping. I took a boat
immediately, and conveyed myself Avith
my baggage to Oran : here I could find
only a miserable lodging, but it is the best
in the place. I like much the novelty and
picturesqueness of the town ; and, as I shall
meet with the British vice-consul, Mr. Dal
zell, son of my old friend the Greek Pro
fessor of Edinburgh, as well as General
Trezel, M'ho is commandant of the place, I
look forward with pleasure to a short so
journ.

f .*¦¦

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 153

LETTER XXIII.
Description of Oran — Beauty of the climate — The ter
raced or sloping Gardens — The Castle of Santa Cruz —
The Spanish Fortifications — Oran relinquished by the
Spaniards in 1191 — Tremendous Earthquake— Mr.
Dalzell, British Vice-Consul — The New Casbah —
Commandant General Trezel — The Fort of Santa Cruz
— A Salt Lake— Spanish population of Oran — Mag
nificent ruins — Native wild flowers — Hyaenas and
Snakes — The Miotis Annua — Meat and provisions
cheaper than at Algiers — The Landlady and her vora
cious guests — The Spanish Priest — Lion's flesh and
roasted Jackal — French Officers well-informed men —
Comparison of French and English manners — Accom
pany General Trezel and his brigade in an excursion
to the interior — The white Gazelle — An Eagle — The
reminiscences it elicits amongst the Soldiers — The
Arab herd-boy — Prevailing inebriety of the French
Soldiers — Military flogging — A group for a Sculptor
— A Lion — Anecdote of two French Soldiers — Story of
a Highland laird — The Lion shot — The young Jackal.
Oran, March 15th, 1835.
This city, once large and populous, though
now inconsiderable and inhabited but by a

154 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
few thousand souls, stands in 35° 50' of
north latitude, and in the third degree of
longitude to the west of Paris. It is built
partly on the sea-shore, at the mouth of a
spacious ravine, and partly on two table
lands lying on either side of the ravine.
The roadstead is picturesque to look at, but
shallow, exposed to the winds, and affording
no anchorage to ships of considerable bur
then. The appearance of Oran is pleasant
and imposing : the streets are wider and
straighter than those of Algiers, and the
whole town is a paradise, compared to the
capital of the Regency. The city has six
gates. It is at present surrounded with
what the French call a chemise garnie and
several redans — the chemise is flanked from
distance to distance by magnificent forts,
the work of the Spaniards.
The climate at the time I am writing, is
delicious; and, I understand, though not
beneficial for persons with pulmonary com-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 155
plaints, is upon the whole very healthful —
the mortality is even less than at the town
of Algiers, which cannot be called un
wholesome. Here the proportion of the
sick among the French is often no more
than one to a hundred — it very seldom ex
ceeds five per cent., and that only in the
hot months, when the soldiers indulge
themselves in fruit and brandy.
The steep ravine which I have mentioned
divides the upper town into two portions,
which are connected by a pretty stone
bridge of Spanish construction. The stream
is perennial, and strong enough to drive
several mills. A handsomer valley than
this, you can hardly imagine to be enclosed
betAveen two parts of a town. On each side
of the stream, there are terraced or sloping
gardens, rich with fruits and flowers, and
resounding with song-birds ; and, whilst
those songs, mixed with the tune of the
stream, come to the ear, the eye volup-

156 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
tuates, if I may coin a word, on peach,
and almond, and orange blossoms.
I have seldom felt more gay sensations
than Avhen ascending from the marine to
the upper part of Oran. The mixed remi
niscences of Spanish and Moorish history
which the scene awakens — the mighty cas
tle of Santa Cruz, on the summit of Mount
Rammra, one thousand six hundred feet
above the level of the sea, on the nearest
top of the range of hills that sweep for three
leagues to Mers-el-Kebir, at which point
there are equally splendid Spanish fortifi
cations, together with the minarets of
several mosques, and the sight of the tri
color on tovi'er and citadel, oblige you to
think of the past, the present, and the
future, and make you feel that man is a
being, looking behind and before him.
The Spaniards gave back Oran to the
Moors in 1791, after they had held it more
than a hundred years, and had spent many

LETTERS PROM THE SOUTH. 157
millions sterling of money in making it im
pregnable. But an earthquake one fatal
night buried thousands of the inhabitants
under the ruins of their houses, and, though
the forts were not irreparably shaken, the
Spaniards got tired of the place, and con
signed Oran and its province by treaty to
the Dey of Algiers.
After calling on the British vice-consul,
Mr. Dalzell, I ascended to what is called
the New Casbah (in contradistinction to an
older one that is now half in ruins), and
paid my respects to the Commandant,
General Trezel. This new Casbah has
handsome ramparts, batteries commanding
the sea and the town, a deep ditch with a
counterscarp, and the remains of a covered
way. Here are barracks for five hundred
infantry and two hundred cavalry. In all
the courts, there are fountains and jets-
d'eau. The gate of entrance is entirely of
hewn stone, and is a superb piece of archi-

158 LETTERS, FROM THE SOUTH.
tecture. The general and his amiable lady
received me very kindly, and gave me a
general invitation to their evening parties.
The fort of Santa Cruz, to which I have
alluded, still remains strong enough to re
pel any aggression on the town in that
direction, and is capable of being repaired
so as to hold a powerful garrison. But,
though it was occupied by the French when
the Arabs last attacked Oran, it is deserted
at present. I made my way up to it one
fine day, but its aspect of desolation, its
gloomy stairs and deserted chambers, made
me thankful that I had some gay French
men with me, otherwise I should have been
afraid of meeting ghosts. From this castle
of Santa Cruz, the buildings of the town
below appear as small as houses of cards.
From thence, the eye is carried over a wide
and wild country to the extremity of a salt
lake, twenty miles long, where boat is never
launched. The cause of this desolation is

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 159
its shallowness ; the lake itself, however, is
an advantage to the country. Its shores
get dry in summer, and yield salt so abun
dantly, that the article is sold here for seven
sous the hundred weight. This confirms
what the Frenchman at Arzew told me as
to salt being at present prepared by the
natives. From the Castle of Santa Cruz, subterra
neous paths have been discovered, leading
from the castle to parts of the plain three
miles below. In the dismal walls of the
forsaken fortress, the jackals of the neigh
bourhood hold their evening concerts, and
take up their lodgings for the night. Nor
can they be said to leave the place quite
solitary ; but, on the contrary, they people
it with millions more company than is de
sirable : to be plain and short, we came
back to Oran covered with fleas. It was
not till I had bathed and shifted every

160 LETTERS PROM T^HE SOIJTH.
garment I had worn, that I got rid of those
back-biters and bosom foes.
There are two smaller forts to the west
of the town, on the road to Mers-el-Kebir,
which are in very good preservation, and oc
cupied by the French. On the parapet of
one of them there is a spike of iron, fixed
upright in the wall, on AA^hich poor wretches
in the Moorish times used to be empaled.
On the south-eastern side of the city
there are the remains of fortifications and
square towers, which at one time made
Oran impregnable in that direction. It is
not so at present ; for little more than a
year ago the Arabs had nearly penetrated
into the town through this quarter. All
these forts are of Spanish erection, and
built of stones, supplied by a vast quarry
in the neighbourhood, in which petrifactions
of fishes have been often found.
The Spanish population of Oran inha-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 161
biteda wide table-land, separated from -the
Moorish part of the town by the ravine and
rivulet already mentioned. I have seldom
seen anything more imposing to the imagi
nation than the ruins of churches and pa
laces, and the traces of squares, and streets,
and houses, overgrown with nettles, and all
manner of weeds, which this desolate plain
presents. Though there is no pathway through this
scene of rubbish and foundations, it is my
favourite haunt, not only because it gives
my mind a dreamy picture of the once
proud city, on Avhose cornices the hyaena
now couches and the adder coils, but be
cause it is rich in the native Avild floAvers
of AA^hich I am now making a collection.
" Soho ! " methinks you exclaim, " you are
become a botanist ! " No, my friend, a
real botanist I despair of ever becoming, for
though in my boyhood I v/ent through a
course of the science, I find the re-attain-
VOL. II. M

162 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
ment of it beyond my patience. But I
delight in the flowers of the field : they
have all some charm or other in my eyes,
— with their shapes and hues they speak a
language of their own to my imagination,
and, when I have admired their beauty, I
like to consult the dictionary about their
uses and qualities.
" But how do you dispose of the hyaenas
and snakes," you will say, " that you meet
with in this desolate place ? " Why, those
poor things never trouble a man unless he
attacks them. I keep as much as possible
on clear ground, and with a hook on the
end of my stick I fish for plants. Once
only my researches went too deep. I saw
in a bed of nettles a gigantic nettle-stalk,
that, without exaggeration, was as thick as
the stick of an umbrella : into the grove I
plunged, but it was beyond my reach, and
I returned sucking my burnt fingers.
This neighbourhood is not so variously

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 163
rich in wild plants as the fields about Al
giers ; but my residence at the latter place
was almost entirely during the winter
months ; whereas the spring is commenc
ing here, and there is a blossom on every
clod. There are acres of asphodel, with
bluish-white flowers, that grow sometimes
to the height of six feet. The Allium sati
vum, or wild garlic, has a pretty flower of
the same colour ; but the wild tulip, which
Jussieu classes in the family of the Lilia-
cees, is the pride of the fields, and often
grows in large clusters ; nor is it a mere
gaud, like our garden tulips, but unites a
fragrance, like that of the lily, to its rich and
glossy hue. The Bouglossa officinalis, with
its dark blue flowers, as well as the Linus
ruber, with its red ones, and the hedge Con
volvulus, Avhich is larger and richer than in
Europe, prank the ground like a gay car
pet ; whilst the Ferrula communis, growing
to an enormous height, shines vividly with
2 M

164 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
" sight-refreshing green." The serpolet, a
kind of wild thyme, is here both frequent
and fragrant : and so is the Alissum mon-
tanum. Of mallows, there are several sorts : of
these, the Malva arborescens is the most
medicinal, and the Rotundifloria, to my
taste, the most picturesque. The Presida
alba, with a tallish stem and a white flower,
and no less the Chrysanthemum majus,
like a giant chamomile, make a pleasant
figure on the road-side. These are but a
few of my floral sweethearts : I AAdll not
tire you with naming any more of them —
saving one only, the darling little Miotis
annua. No flaunting beauty, it is unob
trusive, like the violet; but when examined,
its blossom is like a spark of the sapphire
firmament set in a capsule of emerald.
I get one good from these rambles after
field-flowers — namely, an excellent appe
tite ; and the meat here is infinitely better

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 165
than that of Algiers, both at private tables
and at the table-d'hote, which is resorted to
by the civil and military bachelors Avho have
no household cuisine of their own. There,
for sixty-five francs a month, I make two
meals a-day — a dejeuner a la fourchette and
dinner ; I have more dishes presented to me
than I can partake of, and small wine ad
libitum. Although meat, fish, and fowls are twice
as cheap here as at Algiers, I suspect our
entertainers can make but little profit by
their boarders ;— indeed the landlady told
me so the other day. When remaining
last of the company I complimented her on
her cuisine, and the gastronomic poAvers of
her guests, I found that I had touched the
tenderest chord of her heart. " Alas, Sir,"
said she, Avith a voice of grief, "if they
would all eat as you do, like a man of con
science, off a dish or Iato, we could live by
our trade ; but the ravens — the ogres ! — ¦

166 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
oh! their maws will be the ruin of us !" —
— and she wiped her tears with her apron.
" I always tell my husband that it is of no
use to take pains with our cookery ; for the
nicer we cook the more unmercifully they
devour." And I believed her; for I had
remarked a bluff Major bag for his own
share, an omelet — the flesh of a fowl, with
ham to match — besides reducing the height
of a pyramid of cutlets by half a foot. In
short, she convinced me that they were
frying away the peace of their own souls in
every sole that they put into the pan ; and
that in potting for others, they were them
selves going to pot.
Apropos to omelets : I dined off a very
nice and savoury one, made of an ostrich's
egg, the day after I came to Oran. It was
at the table of General Trezel. The men,
excepting a Spanish priest and myself,
were all military. Mio Padre, the priest,
is a friend of Mina, and a bold constitu-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 167
tionalist. He says that it is all nonsense
to talk of the Catholic religion being ad
verse to liberty, and favourable to the
divine right of kings : for it has dethroned
more kings and emperors than ever Pro
testantism did, and that Catholicism is
naturally allied with republicanism. I was
so busy with my ostrich omelet, and he
reminded me so much of Daniel O'Connell,
that I could not even grunt a contradic
tion. There were some very pretty women of
the party. One of them told me that she
had once ate a bit of lion's flesh, and that
it tasted like very good veal ; she had also
once half-dined, she said, off a roasted
jackal, and taken a large slice, which
Avas very like venison, and more savoury
than mutton. Was this a vulgar, eccentric
woman ? No, I assure you ; quite the re
verse in all other points of conversation —

168 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
dfelicate and ladylike ; I told her that her
mouth Avas by far too interesting to mas
ticate such food.
I have thus had, in the Commandant's
house, an opportunity of knowdng all the
officers of the higher grade here, and their
acquaintance is well worth forming. I
have met with Englishmen, Avho, not so
much from prejudice as sheer ignorance,
set down French officers universally as
nothing better than illiterate swordsmen.
If you entertained that stupid opinion, the
conversation of the superior officers in this
Regency Avould disabuse you of it. Among
an equal number of men, you will nowhere
find a greater proportion of sensible indivi
duals. They may be the elite, for aught
that I know, of the French army ; for the
strongest minds would naturally be the
first to court employment in the African
enterprise ; but still, the officers here can-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 169
not be materially different from those at
home, and they are anything but illiterate,
if you come to the reading that gives men
useful knowledge. They have not classi
cal acquirements, and, in my opinion, are
none the worse for the AA'^ant of them.
I like to see classical literature among
the infinitesimal part of mankind, who can
reap and really enjoy it; but of all human
hogs, save me from the college hedgehog
who bristles Avith quotations from Horace.
The French gentlemen whom I have met
in the Algerine Regency have generally
raised my respect for the national charac
ter. In various degrees, their spirits are
active and ingenious : some of them, like
ray friend Lagondie (Trezel's aide-de-
camp), addict themselves to Arabian litera
ture and history ; another is a botanist ;
some are chemists and zoologists ; and
draAving is a common accomplishment —

170 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
General Bro's son, for instance, is a pro
mising artist *.
In my intercourse Avith the most polished
and intelligent of them, I have found that,
in order to win their good opinion, and to
elicit free information from them, you
must never lose sight of their national cha
racter. The revolution itself has not done
away with either their politeness or their
punctiliousness ; and their politeness, whe
ther the shadow or the substance of bene
volence, must be reciprocated with an
attention which an Englishman is apt
to neglect. If you meet an Englishman
in mounting the stairs of an hotel, and put
your hand to your hat, he will conclude
that you are either mad, or that you mean
to beg charity of him ; but if you meet
a Frenchman, though an utter stranger, he
will give and expect the same token of
* Young Bro has also distinguished himself in the last
campaign.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 171
courtesy. In like manner (speaking in
general terms), a Frenchman, even on the
sore subject of politics, will be courteous
and continue to be so, if you return his
courtesy ; but he expects it, and will turn
short upon you if he misses it. Not that
I mean you should ever drop that fierte
Anglaise, for which the French in their
hearts respect us, but you should make it
purely defensive, and show that it comes
from the warmth of the heart, not the heat
of the temper.
In this way, by a very little tact, you
will get abundant and amusing instruction
from the accomplished military men of
France, who have seen much of the world,
and can tell you much about it.
Nevertheless, as I have said, the very
courtesy of the best Frenchmen requires a
certain degree of management, and what I
like about my favourite Lagondie is, that
in talking with him I need no management

] 72 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
at all. He is half an Englishman — his
father, a Bourbonist exile, having married
in England the daughter of an English no
bleman. He calls on me every day, and I
always expect him Avith pleasure on the
morrow. Young as he is, he has a strongly
reflecting mind, a good deal of reading, and
a remarkable memory ; his sedate temper
and his mixed birth have divested him of
all national prejudices.
A few days ago, by General Trezel's in
vitation, I accompanied him and his staff
at the head of his brigade, in an excursion
into the interior. We met with no adven
tures worth relating, and, except at one
spot, Ave saw none of the natives. For miles
after you leave Oran, the chain of hills that
run from the south to the sea, are bare and
stony, and the plain itself is totally uncul
tivated, but it abounds in asphodel, so tall
that I could pluck its tops as I rode ; and
there were here and there most beauti-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 173
ful patches of the tulip and bouglossa. We
caught a glimpse of a white gazelle, that
speedily hid itself among the asphodels ;
happily it Avas against military etiquette to
pursue it.
At times, the trumpets of the cavalry
played martial airs, that were delightfully
unmixed with that din of drums which
generally overpowers French military mu
sic. The echoes of the wild landscape
gave a strange effect to the notes. of the
Avar-horn. Not a tent, nor an Arab, nor a
camel Avas to be seen ; every living thing
seemed to have fled from before the French,
except a majestic eagle, that hovered over
the troops, and you would have thought ex
ulted in hearing the military band. What
a glorious fellow he Avas ! I see him yet
in my mind's eye, towering up to the top
most heaven, then dropping plump down
till his shadow was pictured on the sunny
ground ; at times, he Avould shoot before us,

174 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
turning his crested head and splendid eyes
completely back over his shoulders; anon,
he would wheel in elliptic circles, or turn
vertically, as. if in sport, on his yard-wide
wings. Now, I said to myself, can French
men under arms see an eagle hovering
over their trumpets Avithout certain remi
niscences? and I was not mistaken ; look
ing round, I saw more than ordinary ex
pression in all their Gallic faces : it was
grave, and not gay expression ; but it was,
to my imagination at least, strongly intelli
gible. I said to an officer at whose side I
was riding, " Is it merely my fancy, or do
the soldiers look at that bird with peculiar
admiration?" "¦ Rauca verba," he replied,
" this is no place for making remarks, but
you are perfectly right that the eagle is
producing a sensation !" In spite of this
caution, I kept behind, and observed to an
elderly sergeant of cavalry, " That is a
noble bird up there." " Qui !" he answered

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 175
emphatically, " I'aigle vaut mieux que le
coq." At the end of three leagues, we came to
a large cistern, from which we drew water
for ourselves and our horses, and halted for
half an hour to take a dejeuner, for which
some French suttlers, who had got there
before us, sold us ample materials. A poor
Arab boy was tending a few miserable
cows beside the cistern ; Captain Lagondie
asked him, in Arabic, what had become of
the tribe who usually dwelt in the neigh
bourhood ? The herd-boy told him that
they had all gone off towards the desert,
except the people of his father's tent. This
was a lie, for it was known that they were
only skulking out of the A^'ay of the French.
" The more shame to you Frenchmen," I
said to Lagondie.
On my return to Oran the same day, I
was struck, though not for the first time,

176 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Avith proofs of the excessive inebriety that
prevails among the French common sol
diers. It so far exceeds anything to be
seen among our own men, that I could not
help saying to a group of officers with
whom I dined at the table-d'hote, that,
abominating as I do flogging with all my
sotil, I doubted if it would not be charity
to the men themselves to restrain them
from drunkenness by that means. " No,
Sir," said an experienced officer, "it would
never do to return to the system of the
lash ; all France would revolt at it, and
no man would dare to propose it ; and, as
for drunkenness, if there was any danger
threatening France, the soldiers of their
own accord would correct that vice, and of
themselves punish their comrades for it."
I hope he is right, and I am disposed to
believe his assertion, that he had himself
always seen French soldiers become tern-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 177
perate in a crisis of common danger. Be
that as it may, there is Certainly no terror
of punishment for inebriety among the
Gallic warriors of Africa. I have heard of
one of them being brought to a court-mar
tial for the crime of being drunk without
leave; but, to judge by appearances, such
leave is not difficult to be obtained.
On my way home the same evening, I
passed two figures, who would have made
as good a comic subject for the sculptor
Thorn, as that of Tam O'Shanter and Sutor
Johnny. They Avere seated on a stone
bench, not conversing, but soliloquizing.
One of them, a short Horace-like gentle
man, was snapping his fingers, and laugh
ing with a short face that was an epi
gram of tipsy felicity: the other was a
huge Herculean dragoon, with a sword at
his side that would slice an ox, and he Avas
in the melting mood — blubbering like a
whipped child, and piteously muttering the
VOL. 11. N

178 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Lord knows what, whilst the tears rolled
down on his ferocious whiskers.
Our neighbourhood is occasionally visited
by a personage still more consequential
than the eagle, namely, the king of the
quadruped creation. I had not the honour
of seeing his majesty whilst alive during
his last royal progress, but enjoyed the
safer gratification of hearing his voice at
a distance. This was yesterday evening,
whilst I was strolling alone about a quarter
of a mile from the walls of Oran : there
was no mistaking the lion's roar, though I
had never heard it before but in a mena
gerie. At first, the sound conspired with the
savage grandeur of the scene, and the pros
pect of the long innavigable lakes, to yield
me a romantic pleasure. " Come," thought
I, " this is pleasantly romantic, that I have
heard the Lybian lion roar in his native
freedom ;" and as his voice, though I could
not be sure from what quarter it came, be-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 179
tokened him to be far off, I stood enjoying
my thoughts for a minute as quietly as if
I had been reading Longinus.
But rapt as I was in the sublime, it oc
curred to me that how distant soever his
majesty might be, it would be better for
me to get into town, than run the millionth
part of a chance of being ushered by sur
prise into the royal presence : so I turned
townwards. Presently I came up with two
little French soldiers, who were resting on
the road-side with their muskets beSide
them. " Gentlemen," I said, " have you heard
that lion's roar ? "
" Oh yes," they answered, as if they had
divined my thoughts ; " heard it ! Lord
bless you, and he is very near us. You
must not think of going alone into town.
We were on our Avay to the block-house,"
(which I knew was a lie, for the little ras
cals had passed me before they rested, and
N 2

180 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
were evidently trudging towards Oran ;)
" but for the sake of seeing you safe into
town, we will accompany you as far as the
gate." " Thank you," I replied ; " but I appre
hend no danger, and I cannot think of giv
ing you so much trouble."
" Pooh ! trouble. Sir, don't mention that;
we must go with you."
In short, they were staunch hounds, who,
having scented a job, would not give it up ;
so it was in vain for me to decline their
protection. They loaded, or pretended to
load, their muskets with ball, and vowed to
shed the last drop of their blood in my de
fence. Much, to be sure, the lion would
have cared for us all three ! In safety we
reached Oran. Near its gate stands an in
viting cabaret, and thither my brave pro
tectors threw significant looks.
" Gentlemen," I said, taking a franc out
of my pocket, " I would give you this bit

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 181
of acknowledgment for your intrepid con
voy, but I must not ; for you will lay it out
on two litres of brandy, (brandy is sold for
ten sous a quart,) which will fill you drunk,
and throw you into a fever." They looked
very glum : " But, if you will treat yourself
to wine with it, it is at your service."
" Eh Men, done," they responded ; " du
vin, du vin."
We entered the cabaret, and I give you
my word that the landlord brought them
five bottles of not unpalatable red wine,
brewed, I believe, from the native grape,
for tenpence. Of course, what vintage can
be expected at twopence a bottle? but I
tasted it, and really this boisson, Avholly
unlike the alum and logwood-dye liquor
sold for wine at Algiers, was very tolerable,
and I warrant you my defenders got as
brave as lions before they finished it.
I conjecture that when his Iconic ma
jesty roared, it was in indignation at some

182 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
destructive radical natives who were pur
suing him, for he was killed a few miles
from Oran that same evening ; he had
killed one camel for his breakfast in the
morning, and I have no doubt if he had
met with me would have dined off another.
A Highland laird once said, when he heard
it read to him that Job had six thousand
camels, " Och ! he had too much to do with
the camels *, you will see that Shob will
come to no good." In like manner, the lion
paid dear for his meal on my namesake :
the owner went out with some good marks
men, and next morning I saw the royal
corpse in the possession of General Trezel,
Avho had bought it, skin and all, for forty
francs. Provoking this ! had it been offered
to me I would have given one hundred for
it. The body measured seven English feet
without the tail. All the savants in natural
history have agreed that it could not be
* Campbell is pronounced Camel in the Highlands.

