A Search after Sunshine; or, Algeria in 1871

Front matter

Algeria A SEARCH AFTER SUNfHtNE IN ALGERIA IN LONDON : PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET OLD ALGIERS A Search after Sunshine OR Algeria in 1871 BY LADY HERBERT TUNIS LAMP IN GREEN POTTERY LONDON RICHARD BENTLEY & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET $Hiblis()«s in ©ririnarj) to i« 1S72 A 1 1 rights reserved TO MY ELDEST DAUGHTER LADY MARY HERBERT THIS ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES IN WHICH SHE SHARED is gifftctionaldg gtbicatcb CONTENTS. CHAPTER PACE I. Oran and Tlemcen i II. Miliana, Teniet-el-Had, and Blidah ... -35 III. Algiers 61 IV. The Charitable Institutions of Algiers ... 96 V. Cherchel and Tizi-Ozoun 120 VI. Constantine 153 VII. Batna, Lambessa, Biskra, and other Towns in the Province of Constantine 185 VIII. On the French Government in Algeria . . .229 IX.

Tunis and Carthage LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (Engraved by G. Pearson). Old Algiers Frontispiece Tunis Lamp in Green Pottery ...... Title-page Oran to face page y Tlemcen Gateway n 35 Algerian Cupboard in recess, with Pottery . . page 60 New Algiers to face page 61 Moorish Interior „ 97 Kabyle Pots page 119 Kabyle Interior to face page 135 Kabyle Brooch given on the Birth of a Boy . . page 152 Cascade: Constantine to face page 165 'Mahomet's Hand' and Pins worn by Arab Women page 184 Group of Biskra Women to face page 195 Leglet, Brooch, and Ear- Ring: Constantine . . page 228 Stone Window in Mosque at Sidi Okbar . . . „ 241 Biskra Ear-Ring ,,265 ALGERIA IN 1871

Chapter I. Oran And Tlemcen

fjkt^fTffUCH has been written and said about this fel|\Wj I country ; but like all colonies, its position mæ&<&T is hourly changing, so that its history, written ten or twelve or even five or six years ago, is no longer a true picture of the existing state of things. Moreover, judging by myself, a vague idea exists in England of its inhabitants and configuration. I knew that the French territory in North Africa consisted of three provinces : Oran, Algiers, and Constantine. But I did not know till I went there, that nature had divided the country into certain distinct zones, parallel to the sea, and each having its peculiar character. The first is the Sahel or Sea Shore — the centre of commerce, and the site of most of the principal towns. r. ALGERIA. 2 The second is the Tell, or the vast fertile plains which stretch from the Sahel to the mountainous ranges of the Atlas.

The third, called by the French, the Hants Plateaux, consists entirely of mountains and ravines, cultivated here and there, but mainly used for pasture. The fourth is the Sahara or Desert, wide tracts of sandy soil, with oases of palms and little mud villages, the inhabitants of which depend for their very existence on the carefully managed irrigation of their palm groves. Again, I had imagined that the native inhabitants were all Arabs, although, of course, of different tribes. But I found that the races inhabiting these different zones were as distinct as the districts themselves. It is true that after the overthrow of the Romans and the cruel invasion of the Vandals, the Arabs in their turn took possession of the sea-coast, and that 80,000 men, despatched by the Caliph Omar in a.d. 645, overran the country, and compelled the inhabitants to accept the religion of the Prophet.

But they never succeeded in conquering the Kabyles, or Berbers (who are of Canaanitish origin with a fusion of Vandal blood) ; and who, retiring into the mountains, contrived to maintain their independence, and never submitted to the Arab yoke, though they conformed to the religion of the conquerors. Again, when in the ALGERIA. 3 sixteenth century Algeria became a province of the Porte, the Kabyles successfully resisted the imposition of Turkish taxes. Their language is entirely distinct from the Arabic, and they are an industrious race, living in settled homes and not in tents, cultivating the soil with the utmost care, and passionately attached to their native mountains. Besides these two aboriginal races, there are the Moors, or Arabs, dwelling in cities ; the Koulourlis, who are the offspring of Turkish fathers and Moorish mothers ; the Negros from the interior of Africa ; and the Jews, who form a very large proportion of the population of Algiers itself.

