234 Constantina. 



Since the occupation of Algiers by the French armies, and since 

 the commencement of the internal commotions of Tripoli, the ma- 

 ritime commerce of Tunis has more than doubled its exports and 

 imports. Their gross amount in 1832 exceeded 1,040,000/. : 

 in 1833, it was 1,002,000/. The cholera was the cause of this 

 trifling depreciation. 



Should the French possess themselves of Constantina and throw 

 open an undisturbed line of commerce with France and the Me- 

 diterranean, to the north and the south, we may confidently 

 assert our conviction, that Ouanquarah, Jeune, Sego, Sansandiny, 

 Yamina, Bamakou, and other towns that now send their merchan- 

 dise by the caravans of Tafelelt and Aronan, will prefer 

 expediting their southern productions direct to the Tuats, and 

 receiving, by the same method of communication, the merchandise 

 which they require from the Mediterranean sea-ports, rather than 

 trusting such immense wealth to the perfidious and rapacious Moors 

 of Aronan. 



The caravans of the fourth line from the north to the south, 

 from Agdas to the oasis of the Tuats, will become the most 

 heavily charged and the wealthiest of any in a very short space. 

 Their journeys will also be necessarily more frequent/ Already 

 the caravans of Bornou, being no longer able to proceed to Tri- 

 poli, have changed their place of destination, and are now invariably 

 bound for the oasis of the Tuats. 



That Oasis is therefore to be regarded as the most important 

 in perspective, in the gross amount of its imports and exports. The 

 highly cultured state in which it is found, the abundance of its 

 wells, and the excellence of the water the morality of its in- 

 habitants the wisdom of the Sultan of Terny-Moun, who governs 

 the confederation of the oases of the Tuats all these circum- 

 stances will eventually tend to aggrandise the fortunes and the 

 authority of the inhabitants of that oasis. The Tuats are na- 

 turally independent in disposition, as well as from the circum- 

 stance of their central position in the midst of Sabarah ; they 

 love their country they are rich and industrious and to them 

 belongs the greater portion of the camels that traverse j the 

 desert. 



We may also remark that the fourth line of communication, 

 from the north to the south, is much shorter than the third and 

 the fifth : the march occupies sixty-three days, and its length is 

 1100 geographical miles. The third line, on the contrary, em- 

 braces a journey of 1500 miles, and requires seventy-three days : 

 the fifth occupies eighty-four days. It is scarcely necessary to 

 state that the fourth line of communication passes by Constantina ; 

 hence the commercial advantages to be reaped by that city. 

 From the plains of Stowssa, in the midst of which Constantina is 

 situated, the branch caravans have only four days' march, and 

 seventy-five miles to accomplish, ere they arrive at the town of 

 Bona, and a much less distance to the gulfs B of Stora and 

 Quol. To Algiers, there are nine days' journey, and 172 miles 

 to travel. 