LETTERS FROMTHE SOUTH. 183
more than three years old, being lanky,
and as maneless as a lioness, though if he
had lived he would have grown a swinging
fellow. His tongue was ate at General
Trezel's table, and tasted, I am told, like
that of an ox.
It was curious to contrast the youthful
ness of this creature with the terror he had
spread; the evening that his roar was
heard, travellers were seen coming back
to town on the roads in all directions, and
the hyaenas and jackals, who raise their
psalmody far and near, omitted their ves
pers that night, and were as mum as death
the two following evenings.
I have mentioned my acquaintance with
the Spanish priest. I met him the other
morning, and he apologized for not having
returned my call the day before. " I was
obliged," he said, " to be present at the
death of a jackal."
" Well, Sir, I hope you had good sport."

184 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
" Sport ! " said he ; " Avhy I was there to
give him religious consolation."
" Indeed ! "
" Yes, indeed ! — and I assure you he died
a very penitent Christian, though he had
led a most dissolute life."
" Jackals are apt to do so ; but what was
his particular crime ? ""
" He was addicted to drinking, and find
ing a few francs in the breeches-pocket of
a fellow-jackal, he killed him to purchase
brandy." " What the devil ! jackals with breeches-
pockets, drinking brandy, and dying like
penitent Christians ! You don't seriously
mean, mio Padre, that you gave religious
consolation to a beast? "
" Ha, ha ! — hee, hee ! " quoth the Padre.
" Don't you know that all the soldiers of
the light infantry regiment here are called
jackals ? "
Talking of jackals, I have purchased a

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 185
young one — not a biped, human brute, but
a quadruped. An Arab came to my lodg
ings, offering the poor little puppy for sale ;
it licked my hand, as if it sought protec
tion ; and the touch of its tongue was
eloquent. It is a playful creature, with
pretty yellow fur, glazed, foolish blue eyes,
and a constantly wagging tail. I delight
in my protege ; and have the comfortable
assurance that, whatever his faults may be
through life, he will never disgrace himself
by being addicted to brandy.

186 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.

LETTER XXIV.
Want of public amusements at Oran — French punish
ment for Desertion — Description of a Military Execu
tion — Remark of General Trfezel on English flog
ging- Oran, April 12, 1835.
The people of Oran are sadly off for pub
lic amusements. There is not an earth
quake above twice in a century : they have
no theatre, and very few balls ; but, in lieu
of gayer spectacles, they have about once
a month a military execution. You must
not think me unfeeling for having spoken
with levity of the last that occurred ; the
sufferer was as horrible a wretch as Burke
or Bishop, and at his death he played the
craven. Another punishment, however,
has taken place, which has left ou my mind
a very different impression; the criminal

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 187
was a deserter ; he' had fled to an Arab
tribe, but their hospitality consisted in
pinioning him with ropes and bringing him
back to the garrison for the usual reward
of thirty francs that is given to the natives
for such services.
I am aware that the French cannot help
punishing desertion, and certainly shooting
men for it is the most potent example they
can hold out ; yet, at the same time, one's
compassion is not so much shut against a
deserter as an assassin, and I pitied this
poor creature when I heard of his doom.
His case haunted me so much, that I con
sulted Captain Lagondie about the possi
bility of applying to General Trezel for a
mitigation of the sentence, and told him
that I had drawn up an appeal to his mercy
for the poor man. " It will be worse than
useless," said Lagondie; " you will only add
unfairly to the distress which the General

188 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
has suffered from signing the death Avar-
rant. Yesterday evening, he was for hours
in a state ofmelancholy agitation, revolving
the question whether it was possible to save
the culprit ; the veins of his temples were
swollen with anxiety, but, as there was
conspiracy combined with desertion in this
case, he was compelled to decide that there
could be no pardon,"
Of course, I suppressed my petition ; but
the impending execution so engrossed my
thoughts, that, at the risk of your blaming
my curiosity, I will own to you I resolved
to see it. I made an appointment, there
fore, with Lagondie to meet him at the
square near the Kasbah, at half-past one
next day, and to go out with him to the
tragic spectacle, which was to take place
at tM'O o'clock, half a mile from toAvn. All
that evening, and the next morning, I felt
like a fish out of the water. When I awoke

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 189
in the middle of the night, I thought to
myself, What are now the sensations of the
deserter? and again, after my morning's
sleep, I put the same question. I rose early
as usual, took coffee, rode out, returned to
read, and tried to write and study ; but
neither by coffee, nor riding, nor reading,
could I get rid of my thoughts about the
deserter ; and ever and anon I was pulling
out my Avatch to count the hours he had to
live. At the time appointed, I joined Captain
Lagondie, and we set out on foot to the
spot of this real tragedy. Troops of ca
valry came down from the Kasbah, with
trumpets blowing as gaily as if it had been
a military triumph, and a regiment of in
fantry marched beside us out of the city
gate. We passed the prison where the
victim was confined, and Lagondie pointed
out to me the grated window of his apart
ment, through which he was listening to

190 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
the last music that he was ever to hear in
this world.
Shortly we reached the ground where
his fate A\'as to be enacted. We took our
stand on the top of the lime-rocks, whilst
the troops, one thousand in number, formed
three-fourths of a square on the plain be
neath. At last, from the prison-gate came
forth a company— their drums muffled with
crape — and the victim in the centre on foot,
followed by the horse and cart that were to
carry back his dead body. He was quite
unchained and had no priest with him. At
first, they beat a slow march, but we saw
him waive his hand to the drummers, and
understood that it was a signal for them to
beat quick time, which they did, whilst I
dare say more hearts than my own quick
ened their pulsation. When they halted
on the fatal stop, the commanding officer
pulled out a paper, which was the sentence
of death, and he read it with a loud and

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 191
stern voice. Every syllable that he uttered
was audible though we stood at a consider
able distance.
Meanwhile, the sufferer took his station
with his back to the lime-rocks, and with
twelve musketeers who were to be his exe
cutioners, in front of him. His air was
free and resolute, and his step was manly,
as I remarked it to have been all the way
down from the prison. He threw away the
cigar he had been smoking, and I could see
its red end fading into blackness, like a
foregoing symbol of his life's extinction.
He then made his last speech, with a voice
that was certainly not so audible as that
which read his sentence; but, considering
his situation, it was very firm, and its plain-
tiveness — Oh, talk not of Siddons's tones !
— was more piercingly and terribly touch
ing than I ever heard from human lips. I
cannot pretend that he said in so many, or
rather in so few words, what follows ; but

192 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
though I may give more point to the sub
stance of his speech, the following was its
substantial meaning : —
" Comrades, what my sentence of death
has told you is all true, except that it has
unjustly called me the chief conspirator in
this late desertion — for I seduced nobody
into it ; on the contrary, I was persuaded
into it by others. The motive of my crime
was merely an intense desire to see my
father's family in Italy ; and, now my
heart's blood is to be shed, and my brains
are to be scattered on the ground, be
cause my heart yearned for a sight of my
brothers and sisters, and because my brain
could not forget them ! Soldiers, who are
to shoot me, do your duty quickly, and do
not keep me in torment,"
He then stepped forward some paces
nearer his executioners, and, with steady
hands and an erect air, bound a yellow
silk handkerchief round his eyes. Eleven

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 193
musket-shots immediately laid him low,
though he jumped up before he fell
when the balls pierced him ; the twelfth
soldier going up to him as he lay on the
ground, fired close into his head. You
will not wonder that my tears at this crisis
blinded me — when I dried them, I could
not see the victim. I said to Lagondie,
" Where is he ?" " Look there," he an
swered, pointing with his finger; " don't
you see a red stripe on the ground?" And
sure enough I saw it ; his red pantaloons
made one part of the stripe, and his bleed
ing head and body made the other. All
the troops then defiled around him. We
came doAvn to the spot, but, before we
reached it, the body had been removed in
a cart, and nothing remained but some
blood and brains and a portion of his skull.
I returned to my lodgings scarcely able to
persuade myself that I had seen a reality.
Oh, God! that man, Avho cannot put life
VOL. II. o

194 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
into a fly, can have any excuse for taking
it from a fellow-creature !
I spent the evening at General Trezel's,
where we Avere all in a congenial state of
spirits, but it was not a cheerful state.
" Well," I said, after we had been talking
about the execution, " I have been Avofully
struck by this scene, but I think not so
utterly horrified as I once was in seeing a
soldier in England receive part of his
punishment, which was three hundred
lashes." " Ah ! but," said General Trezel,
" if the deserter to-day had been offered
flogging instead of death, he would have
gladly compounded for three hundred
lashes."

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 195

LETTER XXV.
Mascara — Abd-el-Kader, the Tippoo Saib of Northern
Africa — His treaty with the French — Peaceable in
tercourse between Oran and Mascara — Spectacle of
the hundred heads — Character of Abd-el-Kader —
Description of his Camp — The Mascaran Consul —
The brave Sarmatians — Dangers of the road — Visit
to Mr. Busnach — Encouraged by him to venture on
the journey — His great kindness — Description of the
country — Sufferings of the French Soldiers — Anec
dote of an Infantry Officer — Arab encampments —
Description of an Arab tent — Aspect of the country
— A sample of barbaric simplicity — Description of
Mascara — Market-place — Villa and garden-grounds
of Abd-el-Kader — Return from Mascara — Encounter
three suspicious characters — The river Hammam —
The silk Umbrella and the phosphoric fire-kindler—
Bitten by an Arab dog — The Patriarch of the Dascra
— Return to Oran. Oran, May 4, 1835.
I HAVE been at Mascara, eighty miles in
the interior. I have slept under an Arab
tent, and I have spent some days in a town
o 2

196 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
where everything is pure Africanism ;
where the sound of a Sabbath bell is un
heard; and where you could not, if you
had a thousand pounds in your pocket,
purchase a pint of Avine to drink after your
dinner. I postponed my journey for a fortnight,
hoping every day to hear that Abd-el-
Kader had returned to his capital ; for to
be at Mascara without seeing the prince, is
like being at Rome without seeing the
pope. It has been my misfortune, however,
to have missed a sight of theMascaran hero,
TPho is still busy in reducing some of his
southern tribes to subordination. Abd-el-
Kader is on a small scale the Tippoo Saib
of Northern Africa ; like his father, he is
a Maraboot of renowned sanctity.* After
* Abd-el-Kader, the chief of Mascara and a large por
tion of the tribes in that direction, is a young man about
thirty, but with a physiognomy that denotes a greater age.
They say that his looks are expressive, his manners easy
and distinguished, and his voice musical ; he is reserved in

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 197
the French took Oran, he made consider
able resistance to them, but matters were
speech, however, and rarely looks at the person whom he
addresses ; his hands, which are very handsome, are con
stantly employed with a rosary, but he wears neither ring nor
jewellery. Excessively sober, he does not even smoke, or
take snuff. His mind is cultivated, for he was educated
with particular care by his father, who was reputed for
learning and sanctity ; he dictates with extraordinary
rapidity, and is felicitous and frequent in quotations from
the Koran to support his arguments : in his correspond
ence he often shows tact and address.
He eats alone, and takes the airs of a sovereign, yet his
dress is always simple, consisting of a blue houmous
trimmed with green. When on horseback he wears large
red Morocco boots stitched with gold; he is looked up to
with religious as well as military respect, and the people
kneel at his approach ; he was never seen to smile even
in the plenitude of his power, and I should think his late
defeats have not increased his facetiousness. Altoge
ther, there are few living men better fitted to be a hero
of poetry and romance than Abd-el-Kader. Lately the
lord of some half a million of subjects, more or less sub
dued, he is now a fugitive in all the majesty of misfortune.
The French officers, who were deputed to visit him after
peace had been signed, describe their reception in his camp
as gracious and hospitable. A tent contiguous to his own
was allotted to them, and all the necessaries and luxuries
that the country could afford were lavished on them : his
care of their persons went even beyond their wishes. An

198 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
compromised ; he was allowed to retain
his principality— he has a Consul at Oran,
and the French have a similar minister at
Mascara. His treaty with the French is
differently interpreted by him and them—
he considers himself an independent sove
reign — they regard him as an ought-to-be
Arab approaching too near to them had his head immediately
struck off with a yatagan : when they expressed surprise at
this severity, they were told that Abd-el-Kader, afraid of
some fanatic throwing himself among the French to com
mit murder, had ordered twenty trustworthy men to watch
over the safety of the strangers, and that this execution
was merely a warning to the people not to be too curious.
The French were received into his camp with military
music, and the fire of muskets. Next day they accompa
nied the Prince into Mascara ; the tents were rapidly struck
and placed on the backs of camels, the baggage led the
march, a band of music followed, and next came his High
ness with a kind of gladiators, armed with bucklers, on his
right and left, who made a show of fighting by way of
amusing him. Horsemen nobly mounted, and richly clad
rode on the flanks and regulated the movements of the
column ; in this order they entered Mascara. The whole
of Abd-el-Kader's field artillery amounted to two pieces,
which, in a trial at marking, were very indifferently served
by the native cannoniers.

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH, 199
tributary ; but, for the present, they only
talk to him about a tribute Avithout exact
ing it, and they even assist him with arms
and powder to subdue his refractory sub
jects, so that there is a peaceable inter
course between Oran and Mascara.
How long this truce may last is so very
doubtful, that I resolved to set out for the
interior, without waiting for the news of the
prince's return to his capital. According
to the last accounts, he wrote to his Mas
caran Divan, that Heaven had been very
propitious to him, inasmuch as he had cap
tured seven thousand beeves from his ene
mies, and had it in his power to send them
a hundred human heads, AA'hich, in compli
ance with the Divine will, he had ordered
to be chopped off, and desired to be paraded
on spear-tops through the streets of Mas
cara. I missed seeing this procession only
by eight days. The French Consul told
me that he could have touched many of the

200 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
heads, so close they came to his terrace, the
spot from which we Avere looking. I may
be culpable in regretting that I did not see
this spectacle ; but, supposing I had seen
and enjoyed it, it would have made no dif
ference to the heads.
I got a passport regularly signed by the
Mascaran Consul here, a jolly -looking
Moor, who sits so many hours a day A\'ith
his cross-bar legs in his office at Oran. I
bargained also for an interpreter and a
couple of armed Arabs to accompany me ;
and a Moorish officer in the French service
kindly lent me two of his Zouave horsemen,
insisting that I should pay them only a
stated and small gratuity, for here, as else
where, he said servants are spoiled if you
overpay them. I hired, also, a strong mule
to carry our provisions, among Avhich Avas
a small keg of wine, and a larger one of
water, as the water of the African streams
that we were to meet Avith is turbid and

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 201
unwholesome. Moreover, I was happy to
anticipate, as companions of my journey,
three Frenchmen, my fellow-lodgers in the
Marine Hotel. I ought to mention, with
gratitude, that I had an offer from the
Polish exiles at Oran, Avho, to the number
of forty, are quartered here ; and, though
not called on for military service, are al
lowed — the common men a franc a day, the
officers more, on which they can live in
barracks that are given them, very com
fortably, the price of meat being but two
pence a pound.
My friends, the brave Sarmatians, de
puted one of their number to tell me that
though they had not horses they had mus
kets and cartridges, and legs that would
not fear a march of forty miles a day for
many days consecutively, and that they
AH'ould gladly turn out to a man to guard
me into the interior; they had even ar
ranged to get the loan of tents from the

202 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
Kasbah. I need not tell you hoAv much
my heart, which has Poland next to Eng
land nearest its core, was touched by this
mark of their regard ; but it occurred to
me that I ought to decline it. My Polish
friends are powerful boys, but it would
have been cruel to exact their keeping up
on a journey with men on horseback. Then
the appearance of a numerous and armed
pilgrimage might alarm the natives ; and,
in case of any misunderstanding, there
might be awkward consequences.
I refused, therefore, the most flattering-
honour, in shape of an escort, that Avas ever
tendered to me. Still, the presence of
French companions on the journey was im
portant to me, and it is better to travel over
this part of the regency in a group of ten
or twelve than in a smaller number. The
natiA'cs are not dangerous, as tribes or as a
general population; but there are vaga
bond cut-throats among them, attached to

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 203
no tribe or encampment, who go generally
in couples, at most never more than three ;
and these, if they fall in Avith a very few
travellers in a body, will be apt to beset
them ; but, meeting a larger group, they
will reconnoitre, count muskets, and come
to the conclusion that it would be a pity to
shed blood.
In point of fact, on our return from Mas
cara, Are met with three persons who crossed
us and re-crossed us, and had a suspicious
appearance of belonging to this description
of travellers. We were nine in number,
and there was among us a French dragoon
Serjeant bearing dispatches from the French
Consul at Mascara to Oran, a tall, stalwart
swordsman, Avhose sabre would have been
a match for three yatagans. By his advice,
we tried to keep as near to them as we
could, without deviating from our main
course, in order to show that we had no
dread of them. My horse, indeed, by far

204 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH,
the fleetest of the party, was so strongly
convinced of the policy of showing no fear,
that if I had not curbed him and kept him
by the side of our French dragoon, he would
have very soon brought me up to the three
vagrants. They disappeared ere long. I
have my doubts whether they were maraud
ing or merely hunting gazelles.
I have finished my journey in safety, but
I shall never forget the night of anxiety
which I spent at Oran before setting out.
At ten in the evening, the three French
gentlemen, my fellow-lodgers at the hotel,
told me that they would not go to morrow
to Mascara. It would be madness, they
said ; several murders had been committed
that very day by the Arabs, in the vicinity
of Oran, and the road was haunted by as
sassins. An impartial person testified that
he had seen two of the sufferers brought,
mortally wounded, into the hospital. The
very Arabs I had hired came in to signify

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 205
that without an immense deal more money
than I had bargained for, they could not
venture their lives in escorting me. One
of my French fellow-lodgers paid off an
Arab whom he had hired ; and the last
words that he said to me, as I retired to my
chamber voAving that if the road were lined
with miirderers I should set out for Mas
cara, were — " Well, take your course, but I
am not so fond of getting my throat cut."
In my life, I was never more vexed.
Here, methought, is all my trouble in
coming to Algiers thrown away. To have
seen the half-Frenchified Africans is no
thing ; I want to see the unsophisticated
natives in tent and town. Mascara, and
the country between, were but yesterday
within my reach, but they are now beyond
it. I must be in Europe by a certain time
¦r—I must return re-infecta, and with my
finger in my mouth ; s'death, I am spited
at my stars! And yet, let me think — a

206 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
yatagan poked into my stomach Avould be
indigestible diet. To be murdered, ah ! it
Avould be very unpleasant ; but, by all that is
tantalizing, I Avill be murdered sooner than
give up going to Mascara.
During the night, I rather dreamed than
slept now and then ; but rose by daylight,
spitefully resolved to get into the interior.
I knocked up my worthy Lagondie, at his
quarters in the Kasbah. He calmed my
fever by most welcomely assuring me that
the number of murders outside the gates
had been greatly exaggerated, and that they
would deter no man but a coward from the
journey. " But you knoAv Mr. Busnach, the
most influential Jew in the Regency, he
understands Arabic ; he mediated between
the French and the Arab tribes, and was
the chief means of bringing about peace.
Let us call on him." We did so ; and con
sulted him.
This Mr. Busnach was, like his father

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 207
before him, a partner of the house of Bacri
and Co., once the most opulent merchants
of Northern Africa. They had a capital
amounting to millions sterling, but, in a
transaction Avith the French Republic, they
suffered severely, from a large debt being
unjustly Avithheld from them.
The present Mr. Busnach is a man uni
versally respected, and is a member of the
Legion of Honour. When I saAv him first,
his appearance reminded me strongly of
that of the late statesman Windham. I
thought him haughty, even to an air of
misanthropy ; but still there was something
of strong character which I liked in his
mien and manner. This Avas the second
time I had ever spoken to him, and you
may guess that I Avas agreeably surprised
Avhen he said, " Mr. Campbell, be under
no uneasiness ; the murders that have been
committed are no real indication of danger
in travelling to Mascara. I will explain

208 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
this to the Arabs and Zouaves, who ought
to attend you. I will myself accompany
you half way to Mascara, introduce you to
the patriarch of a tribe, and see you set off
in safety next morning." With that, he
immediately ordered his horse to be sad
dled. The Arabs joined us : I believe he
said something to them in Arabic, about
persons who break bargains deserving to
be bastinadoed or flayed alive. I could not
gather exactly what it vras ; but it must
have been something very pleasant, for it
made them all in the best possible good
humour to proceed on the journey.
I shook hands with Lagondie, leaving
him my gold watch and money, all but
some five-franc pieces, to keep till my re
turn. As Ave sallied out of the gate, I could
hardly believe in my own good fortune.
" Mr. Busnach," I said, " you lay me under
an overwhelming debt of gratitude ; " and
do you wonder that I felt most sincerely