But of all these different people I shall speak by-and-bye. Being anxious to judge for myself as to this country and especially to test the efficacy of certain warm springs, which had been strongly recommended to me by a Paris doctor for rheumatism, I started last January with my eldest daughter by the P. and O. steamer ' Bangalore ' for Gibraltar, the journey through France being rendered well nigh impossible owing to the war. I am not going to describe the passage, which was as disagreeable as a head wind and a pitching boat could make it. The vessel was crowded with Indian passengers, and, strangely enough for an outward-bound ship, with a multitude of babies, who screamed literally B ALGERLA. 4 day and night. I was too ill to leave my berth for the first four days ; and on the sixth we arrived at Gibraltar, and landed in company with an old gentle man who had been set upon by the blacks at Jamaica at the time of Governor Eyre's mutiny, his head cut open and he left for dead, while the friend in whose house he was staying was murdered with all his family.

On making our way up the narrow semi- English street which leads to the Club- House Hotel, our courier met us with dismay, to tell us that not a room was to be had either there or at any other hotel in the place, but that we must go into the coffee-room till he could hunt for a lodging. We were sitting discon solately enough in the hall, when suddenly the kind hearted Governor appeared (General Sir Fenwick Williams, of Kars) and insisted upon our coming and taking up our abode in his house, or the ' Convent,' as the Government House is called, havingbeen originally a Franciscan monastery. We found after wards that he had actually given up his own bed-room and dressing-room for our use, as his hospitable house was already full ; but this was only a sample of the kindness shown to us during the whole time we waited at Gibraltar for means to continue our journey.

At last we found that a little French steamer, the ' Spahis,' started every fortnight for Oran ; and through the NEMOURS. 5 kindness of the very agreeable French Consul, the Vicomte de Fontaine, berths were secured in her for February 2. But my usual bad luck as to the sea awaited me. When the morning came, it blew a gale with torrents of rain ; and though we braved it and went on board, we soon found that there was no chance of the little vessel getting out of the harbour that day. Sir Fenwick had anticipated this, and sent his gig to fetch us ashore again, which we were only too thankful to do, so as to escape the pitching and tossing of the next twelve hours. By the following morning, how ever, the sea was calmer, and at six o'clock we steamed out of the harbour, and arrived in thirty-six hours at Nemours, the first town we came to on the African coast.

We had both been ill, as usual ; and the food was so bad, that had it not been for the hamper which Sir Fenwick Williams had so considerately sent on board for us, and the contents of which lasted us during several weeks of our African wanderings, we should have been in still more dismal plight. Our one consolation was a beautiful little Italian greyhound, named ' Coquet,' who laid on our berths and was as playful as a kitten. Nemours was once the old Arab port of ' Djemma- Razaouat' (or the 'Mosque of Pirates'), now a commonplace little French town used as a depot for the Commissariat, and re-christened (according to a ALGERIA. 6 French habit in Algeria, which cannot be too much deprecated) after the Due de Nemours, when the place was evacuated by the defeated troops of Abd-el-Kader. Here this truly great Arab chieftain, dressed in the usual white haik and double burnous of his tribe, with the camel's hair cord wound round his head, finally surrendered to the Due d'Aumale ; and getting off his favourite black mare, who, like himself, had been wounded in the fight, put her bridle in the Duke's hand, saying gravely, ' This is the last horse I shall ever ride.

Take her ; and may she bring you good luck ! ' The thought of this parting and of the fine old chief, whom we had seen at Damascus acting as the champion of the persecuted Christians, redeemed the dulness of the little town itself, which is brand new and has no Moorish or Arabic remains at all, save the ruins of an old fort and castle on the cliffs, which are of quartz and full of crystals glistening like icicles and snow in the hot African sun. We walked up the little street with its inevitable ' Place ' and ' Cafes ' and ' Billiards,' and came to a large building from whence issued a quantity of little native children. This w^as the con vent school of Les Dames Trinitaires, a religious order who have undertaken almost all the schools in this province, in which they have upwards of 250 sisters at work.

