ALGKKIK. I. 1 . 



ALGERIE, 1.'. 



: I 



tmt & of the Adjedee, and ranged in a N.E. and aW. direction. The 

 tteeipal villages are Tuggnrt, 8. of the Melgigg, Engousah, and 

 (bother K.W., WurffUh. a populou* place frequented by the caravan* 

 from Soudan, and Nadrania, on the edge of the Desert Theec are 

 the extreme limit* of human fixed habitations. The chief of Tuggurt 

 i. said to be on friendly terms with the French. The Beni Moiab 

 BT, to the wertward of Wurglah, between 32' and S3* of N. 1st ; 

 qM^tfrl. Beri-gan. and Grarah are their principal village*. They 

 are a tribe of the Kabyle* or Mangh, have the same appearance and 

 BMnpfr.tnii, ud speak th* same dialect a* their brethren, but are 

 milder and more peaceful in their disposition ; many of them live in 

 Algiers, where they keep the public baths. They govern themselves 

 u a republic, an independent of Algiers, and they kept an amir in 

 the capital, who was acknowledged by th* Dey. They reckon it> 

 day*' journey front their country to Algien. Dr. Shaw *ee* in them 

 a branch of the Melanogietuli of the ancient geographers. They grow 

 a little barley, but their chief nourishment is date*. "Their 

 country," say* Dr. Shaw, " is very dry ; they have no fountains 01 

 rivulets, and in order to obtain water, they dig to the depth some- 

 times of 100 firth""", through different layers of sand and gravel till 



they come to a flaky *tonelike elate, which if known to be immediately 

 bore the Bahr tabt el Erd, or ' the Sea below Ground.' The *tone u 

 eaeilr broken through, and the flux of water which follow* the stroke 

 riee* eo euddcnly and in nich abundance, that the person let down 

 for this purpnee ha* sometimes, though raised up with the greatest 

 quickness, been overtaken and suffocated by it" For the purpose of 

 Administration, Algeria U divided into three province*; Algiers, 

 CotMtontine, and Orau. The governor-general resides at Algiers ; a 

 deputy governor i* in each of the other two provinces. There are 

 civil commissioners and justice* of the peace in each of the principal 

 towns, and tribunals of first instance at Algiers, Gran, Bono, and 

 Philippeville. A supreme court sits at Algiers. 



(hffir^f the older works on Algiers the following deserve mention : 

 Shaw's 7Vsrrf ; Borbary, a rery good topographical deecripti..n of 

 the country ; Laugier de Tassy, Uutotrt OtntraU d* Koyaume if A Iyer ; 

 Rehbinder, XaekntUt* md Bemtrtimgn ettr den Algiertckm Stoat ; 

 Pananti, Armlurt ed OsMixm'imi topra la Cotta di Barbaria, a work 

 too poetical in it* style, but full of curious detail* and anecdotes ; 

 abater's M<Am of Algien : Rozet, Voyage dam la JUgenct i Alger, 

 since the French occupation. Of the later works we may single 

 oat the fallowing : Daumas, Lt Sahara Algfrien ; Dureau de la Malle, 

 frarintt de Catalan! tar, and Reeherckn turla JUgence if A Iyer ; General 

 Dnvivier, Jttfkertka tt Xota, mentioned in the course of this article ; 

 Almanatk Africain; and several article* in the Renudttdeux Mum let 

 by M. de Cantellane, an officer on the staff in Algeria, Also Borrer, 

 Karratirt of an Riptdition into Kalii/lia, London.) 