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 209
when I said so? Here was a proud man,
in every sense of the word a gentleman — to
whom I could have no more offered a re
muneration, without insulting him. than to
Mr. Windham if he had come alive again —
taking the trouble to ride forty miles under
an African sun, which is now becoming
very hot, and who must measure back the
same journey to-morrow morning, ay, and
sleep on the ground in an Arab tent, all
out of gratuitous kindness to your humble
servant !
To be sure the journey turned out, like
most things in life which we eagerly desire
and obtain with difficulty, to be more plea
sant in prospect than when attained. The
country is monotonously wild — not natu
rally sterile, I believe ; for, excepting the
tracks formed by the beasts of travellers —
which are the only roads — and some rocky
spots on the hills, there is no ground that
is absolutely bare or sandy ; and on the
VOL. II. p

210 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
plain there was now a strong natural vege
tation of asphodel, fennel, coarse grass, and
wild thistles or artichokes, the tops of which
contain a heart which our Arabs were con
stantly eating. But the eye is very soon
sated with this houseless wilderness.
Some twelve miles from Oran, we passed
the spot where, a year and a half ago, there
had been hard fighting between the French
and the natives. The French soldiers,
though an overmatch for the Arabs, suf
fered dreadfully from heat and thirst. Their
store of water was exhausted — the breath
of the simoom set in — the cavalry stood its
shock, and by their elevation from the
ground Avere able to respire, but the foot
soldiers fell by companies, gasping for
breath. A captain of dragoons who was in
the scene, told me that there was more than
one instance of the infantry soldier, driven
to madness by thirst and agony, putting
his head to the mouth of his musket, and

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 211
his foot to the trigger, and committing
suicide. One infantry officer alone gave
Avay to despair ; and, though it is probable
that he Avas, in these circumstances, no
more a responsible agent than a man in the
delirium of fever, yet it Avas better, perhaps,
that he did not survive the occurrence. He
pulled his purse from his pocket ; he said
to his men, " I have led you into battle
with courage, and I have always been a
kind officer to you — the horror of my suf
ferings is now insupportable ; let the man
among you avIio is my best friend shoot me
dead, and here are thirty louis dors for his
legacy.'" No man Avould comply Avith his
request ; but, he had hardly uttered it, Avhen
he fell down and expired.
The sameness of our journey Avas relieved
only by the sight, though far between, of
Arab encampments, Avith majestic camels
kneeling before them in rows of from fif
teen to tAventy. Our Arabs started several
p2

2l2 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
gazelles, and parted from us for a mile at a
time to pursue them; but, to my great
satisfaction, they returned without being
the death of one of them.
At twilight, we reached a dascra, the pa
triarch of Avhich was known to Mr. Bus
nach. With Oriental etiquette, Ave halted
at a respectful distance, and our Arabs
shouted to call for a conference. A mes
senger came out. Our request for hospita
lity was complied with; and we entered
the principal tent, amidst the barking of
innumerable dogs, who, I thought, would
have fastened on the legs of our horses.
The women about the tents Avere milking
goats and cows. The tent, covered with
camel-hair cloth, Avas as large, I should
think, as twenty-five feet in diameter, and
very lofty. It Avas divided into two com
partments by a cloth screen, but not so as
to divide its tenants either by sex or spe
cies ; for though I heard female voices and

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 213
squalling infants in the adjoining compart
ment, we had men, women, and cattle in
the one where we supped and reposed. A
Avood-fire was lighted under the tent, the
smoke of which would have choked us, but
that it found vent under large open spaces
beneath the tent-curtains, which only here
and there are pinned down to the ground.
We had for supper eggs, milk, and cous-
cousou. The fashion is variable here as
elsewhere. There was a time when an
Arab would have stabbed you for the insult
of offering him money for his hospitality ;
but I was told at Oran that it is now much
better to give him silver than either pre
sents or thanks ; so, in cosing with my
venerable host, I put some money into his
hand, and he received it civilly. We slept
on the bare ground, with our cloaks about
us. Next morning, I took leave of Mr. Bus
nach, and proceeded with my Arabs, to

214 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH,
Mascara, which we reached before sunset.
I had an introductory letter to the French
consul, whose house could be my only re
fuge, as there is not a single inn in Mas
cara. The country begins to be more hilly
within the last twenty miles towards Mas
cara, and you begin to see symptoms of
settled habitation in approaching the town-
For a radius of two miles about it there
are corn-fields, gardens, vineyards, and
orchards ; but both the horticulture and
agriculture seemed to me to be wretched,
though the grain was a little better bladed
than on some patches of the desert farther
off", where there is now and then a miser
able barley-field, enclosed with dry thorn-
bushes piled on each other. 1 observed
many luxuriant vines, and plenty of oranges,
but missed the date-trees Avhich I had ex
pected to find so far to the south.
We crossed on our way to Mascara only
tAVO considerable rivers, — the Sigg and the

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 215
Oued-el-Haman, — if rivers can be called
considerable which, except when they are
swollen by rain, can be forded on horse
back. It gives one a dismal conception
of barbarism to find those streams unfur*
nished with either a bridge or a ferry-boat.
A sample of ingenious barbaric simpli
city met us on the same journey. We
passed some Arabs vrho were sitting naked
on the ground, with their habiliments spread
out beside them. "What does this mean?"
I inquired. I was told that their garments
were purposely spread upon ants' hillocks ;
and that the ants, after devouring all the
vermin which they find on the clothes,
retire from them well satisfied into their
nests. How instructive it is to see the
Avorld !
The French consul at Mascara is an
Egyptian by birth ; but, being a Christian^
he joined the French A\'hen they invaded
Egypt, and has risen to be a captain in

216 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
their service. He complained to me of the
dismal dulness of his situation, as he has
no companion but the French sergeant of
dragoons already mentioned, who convoyed
me back to Oran. My visit, he said, was a
God-send to him, and he implored me to
stop for a week — a request with which I
could not comply.
Mascara is to be seen out and out in a
few hours. It is about half as big as Al
giers, encircled by a wall fifty feet high,
without any ditch, but having some flank
ing towers. Its houses are square and flat-
roofed, seldom more than a story high.
Abd-el-Kader's palace has a quadrangular
court, and a fountain in the middle of it,
and consists of buildings that I think would
let in London for about 100/. a-year, not
counting taxes. I Avent to see his powder-
manufactory, which consists of a few rollers
and mortars — a miserable concern. The
market-place is pleasant and airy, and sup-

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 2l7
plied with abundance of fruit, butter, and
wool. I remarked the simplicity of man
ners in the weights being pieces of stone,
Nevertheless, there are some shops filled
with European articles. I visited a tannery
that displayed some beautiful prepared lea
ther:; and I saw weavers with regular looms
making fine white woollen cloth. What
most surprised nie was an embroiderer's
shop : his articles were splendid. I priced
one of them, but it was so costly that I
could not purchase it.
The consul walked with me over the
villa and garden grounds of Abd-el-Kader,
about a mile out of town ; there are vine-
trellices, orange-groves, and even chiosr
ques, but the whole appearance is poor in
comparison with the villas around Algiers.
When we came home and dined, we re
ceived crowds of Mascaran Moors in the
evening ; every day the consul told me that
they come and drink about fourscore cups

218 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
of coffee with him, and beg other gratuities
besides, which he cannot refuse. There
were Maraboots in their Avhite mantles
among the gentle beggars.
After two days' residence, I left Mascara ;
the consul rode out with me a couple of
miles on the way : he had cautioned me
not to drink of the turbid water of the
streams we had to recrosSj without mixing
it with spirits or wine, and I knew that my
keg of wine ought not to have been ex
hausted. But, when we halted at the river
Hammam, twenty miles from Mascara, no
¦wine was to be found. The Arabs had
unquestionably tricked us on this occa
sion, and they certainly can both steal and
drink. But still this does not affect my
general impression, that their inebriety and
dishonesty are very infrequent.
Here we were, however, without a drop
of wine, spirits, or vinegar to unpoison the
river water we had to swallow. I would

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 219
have given more money than I had in my
pocket for but a cruet full of vinegar, but
I determined to abstain from the yellow
stream, and exhorted the Frenchman not
to slake his thirst at it. We rode on for
four hours under a sun that would have
poached eggs on the crown of my hat ; I
suffered tormentingly from thirst, but at last
we reached a dascra, and, waiting an hour
till the milk was churned by being beat
in a skin, for the Arabs will never sell you
the fluid unchurned, we got gallons of but
termilk, which " we quaffed with ecstacy,
and cooled our souls ,'^
I found the people of this dascra very
sociable. The women, who have none of
the reserve of the city females, came about
us, and I astonished them with my fine silk
umbrella, which, strange to say, seemed to
them a total novelty. The ladies chuckled
and strutted about with it — nay, it seemed
so popular among them, that I feared I

220 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
should be obliged to leave it as a souvenir ;
but the headman of the dascra brought it
back to me on my presenting him M'ith a
parcel of choice tobacco. I showed them
also a phosphoric fire-kindler, expecting
they would be in raptures with it ; but
they looked very shyly at it, and, when I
asked the reason, I was told, through the
interpreter, that they liked the umbrella
because it was the work of man, but for the
other machine, it was the work of the devil.
I protested to them that I had never in my
life had anything to do with the devil,
and asked them if there was anything
more wonderful in sulphur and phosphorus
kindling flame, than in a spark from flint
igniting gunpowder. They shook their
heads, and said, that they did not suspect
me of having got this thing immediately
from the devil, but that it was clearly of
his contrivance.
We reached a dascra half-way to Oran

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 221
at sunset, and, after giving my host a lar
gess, I disposed myself to sleep. My rest,
however, was constantly interrupted by the
execrable dogs, and made uncomfortable
by the excessive cold of the night-dews,
which came freely into the tent — so much
so, that I was fain to couch between a calf
and a nanny-goat, and I never slept with
more welcome bed-fellows.
Ere the dawn, I rose, anxious that we
might reach Oran in time for the steamer
for Algiers, in Avhich I proposed to embark.
My friend, the sergeant, was still sleeping
in his cloak, but I arose to see how far the
moon was gone down. A dozen of dogs
growled as I got up — I durst not venture
to the tent-door unarmed, but hesitated
between taking my pistols or sabre, and
happily preferred the latter. The French
man afterwards told me that if I had shot
one of the Arab dogs it was a chance whe
ther my own life had not been forfeited.

222 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
But I took the sabre, and, when two of the
curs set upon me, I cut and thrust at one
of them, whilst the other succeeded in
biting me just above the knee. The tenants
then turned out, and I could see that there
was a general anger at the Christian dog
for having wounded the Arab dog, though
they were all the time regardless of the bite
I had received. I was not without some
horror at the thought of hydrophobia, and
should have cut out the wounded part if I
had had a sharp instrument, but my razors
Avere locked up in my portmanteau, which
was corded to the other baggage. If was
time to set out, and, as the virus of the
dog's tooth had gone through the cloth of
my pantaloons before it had pierced the
skin, I thought there could be little dan
ger. Before departing, I made the interpreter
talk with the patriarch of the dascra, and
found him in better temper than his

LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH. 223
people. " Why," said I, " do you keep such
a number of savage dogs in your tents?"
He answered, " We can never be perfectly
sure of not being attacked, particularly at
night, by either wild beasts or human rob
bers ; and Ave are secured from both by the
number of dogs in every dascra. The lion,
for instance, never now attacks a dascra,
because lions have a sort of traditional
knowledge among them. The father-lion
tells his son, ' Don't go down to that en
campment on the plain, for there are twenty
tents, and every tent has five dogs. These
dogs are poor creatures to be sure, and your
paw or your tail will knock them off like
mice ; but still they will harass and hang-
on you, and give time to the Arabs to level
their guns and shoot you.' The same is
the case with the robbers," quoth the Arab,
" and in this way we keep them away from
us." I returned to Oran in the Avished-for time,

224 LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.
but find that the steamer is not to sail till
to-morrow. By that time, I shall have taken
leave of my friends at Oran, and shall be
the bearer of this letter to you as far as
Algiers: from thence I mean to embark
for Marseilles, and in a few weeks I shall
see you in London.

APPENDIX.

VOL. IT.

Q

[The following extracts from some of the most
interesting Foreign Publications^ on the subject of
Algiers, &c., will be found to throw additional
light on some important topics touched ujaon in the
preceding pages.]

APPENDIX.

CATTLE.

[Vol. 1. p. 34. J
The natives are as much behind hand in re
spect to the rearing of cattle, as in regard to
cultivation. On both subjects they are alike
slothful and ignorant.
We are much in the dark as to the actual
number of herds scattered throughout the coun
tries that surround us ; and, independently of
the capricious character of the tribes, who
may, when they please, reduce us to starva
tion, we carry along with us another enemy
against whom Ave have daily and hourly to con
tend; this enemy is no other than the con
sumption of meat caused by Europeans in this
country, and greatly exceeding that of the na
tives. A comparison which I have had drawn up
q2

228 APPENDIX.
of the consumption, distinguishing the quan
tity consumed by each nation, Avhich com
parison will be found annexed, substantially
affords the following curious result.
The average quantity of meat consumed
during the six first months of 1833, has been,
For a European 92 kilogrammes.
„ Moor 19J
„ Jew 9 „
Thus, a European has eaten four times and
three-quarters more than a Moor, and ten
times and a quarter more than a Jew,
The same comparison extended, to the
whole year, produces the result of,
194 kilogrammes for a European.
43i „ „ Moor.
2 If „ „ Jew.
It will be seen that the quantities are rather
higher than for the first six months ; never
theless the proportions are nearly the same.
I am only alluding to the civil population.
It will readily be imagined that the consump
tion of the army is proportionably less. On
comparing the net weight of the cattle killed
in military slaughter-houses, with the effective
strength of the troops, I have only found an

APPENDIX. 229
average of one hundred and sixteen and a
half kilogrammes for each man.
The enormous difference observable be
tween the Moors and the Jews, and between
the latter and the French, is to be accounted
for, with regard to the two first-named people,
from the greater or less severity of their rules
of worship. This abstinence from meat is
still, no doubt, the true cause of the degene
racy of the Jewish races, perhaps, even of
their utter want of courage and energy.
Should we fail to procure more numerous
herds from the province of Tittery, we shall be
under the necessity of drawing our bulls from
Spain and France, and of turning our atten
tion to the rearing of them. The existing
scarcity, moreover, which must go on increas
ing, will render this a very productive branch
of trade.We have already applied to have bulls sent
over from the South of France, and the go
vernment has given its sanction to the conse
quent expenditure.
Long before the conquest, a great propor
tion of the Barbary wool disposed of at Mar-

230 APPENDIX.
seilles was found to consist of fleece which in
point of fineness, length, and silky quality
was no ways inferior to the wool of Segovia
and Leon, the most in repute in Spain.
History itself establishes this analogy ; and
we are enabled to ascertain, without entering
into very deep researches, that Spanish sheep
were originally derived from Barbary. Their
first introduction is owing to Columella, a Ro
man subject, under the reign of the con
queror Claudius. Fourteen centuries after
wards, Cardinal Ximenes took advantage of
the conquests of Charles V. in Africa, to
form the model flock of the Escurial, an ad
mirable nursery, where those breeds were
regenerated, which have so long secured to
Spain the monopoly of fine wool throughout
Europe. England having procured, in the time of
Henry VIII., a great number of Spanish sheep,
succeeded, by crossing the breed, in obtaining
wool, which, owing to its length and fineness,
soon came into demand.
Some ewes of Roussillon crossed with Spa
nish rams of a pure breed, have produced in

APPENDIX. 231
Saxony that expensive and highly-prized
wool, so well known in commerce by the
name oi electoral princes .
In France, lastly, the improvement of this
interesting branch of agricultural industry has
but tardily engaged attention ; and with
the exception of a few experiments made by
private individuals, amongst whom M. Dela-
tour d'Aigues, is entitled to especial mention,
we arrive, without any remarkable occurrence,
at the year 1786, at which period Louis XVI.
formed, by means of sheep procured from
Spain, the flock of Rambouillet, which has
maintained up to the present day its high
character, owing to the beauty of its wool.
The wars of the empire, by opening the
Peninsula to us, have favoured the rapid in
crease of Merinos and of a mixed breed ; but
the recruiting of our flocks was not attended
to with the requisite discernment ; for a very
small number only have afforded a good pro
duce; and disappointed hopes soon lapsed
into aversion.
We are here at the primitive source of a
mine of wealth, which ought not to be over
looked. We should be simultaneous in our

232 APPENDIX.
local inquiries, and unanimous in the course
we are to pursue. Although the causes which
have influenced in so untoward a manner,
the condition of the large cattle of the re
gency, have also occasioned the degeneracy
of its breed of sheep, and the very limited
number of flocks in the neighbourhood of
Algiers exhibit a great variety of breeds ; the
wool of the country is, nevertheless, remarked
for its length, suppleness and elasticity. A
few Merinos of a pure breed are even now
and then to be found, whose beauty contrasts
with the more or less degenerate forms of the
surrounding sheep. This renovation will call
for no greater effort than our drawing upon
those valuable remains of a nearly extinct
breed. A model flock is the simple means I pro
pose for attaining this object. By intrusting
to an experienced individual the charge of
selecting, amongst the friendly tribes which
adjoin us, all the sheep of pure breed he
misfht discover, we should at once have a
nucleus which time would always enable us
to fill up ; we should thus.
In the first place, facilitate to the colonists

APPENDIX. 233
the means of improving their own flocks, by
allowing their ewes to be covered by rams of
the public establishment ;
And secondly, we might export to France,
where the species is on the decline, a portion
of the young rams we should have thus been
enabled to rear.
Such a flock, subjected to a rational system
of hygiene properly followed up, would pro
duce a still greater result, an improvement in
the quality of the wool ; for sound food and
care are well known to contribute to the
beauty of the fleece. It might be divided into
lots of about one hundred and fifty sheep,
each placed under the care of a shepherd, who
should be made answerable for their deterio
ration and for the damage they might create.
The plateaux, as well as the slopes of moun
tains forming the girdle of Algiers, which will
yet remain for a long time uncultivated, would
afford them a wholesome and abundant pas
turage. Besides the pasturage thus allotted to each
of those partial flocks, it would he necessary
to select a good soil, watered by pure and in
exhaustible sources, where the sheep might

234 APPENDIX.
drink plentifully, and find those never failing
means' of cleanliness they stand in need of
Natural and artificial meadows might be
formed on the same spot, for the purpose of
providing them with a full supply of food
during the season when herbage is most
scarce ; a simple shed, covered with reeds, and
even tents, in the Arab fashion, might also be
erected for their use.
I cannot exactly specify the expense which
the formation of such a flock would occasion ;
the greater or less extension, moreover, Avhich
it might be deemed proper to give to it, would
necessarily subject it to change; but if we
enumerate the actual produce derivable from
it, either by the sale of wool calculated at a
high price, by the duty to be exacted from the
colonists who should apply for the services of
rams, by the sale of lambs, or lastly, (for every
thing should be taken into account,) by the
improvement of the land proposed to be turned
to pasturage, but susceptible of being disposed
of to advantage at a later period, I hesitate not
in affirming, that the government would soon be
reimbursed its advances, and would have the
merit of conferring on this country a signal boon.

APPENDIX, 235
This project naturally leads us to propose a
second, which is in some measure a completion
of the first, and would only require a spacious
tract of land ; I allude to a farm on Avhich
might be reared,
1st. A herd of bearded horses, which it
might be attempted to cross with other species,
and which would at a future period prove
highly useful for remounting our light cavalry.
2nd. A model herd of horned cattle destined
to regenerate the breed of this country.
1 would suggest the following commercial
means of forming this herd : the drought, by
causing a scarcity of forage, compels the Arabs
to sell a greater quantity of cattle ; the prices
considerably diminish in consequence. By
effecting our purchases with due regard to
the extent of pasturage at our command, it
were easy to procure at a cheap rate the
choicest cattle ; and when the bad season,
by obstructing the roads and impeding the
communications, should leave the markets
unprovided ; advantage might be taken of
the rise in the price of cattle to sell again, at
a great profit, a portion of what had pre
viously been purchased. These first results.

236 APPENDIX.
so important in themselves, would promote
a useful and excellent tillage ; a dairy, the
dung of swine and poultry would add by
their produce to those which would be de
rived from the sales, as Avell as the duty to
which I have just alluded. Whatever might
be the expense of such an establishment, the
positive amount of which I should at this
moment be at a loss to determine, the even
tual benefit is unquestionable. I affirm this
under the strongest conviction; and if the
government will not take upon itself the re
sponsibility and trouble of carrying the mea
sure into effect, let it promote and encourage
the formation of a company which would em
bark in the undertaking. Be the agents whom
they may, success could not fail to crown their
efforts. A few additional reflections. — We shall de
rive from the neighbourhood of Mascara and
of Tlemsan, those beautiful stallions so uni
versally envied to the Arabs, a valuable breed
hitherto unequalled. We may also procure
some from the southern part of the empire of
Morocco, where the species is generally hand
some, and is inured to every fatigue and priva-

APPENDIX. 237
tion. We may, in short, cross the mares of
the country with our horses of the Pacha, and
procure the draught-horses we stand so much
in need of; these would be as indispensable to
us for the service of the army, as for agricul
tural purposes.
The Moors and Arabs are deficient in their
selection of the species, as well as in the choice
of pasturage for their flocks. They employ
part of the wool to manufacture their clothing
and carpets, and sell the remainder. Black
sheep are rarely to be seen in the regency ;
it is, perhaps, OAving to this reason, that
the men and women are generally clothed in
white ; whilst in Spain, owing to a contrary
reason, whole populations are dressed in
colours bordering upon red, because dark
sheep abound in that country.
A great portion of the land in the vicinity
of Algiers is covered with thick bushes ; con
siderable expense would accordingly attend
the attempt to clear it ; there could be no
better speculation than to reserve it for rear
ing cattle. Two signal advantages might floAv
from this course ; success would repay its
adoption, and a fall in price, as respects the

238 APPENDIX.
consumers, would be the further consequence
of it.
Two pair of camels have just been forwarded
to the department of the Landes ; should they
resist the damp climate of that province, such
a result will be of the highest importance *. —
Genty de Bussy, vol. i, p. 250.

ALGIERS.— EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
[Vol. L p. 51. J
Tunis supplies us with horses.
The small ports of the regency furnish us,
to a certain extent, with fruit, grain, honey,
wax, oil, skins, and common earthenware. We
have, of late, received from Oran a consider
able quantity of grain and wool.
With respect to exportations, Marseilles
and Leghorn are the two ports which afford
us an almost exclusive outlet for the few ar
ticles to which they have hitherto been limited,
namely, dried and salted skins, wax, and com-
* They have been sent at the request of M. Laurance,
a deputy from that department.