They wear a black-and-white habit with a cross on the breast, like the men of the same order ORAN NEMOURS. 7 and their object is the same, i.e., the redemption of slaves and captives, and teaching the Arab and Moorish children. The mother superior, seeing we were strangers, kindly invited us in, and offered us coffee. They had a salle d'asile of about 1 20 little children, and an dcole communale of fifty great girls — all nice-looking and orderly, but many of them suffering from diseases of the eyes. Strolling down again by the sea-shore and revelling in the hot sun, we came upon a picturesque group of Arabs just arrived from the interior, with two or three ' Spahis,' their scarlet cloaks thrown over their white clothes, all men above six feet high, and walking with that magnificent air and gait which makes them appear like true lords of the soil, and shames the shuffling little Frenchman, or, in fact, any other Euro pean who may attempt to walk alongside of them.

The unlading of our cargo being completed, we went on board again, and this time had no reason to complain of the weather. The sea was like glass, and the beautiful coast, with its rocky capes and pro montories, and its glistening sandy bays, with here and there a picturesque old Spanish fortress or ruined mosque crowning the heights above, made us long to land twenty times ere we reached Oran. It was midnight before we cast anchor in that busy little port. The ' Commandant de Place ' had sent his boat ALGERIA. to take us ashore and pass our luggage through the Custom House — thanks again to the kind thoughtful ness of the Vicomte de Fontaines, who had written to him to have everything ready for us. We drove to the Hotel de la Paix by a beautiful moonlight, and with difficulty got a couple of rooms au troisieme.

Oran was in itself a great disappointment. We had been reading gorgeous descriptions of its forts and palaces, especially of the Chateau-Neuf, the old residence of the Beys of Oran, which was supposed to equal the far-famed Palace of Constantine. But the hand of the French spoiler had been busy everywhere, and except a couple of old towers, with here and there an ancient wall or an escutcheon bearing the arms of Spain, there are no antiquities left — nothing but wide, commonplace streets and dismal rows of barracks, looking as if they had been built by the yard, and one or two new fortresses commanding all the principal points of the city. It is, in fact, nothing now but a garrison town, with tall houses built in the usual French style, and, as we felt, dangerously high when we remembered the earthquake of j 790.

The morning after our arrival being Sunday, I went to the Cathedral of St. Louis. This building formed part of an ancient monastery of the monks of St Bernard, who were brought there by Cardinal Ximenes after he had transformed the mosque into a Christian ORAN. 9 church, and dedicated it to ' our Lady of Victories.' From 1708 to 1732 it was used as a synagogue, and then fell into ruins, till restored by the French in 1839. It is in the shape of a long parallelogram, divided into three aisles, with a deep chancel, on the walls of which is a fresco-painting by a M. Saint Pierre, representing the disembarkation of St. Louis at Tunis, St. Jerome and St. Augustine being likewise depicted on each side. Above the arch leading to the choir are the arms of Cardinal Ximenes ; and behind the high altar is a little chapel ornamented in the Louis XV. style ; which is all that remains of the ancient Bernardine church.

An organ, with vertical or fan like pipes, after the Spanish fashion, built at Valencia, is placed over the entrance-door. All this I saw at my leisure ; but my first impression of the cathedral was that of the most densely-packed masses of children I ever beheld. I was not surprised afterwards, when I visited the Dames Trinitaires in their large and airy convent schools, near the cathedral, to find that they had 1,500 children under instruction, the greater portion of whom were crowded into the cathedral for the High Mass. On my return to the hotel, I found the English Consul, who is a Genoese, and who most civilly undertook to arrange everything for our journey to Tlemcen. The ' Commandant de Place ' next ap peared with the offer of his open carriage to see the ALGERIA. 10 town, which we gratefully accepted, and all the more gladly as there were no little carriages to be had in the place.