By the capitulation of the 4th of July, 1830, the French became 

 possessed "of the city of Algiers, and the forts and harboura 

 depending on it". No mention was made of the provinces, or of the 

 native tribe*, over which the authority of the Dey, was little else 

 than nominal. The Dey capitulated to the French more like the 

 commander of a military garrison than as the sovereign of an extensive 

 In truth, the Dey himself was, ostensibly at least, but an 

 r of the Turkish mil tan. The native Arab* and Kabyles were 

 told in the proclamation* that the French had come to deliver them 

 from the yoke of the Turks, who were, in reality, aliens to the country, 

 pirates by sea, and usurper* and marauder* by land. The Arab tribe* 

 in the neighbourhood of Algiers, Oran, and the other towns garrisoned 

 by the Turks, were in the habit of paying a reluctant tribute to the 

 Dey in order that they might graze their cattle in the plains without 

 molesUllmi ; but the Kabyles who live in the mountains a* well a* 

 the more remote Beduin Arab* of the interior, seldom, if ever, 

 entered into any such agreement, and the Turks only succeeded in 

 storting anything from them by sending armed detachment* at 

 harvest-time to seie by force what they could, or by surprising the 

 Kabyle village* and kidnapping some of their young men, whom 

 theparenU were obliged to ransom. 



The French became possessed by conquest of Algiers, Oran, Bona, 

 and one or two more towns on or near the coast The Moon and 

 other mixed races, who inhabit these place*, became by conquest 

 subject* of France. Of the three beys, or governors of provinces, 

 Turkish officer* subordinate to the Dey, that of Oran submitted to 

 France ; but Ahmed Bey of Constantino, being far off in a strong 

 country, refused allegiance, and the Bey of Tittcri, after having 

 submitted at first, revolted soon after, and was joined by several 

 tribe* of Arab* and Kabyles. Thu* it wss that a course of hotiliti,- 

 was entered upon between the French and the native*, by which the 

 French conquest ha* spread from the frontier* of Tunis on the east, 

 to those of Morocco on the west, and as far a* the borders of the 

 Or*** Desert on the south. 



Marshal Bourmont, after taking poomnion of the town of Algiers, 

 gav occasion to the first hostilities with the Arabs, by marching a 

 column of MOO men to Bluish. On the approach of the troops the 

 Arab* attacked them, and obliged them to retire to Algien with loss. 

 ! ci)saono of the revolution at Fari in July, 1880, and the 

 chant* of dynasty which followed, Bnunnont was recalled, and 

 Oeoeral Claiuel wa* sent to succeed him. Ho arrived at Algiers in 

 the Uftoning of Heptonher, 18SO. In th- following Oct.- 



marched against the Bey of Titteri, croesed the Jletidja plain, occupied 

 Blidah at the foot of the Little Atlas, and then, forcing the pass of 

 Mount Tenoah, entered the town of Medeyah, the residence of the 

 Bey, about 46 mile* south of Algiers. Clause! deposed the Bey, and 

 appointed a Moor of Algien in his place. 



General Clause! was the first to suggest the colonisation of the 

 territory of Algien with settler* from Europe. Marshal Gerard, then 

 niinisUrt-war, approved of the plan, and fixed on the Mctidja plain, 

 which lie* between the table-land of Algien and the ridge of the 

 Little Atlas, for the first experiment But neither the general nor 

 the mhl seems to have thought of ascertaining first to whom the 

 lands in the Mctidja belonged. Baron Pichon, who was appointed a 

 year after civil intend ant of Algiers, having made inquiries, discovered 

 that the land* in question belonged chiefly to Moorish proprietors, 

 inhabitant* of Algien, the quiet subject* of France, whose property 

 was solemnly guaranteed to them by the capitulation, and v : 

 their lands to Arab or Kabyle cultivator* or grazier*. ( Pichon, ' Alger 

 sou* la Domination Francaise,' 8vo, 1833; a very intonating book 

 for the history of the earlier period of the French occupation of 

 Algiers.) 



General Claiuel, dissatisfied with the repeated disappointment* he 

 had encountered from the French ministry, returned home in disgust, 

 and published an apology of the acts of hi* administration. (Obser- 

 vation* du General Clausel sur quelque* Actos de son Commandement 

 it Alger,' 8vo, Paris, 1831.) 