APPENDIX. 239
mon oil. Tunis also procures from the re
gency of Algiers, wax, and a certain quantity
of vermilion, or kermes.
There existed, originally, such utter confu
sion in the registers of the custom-house, that
it would have required much time to ascertain,
in however imperfect a manner, the figures
exhibiting the imports and exports : but they
have been accurately laid down for 1832, and
afford the following result : —
Value of imports 6,611,408 francs.
Value of exports 774,443 „

Balance against Algiers 5,836,965 francs.
The difference is still greater for the first
six months of 1833 ; for the imports amount
to 4,164,874 francs, and the exports have ap
proximately decreased by one-seventh, as com
pared to those of the' preceding statement.
It is thus perceived that we have yet much
to perform ere we can bring the exports to a
IcA'^el with the imports. The statements an
nexed to this work, as well for the last six
months of 1833 as for the first six months of
1834, will afford matter for further compari
son. — Ibid.

240

APPENDIX.

COMPARISON OF THE PRICE OF ANIMALS AND
PROVISIONS at Algiers in 1830 (previously to the
French occupation) and in 1833.
[Vol. I. p. 51.]

Species of Animals
and natuve of
Provisions.

Ass 
Butter, in winter

m summer

Com* . .
Ox . . .
Fire-woodGoose . .
Camel t .
Charcoal .
Horse, ordinary
 showy
Goat . .
Wax-rolls| Lemons .
Courges .
Figs, fresli
¦  dried
 of Barbar}'§

Unity of Measure.

each
lb. of 27 oz.
do.
do.
each
ass-load each do.
ass-load each do.do.
lb. of 16 oz.
per 100
mule-load
lb. of 18 oz.
lb. of 27 oz.
per 100

Mean Prices
In 1830. In 1833.

Fr. c.
15 —
1 50

18

75
90

50

300 1
50 —
100 —
2 50
1 4060
1 50 5
10
15

Fr. c.
60 —
2 —
1 25

60 1
2
300 3
200
400 10 1
2

50

50

40 50
3 50
20 45 14

* The price has doubled ; though French bread be made
with flour brought from France.
t Eurtpeans make no use of them.
I The Dey alone had the privilege of selling was ; this
had the effect of maintaining it at a high price.
§ Only in use amongst the Arabs.

APPENDIX. 241
COMPARISON, &c.— {continued).

Species of Animals

Mean Prices

and nature of

Unity of Measure.

Provisions.
In 1830.
In 1833.
Fr. c.
Fr. c.
Game* . . .
Pomegranates .
;
per 100
4 —
12 —
Olive oil t • .
,
meas. of 16 litres
5 —
12 —
Milk ....
,
measure of
25
5
Vegetables, fresh |
Do. dry (beans)
per sack
4 —
12 —
Honey ....
lb. of 27 oz.
80
80
Sheep ....
each
2 50
14 —
Mule§ . . .
do.
150 —
350 —
Eggs ....
per 100
1 20
5 —
Oranges . . .
do.
1 20
2 50
Barley ....
f per sack of \
{ 60 htres J
1 20
5 —
French bread,
}
first quality
per kilogramme
—
50
Do., second do.
.
do.
—
45
Water melons
and melons
mule-load
1 50
3 —
Pigeons . . .
.
a pair
30
1 —
AVood-peas . .
.
per sack
5 —
10 —
Potatoes of the
country
!
per quintal
2 50
7 —
Fowls and chick
ens
1
a pair
50
2 50
Raisins, fresh .
lb. of 18 oz.
5
15
Do., dry . . .
.
lb. of 27 oz.
25
60
Soap ....
.
do.
20
55
Salt 
.
per 30 kilgras.
2 40
4 50
Milch cow and itsi
calf f
45 —
go —
* There was no consumption of game before the occu
pation, t The price occasionally rises to eighteen francs.
I The price has risen five-fold.
§ The use of ahorse was forbidden to the Moors. — Ann.
d' Alger, 1833.
VOL. II. R
242 APPENDIX.
BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS IN 1682.
[Vol. I. p. 65.J
The year 1682 was rendered remarkable by
the bombardment of Algiers. The town con
tinued a prey to disturbances. The Deys
elected, deposed, and massacred in succession,
seemed to disappear as suddenly as they made
their appearance. The treaties concluded by
the one with any of the Christian powers were
not observed by his successor ; all was utter
confusion ; divested of authority, the Pachas
were in danger as soon as they attempted to
take an open part in public affairs. The
Corsairs, in the meanwhile, continued their
inroads upon friendly or hostile vessels, which
were indiscriminately treated alike. The
complaints of the French merchants induced
Louis XIV. to despatch the Marquis Du
Quesne with a squadron, which spread terror
in Algiers by the capture of several vessels,
and afterwards approached the town, and
bombarded it. The incessant discharge of
bombs set fire to the greater part of the
houses, and destroyed the great Mosque.
The alarmed inhabitants were preparing to
quit the town, when a sudden change of wind

APPENDIX. 243
compelled the Marquis Du Quesne to return
to Toulon. The divan no sooner beheld his
departure than it let loose its Corsairs, with
orders to commit ravages along the coasts ;
and this fresh insult drew upon the town
another chastisement.

The Marquis Du Quesne again set sail,
and Algiers was bombarded a second time.
Alarmed at the ruin of the town, and of his
palace, the Dey opened a negotiation, which
he intrusted to the French consul, who re
paired to the fleet with a Turkish deputy.
The admiral refused to see the latter ; and
previously to treating about a peace, insisted
that, in the first instance, all Christian slaves
captured under the French flag should be
restored to him. His demand was at once
granted ; one hundred and forty-two French
captives were sent to him on the following
day, and those who were dispersed through
the country were collected on the subsequent
days. As soon as these were delivered up,
the conditions of peace were then entered upon.
M. Du Quesne required that all Christians
R 2

244 APPENDIX.
should be set free, and that all the effects,
merchandise, and ships, taken from the French,
or under the protection of their flags, should
be restored. The Dey was greatly per
plexed at these conditions, for he was not
at liberty to grant them. He assembled the
divan. Admiral Mezomorte, who was present,
warmly opposed the proposal, reproached the
Dey with cowardice ; then rushing into the
open square, caused him to be deposed, and
himself to be proclaimed Dey in his stead.
He immediately hoisted the red flag, broke
the truce, and was the first to renew hostili
ties. He had the audacious cruelty to order
the French consul to be put into a mortar, and
to be fired with a bomb against the fleet.
The revenge taken of this act heightened his
rage ; he caused all the French in Algiers to
be seized, and several of them to be placed at
the cannon's mouth. This act of atrocity gave
rise to an aflfecting scene, which strikingly con
trasts with Mezomorte 's ferociousness.
An Algerine captain had been taken, during
a piratical incursion, by a French vessel, whose
commander had treated him with marked
humanity and kindness during his captivity,

APPENDIX. 245
and had at last restored him to liberty. The
Algerine recognized this officer in the person
of one of the victims they Avere in the act of
tying to the cannon's mouth. He instantly
flcAV to the Dey, implored the Frenchman's
pardon, and stated the motives Avhich made
him sue for his life. The ferocious Dey re
fused to listen to him, and ordered the cannon
to be fired. The Algerine unhesitatingly threw
himself upon the Frenchman, embraced him,
and closely pressing him in his arms, turned
to the gunner, and calmly said, " Fire ; since
I cannot save my benefactor, I shall die Avith
him." All the spectators Avere affected at
this sight; the gunner AvithdrcAv, and the
people rescued the Frenchman in spite of the
Dey, Avho, though unmoved at the scene, was
unable to oppose any resistance.
M. Du Quesne did not quit Algiers until
he had burned all the vessels, ruined and
destroyed the Avhole of the lower, and two-
thirds at least of the upper toAvn.
The fear of his return led the Algerines to
sue for peace. IMezomorte, on perceiving
their determination, took to flight ; and they
sent an embassy to Paris in the folloAving year.

246 APPENDIX.
The speech addressed to the King by Hagi-
Giager-Aga-Effendi, who was charged with
this commission, cannot fail to excite curiosity ;
it will be seen how the Algerines attempted
to excuse themselves for the consul's death.
" Most high, most excellent, most power
ful, most magnanimous, and most invincible
Prince, Louis XIV., Emperor of the French,
may God preserve thee, and render thy reign
prosperous. "I come to the foot of thy sublime throne to
express to thee the delight which the conclu
sion of peace has caused to our republic, and
to the Dey, our master, and to beseech thy
Majesty to affix the last seal to it. The
strength of thy arm, the brilliant deeds of thy
ever victorious warriors, have convinced them
of the error committed by Baba-Hassan, when
he had the temerity to declare war against
thy subjects. I come, in the character of
deputy, to solicit thy pardon for such trans
gression, and to protest to thee that hence
forward we shall have nothing so much at
heart, as to deserve the good graces of the
greatest conqueror of the Christians, the only
one of whom we stand in awe.

APPENDIX. 247
"We should have every reason to apprehend
that the detestable crime committed against
the person of thy consul might be an obstacle
to peace, if thy ^Majesty, to whom everything is
known, were not well aware to what excess may
be carried the rage of an excited and disorderly
populace, who, in the midst of their fellow-
countrymen, amongst whom were their fathers,
brothers, and children, crushed by thy bombs,
beheld, moreover, their slaves and their goods
Avrested from them. In short, whatever may
have been the motives of this act of violence,
I come to beseech that thou wouldst avert
thy eyes from a deed which all honest men
amongst us have held in abhorrence, especi
ally the members of the divan, to whom it
cannot, therefore, be justly imputed.
" We hope, O. mighty Emperor, who art as
great as Schemchid, as rich as Karma, as
magnificent as Solomon, as magnanimous as
Akemptas, that thy clemency and mercy will
be extended to our humble supplications. We
likewise hope from thy generosity, the return
of our brethren who are captives in thy fetters,
in order that the gladness of this happy peace
may be complete ; and that whilst the Chris-

248 APPENDIX.
tian slaves, restored to their country, shall
prostrate themselves at thy feet and bless
thee, our own people, returning to the vast
dominions of Africa, may there proclaim thy
magnificence, and implant in the hearts of
their children. a deep veneration for thy in
comparable virtues.
" This will prove the happy foundation of a
lasting peace, which we, on our parts, promise
to fulfil scrupulously in all its articles, feeling
assured that thy subjects, who owe implicit
obedience to thy authority, will as religiously
observe them on their own parts.
" May the Almighty and merciful Creator
bestow his blessing upon it, and maintain per
petual concord between the most high, most
excellent, most powerful, most magnanimous,
and most invincible Emperor of the French,
and the most illustrious and magnificent Pacha,
Dey, Divan, and victorious militia of the re
public." — Anecdotes Africaines.

APPENDIX. 249
THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH IN ALGIERS.
[Vol. L p. 71.]
As soon as Bourmont had effected an en
trance into the fort of the emperor, Hussein
Pacha assembled all the armies, the notables
of the country, the lawyers, 8ec. &c. He re
presented to them the critical situation in
which the town was placed, and asked their
advice, with a view to consider of some mea
sure of safety, some remedy to the evil. " Be
under no restraint, my friends," he said to
them, " speak candidly your opinion ; under
the existing circumstances, we must deliberate
on the most effectual means, and I am but one
of your number, — what do you think? is it
possible to offer any further resistance to the
French? or must the town be rescued by
agreeing to a treaty in the nature of a capitu
lation?" The assembly felt much perplexed, not
knowing whether the Pacha spoke in earnest,
or merely desired to sound the real sentiments
of the principal inhabitants. It was also feared
that the Pacha was anxious to ascertain what
was the effect produced by Bourmont's pro-

250 APPENDIX.
clamations which had been distributed at
Algiers. At such a moment it was deemed
proper to dissemble; some resentment was
apprehended on the part of the Dey in case
pacific dispositions were displayed ; the unani
mous reply was therefore, as follows : We
will all fight to the last extremity ; neverthe
less, if your Highness prefers resorting to
other means, you are at liberty to do as you
think proper; we shall conform to your will.
The assembly accordingly broke up to pre
pare for battle. It must, however, be admitted
that proclamations, spread in the name of the
French nation, of a nation whose magna
nimity and love of justice were proverbial,
could not fail to exercise a powerful influence
on the public mind, and to incline cautious
and moderate men to the adoption of pacific
measures. These people reasoned thus to
each other : due regard being had to the
safety of the sovereign, we must not, by resort
ing to extremities, expose the inhabitants and
the town to imminent danger. Consistently
with this argument, it is easy to perceive
that if the leading inhabitants had enter
tained apprehensions of being oppressed, plun-

APPENDIX. 251
dered, and massacred, had they suspected their
being treated as we are treated at the pre
sent day, they would have staked their all ;
for the advantages of a war, as historians in
form us, are only to be secured by exposing
one's life, and braving every danger. In all
great catastrophes to which this world is sub
ject, a happy existence must be purchased at
the price of one's life. The ancients were,
therefore, wont to say, that nothing venture
nothing have.
Thus, then, all the energy that might have
been displayed, was paralyzed by those vague
and unmeaning proclamations. Such docu
ments no longer form part of the stratagems
of war ; the question was one of honour and
good faith ; the promises were positive ; and
it may be openly avowed that their violation
has been a political delinquency.
During the same night, several notables of
Algiers assembled in the fort of the gate of
the Navy ; they were merchants and capi
talists. They demonstrated that the town was
irretrievably lost, and that if the French forci
bly entered it, they Avould plunder and massacre
all the inhabitants, the defenceless Avomen and

252 APPENDIX.
children, and that it were better to adhere to
the pacific proposals of the Dey, by stipulating
a treaty with the chief of the French army.
It was supposed that an honourable nation
would not violate its treaties ; that we should
enjoy our liberty and be dealt with according
to the dictates of justice. Whether we were
governed by Peter or by Paul, it mattered not,
provided we were well governed, according to
the principles of the French government, and
our religion was not infringed upon. Reli
gion is a moral object which will not be denied
to us : the French are men, and a spirit of
fraternity will bind us to them. Civilization,
moreover, is founded upon the rights of nations;
we have, therefore, nothing to fear from a
civilized people. Such were in the result, the
reflections which led us to avoid offering any
resistance to the French army.
The religion of the Turks is the same as
ours ; we were, doubtless, less bound to prefer
their government ; but, as in the present case,
our property, our laws, and our religion were
respected, and that in the contrary case we
should have to expose our lives, to shed blood
in torrents, to witness the plunder of our

APPENDIX. 253
property, and the massacre of our women
and children ; so many considerations recom
mended a treaty of peace, that we concluded
the treaty.
The meeting sent, in this emergency, a
deputation to the Casaba, to communicate the
project to the Dey. The Dey's reply was,
that he would act the next day in conformity
with the wishes now intimated to him.
He sent, accordingly, on the following day,
the Mahatagy, accompanied by the English
consul, with a flag of truce, and Sidi Abou
Darba with my son Haggi Hassan, as inter
preters acquainted with the French language,
in order that they might repair to the Com
mander in Chief, and open a negotiation with
him. This Mahatagy was initiated in the con
spiracy of the Khaznagy. This man had the
baseness to attempt entering into a treaty with
the Commander in Chief — with the intention
of raising this Khaznagy to the rank of sove
reign ; he accordingly ventured to propose to
the French general, that he should bring him
the head of Hussein Dey, and conclude with
France such a treaty as might be acceptable

254

APPENDIX.

to her. General Bourmont replied to him : I
am not cotne to encourage assassinations, hut
to wage war ; and I accept the proposal of
Hussein Pacha, who desires to stipulate a ca
pitulation. I applaud his humane sentiments,
for, hy displaying them he p-events much effu
sion of blood. The capitulation was, therefore,
eventually discussed and agreed upon. — Sidy
Hamdan, vol. i. p. 190.

CULTURE SUSCEPTIBLE OF IMPROVEMENT,
OR OF BEING INTRODUCED.
[Vol. I. p. 96.]
Apricot-tree — very rare; the fruit is of bad
quality.
Agava-tree (American agavd) — long since
imported into Algiers; is used, as in the
south of France, for forming hedges. Nets
and other works are made with the filaments
drawn from the leaves. The stuflf, which
grows very rapidly, is extremely fine, and
may be used as rural timber-work.
Almond-tree — the growth should be

APPENDIX. 255
greatly increased, not so much for the almonds
as for the purpose of grafting.
Pine-apples — very rare.
Banana-tree — the banana-tree and the
fig banana-tree are only cultivated in a few
gardens. Cochineal Cactus-plant — attempts to
introduce the cochineal-plant have been com
menced in the Dey's garden.
Sugar-cane — Doctor Chevreau planted
in the Dey's garden, in 1830, four small twigs
taken from canes discovered amongst briers in
that garden. Fourteen months afterwards,
each plant consisted of from fourteen to six
teen stalks, six metres in height, which have
been used for forming plantations on several
properties. Bearing in mind an American colony, and
the manufactories of sugar from beet-root, it
becomes a question how far it might be proper
to encourage at Algiers the cultivation of the
sugar-cane. Carol-tree — in the Levant, the fruit of
the carol-tree is given as food to beasts of
burden ; it even forms a nourishment for the
poor, and its luscious pulp is used in the

256 appendix.
making of sherbet. It is also used, instead of
honey or sugar, for the confection of other
fruit. It will produce, by fermentation, a
vinous liquor ; and by distillation, a species
of alcohol. The carol-tree grows in the worst
ground. At Algiers the plant is robust, but
the bark very thin.
Cherry-tree — rare. The cherries are
poor and small. After three years, the cherry-
tree sickens, and becomes gummy.
Apple-tree — very rare : the fruit is of a
bad quality.
Potatoes — not much cultivated, and of in
different quality.
Plum-tree — very rare : the fruit is of a
bad quality.
Rice — not cultivated in the neighbourhood
of Algiers, but in the interior of the country.
Little in use amongst the inhabitants, who pre
fer the vermicelli made from wheat.
Eatable Cyperus. — In Spain, the tuber
cles of its roots are used for making a species
of orgeat.
Tobacco — may eventually replace in France,
the tobacco of Virginia and of the Havannah.
A tobacco manufactory established by M.

appendix. 257
Bouffey, in the early period of the French occu
pation, affords an excellent produce.
TuRPENTiNE-TREE — vcry commou. This
tree produces the turpentine. The fruit also
produces good lamp-oil.
Vine-tree. — Barbary wines were formerly
in great repute. During the dominion of the
Turks, the vine was only cultivated for the
sake of eating the raisins. Algiers can pro
duce excellent dry raisins : suitable land for
vineyards is everywhere to be found ; this
species of cultivation should, however, be en
couraged for those vines only Avhich would
produce wines of a quality different from the
French Avines.
Lentz-tree — very common. In the Le
vant, there is derived from it a substance
called mastic ; the fruit also produces good
lamp-oil. Indian-Corn. — The mixture of Indian corn
and wheaten flour produces a savoury bread.
Common Melons — are of a very good
quality. Water Melons — the same.
Winter Melons. — The Winter Melons of
Algiers are not equal to those of Valencia.
vol. II. s

258 APPENDIXi
White Mulberry-tree — was not to be
found at Algiers before the occupation. The
leaves of the Perrottet Mulberry-tree (Multi-
cauli of the Philippines) are the most pro
ductive. Doctor Chevreau was the first who reared
silk-worms at Algiers. His attempt dates
from the spring of 1831 . The egg, being pre
served without any precaution, was used in
the succeeding spring for making a large
quantity of balls, which produced nearly fif
teen pounds of very fine silk. The silk was
spun on the spot, and samples of it were
sent to Marseilles, Lyons, Paris, and Tours.
There is every reason to hope that the result
obtained in 1833 will prove as successful as
those of the preceding years.
The leaves employed proceeded from about
forty very old and very common mulberry-
trees. Another colonist, Mr. Maurice, though
placed in less favourable circumstances, ex
hibited a very praiseworthy perseverance in
making attempts which have not completely
answered his expectations, and the expenses of
which have not been met by the produce.

APPENDIX. 259
M. Chevreau planted on his property of
Bir-mad-Reis, in 1831, a hundred and tAventy
grafted white mulberry trees, ten years old.
In 1832, fourteen hundred Perrottet or mul-
ticauli mulberry-trees.
In 1833, several hundred grafted white mul
berry-trees. Europeans were hitherto only acquainted
with the species of silk furnished by the cater
pillar of the mulberry-tree ; but M. Lamare-
Picquet has of late brought from Bengal very
remarkable balls produced by another cater
pillar, Avhich lives on the tree in a Avild state,
and is not susceptible of being tamed. The
butterfly proceeding from it has received from
Linnteus the name of Phalcena paphia. Its
larva subsists on the Rhamnns j'ujnba, and on
the Tenninalia aleta glabra. The M'orm of
Bengal is far more productive than the Eu
ropean Avorm, and its silk has greater firmness.
Olive-tree — is common and fine ; it runs
no risk of a frost, like those of Provence.
Three oil-mills have been brought from France,
and put up in the establishments of Messrs.
Nadaud, Lacrouts, and Paul Raynaud. The
s 2

260 APPENDIX.
first attempts, in spite of adverse circum
stances, have nevertheless proved that very
fine oil might be obtained from Algerine olives.
M. Raynaud has recourse, for grafting the
olive-tree, to a process by which the tree is
productive after a lapse of two years. He has
offered to communicate it gratuitously to all
who might desire to avail themselves of it.
Orange-tree. — Oranges are very abun
dant and of excellent quality.
Peach-tree — very rare : the fruit is of
a bad quality.
Pear-tree — the same.
Peas — may be had throughout nearly the
whole year, by means of water, and by being
properly exposed to the sun.
Section 11.^ — Plants which might be trans
planted to Algiers.
Socotrine Aloes produce a resin which
affords a very fine coloured purple. It grows
spontaneously in Senegal, and on the moun
tains of the Cape of Good Hope, is cultivated
in the Caribbee Islands, in Spain and in Italy.
Amyris Gileadensis — A tree of the tur-

appendix. 261
pentine species, which produces the Balm of
Mecca or of India.
Wild Pine-apple-tree — a textile plant,
knoAvn in Guiana by the name of Pitte Pine
apple-trees. Bread-tree (artocarpus incisa) is one of
the most valuable vegetable plants. Its fruit
afi'ords an abundant, Avholesome, and pleasant
nourishment. Aguncate-tree — (Laurus Persia). Its
fruit, the aguncate, also bears at Guiana the
name oi vegetable butter.
Chesnut-tree — very rare. A very fine
one is to be seen at Bir-mad-Reis, and three
at the forage-store of Bir-Kadem.
Lemon-tree — already become common.
The growth should be further increased. Its
fruit is excellent.
Wild Quince-tree. — Preference should
be given to the species called Chinese Quince-
tree. Beans. — By means of water, and by being
properly exposed to the sun, they may be
had nearly throughout the year.
Fig-tree. — The Carthage Figs were for-

262 appendix.
merly in great repute. Those of Algiers are
too mucous, and less sAveet than French Figs.
Wheat. — The country of Algiers was the
granary of Rome. The hard corn of Bona
should be sown in preference to any other.
In their couscousou, the inhabitants make
much use of the vermicelli of wheat.
Pomegranate-tree. — The fruit is large
and of good quality.
Kidney-Beans — may be had nearly the
whole year, by means of water, and by being
properly exposed to the sun.
JujUB-TREE — common.
Azerole-tree — cultivated at Marseilles.
Bosavellia Serrata. — A tree of the tur
pentine species, which produces the Indian
incense. Opinions differ as to the vegetable
which produces the African incense.
Cocoa-tree — (Theobroma cacao) requires
much heat.
Coffee-tree. — The small, round grained
quality should be preferred ; the most valu
able plants are those derived from Mocha and
Bourbon. Camphire-tree — (Laurus camphora). —

APPENDIX. 263
Camphire is extracted, either by making an
incision in the tree, or by boiling in water and
in covered vases, the branches cut up into
pieces. Cinnamon-tree — (Laurus cinnamonum)
propagates by its seeds, which only require a
great degree of heat to make them spring up.
The Pacha of Egypt is said to have caused a
quantity to be planted round Cairo.
Chinese Choui-la-chou. — An aquatic
tree which produces wax, and respecting
Avhich we as yet possess imperfect know
ledge. Officinal Copaiba. — (Copaifera offici
nalis) of the leguminous species. Produces
the balm of Copaiba ; requires great heat.
Cotton-tree — grows at Algiers in a wild
state. The species with long silk, such as
that of Pernambuco, should be imported in
preference to any other. The herbaceous cot
ton-tree was cultivated at Tunis fifty years ago.
Ficus-elastica. — A tree which produces
the milky condensed juice, known by the name
of caoutchouc.
Clove-tree — (Caryophyllum aromaticum)
requires much heat.