He took us all round the forts till we came to the suburb of Kerguenta, which is called the ' Negro Village,' though in reality the refuge of all the native tribes whom French civilisation has driven out ofthe city. Here we got out and wralked through its streets, which are composed of mud walls, without roofs, and utterly miserable. The Arab inhabitants were squatted at their doors, or on ledges round the enclosures, cross-legged, smoking their long pipes, and enveloped from head to foot in their white ' haiks.' They looked sullen, poor, and wretched. Sundry lanky, half-starved dogs and raw-boned donkeys com pleted the melancholy picture. It was a relief to drive back to the Boulevard Oudinot, which is prettily planted with trees at the foot of the old Kasba ; and then to walk in the ' Promenade de Letang,' a shady and beautiful walk round the fortifications of the Chateau- Neuf, bright with flowers and tropical shrubs, and commanding a fine view over the surrounding country.

Returning to the Rue Philippe, we came upon a beautiful little minaret, octagon in shape, and exquisitely carved, forming an angle in an old Moorish wall. On passing through the open door, we found ourselves in a marble court, with a fountain in the middle for Mussul- ORAN. 11 man ablutions, and an arcade round, with rows of double columns ; the walls bright with ' azulejos ' (coloured tiles highly varnished), and the arches carved in delicate lace-like patterns. This court led into the mosque, which was in the same style, the recess or 'mihrab,' where the pulpit stands, being also richly decorated. Two or three Arabs were praying in one corner with the usual prostrations, and, as our guide informed us, muttering curses on us for our intrusion into their sanctuary. There is one other important mosque left in Oran, that of the saint, Sidi El Haouri, about whom wonderful miracles are related ; one alone will suffice as a specimen of the legends which form part of the teaching of these people, very much as the lives of the saints do in Italy and Spain.

It was during the time of the war between the Moors and Spain, when one day a devout and holy woman came to Sidi El Haouri to complain that her son had been taken prisoner and carried off to An dalusia as a slave. El Haouri told her to pray to God with faith, and in the meantime to bring him a dish of broth with meat in it, which the poor mother joyfully did. Now El Haouri had a favourite greyhound, who was at that moment suckling her young ones. He took the dog on his knees, spoke to her, and gave her the food the woman had brought. Instantly the dog started off, ran to the fort, and got on board a vessel ALGERIA . 12 bound for the Spanish coast. No sooner had she landed than she met the young man in question, who was returning from market with some meat which he had been buying for his master.

The dog made a great bound, tore the meat out of his hand, and rushed to the shore, the Arab youth following and pursuing her on board a vessel which was just getting under weigh for Oran. The lad recognised the dog as one belonging to the saint, and quickly concealing himself among the cargo, landed safely on his native shores. The dog ran home to her master and her little ones, and the poor mother, with tears of joy, recounted how, by the prayers of the saint and the intelligence of the dog, her son had been safely restored to her. Allowing for a little Eastern exaggeration, and with the firmest belief in the more than instinct of dogs, we did not think this little story so very improbable. There is one beautiful walk at Oran to the fort of ' Santa Cruz,' perched on the highest point of the mountains behind the town, and commanding a view over the whole country and the seaboard ; so that on clear days you can distinguish the coast of Carthagena.

It is a terribly steep climb up to the top, but the panorama repays you for the trouble. A few feet below is a pretty little chapel built in 1849, as a thanks giving for the cessation of the cholera, and which has been ever since a favourite place of pilgrimage. MERS-EL-KEBIR. 13 The following morning we resolved to make a pic nic expedition to Mers-el-Kebir, a picturesque old brown fortress built by the Moors during their occupation of Spain, and used by them as a port for the greater part of their commercial transactions with Europe. Afterwards it became a very nest of pirates, but since the French occupation of the country it has been turned into a military prison. Passing through a tunnel, the roof of which was covered with fossil bivalves, we drove along a road lately made by the French engineers round the edge of the bay, till we came to the thermal springs of Jane, daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile, which are still used by the Arabs (especially in cutaneous diseases), and very generally resorted to in summer by the inhabitants of Oran.

Following a little path, only wide enough for one person at a time, we came to a grotto in the heart of the quartz rock, from which the spring rushed out into a basin at the rate of 250 quarts a minute. The water is clear and limpid, but rather salt. There is a tidy little bathing establishment below, divided into two parts, one containing eight or ten separate bathing places, the other fitted up for douches, &c. For the benefit of medical men, I give Dr. Bertherand's analysis of these waters, which, he says, are very useful in all rheumatic affections. ALGERIA. 14 Water iooo grs. Chloride of Soda 5.95<5 of Magnesia 4>3J7 Sulphate of Magnesia 42° Carbonate of Lime 1,078 Silex 809 12,580 From the thermal springs we drove on to St. • Andre\ a pretty little fishing village, where the whole population seemed to be engaged in drawing in a huge netful of sardines, a shoal of these fish having ap peared at the mouth of the bay.