General Berthezene remained in command at Algiers. He marched 

 at the end of June, 1831, to relieve the garrison of Medeyah, which 

 was closely blockaded by the Kabyle*, and having evacuated the 

 place, retraced his steps to Algiers, fighting his way through the pan 

 of Teneah, harassed by swarms of Kabyles and Arabs, who followed 

 him all the way across the Metidja plain to within a few miles fn mi 

 Algiers. He wrote in the following mouth of August a long but 

 interesting report to the minigter-at-war, in which he refuted some 

 exaggerated notions of the partisan* of conquest and colonisation, 

 which letter is given by Baron Pichon in the appendix to his work, 

 p. 44. Berthezene applied himself to cultivate the frirn<lshi|> of the 

 sheiks of the Arab tribes, who conceived a high opinion of his sense 

 of justice. Unfortunately at the end of 1831, Berthezene was 

 superseded by Savory, Duke of Kovigo, who on his arrival at Algiers 

 found himself beset by a party who talked loudly of exterminating 

 the natives, or driving them Iwck to the Desert, taking possession of 

 their property, and distributing the lands by lots to French colonists. 

 General Berthezene after his return to France published a very 

 interesting and impartial work : ' Dixhuit Mois a Alger, on 

 de* Evenemen* qui s'y sont passes depuis le 14 Juin, 1830, Jour du 

 IMbarquement de 1'Armee Francaise, jusqu' a. la Fin de De'cembre, 

 1831,' Montpellier, 1834. 



The administration of Savory lasted little more than a twrlvn 

 It alienated the natives of all races and classes. Several Arabs and 

 Moon of distinction were summarily executed. The Unman, a tribe 

 of unoffending Arabs in the neighbourhood of Algien, were wantonly 

 exterminated ; and sweeping confiscations of private property took 

 place. The result was a general rise of all the tribes round Algiers 

 and Oran, and the stoppage of all communication with the interior. 

 Pichou, in his work already noticed, and General Brossard, in his 

 ' Mcmoire prosentd au Due de Dalmatic sur les Moyens d' assurer la 

 Security du Territoire d' Alger,' give much information concerning 

 the dismal period of 1832. 



In 1838 Savory left Algien on account of ill health, and returned to 

 Paris, where he died in June of that year. General Voiml remained 

 pro tempore ' commander-in-chief of the French possessions in ' 

 Africa.' During the session of that year in the Chamber of Deputies, 

 Marshal Clausel, who- continued to be a warm supporter of the system 

 of colonisation, after magnifying the importance of Algiers to France, 

 which he compared to that of the East Indies to England, asked the 

 minixten about their intentions concerning Algiers. The president of 

 the council replied, that " there was no intention of evacuating the 

 country; that France was at liberty to act as she pleased, being 

 untrommeled by any engagement with foreign powen respecting it ; 

 that for the present the government thought proper to confine itself 

 to the possession of the three principal maritime stations, imimly. 

 Algiers, Oran, and Bono, but that it might be thought advisable at a 

 future time to occupy two or three more points on the coast, although 

 there was nothing decided a* yet on that subject With regard to tie 

 plans for colonising the country, the government wa* ready to favour 

 them if carried on by private companies, but had no intenti 

 pursue them on it* own account, or by its own means." These expla- 

 nation* seemed to give general satisfaction to the Chamber, 

 revenue derived from Algien figured in the budget to the amount of 

 only 1,500,000 francs, whilst the whole annual expenditure raqi 

 to keep possession of and administer the country was stated in Hi" 

 Cham tier to amount to 80,000,000 francs. The army cm pi". 

 North Africa consisted of 80,000 men, of whom 4ti" .Indent 



characters, chiefly from Paris, who had been formed into u li. 

 corps. A corps of auxiliary native troops, by the name of Zouaves, 

 was also formed, as well as a battalion of Turks, and a foreign legion 

 ling of men of all nation*. 



In May of that year, Abd-el-Koder, the son of on influential 