264 appendix.
Arbor Chibeee. — (Gummii.) Gum-trees
are not yet well known ; they usually belong
to the acacia and mimosa species.
Goyava-tree — (Psidium pyriferum) of the
myrtle species. Thrives in the Garden of
Plants at Toulon. In the Caribbee Islands,
preserves and jellies are made from Goyavas.
Gundelta Tournefortii. — Its roots are
savoury and less insipid than those of the sal
sify and the scorzonera.
Hevea Guianensis. — A plant which, like
the Ficus-elastica, produces the condensed
milky juice called caoutchouc.
Igname. — A tuberous root in great use in
the Caribbee Islands.
Indigo-tree. — The species which furnish
the commercial indigo are, 1st. the indigofera
argentea. 2nd. the indigofera tinctoria. 3rd.
the indigofera anil. 4th. the indigofera dis-
pemra. — A trial was made by Mr. Fougeroux,
in 1821, and the indigo obtained by him
proved of a tolerably good quality.
J AMROs AVE (Eugenia Jambos). Has thriven
in the hot-house of the Garden of Plants in
Paris. The pulp of its fruit has a pleasant
smell somewhat resembling that of the rose

appendix. 265
this procured for it the name of the rose-
apple. Chinese Kane-la-chou. — On the branches
of this shrub, insects are found whose bodies
assume, during summer, a kind of crust, Avhich
is the wax itself It is gathered in the month
of September. Chinese Lit-chi — (Euphoria-lif-chi). -Its
fruit tastes like an excellent Muscatel raisin.
Littcea Gemini-flora. — A textile plant,
Avhich only needs a temperate greenhouse.
The fibres drawn from its leaves afford a kind
of flax which is said to be of great beaut3\
Mango-tree. — Very common in the Ca
ribbee Islands ; is easily propagated by means
of its stones, Avhich retain a germinating power
for upwards of a year. This tree has thriven
in the greenhouse of the Garden of Plants at
Paris. Mangoustan. — (Garcinia mangousfana.)
Its fruit is better than the mango. It requires
much heat.
Neriu-ai Tinctorium of Bengal. — It is
said to produce a finer colour than Avhat is
produced from plants of the indigo species.
Chinese Ou-kieou-mou-tree. — (Croton

266 appendix.
cebiferum) a tallow-tree. Its seeds are covered
over with a cebaceous, rather firm, and very
white substance, which supplies the Chinese
with matter for making candles. It has thriven
very well in the Garden of Plants at Toulon.
Passiflora Quadrangularis. — Its fruit
is of the size of a melon, and its pulp very
delicate. This plant is well adapted for
lining cradles.
Sweet Potatoes. — M. Chevreau has
planted some this year.
Phormium Tenax. — A textile plant, also
known by the name of New Holland Flax, has
thriven at Toulon. The filaments obtained
from the leaves of this plant, are much stronger
than those procured from hemp, and the cord
age made from it presents, in an equal quantity,
one-third more resistance than what is made
from the filaments of hemp.
Pistachio-tree — is cultivated at Tunis.
Pepper Plant — (Piper nigrum) requires
much heat.
Bark. — The species used for medical pur
poses are very numerous. See the article
Bark in the 46th volume of the Dictionary
of Medical Sciences.

APPENDIX. 267
Rhamnus Jujuba.— a tree of Bengal on
which is found a silk-worm, which affords a
more abundant and a more valuable produce
than the caterpillar of the mulberry-tree.
MusK Rose-tree. — The Musk-rose is cul
tivated at Tunis, in order to extract from it
the essence of rose.
Terminalia-alata-glabra. — A tree of
Bengal, on which is found the same silk-worm
as on the Rhamnus jujuba.
Tea-plant. — In China and Japan, the tea-
plant thrives best on the slopes of hills exposed
to the south, and in the vicinity of running-
streams. Balsamic Tolu. — (Toluifera balsamifera)
produces the balm of Tolu. — Requires much
heat. Chinese Tsi-chou — (Angia Sinensis). A
tree which produces the fine varnish called
Chinese varnish. This resinous juice flows
from incisions made in the stem.
Vanilla-tree — (Epidendrum vanilla).
This plant thrives only in inundated places
abounding in large trees and constantly co
vered with damp and warm vapours.
Observations. — The plants employed for me-

268

APPENDIX.

dical purposes, and which would thrive in the
territory of Algiers, are too numerous to be
each specially noticed in this place ; but the
attention of the colonists should be drawn to
those which produce ipecacuanha, senna, cas
sia, tamarinds, manna, rhubarb, and jalap.
The foregoing statement only relates to pro
ductive plants. Amongst those ornamental
plants which would be adapted to the embel
lishment of gardens, it is proper to mention
the liliaceous plants of the Cape of Good
Hope, the leguminous, melaleacous, metrosi-
derous plants ; the Eucalyptus of New Holland.
To this species may be added the magnolias,
camelias, straw-rose-tree, azalias, keturias,
dahlias, and lobelias.
The Garden of the Navy at Toulon, and
that of Plants at Paris, can supply the greater
part of the plants comprised in the second
section. It is proper to remark that those
which are indigenous to the warmest climates
require, neA^ertheless, when young, to be shel
tered from the heat of a burning sun : all
must be protected from the open wind.
The fruit-trees of France, the potatoes, and
a few vegetables, soon degenerate at Algiers.

APPENDIX. 269
It is necessary to bestOAv upon them greater
care than they have hitherto received.
The cultivation of many European and in
tertropical plants can only be attempted, with
any prospect of success, in the acclimating
garden. — Ann. d' Alger, 1833.

V.VRIOUS PL.\NTS.
[Vol. I. p. 100.]
The statements we have caused to be drawn
up Avill afford some evidence of our progres
sive improvement. \^^e are happy to have it
in our power to include Bona and Oran Avith
Algiers, and to establish the fact that expe
riments, at least, have everywhere simultane
ously taken place.
In the first rank of various plants, we must
place the olive and mulberry trees, the success
of Avhich admits of no doubt, for they have
thriven -wheresoever planted ; and they are in
reality the golden mine of the country. A
careful inspection of the vicinity of the towns
which Ave occupy Avill aftbrd the conviction

270 APPENDIX.
that no land was ever cultivated with greater
care. At every step are to be found ruins of
canals adjoining old rotten trunks of trees, and
close to decayed olive trees slender shoots
springing upj as if to attest that this tree is
imperishable in the Regency of Algiers ; seve
ral of them must even have endured for ages.
In the plain as on the mountains, as in all
directions, the olive tree cannot fail to prosper
in Africa, for the soil is everywhere adapted
to it, and when it shall have been grafted, and
more thickly planted by the labours of agri
culturists, we shall rapidly acquire an increase
of produce that will baffle all calculations.
Experience alone will remove our doubts at
a later period, as to which amongst twenty-one
species from the south of France will best
answer the climate.
The mulberry tree is similarly circum
stanced, and the chances of both are the same.
If we are to rely on accounts worthy of credit,
the mulberry tree, which is carefully cultivated
in the Beylick of Tittery, already produces a
crop annually amounting to several quintals
of silk. We must therefore begin with the
olive and the mulberry. Previously to entering

APPENDIX. 271
upon venturesome experiments, it is important
to consider what is the amount of an assumed
produce. It will afford satisfaction to read, on the
subject of the acclimatizing of the mulberry
tree and the rearing of silk-worms in Africa,
a letter which I have received from the late
Doctor Chevreau, head surgeon of the army,
and in his life-time one of our most distin
guished writers on agriculture.
" Having procured the eggs at the close of
1830, I commenced my experiments in the
spring of 1831, and I now find myself with a
third generation of naturalized Algerine silk
worms. " I applied myself more especially to render
my insects as rural as possible ; the stuffs
bearing the eggs were always left hanging to
the wall of an apartment on the ground floor
of my country-house ; this uninhabited cham
ber is open, winter and summer, to every wind.
Instead of making them hatch by an artificial
heat, I wished them to derive no other warmth
than that of the atmosphere ; the caterpillars,
placed partly on boards, partly on the ground,
cast their four skins with the greatest ease ;

272 APPENDIX.
no disease affected them ; and they afterwards
briskly ascended the furze, winter-berries, and
other briars laid before them, which they co
vered with a countless number of balls. This
tufted bunch, which I had the honour to pre
sent to the Civil Intendant, was an excellent
specimen of this year's crop ; the harvest pro
duced nearly three hundred pounds of fine
balls. Instead of having recourse to ovens or
stoves to destroy the chrysalis, I merely ex
posed them on my terrace, to the rays of the
July sun, and acquired the certainty that two
or three days were suflScient for the opera
tion ; this plan had already proved successful
in the preceding year.
" Now that I have laid by a provision of
eggs, for 1834, I have had my silk spun by
means of the loom which I had caused to be
erected in 1832.
" The Civil Intendant was enabled to form
an opinion of the produce of my first spinning
by the skein which I had last year the honour
to present to him. It is asserted that the
skeins of the present year surpass it in perfec
tion ; but no encomiums can possess greater
value than that which I attach to his approba-

APPENDIX. 273
tion ; and it is in order to enable him to ap
preciate the results of my experiments, that
I hasten to address to him a few samples of
my second spinning, as a homage due to the
zealous protector of our agricultural industry.
" In consequence of my decided predilec
tion for magnanerie, and feeling desirous of
setting the example, I exerted myself, as early
as 1831, to procure a small country-house at
a short distance from the town. Having no
time to lose, I enriched it at first with four
hundred grafted mulberry-trees, which suc
ceeded to my entire satisfaction ; learning
afterwards that nurserymen already possessed
and cultivated the Morus alba midticaulis of
the Philippine Islands, imported by M. Perrot
tet, which forms the food of the caterpillars
that supply the finest Chinese white silk, I
hastened to procure some, and planted, this
winter, about fourteen hundred, which have
thriven so successfully that they are found
covered with fine leaves, many of them broader
than the palm of the hand.
"I propose, this autumn, to renew the seed
bed of mulberry-trees in meadows, according
to the American practice ; my first experiment
VOL. II. T

274 APPENDIX.
failed, owing, no doubt, to the indifference of
the seed.
'' Some eggs of the silkworm placed on a
mulberry-tree became a prey to birds and ants ;
the question will arise as to the means of
parrying this evil when making fresh experi
ments." To this letter I subjoin another, and a far
more curious one, containing the account of
a highly interesting experiment made in the
garden of experiments of the colony, and
which is calculated to afford a favourable solu
tion of the problem as to the rearing of the
silkworm on the tree itself
" Monsieur I'lntendant, — Considering the
cultivation of the mulberry-tree and the rear
ing of the silkworm as one of the operations
the most pregnant with advantage to the
colony and to the mother-country, I have at
tempted to rear it in the open air on the
tree itself, conformably with the practice in
Georgia and Syria. I was unfortunately en
gaged on a mission at Bona at the moment
when I might have found a sufficient quan
tity of eggs of the silkworm ; and I only suc
ceeded, on my return, in procuring a very

APPENDIX. 275
small supply. As soon as they were hatched, I
placed them on a mulberry-tree (at two in the
afternoon, on the 4th of May). — There was
a fresh and rather strong breeze, Reaumur's
thermometer was at 19 degrees. A heavy
shower fell for ten minutes at five on the
same day. The next morning was foggy, and
the Avind blew the whole day ; a heavy storm,
rain and thunder, succeeded a few days after
wards ; nevertheless, the silkworms on the
tree became stronger than those I had care
fully preserved in an apartment : I was much
pleased at this success, but found myself
unable to follow up my experiment to its
complete solution ; for although my worms
grew larger, their scanty numbers daily de
creased, and the last of them falling, like the
rest, a prey to birds, disappeared after having
dwelt for seventeen days on the tree, having
encountered nine showers and braved the
thunder and fogs.
" Our experiment, though it failed to be
decisive, proves, at least, that this economical
manner of rearing silkworms may be as much
resorted to as it is in Georgia and Syria, since
the worm maintains itself in the best condi-
t2

276 APPENDIX.
tion, and, as is the case in those countries, has
only the birds to apprehend. With a view to
remedy this evil it will be necessary to place
on the tree a quantity of eggs five or six times
greater than what would be placed in a shel
tered spot ; but as the eggs of silkworms are
an insignificant expense, this expense cannot
be taken into the account. I think that, by the
adoption of this course, there will, eventually,
be obtained, at a very trifling cost, the same
quantity of balls, and a much stronger silk
than is afforded by the worms reared in apart
ments. The birds may also be frightened
away by means of some scarecrow ; and, in
case of need, the mulberry-trees might even
be covered over with nets. I apprehend,
however, that increasing the quantity of eggs
Avill be found an adequate precaution."
I must now advert to other plants.
The almond-tree thrives on hillocks and dry
oTOunds. Some old trees afford a fruit of to-
lerably good quality, but the species is gene
rally an indifferent one. By endeavouring to
improve it, an excellent produce might be the
result. A few plantations of vines are found in the

APPENDIX. 277
vicinity of Algiers, but they had been all
abandoned, or much neglected. Will they be
renewed ? Will their number be increased ?
Regard being had to the well understood in
terest of the mother-country, to that of the colo
nists themselves, 1 cannot believe it. It would
seem to me very desirable that we should
limit ourselves to the introduction of the best
species of Spanish vines. If the Corinth
raisin should thrive, as there is reason to hope
would be the case, it might be usefully culti
vated, and, after being dried, might become
an advantageous article for exportation.
In a soil either soft or susceptible of irriga
tion, its fertility yields to almost all varieties
of the vegetable kingdom.
A considerable supply of greens is required
for a numerous population ; spacious kitchen-
gardens have, accordingly, been already
planted, and will further be established
around the principal towns.
Fruit trees, which are extremely rare, and,
for the greater part, of indifferent quality,
stand in need of being increased and im
proved by grafting. By the exercise of some
discernment in the choice of proper exposure

278 APPENDIX.
to the sun, every species cyltivated in France
would thrive here, and to this may be added
many that are of the growth of southern coun
tries. Next to these objects of cultivation 1 shall
have but a word to say respecting the potato,
hemp, and flax, which, though well known
and attended to in France, would also prove
useful in this country. I may, also, by the
way, advert to the madder ; but we should
more particularly attend to those new articles
of produce, the rearing of Avhich is within the
reach of possibility.
The crop of tobacco in France is but of
very inferior quality, and she derives from
abroad a great part of her consumption of it.
It is, no doubt, owing to the injudicious selec
tion of the seed-beds that the tobacco hitherto
cultivated in the regency is generally of a still
worse quality ; but, by procuring the best
species of seeds from those parts which most
resemble this country in respect of tempera
ture, we can hardly fail to acclimate them.
We have made requests to that effect, and, I
trust, we shall soon be enabled, by the result
of the first experiments, to enlighten the colo-

APPENDIX. 279
nists with regard to this branch of agricultural
industry. The herbaceous cotton-tree is already
known in the regency, and two of the tribes
adjoining Algiers derive some produce from it.
When, by the still further removal of our
blockhouses, we shall have secured the free
possession of the plain, it will become possible
for us, at Bona as well as at Algiers, to un
dertake this species of cultivation on a large
scale. Many plants of the small cotton-tree
have thriven successfully.
The sugar-cane and coffee-tree are two in
tertropical productions, the adaptation of
which to this climate has engaged our best
attention. If Ave can rely upon the traditions preserved
amongst some of the natives, the first was for
merly cultivated with success in the regency ;
but Turkish despotism caused this branch of
industry, like so many others, to disappear.
The growth of the sugar-canes in our garden
of experiments has been extremely rapid ; it
has also been attempted by some colonists.
The lapse of time has already enabled us to

280 APPENDIX.
ascertain, in some degree, the favourable re
sults of these simultaneous trials.
Coffee-trees forwarded from Paris, and
planted on a hillock exposed to the mid-day
sun, have struck Avell, and produced excellent
shoots. With respect to orange and lemon-trees
these are indigenous to the country. They
are everywhere to be met with, and much
finer at Belida than at any other place.
Very recently, sarsaparilla, a plant become
so useful at the present day, and the vivacious
flax, have been discovered in the neighbour
hood of Algiers.
The cultivation of indigo has completely
succeeded at Algiers — it is unattended with
expense or trouble ; not so, however, the ma
nufacture of it. The first and chief difficulty
is that of having an indigo manufactory dis
tributed into many basins constantly supplied
Avith water. Few of our colonists could un
dertake the construction of one, either because
the locality or want of springs would prevent
them, or owing to the absence of adequate
pecuniary means; but Avheresoever the rear-

APPENDIX. 281
ing of this plant has been attended to, there
has only been a limited number of indigo ma
nufactories, to which the small proprietors
brought their leaves, as grain is brought to
the mill. The second difficulty consists in the
necessity of possessing a special knowledge of
this kind of manufacture, which requires very
great experience.
These considerations have been so fully ap
preciated by the government, that in India, as
well as in Senegal, it had at all times ap
pointed indigo manufactories, Avho were bound
to work for all who should desire their assist
ance. NoAv that every doubt respecting this
plant is removed, should not the same motives
induce it to create such an oflice for Algiers,
as it has done for other colonies ? The ques
tion appears to us the more deserving of at
tracting its attention, as the individuals who
have devoted themselves to the study of in
digo, might, in the event of their not finding
an outlet, give it up altogether, and discard it
from Africa.
A manufacturing attempt made in the early
days of June, 1834, in the government garden,
exhibited the following results.

282 APPENDIX.
On a surface of four square metres, we have
had four cubic metres of leaves, and, after
beating and boiling, six ounces of fecula.
This quantity is greater than what is obtained
in Lower Bengal, and it would have been still
more considerable had we not been at a loss
for suitable instruments.
The plant does not rise to the same height
as that of India; nevertheless, it is equally
robust ; and a distinguished colonist, M. Elie
Petit, -who has resided for some years in this
country, affirms that, at Algiers, it is loaded
with a more abundant colouring matter.
We are, in short, as much favoured as In-
dostan, and shall have three crops a year ;
whereas, in Lower Bengal, they generally
reckon upon one crop, and no more.
In the province of Oran all scarlet dyes are
made by means of the kermes, a produce af
forded by a small insect, who lives on a spe
cies of dwarf oak. It is found in many places,
but nowhere in greater abundance than on
the Mountain of Lions, at the distance of
three leagues from the town of Oran, in the
direction of Algiers. It is in the beginning of
spring that the insect settles under the cuticle

APPENDIX. 283
of the braiiches or leaves ; it then swells, and
assumes the form of a gall-nut, in size like a
pea. The crop is gathered in June.
Leghorn and Tunis are the only points to
which this produce has hitherto been sent, the
exportation of which, in 1832, amounted in
value to 26,572 francs.
It would not be devoid of interest to con
sider the means of extending it.
The nopal, a species of cactus without
thorns, to which the cochineal clings, is found
in abundance in the vicinity of Algiers.
Struck at this circumstance, and deeming it
probable that where the shrub grows wild the
insect might be successfully reared, I selected,
with the approbation of government, in two
different exposures, the one to the east, and
the other to the west, two pieces of ground
intended for plantations of this shrub. M.
Loze, a surgeon in the service of the royal
navy, who has published in the naval annals
some very curious details respecting the cochi
neal, and who made the rearing of it an object
of his peculiar study, was specially intrusted
with the direction of the estabhshments.
Notwithstanding that they were undertaken

284 APPENDIX.
in the most unfavourable season, the experi
ments respecting the cochineal, which he had
gone in search of to Cadiz, have weathered
the winter, and have satisfactorily passed the
ordeal. Bred in Africa, and upon the cactus
of the country, it went through all the periods
of its existence, which is of four months' dura
tion, without having experienced the slightest
change in its form or size, and resembles, in
every respect, that which is reared in Spain.
In order that we might be the better satis
fied of the result we were in quest of, the
plantations of cactus were divided into two
parts ; the first was left to the inroads of the
weather, the winds and rain ; the second, or
reserve part, was placed in cases, and under
enclosed sheds. The cochineals have thriven
alike in either -case. More precocious even
than those of the reserve, the former have ac
quired a larger size, a circumstance tending to
prove that the external air imparts to them
greater vigour, more colouring matter; in short,
a superior quality.
All the layings were perfect, and every
cactus was loaded with them at the end of
May of the same year.