It was a most exciting moment ; men, women, and children, screaming and hauling at the ropes, half in and half out of the water. The men, dressed in brilliant yellow kilts and scarlet caps, the former of so lovely a shade that M longed to buy them on the spot. Ten minutes' drive from St. Andre brought us to the old fortress, built on a spit of land running out into the sea like a natural jetty. At the entrance is an old Moorish fountain, surmounted with the arms of Ferdinand of Arragon, while over the venerable gateway, and let into the walls of the various towers, are a number of old Latin and Spanish inscriptions, recording the names of the different kings or governors who had occupied this fortress in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In fact, Mers-el-Kebir, which was the Portus Divinus of the Romans, has passed through as many hands as MERS-EL-KEBIR. 15 there have been conquerors of North Africa, and its architecture is a medley of them all — part Roman, part Moorish, part Spanish, part Turk, and now almost wholly French !

A civil engineer officer showed us over the whole building, including the military prison, which I thought dreary in the extreme. The sentence of the prisoners varied from two to five years, and their only recreation seemed to be a short walk round a bastion at one angle of the fortress looking on the sea. But I could not awaken any sympathy for their fate in the mind of my guide, whose motto was, ' La discipline avant tout.' The old man was very proud of his fortress, and exclaimed, when pointing to the vast extent of seaboard which the eye travelled over from the telegraph tower at the extreme end of the enclosure ; ' Ah ! ces gredins de Prussiens ! Ou'ils montrent le nez seulement sur l'horizon ! ' pointing ex pressively to the big guns which lay, as it were, sleeping in their embrasures.

We found that the belief that the Prussians would try to take possession of Algeria was universal among French military men at that time, and not wishing to disturb the complacency of our guide, or spoil his faith in his big guns, we remained silent, and walked gravely back towards the entrance-gate, where we parted, the veteran in dignantly declining the five-franc piece I tendered, with the words : ' Pardon, madame, on ne paie pas cet ALGERIA. honneur ; ' and, making us a military salute, with drew. The next day we drove a little way outside the town to pay our respects to the bishop, Monseigneur Callot, to whom I had a letter of introduction, picking up on our way a sister who was going to him on business. His little country house was simple in the extreme, and his chapel scarcely large enough for his modest household ; but he had a beautiful garden at the back, into which he took us, to show us a finelycarved statue of ' Notre Dame de Fourvieres,' which he had brought with him from Lyons, his native place.

He gave us a terrible account of the Arab famine three years ago, which had decimated the inhabitants of Oran, and of which we heard still more fearful reports in Algiers. Fever, as usual, had followed in its wake. The bishop pitched a number of tents on the open space near Mers-el-Kebir, and there, with four or five of his priests, fed and watched over the dying and the dead, and that in thousands. He said it was horrible to see the children fighting for the oats which had dropped out of the bottom of the sack in which his horse had been fed. But in spite of all their efforts, the mortality was fearful. One of his priests was among the victims of this heroic charity. The little orphans were placed by him under the care of the sisters at Misserghin, which is the first stage ORAN AND TLEMCEN. 17 from Oran to Tlemcen, and whose ' Home ' he begged me to go and see.

The gathering of the ' helfeh ' grass, much used in paper and other manufactures, as well as for matting, and which is a principal export from the port of Oran, was, he told us, one of the main sources of revenue to the orphanage. On our return, we went into the only good curiosity shop in Oran, and got a large mat of this very ' helfeh ' grass, some pretty cheap green Moorish pots, and an old shawl of that peculiar kind worn by the Jewish women, and which is of an exquisite shade of crimson. That night we started by diligence for Tlemcen, not without some reluctance ; but we had no choice. Even if a private carriage could have been obtained at Oran, there were no horses ; and sundry uncomfortable rumours of hostile Arabs made us feel that it would not be well to travel alone. And in truth, with the exception of the two or three post-houses or sta tions where the horses are changed, it is impossible to conceive anything more lonely and deserted than this road.