APPENDIX. 285
Independently of those which we have left
on the trees, with a view to their renewed
propagation, there remained, in August and
November, 1834, a crop of forty or fifty kilo
grammes of breeding cochineals. If we esti
mate the kilogramme at eighty francs, which
is their lowest value, it is evident that from
this source we shall derive a produce which,
at a later period, will mainly contribute to
cover our expenses.
The acclimating the cochineal in Africa is
no longer a problem to be determined, but one
which is already solved *.
The planting of bamboo has also been re
cently effected. Should it succeed in acquir
ing at Algiers the same proportions as in
China and in India, its naturalization will
prove of the highest importance. The ab
sence of wood, Avhich is so severely felt, would
render its utility as great in this country as in
* The earliest cropped cochineal having been submitted
to the examination of the Superior Council of Commerce in
Paris, has been found of a quality so analogous, in all re
spects, to that which is derived from Mexico, that if placed
in similar baskets, it would be impossible to distinguish
the one from the other.

286 APPENDIX.
those where it is indigenous to the soil, and
where it is used not only for all kinds of furni
ture, but even for constructing habitations.
Henna. — It Avill, assuredly, not be regretted
that we should supply such information as the
country has afforded us respecting this plant
so little known, its botanical properties, its
cultivation, and its crop.
The wives of the natives, and the children'
of both sexes, employ the leaf in dyeing their
hair, their nails, and the palms of their hands ;
the Arabs and Moors use it in dyeing the
manes and legs of their favourite horses, as
well as their backs round the saddle.
Any neglect of this custom is a sign of
mourning. Botanical properties, — described by M. Des-
fontaines in his Flore Atlantique.
The henna is a plant of the species of the
Salicaria (Jussieu). Authors have errone
ously placed it in the Octandria Monogynia
(Linn^us) ; for there are found from eight to
twelve stamina upon each.
It scarcely rises more than three decimetres
above the ground. It bears much resemblance
to the pomegranate-tree (Punicea ranatum),

APPENDIX. 287
which is so common, that frequent mistakes
have been made in respect to both.
Its roots are ligneous, sapped, palmy, and
brittle ; and force their way perpendicularly
and to some depth into the ground.
The stem is cylindrical, of about the thick
ness of a finger, though sometimes of a larger
size. The branches and leaves are alternate,
wide spread, slightly angular at the base, but
quadrangular at the top.
The leaves, which bear petiolets, are
pointed, and very perfect, appear opposed to
each other, but, when attentively examined,
they are found to lie in parallel positions.
The flowers are very numerous, small, of a
whitish colour, spring up in terminating pani
cles, the ramifications of which are slender
and alternate. The petals, four in number,
are whitish and rumpled. The flowers, when
exposed to the fresh air, spread a pleasant,
and by no means a spermatic odour, as stated
by M. Desfontaines. This odour disappears
on the drying up of the flower, when it some
what resembles the smell pointed out by that
learned botanist, a circumstance leading to the

288 APPENDIX.
inference that the description he gave of it
was derived from the plant when dry.
The fruit is a spherical pod, usually of the
size of a sweet pea, slightly flattened at the
top, and divided into two, three, or four com
partments by a papyraceous partition.
The seeds are small, cuneiform, of a reddish
colour in their desiccated state. Their num
ber varies from thirty to thirty-five. The pod,
previous to its being perfectly ripe, frequently
opens in the under part, and afi'ords an egress
for the seeds. This opening is but partial,
and applies to only one half of the pod. It
remains the same in appearance both before
and after the opening.
Cultivation and Crop. — The seed of the
henna is only sown soft, and mixed with fine
light soil. The plant, at the end of three
months, has acquired its full development. By
cutting it only once in the first, and twice in
the second year, three crops are thus secured
for every succeeding year.
The leaves may be preserved for eighteen
months without losing any of their strength. —
Genty de Bussy, vol. i. p. 236.

APPENDIX. 289
TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE REGENCY.
[Vol. I. p. 115.]
The provinces of Constantine in the east,
of Oran in the west, and of Tittery and Al
giers in the centre, composed, previously to
our occupation, the four divisions of the former
Regency. The three first were placed under
the authority of Beys, whose relations with the
Dey of Algiers resembled in a great measure
those of the Pacha of Egypt with the Sultan,
that is to say, the obedience of the vassals was
commensurate either with the power of the
sovereign and the fear which he inspired, or
with the valour and numbers of their tribes, and
the chances which a rebellion held out to them.
Whatever events might occur, the territorial
divisions remained undisturbed. If a Bey
rise up in insurrection, the competitors who,
in such a case, are ever on the watch, occa
sionally strangle him ere he can mount his
horse ; and this execution becomes the step
ping-stone of the sanguinary rise of the most
daring. If the insurrection acquires, on the
contrary, a character of consistency, the Aga of
the Dey and the Turkish militia undertake to
VOL. II. u

290 APPENDIX.
suppress it; the year thus performs its wonted
course with a few revolutions more, and a few
men less, to mark its progress ; fresh disturb
ances forthwith begin with the succeeding
year. Each province was formerly subdivided into
districts, the command and administration of
which were confided to Ka'ids. The political
circumscription of the country extended no
farther. The capitulation has installed us in the
place of the Dey of Algiers. Our power in
right, if not a power in fact, extends, at the
present day, over the whole of the former
Regency. The mission of M. de Mornay, in
1832, and the formal renunciation of the
Emperor of Morocco to every claim over the
district of Tlemsen, which was the conse
quence of it, are a proof, as we have already
seen, that France intends to retain full pos
session of her conquest.
Except in the province of Tittery, which
extends beyond Mount Atlas, and where we
have as yet been unable to penetrate, the
Beys are novv the French Generals, the King
of France is the Dey. But wherever we have

APPENDIX. 291
hitherto failed in making an impression upon
the country, the Kaids, to whom we grant
letters of investiture, often possess beyond these
nothing more than a nominal title ; and when
they are amongst their tribes, their territorial
authority does not exceed the limits of their
tents. We now stand in need of chiefs whose
power extends over a positive jurisdiction, if
I may so express myself We must begin by
establishing the reign of order, by creating
territorial divisions. No administration of the
country can avail without unity, and unity,
which cannot be everywhere, should, never
theless, be everywhere represented.
Our communications, which have been ex
clusively carried on by sea, have circumscribed
us for the last four years, within a kind of
archipelago ; and this state of things can only
be altered when we shall be enabled to overrun
the whole of our territory, and shall be in
actual possession of the country. Previously
to Abd-el-Kader's submission, from the towns
which we hold in our possession, we never
knew whence the thinly scattered Arabs were
sent to us at his instigation.
We have accepted the Regency with its
u2

292 APPENDIX.
old political and administrative division, with
Algiers as a central point ; and as long as we
remain separated from the other provinces by
unsubdued tribes, we shall be compelled to
adjourn the modifications which it cannot fail
to call for.
But a more or less influential part is re
served for certain points of the interior of the
country. Why should we not endeavour at
once to establish one of these points at one of
the most important towns, at Constantine ; that
vast bazaar of all the Arabs, which may justly
be termed the caravansary of Barbary ? We
havemade.some attempts, but in so imprudent
and ill-directed a manner, that they have failed
of success. Is this a motive for renouncing to
open fresh communications with that town ?
By a better selection of our agents, it is proba
ble that a different result would attend them.
We possess, as yet, properly speaking, no
territory whatever round Bona and Oran; but
the establishment of our blockhouses has se
cured to us, for the last three years, a circum
ference of three leagues and a half round
Algiers. It is only within this limit that we
possess a real poAver, and that our colonists are

APPENDIX. 293
secure from inroads. A few acts of devasta
tion, too often inseparable from the vicinity of
camps, but which are daily repressed by the
watchfulness of the chiefs ; a few robberies,
favoured by the isolated nature of the habita
tions, — such are the legitimate causes of com
plaint occasionally renewed, but which are
now on the decline, and which the organization
of the spahis will wholly eradicate.
But the country of Algiers, with the two
villages of colonists who inhabit it, only ac
knowledge in some measure the authority of
the town, when their daily wants require their
so doing. There is everywhere felt an absence
of superintendence, more particularly of civil
condition, and it is of the utmost importance
that an act of authority should interpose,
either to bring them under the municipal
jurisdiction of Algiers, or to create a special
jurisdiction to rule them. We have not yet
made sufficient progress to release from de
pendence upon the central power, a district
which is at scarcely a greater distance than
three leagues from it. — Ibid., vol. i. p. 166.

294 APPENDIX. THE JEWS.
[Vol. I. p. 147.]
Thrown eA^eryAvhere as an accident in the
midst of empires, everywhere scattered and
dispersed, the Jcavs, Avhatever may be the na
tion under Avhose fostering care they come to
seek shelter, can nowhere succeed in consti
tuting themselves a nation *.
The indolence of the Turks and Moors,
their inaptitude for every kind of trade, were
the baits which attracted the Jcavs to this part
of Africa, and which explain their mustering
in such considerable numbers.
It would seem that the secrecy of their
speculations makes them dread the openness
of fair dealing, and that injuries and insults
are as incapable of exhausting their patience
as their cupidity. Supple, insinuating, trad
ing in everything, real brokers of all countries,
but perfidious, grasping, insincere : such Avere
* It is needless for us to say in this place that we have
merely spoken of the Jews in a semi-barbarous state. We
are foremost in rendering justice to what they are in a per
fect state of civilization. The Jews of Europe have nothing
to envy men of other religions.

APPENDIX. 295
the Jews of the middle ages, such also we
found them at Algiers.
It was with the view of screening them
selves from the rapacity of their enemies, that
in former times they invented the bill of ex
change ; unable in those days to find any se
curity in the places where they resided, it was
natural they should go to foreign countries in
search of it ; and we are now indebted to a
sense of fear for that trading facility which
pervades the whole world. Heaped in the
most infected quarters of the towns of the Re
gency, their presence is a perpetual ground of
alarm to the public authorities ; and a reduc
tion in their numbers could not fail to prove
beneficial to the general salubrity. Neverthe
less, their voluntary emigration from Algiers
to other points is extremely rare, and it is
more especially at Oran, that they have been
found occasionally to emigrate to and from
Jerusalem. The arrival of the Europeans, by
rendering their intervention an act of neces-
sitv, has spread some degree of comfort
amongrst them ; some few have even enriched
themselves; but with the downfall of the
Deys has fled from them the opportunity of

296

APPENDIX.

making colossal fortunes ; and Europe is the
only stage upon which those amongst them
whom nature has gifted with a superior un
derstanding, can hope henceforward, to realize
the like wealth.
The former government had maintained them
in the free exercise of their religion, but they
were exposed to every species of indignity,
and arbitrarily condemned to the most painful
labours. If anything can excite astonishment,
it is, that the struggle which has arisen be
tween them and their tyrants, has ever found
their patience proof against the most bar
barous treatment. I shall only relate the
following, amongst a multitude of instances, of
the pleasure that was felt in vilifying them
on every occasion : a police ordinance of the
Dey commanded that every Mussulman or
Christian should, when passing through the
streets at night, carry with him a lighted lan
tern ; the Jews only were deprived not of light
but of the lantern. This sufficiently attests
that every species of degradauon and insult
was heaped upon them.
The conquest alone was enabled to rescue
them from such dreadful oppression. A sense

APPENDIX. 297
of justice forbade our doing less for them than
for the Moors, and we were bound to secure
an equal measure of liberty to both. Having
so much cause to rejoice at our arrival, did
the Jews testify their gratitude? have they
appreciated the advantage of that change from
war to peace ? Far from it. We have often
found their names involved in guilty intrigues ;
though they would have proved utterly use
less had they been called upon to carry them
into effect, for nature has denied them the
very courage requisite for perpetrating evil
deeds. We shall at last be under the necessity of
collecting Jews as well as Moors, in manufac
tories or workshops, and assigning works to
them. But their besetting poverty is a state
so organic, that were it not for the excessive
filth which it engenders, they would afford no
ground of uneasiness ; accordingly, their ex
istence can only attract in a slight degree, the
anxious attention of the government ; for, in
dependently of the fact that they subsist upon
a trifle, so long as there may be a bargain to
make in Algiers, or a single crown in circula
tion, both the one and the other will have

298 APPENDIX.
to pass through their hands, and to leave some
traces of such passage.
The Jews, however, possess some domestic
virtues. They feel the keenest attachment for
their children, and in this respect only, is the
portrait of Rebecca's father, in Ivanhoe, one
of historical veracity.
It is astonishing to behold the religious
fidelity with which they have retained those
ancient customs that have hitherto stood the
test of revolutions, of distance, and of time.
In respect of worship, they are still the He
brews who marched towards the promised
land; but in respect of courage and social
virtues, they are one of the most degraded
people in the world.
Scattered and disregarded throughout the
Regency, the Jews have not, therefore, the pri
vilege of holding up their heads in any part
of that country. It required many centuries
in the nations of Europe to raise them to their
level; and whilst overcoming their repugnance,
they have still condescended with much re
luctance, to hold out to them a friendly hand.
In rendering them henceforward subject to
our laws, .should we not be giving them more

APPENDIX. 299
than they could have hoped for ? Considered
as civilly dead previously to our arrival, they
glided through every road withofit knitting
their brows ; resorted to cunning and to mean
ness, submitted to humiliations and to con
tempt in endeavouring to amass a fortune ; for
the most part, however, they were shunned
and vilified, ending their days as they had
lived, in a brutish and abject condition : ava
rice was the only feeling which made them
cling to life. If necessity called in their aid,
a want of confidence ever repelled them ; for
it seems that at all times and in every part of
the world where civilization has not yet pene
trated, loyalty and Jew are words incompati
ble with one another.
The Moors entertain towards the Jews a
much stronger feeling than that of hatred ;
they have an unconquerable antipathy for
them. Uninfluenced by, and free from such aver
sions, we had not to combat them ; compelled,
however, to lean upon the Mussulmans, with
out sharing their scruples, we have not only
respected them in life, but have even fostered
them beyond the tomb ; we have separated

300 APPENDIX.
them from the Jews even in their burying-
grounds, and the Moors have loudly applauded
this line of demarcation.
It is worthy of remark, as a singular fact,
that, throughout the Regency, the Turks de
spised the Arabs, the Arabs the Moors, and
the Moors the Jews. In those barbarous re
gions, the Jews are ever found on the lowest
steps of the social scale, which they never
attempt to ascend ; they are as constant in
their meanness as in their cupidity.
Devoid of weight in the political balance,
they will scarcely ever prove better than a
useless wheelwork for our public establish
ments ; should they remain, we will keep them
and throw the shield of our protection over
them ; should they leave us, we have no
weighty motives for attempting to retain them.
—Ibid,, vol i. p. 115.

APPENDIX. 301
NEPHTALY ABOUSNACH, THE JEW.
[Vol. I. p. 156.]
The Bey of Constantine repaired, according to
custom, to Algiers. Desirous of making a splen
did present to the Dey's wife, the Bey applied
to a Jew named Nephtaly Abousnach, (the
Bacry's partner,) to procure a jewel of great
value. The latter presented to him a sarmat,
set with diamonds, worth sixty thousand dollars
(three hundred thousand francs) ; the Bey pur
chased the jewel, but having no ready money,
agreed to pay the cost in measures of corn, esti
mated, each, at four francs, and of the conven
tional weight of forty kilogrammes. The Ba-
cry sent vessels, after the harvest, to load the
quantity of seventy-five thousand sahs, or mea
sures of this corn, which they sent off" to
France at the period of the English blockade ;
they sold each measure at the price of fifty
francs, though it cost them no more than four,
and this cargo produced three millions seven
hundred and fifty thousand francs. The jewel
is said to have been made in Paris, and to
have cost thirty thousand francs. One of the
partners who had procured the jewel from

302

APPENDIX.

Paris, having derived no profit from the trans
action, repaired to Algiers to claim his share,
but was unable to obtain it. These details were
furnished to me by the partner himself This
money, is the origin and one of the principal
causes of the downfall of the Turkish Govern
ment in that part of Africa. — Sidy Hamdan,
vol. i. p. 142.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE BEREBERS.
[Vol. I. p. 158.]
The men cover themselves with a woollen
garment, their dress has the form of a sack,
open in the centre to admit the head ; two
other openings at each extremity, afford a
passage for the hands. This species of sack
is about an ell wide, and falls down to below
the calf; it is made of black wool woven by
women. As this wool is ill washed, when
soaked with rain, it emits an intolerable
smell, and the dress then becomes oppres
sively heavy. It serves all the purposes of

APPENDIX. .303
trousers, &c. The wealthiest of them, how
ever, add another dress over it, which they
call Bernouse ; it is still of the same stuff, and
of a shape not unknown in Europe. This
dress is kept in repair, and lasts until it falls
to tatters ; a single one usually serves for a
whole life ; it is never removed from the body ;
gets wet and dries onthe back of the wearer,
whether from the effect of the air or from the
heat of the fire.
The women wrap themselves up in a haik
secured with pins ; they also weave the stuff
of which it is made ; this dress is lined at the
end, with another stuff of a red or blue colour,
nearly four fingers wide. This coloured wool
comes from Algiers ; wealthy women cover
their heads with a piece of linen or a cotton
kerchief. The children are completely naked,
as I can aver from personal observation ; they
are not covered until winter, or until they attain
a mature age. Any one who wears a cap, which
is wholly repudiated at Algiers, is considered
a fop. Some of these fops preserve their caps
for so long a time unchanged, that they be
come black with dust and perspiration. With
respect to the covering for their feet, the Ka-

304 APPENDIX.
byles wear a kind of buskin secured with lea
ther straps, like those of the ancient Romans.
I have seen these Berebers in their own dwell
ings and at Algiers, take off in winter as in
summer, their square garment, and turn it
into a pillow when they retire to rest ; those
who wear the Bernouse, convert them into a
covering, and stretch upon a mat when they
find one at hand. The greater part lie down
upon the sand, at a distance from each other,
in summer ; and light a large fire in winter, by
means of the wood which they procure from
the forests abounding in their country ; they
stretch themselves with their feet before the
fire, and quietly repose in this position. They
feed upon barley bread, olive oil, dried figs,
and wild chestnuts. The wealthy amongst
them, being those who own two or three goats,
enjoy the luxury of milk. Others are pos
sessed of a certain number of goats and ewes,
reared up for the purpose of being sold in the
towns; they seldom eat mutton or poultry,
which they only indulge in when they receive
the visit of a guest, for they religiously ad
here to the laws of hospitality : such a day is
held by the tribe as one of rejoicing; the chil-

APPENDIX.. 305
dren skip for joy on the occasion ; then it is
that the sheep is sacrificed. They cook the
meat with the couscousou * ; and the dish
being thus prepared, pieces of meat are cut
off", of the size of about a pound weight, and
the head of the house presents it to the guests
in the following manner ; he distributes to
each a piece of meat ; and, as the neighbours
and friends are in the habit of coming to assist
at the feast, a share of the dinner is offered
to these inquisitive visiters, provided there
should be anything left; but the host, at any
rate, carries his politeness to the extreme of
helping them before his own children. Their
dessert only consists of dried figs, even if they
should have other fruits within reach ; and as
fruit-trees are abundant, they preserve the fruit
for the inhabitants of the towns, to Avhom thev
sell it in the public markets. They are scarcely
acquainted with the flavour of these fruits.
In the small villages or hamlets, houses are
constructed of wood and cane bound too-e-
ther. Their form is quadrangular, and the
flooring is of similar construction ; the whole
is flanked with earth mixed with cattle-duno-,
* A dish dressed with vermicelli and broth.
VOL. II. X

306 APPENDIX.
to keep out the rain ; a species of grass called
diz is sown on the roof. The elevation of the
building does not exceed the human height.
Herbs, and leaves of trees are gathered up and
preserved as food for the cattle in snowy
weather. These habitations also afford shel
ter to beasts ; and the ewe, the goat, the mule,
poultry, dogs, men, women, and children are
all huddled up together in the same place.
When a fire is lighted to warm the building,
the eflSuvia proceeding from these living beings
and mixed up with the smoke which is allowed
no vent, form a thick and unwholesome fog.
When proceeding on my journey to Constan
tine, being unused to this mode of living, I
found it impossible to subsist in these habita
tions, and preferred sleeping in the open air,
rather than take shelter in the midst of this
Noah's ark. The master of the house, who
gave me hospitality, was under the necessity
of coming to protect me, as well as my beasts
of burden, against the inroads of robbers and
wild beasts. It occasionally happens that
lions come to prowl about the habitations for
the purpose of carrying off some of the cattle ;
but they drive away these wild beasts with as

APPENDIX. 307
much composure as we might chase away a
dog, accustomed as they are to the visits of
these fearful animals. If we except the im
plements requisite for the labours of agricul
ture and for their cattle, they possess not a
single article of furniture. They have a small
mill for grinding grain, a little barley-flour,
and some grain kept in store for unexpected
calls ; they also keep a bag of dried figs, some
wooden utensils, and a skin full of water,
which is kept suspended from the roof
They are frequently engaged in wars against
each other; the conqueror burns the habita
tion of the A'anquished, which is, however,
soon rebuilt, owing to the great abundance of
wood to be found all over the country. Horses,
mules, and asses, climb with ease . the steepest
ascent. The inhabitants set the greatest value
upon fire-arms, preserve them with the utmost
care, and wrap them up in clothes; these
arms are what robbers covet the most, and
Avrest in preference from the natives, who, in
spite of every precaution, seldom succeed in
preserving them from their grasp.
The mosques of these villages are con
structed in the same manner as the habita-
x2

308

APPENDIX.

tions, with this difference only, that they are
whitewashed with lime. Those amongst them
who are acquainted with the religious cere
monies are held in the same consideration as
learned men are in common towns. — Idem,
vol. i. p. 15.

TAKING OF BOUGIA-ANECDOTES OF THE
KABYLES.
[Vol. I. p. 161.]
The reader Avill be glad to find in this
place one of the first and most interesting epi
sodes presented to us by the conquest of
Bougia. The drama which it embraces is a
further proof that the Kabyles combine in an
equal degree the characters of ferociousness
and generosity.
In the early days of November, 1833, the
brig, // Correro, from Constantinople, was
wrecked on the coast of Bougia. Amongst
the sufferers were the Moor Kara-Ali and. the
Arab Boucetta, who both fell into the hands
of the Kabyles. This sad event was no

APPENDIX. 309
sooner made known than one of the ship
wrecked people, who had succeeded, through
numberless obstacles, in reaching the French
advanced posts, brought information that
those two unfortunate beings were still living.
Forty-eight hours afterwards, a message ar
rived from the tribe which detained them as
prisoners, with a letter, wherein the chiefs im
posed, as the condition of their ransom, the
evacuation of Bougia. No answer was made
to this absurd proposal, but a second letter
was received, offering to give them up for a
sum of one thousand two hundred and fifty
francs. The commanding officer accepted the offer.
Desirous, however, of investing with every
precautionary measure the issue of this nego
tiation, which an act of bad faith might annul,
he intrusted the money to Allegro the inter
preter, and ordered two small armed vessels
to sail from Bougia, and proceed with him to
the place which had recently witnessed the
massacre of the two French merchants.
Unexpected difficulties as to the conclusion
of the bargain, gave cause to apprehend' that
the Kabyles would endeavour to seize upon

310 APPENDIX.
the money, without, at the same time, releas
ing their prisoners. A violent wind arose
during the conferences ; the swell had greatly
increased, and it would have been imprudent
on the approach of night to remain any longer
on a coast where the waves might, from one
moment to another, endanger the safety of the
vessels ; it was, accordingly, determined to re
turn to Bougia,
It was about nine o'clock at night when
they quitted the shore, without coming to any
conclusion with the Kabyles. However, to
the great astonishment of all, Kara-Ali and
Boucetta entered Bougia the next morning,
almost naked, and exhausted with fatigue.
The following occurrence had taken place.
At the moment of the shipAvreck, the Kabyles
had divided amongst themselves the wreck of
the vessel, and contended for the possession of
Kara-Ali and of Boucetta, in the hope either
of obtaining a large sum of money from, or of
wreaking their vengeance upon them : thanks,
however, to the intercession of the women,
whose protection they implored, their host,
Ali-Oubram, took them under his charge, and
promised that the honour of a Kabyle should

APPENDIX. 311
be their safest asylum. No sooner said than
done : he concealed them in a wood adjoining
his habitation, and his mother, not content
with attending during the night to their suste
nance, had them, moreover, provided with de
fensive weapons.
The report of this capture having reached
the surrounding tribes, a meeting was held of
the principal chiefs of the mountain. Ali-
Oubram, unmoved, came into the midst of the
assembly, and declared his intention to send
the prisoners back to the French, whose cha
racter he respected. He had scarcely uttered
these words when twenty muskets were
levelled, and three of them fired at him ; by
great good fortune, however, the train alone
caught fire. They separated, after , resolving
that the price of the ransom should be fixed at
one thousand two hundred and fifty francs.
Allegro had no sooner departed on his way
back, than a fresh discussion arose ; a quarrel
ensued, some musket shots were exchanged,
unattended with any result. In the mean
while, however, the storm was gathering in
another quarter, and threatened Oubram, who
persisted in retaining charge of the men,

•'312 APPENDIX,
whose heads were called for in every direc
tion. Informed of what was taking place, he
Avent and addressed to them this appalling
language : — " Resolved not to permit that a
murder should be committed by strange hands
upon men who have taken shelter under my
roof; I am now going to put you to death."
Once more, however. Providence was watch
ing over them, and the women of their host
were again to rescue them from destruction.
Oubram had no sooner returned home than
his mother, in the greatest alarm, inquired
after their fate : — " They are yet under your
protection," he replied; "they have not yet
left us."
" Base coward ! " exclaimed his mother,
spitting in his face, "cursed be thy father! —
cursed be the day when I gave thee birth ! —
cursed be the milk with which I have suckled
thee ! No, thou art not a man !— no, thou art
not my son ! If thy arm is still able to bear a
musket, take this one; go instantly to meet
them; lead them home by the land road;
great dangers await thee; thou mayest even
perish in the attempt ; but hospitality will not,
at least, have been violated beneath thy roof,"

APPENDIX, 313
Stunned by the violence of this apostrophe,
Oubram made no reply, but shouldered his
musket, girt his yatagan, desired Kara-Ali
and Boucetta to folloAv him, penetrated through
ten hostile tribes, reached our' advanced posts
by a long circuit, and arrived delighted and
proud at having accomplished his mission.
The promised sum vcas paid to him, to
which a few presents Avere spontaneously
added. When a fear was expressed to him that his
tribe, on being apprized of this act, would
plunder his fields and his property, he re
plied : — " It matters not ; I haA'e done my
duty ; my mother, wife, and children will be
respected ; I am satisfied."
These gloomy forebodings were but too
fatally realized ; the property of the brave and
unfortunate Oubram was set oil fire, and he
was forced to abandon the tribe of Beni-
Amran, to which he belonged, and seek with
his family a refuge in that of Beni-Moham-
med. — Genty de Bussy, vol. i. p. 110.

314 APPENDIX.
THE MARABOOTS.
[Vol. I, p. 163.]
Maraboot signifies, in Arabic, a man bound
or devoted— it is understood to the cause of
God and humanity. Sidy Hamdan Ben 0th-
man Khoja, an author on the subject of Al
giers, the more interesting for being a native
Moor, speaks thus of the hereditary honours
which are paid to those holy men by the Ma
hometans : —
Some of the descendants of the Maraboots
have deviated from the example set by their
forefathers ; if they have neglected their prin
ciples, they are nevertheless held in respect
by the people, and are called by the title of
Monseigneur, and not by their usual names.
Thus it is that they are designated by the
name of the family which is held in the high
est repute.
The existence of these Maraboots in African
society is a positive good ; the ascendancy they
have acquired amongst the different tribes is
attended with the eflfect of compelling hostile
parties to lay down their arms, and of prevent-

APPENDIX. 316
ing the effusion of blood. Their power over
the ignorant and narrow minds of the Kabyles
is truly wonderful. It seems as if God him
self directed and controlled them, and the cre
dulity of these people in their regard, borders
upon rashness. The Maraboot who enjoys
the highest credit, at the present day, and who
is nearly looked upon by the Kabyles as a
divine being, bears the name of Sidy Ally
Ben Issa. He inhabits Carrouma, and is the
disciple of the celebrated Maraboot, Sidy
Mehemed Ben Abderahman. The latter en
joyed, in his lifetime, the highest possible
reputation of holiness, even at Algiers and
amongst the Kabyles inhabiting that city.
This extraordinary personage died towards
the close of the eighteenth century : he had
been buried in the Hammah. The Kabyles
proceeded on a particular night to carry off" his
body, which they deposited in the mountain
of Jarjera, to be afterwards interred in the
village of Carrouma, not far from Filessa.
Nevertheless, the spot where his body was for
merly deposited is still viewed with respect.
It is the custom to bestow alms upon the poor
in the neighbourhood of this spot; bread and

316 APPENDIX.
money are distributed to them, and all persons
present at this good work, hope that their
prayers may meet with acceptance in heaven.
This kind of adoration is the more inconceiv
able, as the principles of the Mussulman reli
gion do not admit that any earthly being
should obtain divine honours. We believe
that the holy will is one upon earth, and in
heaven, and that God Avho is everywhere can
not be fixed to any particular spot ; that the
charity bestowed on our fellow-creatures is a
proof of our obedience to that belief, and that
ere we can deserve divine grace, we must follow
the commandments imparted to us. We also
believe that our actions, Avhether good or evil,
shall one day be requited. The popular be
lief, therefore, which prevails in respect of the
Maraboots, is built upon ignorance, upon false
principles, upon prejudices which it would be
diflEcult to correct, but which are well known
to our learned men, and to the chiefs of the
Turkish government. Political considerations
induce the latter to maintain or suffer such
erroneous principles to subsist, and even to
pay respect to those spots which the Kabyles
hold in veneration. These considerations had

APPENDIX. 317
secured to them what the French army has
destroyed since its arrival on the Algerine
territory ; for, instead of following up such
principles, it set about establishing novel ones
diametrically at variance with the manners
and customs of the inhabitants.
To return to the Maraboot Ben Issa, and
make known the great influence he exercised
over the minds of the Algerines, it will suffice
to say, that he is the same who, after the in
vasion of the French, oflfered to negotiate a
peace between the latter and the Kabyles.
The power of this man extends as far as the
very kingdom of Tunis. In each Kabylate,
whether town or village, he has a representa
tive within the mosques, who is commissioned
to receive all the donations intended for him.
The same representative collects the tithes on
the harvest ; and all such comings in are dis
tributed amongst the indigent class, and are
applied to the keeping up of places devoted to
purposes of hospitality : wherever there is a
collecting representative, there exists a house
open to hospitality where travellers are gra
tuitously fed and harboured, as well as their
beasts of burden. At the close of each year,

318 APPENDIX.
what has not been expended in this establish
ment is sent to the chief Maraboot. I have
personally held intercourse Avith this Maraboot,
and found him a plain, modest, man, of the
soundest judgment, impelled by philosophical
sentiments, devoid of prejudices, and by no
means wealthy, since after having distributed
his alms, he is scarcely left with the bare
means of subsistence. There is to be seen
before his door, a great number of porringers
wherewith to offer nourishment to his guests,
and sacks of barley, as well as straw, for the
beasts of burden composing their train. He
displays this hospitality towards all who pre
sent themselves. He was desirous at this
time, of confiding to me the task of selling for
his account, a garden which is his property in
Algiers ; but I dissuaded him from this idea,
in order that by his influence he might pro
mote the French cause, and perhaps induce,
by his mediation, the Bey of Constantine to
conclude an honourable peace; it was the
object of the Duke of Rovigo to attach him
to his party and to secure his friendship ; for
he was fain to acknowledge that he possessed
some influence.

APPENDIX. 319
The Maraboot, who is alive to the object of
his religion, can skilfully and profitably wield
the means Avhich he has at command. He will
not say to the Kabyles : you must obey the
laws, listen to and follow the dictates of mo
rality ; he will tell them : accursed be the
man who does not perform such an act ! In
this manner he compels them to obey, and
obtains all he wishes at their hands, by resort
ing even to positive commands, which he
represents as being the expression « of the
Almighty's will. Nevertheless, they act with
moderation and policy ; they never attempt
the slightest innovation, and refrain from any
step calculated to offend the self-love or
usages of the people. The conduct of the
Maraboots secures to them unbounded influ
ence. — Sidy Hamdan, vol. i. p, 9.
TOMBS OF THE MARABOOTS.
During the administration of General Clau
sel in Africa, the tombs of the Maraboots
have been seized upon and turned into
quarters for the troops. I have already ex
plained how important it was to respect esta-

320 APPENDIX
blishments of that nature, which are so
strongly linked with the customs and preju
dices of the lower classes. The Turks, in the
days of their dominion, have always felt it to
be their interest to defer to those projects,
in order to acquire a hold upon the people.
The French government has thus taken
possession of these tombs for the benefit of the
administration of the domains, and some of
them have been let to merchants. In virtue
of what law has such an appropriation been
made ? Was it done to alienate the minds of
the African people, to renew the spirit of fa
naticism, increase the vexations, and prevent
all colonization of the country? Were these
means resorted to, on the other hand, in
order to enrich France and augment its trea
sures? No! — the object must have been to
create on the African continent a horror of the
French or rather of the European name, for
men are known there by no other distinctions
than that of the turban. — Idem, vol. i. p. 301.

APPENDIX. 321
MILITARY OCCUPATION OF ALGIERS.
[Vol. I. p. 184.]
When Mustapha, the minister of the Navy,
became convinced that a catastrophe was im
pending, he opened the chest of daily ex
penses, caused the amount to be distributed
amongst the workmen, and the registers to
be burnt. Several families then embarked in
ships belonging to the arsenal, in order to
effect their escape to the country of the Ka
byles and to Bougia. The merchant vessels
forming part of the expedition came into the
roadstead, and plundered the harbour. They
carried off chains, cables, the bags of wool
which were used in the trenches, anchors,
sail-cloths, hemp, and a quantity of other
stores. The various articles thus carried away
by these vessels, with the assistance of their
long boats, amounted to a considerable sum.
We cannot pretend to say Avhether they had a
secret understanding with the French autho
rities : I rather incline to think that each one
took on his own account ; there was a share
for all parties; the plunderers were agreed
and did not betray each other. Such were the
VOL. II. y

322 APPENDIX.
first-fruits of French degeneration and French
civilization ! ! !
One half of the French army was quartered
in the gardens or country-houses of the inha
bitants of the town. To recall in this place
the fact, that the owners of those habitations
have ever received any indemnity, — that they
were not allowed to enjoy their own property,
^— that the doors were destroyed and, used as"
firewood, — that the iron bars were torn off
and sold, — that searches were made under the
floors in the hope of finding imaginary treasures,
all this is no more than the truth ! ! In short,-
the gardens and habitations were so com
pletely devastated as to have been rendered
useless. What I relate is neither overcharged
nor exaggerated; none but an eye-witness of
this general ransacking could form an ade
quate idea of it.
This is one of the chief causes which led the
owners to abandon their property on the con
ditions tendered to them, and almost to give
it away. Let any one now boast of possessing
property at Algiers ! Thus it was that na
tional property was acquired in France during
the revolution ! It will require the lapse of

APPENDIX. 323
centuries ere the memory of such exactions
can be obliterated, or millions of indemnity
to clear the troubled consciences of their pos
sessors. The sway, beneath which every
thing is destroyed which admits of destruction,
can be no other than the reign of revolution
and disorder.
Some Europeans, recent possessors of pro
perty, after having cut down the trees,
turned the gardens into a wilderness, and con
verted everything to money, being unwilling or
unable to pay the annual amount agreed upon,
and have even had recourse to chicanery in
order to annul the acts they had drawn up.
The tribunal was overbalanced with suits and
suitors, for the greater part of those acts had
been amicably entered upon, by the interfer
ence of brokers. Some of these had destroyed
everything, and displayed the most consum
mate bad faith ; others effected a resale ; and
these successive sales produced a series of
cavils, OAving to the original sale having been
improperly effected, and being open to litiga
tion. The confusion was as great for the in
habitants as for the tribunals. Under thesQ
y2

324 APPENDIX.
circumstances, the real proprietors were forced
to consent to any arrangement, rather than
risk a total loss.
In this manner were effected many of the
transactions which took place at Algiers. In
this manner have the French succeeded, and
they will further succeed in securing to them
selves nearly the whole property of the coun
try. I am not aware of a single property
having been purchased in the usual and legal
form, ^
Such contracts are exclusively of the nature
of perpetual leases ; but our law does not
admit their validity ; as an agreement for a
lease cannot subsist amongst us for a longer
period than a year. Some jurists pretend
that a contract can be made for a three-
years' duration ; but a proprietor is alwavs
at liberty to extend a lease, or make it deter
mine after the first year. I shall devote to a
special chapter a clear and detailed account
of whatever relates to our laws.
The causes which prevented the French
from making legal acquisitions, in the manner
prevailing amongst us and in France, may be

APPENDIX, 325
accounted for as follows : — 1st, They are not
certain of accomplishing a system of coloniza
tion ; 2nd, Most of the Europeans who have re
paired to Algiers are needy adventurers, eager
to enrich themselves at the expense of their
neighbours. General Clausel was, therefore, mistaken
when he assumed, in one of his publications,
that in Mussulman countries the sale of im
moveable property was not eflPected in the
same manner as in France, but under the
obligation of granting perpetual leases. We
indulge a hope that he was led into error by
some Jews, his favourite advisers ; as he might
otherwise be accused of having deceived the
French nation as well as those who have re
paired to Algiers for the purpose of acquiring
property in so convenient a manner. — Sidy
Hamdan, vol. i. p. 228.

326 APPENDIX.

OX THE ADVANTAGES OF A CIVIL GOVERN-
jNIENT.
[A'ol. I. p. 196.]
With a governor tahen from the civil service,
and such, we Avill not disguise it, is an aA^OAved
Avish to procure for the Regency, immediately
disappears the danger of seeing the means
substituted for the end. He will be better
practised in the art of managing his fellow
men, better inclined to a gentle and persua
sive, rather than to a severe and violent course.
His mind, being- concentrated towards a single
object, he will make it his glory and his ambi
tion to secure peace and the progressive pros
perity of the country. As he will be inacces
sible to the allurements of battle, the military
spirit will give way at his approach, and the
spirit of colonization Avill resume the first
place, which alone belongs to it. — Idem, vol. i.
p. 443.

APPENDIX. 327
ABOLITION OF THE TRIBUNAL OF
HANAPHY.
[Vol. I. p. 232.]
The abolition of the tribunal of Hanaphy is
an irretrievable error, contrary to the provi
sions of our laws. One of the articles of the
capitulation secures its inviolability ; now,
then, the abolition of that tribunal has been a
direct infringement of the principles of the
treaty between Algiers and France. In virtile
of what right or of what laAV has General
Clausel thus acted ? Was it to insult the
Ottoman nation? Nevertheless, there exists
no animosity between France and the Otto
man empire. Why, then, treat its laws and
regulations with contempt? — Idem, vol. i.
p. 240.

ADMINISTRATION OF BOURMONT.
[Vol. I. p. 237.]
The arms of the militia and of the inhabi
tants of the town were taken from them. We
were prepared to be called upon to place those

328 APPENDIX.
arms in deposit, as a measure of guarantee
and security ; but we also thought that the
French would act as the Russians had done
when they invaded the Ottoman Empire,
They collected all the arms, to each of which
was affixed a label bearing the name of its
owner ; and they were deposited in a mosque
with a view to their being restored at a proper
time. We were warranted, I repeat, in
hoping that the French Avould act towards
the Algerines as fairly as the Russians had
done towards the Turks ; the more so, as
amongst the inhabitants of the Regency, a
Avarlike weapon is considered as an article of
furniture ; it serves according to its richness,
as an ornament to apartments : there are indi
viduals possessed of arms set with silver, gold,
and precious stones. Those objects represent
a capital, which has been surrendered upon
honour, and which it behoved good faith to
preserve for us; our arms, therefore, when
delivered up to the French, should have been
held by them as a sacred and inviolable de
posit. By what right could they convert them
to their own use ; is it by right of purchase,
of hire, or of donation ? They have the poAver

APPENDIX 329
in their hands, and have acted arbitrarily on
the occasion ; but it is impossible that any
French law should authorize an act of spolia
tion; on the contrary, the law of nations is
directly at variance with such a proceeding,
and the French civil law derives its origin
from the law of nations.
My children, as well as myself, possessed
splendid arms, ornamented in gold, silver, coral,
and precious stones ; their value might amount
to twenty thousand francs. With a view to con
form to the orders issued on the subject, I had
them placed in two chests, and deposited with
General Loverdo, who gave them admission
into his house. This general having, soon
afterwards, requested of me to take away the
deposit, I had them removed to the residence
of my friend the Neapolitan Consul; but the
latter, having felt some apprehension on their
account, I immediately relieved him of the
charge, and thought it right to confide it to
General  , who was lodged in my country
house. This personage placed the arm-chest
in a private room, of which he kept the key
in his own apartment. Nevertheless, on the
day of his departure, I found the chests emp-

330 APPENDIX,
tied of their contents. Having inquired of
him what had become of my arms, he replied :
Your son took away a portion, and I helped my
self to the remainder ; here is the value Avhich I
deemed it right to set upon what I have re
tained. (To the best of my recollection, he
handed me thirty-six Napoleons.) My son
had not taken any part of the arms; he could
not have stolen what belonged to him. To
this gallant General, therefore, and to those
of his suite, I am indebted for being robbed of
my arms, — Idem, vol, i. p. 225.

POLICE *.
[Vol. I. p. 248.]
We are, perhaps, too little acquainted with
what takes place amongst the Arabs ; few ques^
* Its organization has at last taken place, and the coun
try no longer struggles under a provisional system. The
means placed at its disposal are powerful, its numbers im
posing, but the expense is also considerable. Our object
in this place is neither to examine nor criticise its details ;
time alone will set its stamp upon it ; we await the result.

APPENDIX. 331
tions, howcA'cr, are of greater interest to us ;
I might name a certain power, Avhich, in order
to keep up its relations with Algiers and the
Regency, annually sacrifices upwards of one
hundred thousand francs. It is the same
which, in India, wonderfully contributes to
learn beforehand the projects of the countries
in the vicinity of which it has for ages main
tained a footino:. How does it manasre ? To
what talisman does it resort 1 it pays liberally.
An opportune intelligence may defeat a coali
tion, divide cur enemies, make us the better
appreciate our friends ; it may cause a town to
fall into our hands, may promote the aggran
dizement of our power, and spare a battle to
our soldiers. These are the results which it is
always better to purchase by the weight of gold
than Avith the effusion of blood. The African
Commission has represented the secret ex
penses at a sum of a million of francs ; com
paring it with the influence it is calculated to
produce, we are far from deeming it exag
gerated. — Genty de Bussy, vol. i. p. 447.

332 APPENDIX.
HUSSEIN PACHA.
[Vol. I. p. 257.]
The ambition of the Khaznagy was at one
time exclusively directed to the object of
raising a conspiracy, of securing the whole
militia to his party, and of causing the Hus
sein Pacha to be beheaded, with the view of
possessing himself of the supreme authority.
He had formed the project of concluding a
peace with the French on such conditions as
they might think proper to impose ; he accord
ingly evinced great activity when the move
ment of the French army was directed against
the fort of the emperor. But when he saw
himself attacked, he lost his wonted courage,
•and was so alarmed as to forget to close the
gates of the fort; his men still more panic-
struck, resorted to every possible means for
effecting their escape.
The Khaznagy, soon finding himself de
serted, amidst so impending a danger, pre
pared in all haste a train of gunpowder to
reach the powder-mill and blow up the fort,
this Avas fortunately the small powder-mill ;
for had it been the great one, which is lower

APPENDIX. 333
down, the town would have been seriously in
jured, on account of the immense quantity of
gunpowder contained in it.
Previously to this event, Hussein Pacha had
entertained a high opinion of this Khaznagy,
to whose opinion he had often had recourse. —
Sidy Hamdan, vq\. i. p. 189.

THE PLAIN OF THE METIDJA.
[Vol. I. p. 328.]
The plain of the Metidja forms a semicircular
zone, from eighteen to twenty leagues in
length, and four to five leagues in breadth,
enclosed within the foot of the lesser Atlas, and
the hills which surround Algiers, It has tAvo
slopes towards the sea, the one bending to the
east by the Arath, the other to the west by
the Mazafram. Owing to this ¦ disposition,
there is no absolute necessity for simulta
neously drying up both parts of the plain.
Let us also remark, that the falls which
produce the inundations descend from the

334 APPENDIX.
mountains, and that the two rivers are suffi
cient to carry oflf the rain-water of the plain,
and of the reverse of the hill. We can easily
infer from this remark, the system of works
which it would be proper to execute.
Let a canal of enclosure be opened at the
foot of the Atlas, to answer the purpose of a
canal of aerifaction, of navigation, and of irri
gation, the water of which may set manufac
tories in motion. Let the course of the Arath
and that of the Mazafram be improved by
embankments and other works ; in short, let
ditches be dug at the foot of the hills and in
the plain, for the purpose of carrying off the
rain-water. to those two rivers; the operation
of drying up will be complete, and upwards
of eighty leagues of a highly-fertile land will
then be susceptible of immediate cultivation.
But if, in order to attain so great a result,
it were requisite, as is generally supposed, to
bury thousands of men and large sums of
money in the Metidja, it no doubt would be
preferable to renounce all attempts at coloniz
ing the environs of Algiers. This is happily
not the case.
The northern reverse of the Atlas is far.