For miles and. miles, it runs through an un dulating but gently ascending plain of dwarf palm trees (the Chamærops or fan palm), wild squill and genista. There is no cultivation whatever, save a little patch here and there near the wayside caravanserai, which are enclosed by a high wall for defence from both man and beast. Not a living thing was to be seen, nor a c ALGERIA. human habitation, save the post-houses above named. The night was lovely, a brilliant moon lit up the dreary plain, through which we drove for seventeen or eighteen hours, till the sameness and stillness filled one with a nameless fear. I once saw a picture of the world before the creation of man — a vast sea of verdure, with here and there a wild beast feeding. But here, there was not even a wild beast ! though occasionally a jackal's unearthly cry broke the awful stillness of the night : and once, the glare of a pine torch revealed an Arab tent, with the crouching figures wrapped in their burnouses, looking ghost-like amidst the flickering shadows.

About half-way, we passed the great Salt Lake of Sebkhra which is of an immense extent, and is formed by a sheet of water which the heat in summer evaporates, leaving a bed of crystallised deposits, glittering, as we saw it, in the moonlight. Towards morning we came to Ain Tekbalet, close to which are the quarries of Oriental alabaster, from whence were obtained those beautiful pillars which form the glory of the Basilica of S. Paolo fuore-le-mure at Rome. It is a description of onyx, of a most delicate and trans parent colour, varying in shade from deep orange to pale yellow, white, and even pink. The French use it for every description of table ornament ; and in sheets, for fire-screens, &c. TLEMCEN. 19 From Ain Tekbalet, the road rises and winds through a mountainous ravine, till a sudden turn reveals the most beautiful panorama possible, which was all the more unexpected from the monotony of the previous route.

A high chain of mountains, still in deep purple shadow, bounded the horizon ; while through the plain at our feet, studded with olive and orange groves, the bright stream of the Isser flowed rapidly ; and the town of Tlemcen, the ancient capital of the Marreb and the key of the west, with its picturesque mosque, crenelated walls, high Moorish towers, circular tombs or ' koubbas,' and horse-shoe arched gateways sparkled like a gem in the rising sun. Our sleepless night, cramped position, and weary aching limbs were all forgotten as this enchanting view burst upon us, and we had hardly patience with the tired horses, who were dragging us slowly and painfully across the picturesque bridge and up the steep ascent leading to the Oran Gate of the grand old city. We found two queer little rooms, only accessible by an outside staircase, prepared for us in the Hotel de France, whose landlord had dispos sessed an unhappy French officer for our benefit ; for in a very few moments a civil orderly knocked at my door humbly to beg for ' le sabre et les bottes de monsieur le capitaine,' of which, in his hurried flitting, I had unconsciously become the temporary possessor. c ALGERIA. 20 We had been provided with sundry letters of intro duction from the consul at Oran to the notabilities of Tlemcen, and having shaken off the dust of the diligence, and engaged the only little carriage to be found in the city (which was of a most original de scription), we drove out of the gates again to the house of a M. Gues, who had a villa in one of the orange groves which surround the town, very much like those at Sidon in Syria.

M. Gu£s was laid up with the gout, and unable, to our great regret, to do the honours of his adopted country ; but he most good naturedly lent us his servant to be our cicerone and interpreter, and hobbled himself into the garden to give us a magnificent bouquet of roses and Neapolitan violets, only regretting that we had come too early in the season for choicer flowers. Our Arab guide sprang quickly on the box, and directed our driver to take us first to the village of El Eubbad, or Sidi-Bou- Medin, the picturesque white minaret of which had already attracted our attention. The road led us through the Arab cemetery, and by a succession of olive groves very like Mentone, till we came to the foot of the village. Here we left the carriage and climbed up the steep, deserted-looking street of mud houses without roofs, until we came to a wooden door covered with coloured arabesques, which led into a square portico paved with glazed tiles and leading to SIDI-BO U-MEDIN. 21 the mosque on the right, and the Koubba or tomb of the saint Sidi-Bou-Medin to the left.