APPENDIX^ 335
from being so unhealthy as the southern
reverse of the hills of Algiers, and the plain
itself, is unwholesome only during half the
year. No danger could therefore attend the
constant working at a canal of enclosure, and
at the formation of ditches during successive
months. The necessity of protecting the Avorks in
progress would call for the occupation of
Belida and Colea, and the establishment of
intrenched camps at the foot of the Atlas.
It would be natural to employ the troops
placed on that line in the opening of the canal
of enclosure, leaving the remainder of the
works to be carried on by ordinary workmen.
The whole of the works could, however, be
turned over to the company, which might offer
to effect the drying up, provided the advan
tages conceded by the laAv of the 16th of Sep
tember^ 1S07, were granted to it.
This important operation, so indispensable
for removing the unwholesomeness of the
Metidja and of the hills, would not occasion,
for both parts of the plain, an expense of more
than two millions of francs.
There exists in the Regency of Algiers

336 APPENDIX.
every germ of prosperity ; and the experience
of three years has pointed out the course to
be adopted for the purpose of attaining the
happiest results ; in vain, however, would the
first colonists persevere in their labours, or
fresh capitalists come to tread in their foot
steps, if the provisional system were not soon
to be brought to a close. The colony can
never develope itself on a large scale until it
has received every species of guarantee, which,
up to the present day, has been wanting to it;
it must necessarily obtain pledges of stability
emanating from some official act of govern
ment, specific guarantees for agriculture, com
merce, and industry, as Avell as judicial and
administrative guarantees. — Ann. d' Alger,
1833.

ON THE GOVERNMENT OF BOUGIA AND ITS
GARRISON.
[Vol. I. p. 331.]
The chief of the government of Bougia was
a Turk, appointed by the Pacha, who assumed
the title of Ka'id.

APPENDIX, 337
Next to this Kai'd another Turk commanded
the garrison of his own nation, which con
sisted of sixty men, and was changed every
year. The country was so salubrious that these
Turks were, at all times, free from maladies.
The garrison, called nouba, was commanded
by an aga.
There was, besides, a chief of the town mi
litia, Zouaoua (or Zouava). It consisted of two
or three hundred colouglis, and of Arabs, vi'ho
attended to their private business, and never
left the town, but confined themselves to the
defence of its walls. The whole of their pay
amounted to one thousand boudjoux (one
thousand eight hundred and sixty francs) a
year, which they divided between them. They
had a right to carry muskets ; many amongst
them were sailors.
A Cadi administered justice in civil causes,
religious matters devolved upon the Mufti.
The Kaid had right of life and death over
the inhabitants of the town, as well as over
the Kabyles of the country, but it only ex
tended to the latter when he could reach
them. He pronounced judgment in correc-
VOL, II, z

338 APPENDIX.
.tional and criminal cases, ordered cudgellings
-and imposed fines. He levied taxes upon the
only neighbouring tribe, that of Mezzaia.
With a view to their collection, which took
place twice a year, in winter and in summer,
the Ka'id sallied forth with five or six notables
bf the town, and this small number of men
was suflBcient ; so much did the fear of the
Dey of Algiers keep every one in subjec
tion. The* summer contribution was discharged in
kind, the winter one in money.
The town was free from every impost : all
that was collected was an anchorage duty,
which the captain of the port, Avho was a
Turk or Anefi, levied upon foreign vessels ;
higher in amount for the latter, it was only
two saas . of corn (measure of Algiers) for
vessels of the country.
The Kdid-el-Karesta-Oulid-Farhat likewise
resided at all times in the town, to superin
tend the trade in wood. He was charged
with the supply of the timber required at
Algiers for building purposes. This func
tionary was selected from the family Oulid-
Farhat, one of the first of the tribe of the

APPENDIX, 339
Beni-Mimouns, the most powerful amongst
those who dwell in the mountains where this
wood is to be found,
A Mezzouar exercised the police regula
tions over married women, and had the cudgel
applied to them to which they had been sen
tenced by the Cadi. He assumed at Bougia
the name of Me%zouar Chersa,
The Bey of Constantine, who, with the ex
ception of Bougia and of Mezzaia SAvayed the
whole province, did not levy imposts upon
the Kabyle tribes, of which a few only obeyed
his authority ; amongst these were the Beni-
Mes-saouds, Oulid-Abd-el-Dgebbars, Fenayas,
Senadjas, and the tribe of the wide and fertile
valley where flows the Oued-Beni-Messaoud,
a river discharging itself into the sea near
Bougia, and, lastly, those tribes either dwell
ing along the roads taken by the Turks when
they encamped, in order to secure the return
of the impost, or inhabiting mountains of easy
access. The weak tribes complied, but the strongest
offered resistance, without, however, affording
aid to the others. Egotism only gave way
when religion was concerned.
z2

340 APPENDIX.
The Turks exerted their best endeavours to
prevent the circulation of arms and gunpowder
in the interior of the country. Such, however,
was their apprehension of failure that they
never attempted any expedition against the
places where the manufactories were noto
riously in existence.
Nevertheless, it is related that, on one occa
sion, as they were returning from Algiers,
they found themselves under the necessity of
purchasing gunpowder from the people of
Gfreboula. But an exception forms no rule,
and if, in this circumstance, they yielded to
necessity, it was never again resorted to.
No imposts were paid by the Maraboots,
their families, or their descendants ; an ex
emption clothed with the Pacha's seal, and re
newed at each new reign, was expedited to
them from Algiers, — Genty de Bussy, vol. i.
p. 96.

APPENDIX. 341
HASSAN VENEDIC— 1582
[Vol. II. p. 45.]
Hassan Venedic only remained a year at
Algiers, from whence he was sent to Tripoli.
Previously to his departure, he gave to an
English merchant a passport for the protection
of his commercial dealings. This singular
document, Avhich was no doubt paid for at a
high price, was worded as follows : — " We,
Hassan, Pacha, Lieutenant and Captain-
General of the dominions and jurisdictions of
Algiers, grant and concede full and unre
stricted liberty to Thomas Singleton, a mer
chant, to go and come, to negotiate and traffic,
in the town of Algiers, and in other places of
our jurisdiction, in the east as well as in the
west, with his vessel, his sailors, whatever
may be their nation, and his merchandise,
from whatever country they may proceed.
We, moreover, order the Admiral of Algiers,
and of other places within our jurisdiction,
and all captains, whether of our own ships, or
those of the Levant, great or small, of all
descriptions whatsoever, that if they meet the
said Thomas Singleton, an Englishman, in the

342 APPENDIX.
seas of Genoa, of the east of France, of
Naples, of Calabria, of Sardinia, &c., Avith his
vessel, his merchandise, and his men, of what
soever nation, they shall not molest, nor take
anything belonging to him, whether money or
goods, under pain of death, and forfeiture of
their property. And if you set any value
upon the favour of His Highness, our Sove
reign Lord, the Sultan Amurat, you will alloAv
him to proceed on his way without hindrance.
Given at Algiers in our royal palace, con
firmed by our royal seal, and Avritten by our
first secretary, the 23rd of January, 1583." —
Anecdotes Africaines.

MEMMI BACHA.
[Vol. II. p. 45.]
Memmi Bacha had succeeded Hassan Vene
dic: in 1584 his administration exhibits an un
interrupted series of inroads upon the Chris
tians. The English African Company lost one
of its vessels in those incursions. As a treaty
Avas in existence between England and the

APPENDIX. 343
Porte at that time, which secured the freedom
of commerce, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir
Edward Osborne, wrote to the Pacha the fol
lowing letter, to remonstrate with him upon
the acts of injustice committed by his Corsairs,
" Most High and Mighty King ; may it
please your Highness to be informed that the
most high and most poAverful Sultan has agreed
with her most excellent Majesty the Queen
of England upon certain articles and privi
leges, in virtue of which the subjects of her
Majesty are at liberty to go and come, and to
traffic by sea and land in the dominions of his
Highness, as more fully appears by the afore
said articles, a copy of which we have sent
to our Commissioner, Mr, Tipton, for the pur
pose of their being exhibited to your High
ness, Contrary to the tenor of those articles,
one of our vessels, on its way from Patras in
the Morea, loaded Avith current specie, and
with merchandise purchased in that country,
has been sunk by two galleys in your town of
Algiers, the greater part of the crew killed or
droAvned, and the remainder detained pri
soners ; an act directly at variance with the
aforesaid articles and privileges. We there-

344 APPENDIX,
fore most humbly beseech your Highness, that
since the Grand Seignior has condescended
to concede to us those privileges, you would
be pleased to promote our enjoyment of them,
by granting that, in virtue of your authority,
assistance, and favour, those poor men thus
detained as prisoners may be set at liberty,
each to return to his home ; that your High
ness will be further pleased to order the cap
tains and crews of your galleys to allow us in
future to pursue unmolested, our trade, which is
annually carried on by six vessels, with Turkey
and all other places within the Sultan's domi
nions, without attempting to infringe upon
our privileges. For each of our vessels is
provided with a passport from his Highness,
by means of which it may be recognized. We
shall feel greatly indebted by your Highness's
concession of this favour, and are disposed on
our parts to render him every service in our
power, as Mr. Tipton will more amply affirm
to you. And we will ever pray," &c.
This letter was not attended with any good
effect ; another vessel Avas captured soon after
wards, and Queen Elizabeth addressed to the
Porte a, complaint on the subject. The Sultan

APPENDIX. 345
sent orders to the Pachas of Algiers, Tunis,
and Tripoli, to suffer English vessels to pass
unmolested ; but this order proved as unavail
ing as the Lord Mayor's letter, and the Cor
sairs continued their depredations. — Idem.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COLONIZATION OF
ALGIERS.
[Vol. II. p. 78.] ,
The government has manifested the inten
tion of establishing itself without injuring
those populations which do not prove hostile
to us, and desires that room may be found
for both on the same soil. It is therefore
amidst the Arabs, that the standard of French
colonization should be planted. Whatever
points of the country we may reach, we shall
have to make grants of land, and, after those
of the domain, which are considerable, we
shall also have to grant away those of the
Turks and of corporations, regard being had
to reimbursing the rightful owners of the rents

346 APPENDIX.
with which they are charged, by only assign
ing the enjoyment of them.
But if this plan can be exclusively carried
into effect by means of a military occupation,
it is also requisite, as we have observed, that
the colonists should depend on their own ex
ertions. With the perseverance, the adventu
rous spirit which has brought them to a ncAv
world, they must combine courage and bold
ness; a few musket shots must not disturb
and turn them from their purpose. If they
bring to the improvement of the land a cha
racter of firmness and prudence, the dangers
will vanish, and confidence will acquire fresh
strength. In America none are found to have
been massacred except those planters who,
penetrating too far in the interior, and going
beyond the encampments, had the folly to
proceed to those spots not only ungarnished
with soldiers to protect them, but where they
had, moreover, a positive knowledge that their
presence would not intimidate the natives, nor
make them recede any farther.
In America, again, other v/andering and
equally warlike tribes haA'C fled at the ap
proach of industry and civilization. Let his-

APPENDIX. 347
tory be our guide. If a good understanding
can be opened with the African tribes, let us
promote it by every sacrifice compatible with
our honour. Should they return in hostile
attitudes let us drive them back. Commerce
will work its way, and colonization gain
ground. Let us recollect that the land is as
common in every direction as the population
is scanty, and that success awaits us at the
close of our efforts.
Isolated undertakings present more obsta
cles than real advantages. What are we to
expect from their narrow means, and uncon
nected endeavours? Nothing but a precarious
result. Companies should, above all, be en
couraged; they have more funds, more means,
more interests, more uniformity to insure .their
success ; they can concert their plans ; and, I
repeat it, the government should allow them
to act, and merely extend its superintendence
and protection to them. It should assume the
right of laying doAvn the conditions within the
bounds of prudence, but never to transgress
them. Should it keep within these bounds, it
will be enabled to follow, perhaps even to di
rect the progress ; but if it attempts to over-

348 APPENDIX.
Step them it Avill check the spirit of industry,
— a fatal privilege, the exercise of which is
usually purchased at a heavy cost.
In the Regency it is indispensable either that
the troops, constantly on the spot, should fol
low the colonists step by step, or that, whether
pacified by victories, or by treaties of alliance,
which is the better course, the country re
stored to the most perfect security, may allow
the plough to work its way, wherever the land
will admit of being cultivated and fertilized.
— Genty de Bussy, vol. i. p. 286.

THE SEQUESTRATIONS. [Vol. II. p. 88.]
Sequestuation, such as it has been framed
and applied by the decrees of 8th September,
1830, and 10th June, 1831, so far from agree
ing, in my opinion, with the terms of the ca
pitulation, formally detracts from it; but se
questration, such as the events have rendered
it since our occupation, resting, as it does.

appendix. 349
upon conspiracies and flagrant acts of hostility,
should not only be maintained in the different
cases in Avhich it has been pronounced, but be
left Avithin the power and discretion of the
commander-in-chief, as a measure of high state
policy, as a sword which he must, in case of
need, draw from the scabbard, and wield
against those public disturbers whose absence
prevents his immediately overtaking. — Ibid.,
vol. i. p. 390.

SCHOOL OF MILITARY MEDICINE.
[Vol. II. p. 124.]
The course commenced on the 2nd of Janu
ary, 1832.
The minister of war, by a decision of the
17th of February, 1832, has made applicable
to the medical school of Algiers the 1040th
article of the regulation of the 1st of April,
1831, authorizing a distribution of prizes in
the hospitals of instruction.
The sub- assistant majors, who shall have
gained the prize, will be admitted as com-

350 appendix.
petitors for such places of their grade as may
become vacant in the hospitals of Paris. —
Ann. d' Alger, 1833.

SCHOOLS.
[A^ol. II. p. 127.]
Schools of mutual instruction for the study
of the French language, of Avriting, and of
arithmetic, are already, and have long been,
established at Algiers, Oran, and Bona.
At Algiers, the largest school is frequented
by one hundred and fifty pupils; out of eighty
natives, the Moors formed at first no more than
a fifth of the number. Independently of these
public schools, accessible to the children of
all nations and of all creeds, the town con
tains some private schools, ably conducted by
teachers Avho have received the requisite au
thority to that effect, after having undergone
an examination as to their capacity and their
moral character. — Genty de Bussy, vol. i.
p. 469.

appendix. 351
CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH OFFICERS.
[Vol. II. p. 168.]
A CROAVD of generals, colonels, &c., were
quartered outside the town. They vied with
each other in selecting the finest gardens, the
most commodious habitations, of which they
took arbitrary possession. They cut and
hacked: away at will; the proprietors could no
longer return to their own homes. Not a sin
gle franc was laid out in effecting the slightest
repair in any object, in short, except that of
cutting down trees and committing some
havoc. With respect to myself, I have had for my
guest General H  , who took possession of
my garden without my knowledge, and ex
pelled my servants. When apprized of this
circumstance, I sent my son to Marshal Bour
mont, in order to claim the promised protec
tion for which the national honour had been
pledged. Unable to see the marshal, my son
proceeded to General Tholozan, and this
worthy officer instantly gave him an order di
recting the removal of General H  , who
was in my country-house. When my son pre-

352 appendix.
sented the order to him he flew into a rage,
tore it up, and said — " We have conquered
Algiers, we are here as masters ; everything is
in our possession ; M. Tholozan has no right
to send me such orders." This oflficer's reply
having been transmitted to me, I hastened to
repair to him, hoping to find a courteous man,
possessed of that circumspection and honour
able feeling belonging to his nation. I repre
sented that my son had erred in going to com
plain of him ; that he should excuse a young
man ; that I should feel happy to receive so
distinguished a guest in my dwelling, feeling
assured that he would protect my habitation
from being plundered by the soldiery. I in
stantly unlocked all the presses to prevent
their being broken open ; placed at his dis
posal the richest furniture and ornaments,
linen, carpets, Sevres porcelain (this consisted
of upwards of five hundred pieces), as well
as a tea service, of Sevres porcelain likewise,
which had cost me three hundred francs in
Paris, a complete set of kitchen utensils, all
kinds of china, jars full of oil, butter, and
every kind of provision which we were in the
habit of storing up for country use.

appendix. 353
He had thus at his disposal a house com
plete in all its parts, every object of comfort,
and even of luxury ; I also left him the use of
mules, and a groom to attend to them : no
oflScer, therefore, could have more cause for
satisfaction than he had. Nevertheless, he
received my offices with disdainful pride, and
gave me no more thanks than if I had restored
to him his own property. Unquestionably he
was bound, in my opinion, to act with greater
politeness and delicacy, and to prove that he
was not insensible to my conduct, that his
birth was worthy of his rank.
This general, accordingly, made free with
everything, and without the slightest reserve ;
and when he undertook the campaign of
Mediah, with General Clausel, he took away
with him two of my mules, who died of hunger
and fatigue on their return from the journey.
I might well have spared such excessive
politeness, considering the gratitude shown to
me in return. If I attempted to visit my
garden, I was either turned out, or had to
await the general's permission ere I could
enter it; nevertheless, I was well known to
be the exclusive owner of the place.
VOL. II. 2 a

354 appendix.
When General H  left the house he
carried away whatever he thought proper,
whatever was found portable, even porcelain
and china, affirming, at the same time, that
they had been taken by his interpreter. To
this must be added my two chests of arms
to which 1 have already adverted. The town
houses occupied by the troops are no longer
tenantable. I have heard it related by well-informed in
dividuals that the personages who have inha
bited the Casbah (the Dey's residence) have
had all the grounds dug up, in hopes of dis
covering concealed treasures. Even wells
have been demolished under the same ex
pectation. Private individuals have, moreover, been
compelled to remove from their own houses,
and make way for the military : driven to de
spair, the inhabitants fled their country by
sea and by land. What conduct could be
more revolting on the part of the agents of
power ! They should, at least, pay a rent to
the proprietors by way of indemnity for the
deprivation and loss of their property.— /§"%
Hamdan, vol. i. p. 233.

appendix. 355
ANECDOTES OF ABD-EL-KADER.
[Vol. IL p. 196.]
The following are details of the reception
given by Abd-el-Kader to those of our officers
who conducted back the envoy, by whose
means he had entered into a treaty at Oran.
¦ A little in advance of the Arab camp, a
band of music came to meet them, and all cus
tomary honours were rendered to them, which
chiefly consisted in frequent detonations of
fire-arms. Being admitted into the presence
of Abd-el-Kader immediately on their arrival,
they received from him a gracious and digni
fied welcome. A tent adjoining the one which
he occupied was assigned for their quarters,
and every thing they stood in need of was
tendered to them with as much profusion as
courtesy. An Arab attracted by curiosity, having
thrust himself in the way of one of the French
officers, had his head severed from the body
by the stroke of a yataghan. Surprised at
such an act of severity, the officer inquired
the cause of it. He was answered that under
the apprehension lest some fanatic should at-
2 a 2

356 appendix.
tempt to make a rush at the French, Abd-el
Kader had commissioned a score of devoted
followers to watch them, and to strike at the
first who might indulge in the least threat.
The next morning, he gave the signal of
departure. In the space of half an hour, the
whole camp was broken up ; the tents were
folded with the utmost despatch, and placed
upon camels, and the troop was on the move.
The baggage opened the way ; the music fol
lowed, and Abd-el-Kader came afterwards.
On the right and left, simulated battles were
fought by gladiators armed with shields, the
object of which was to beguile his time. Well-
mounted horsemen in rich attire were placed at
stated distances along the flanks, with a view
to direct the movements of the columns.
Such was the order in which the retinue en
tered the town of Mascara.
Abd-el-Kader's is a spacious residence, con
sisting of four buildings which adjoin each
other, of a single story, with arched windows
in the Moorish style, on the ground as well as
on the first floor. The interior forms a square
court, from the centre of which springs a
Avater-spout. The furniture, according to Arab

appendix. 357
custom, only consists of a carpet and matting.
A Khodja, who never leaves him, is constantly
writing from his dictation.
A council composed of four Arab chiefs, and
aided by a treasurer and the Khodja, assembles
from time to time, to deliberate on important
matters. Every day, morning and evening,
one of the members repair, by turns, to Abd-
el-Kader, for the purpose of transacting busi
ness with him.
During their short stay in this town, our
officers met with the most cordial reception.
One of the officers of the second regiment
of African Chasseurs, having returned some
time afterwards with two other officers of the
staff, Abd-el-Kader, with a view to greet his
new guests, put his troop under arms, and
leading it a certain distance from the town,
requested the French comm.ander to direct its
evolutions : after several manoeuvres the Arabs
formed into a square. Two small cannon,
which composed all their field artillery, were
stationed at the wings. At the prince's re
quest, the two staff officers pointed the cannon
by turns, and took a rather correct aim. The
Arab gunners then fired, but with less skilL

358 appendix.
Abd-el-Kader, however, did not appear the
less delighted, and expressed his satisfaction
to all around him.
We were then in the month of April. The
crops had been suffering from the excessive
drought. Abd-el-Kader left the town in pro
cession on a certain morning, bare-headed and
bare-footed ; and accompanied by a crowd of
pious Mussulmans, he proceeded to a neigh
bouring hill, to offer up prayers for rain.
The alliance, concluded with the general
commanding at Oran, having left Abd-el-
Kader a prey to the attack of the sheiks of
several adjoining tribes, his influence amongst
them has therefore greatly declined. — Genty
de Bussy, vol. i. p. 524.

THE END.

Pi-inteU by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOLUME I.
I. View of a street in Algiers . to face Title-page.
2. View of Algiers, taken from the north . .11
3. Interior of a house at Algiers . . .18
4. Gateway and Fountain in Bab-el-Oued . . 24
5. Fruit Market at Algiers . . .30
6. Plan of Algiers . ¦ . .38
7. Defile of Cenia . . . .106
8. Roman Arch at Bougia . . . 332

VOLUME II.

9. View of the country two miles west of Algiers
to face Title-page.
10. Remains of Roman Cisterns near Bona . . 4
II. View of Oran .... 153

errata.
Vol. I. page 18, last line, /or " Reviere," read" Riviere."
„ page 47, last line,yo/' " Couscusou,'' rend " Couscousou."
„ page 54,line 15, for " Babel-el-Oued," read " Bab-elOued."
„ page 62, line 3, for '' Matidjah," read " Metidjah."
„ page llljlines 12, 13, and 20,/or" powder-mill," rearf "pow
der-Magazine."
„ page 142, line 20,/or " movables," read " moveables."

Vol. II. page 13, Head-line, /or " Letttrs," read "Letters.''

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