Algiers as a Winter Residence. 3 



figures among the palmetto shrubs. And whether the cere- 

 monial has become one of mere custom or not, one can hardly 

 help associating some sort of solemnity with it. Then there 

 are religious festivals among the negroes by the sea-shore, 

 which, for weird effect and wonderful show, surpass anything 

 we have ever seen — dances of exorcists, sacrifices of calves, 

 and cocks to the ginns, or evil spirits, celebrations in honour 

 of Eysona, a lesser Mahomet, and, in fine, sufficient matter 

 for speculation to all interested in the present and future of 

 Islamism. 



No one can refrain from a feeling of sympathy with French 

 colonist life. As one travels from one French port to another, 

 and rests for refreshment at little oases of civilization on the 

 way, it is easy to learn a great deal both as regards the past, pre- 

 sent, and future of the settlers. Things are certainly not promis- 

 ing ; rich as is the country in natural resources, admirably as it 

 is placed with regard to the mother country, and much as the 

 Government has affected to take its interests to heart, Algeria 

 offers no El Dorado for the poor or enterprising of the French 

 people. And something is to be laid to the door of the peo- 

 ple themselves. The French do not make good colonists. 

 They do not carry their Lares and Penates with them, with the 

 intention of founding a Latium, having lost Troy. They 

 come over to Algiers with the hope of making a speedy fortune, 

 and then returning to France. 



Of course this sort of view has a deteriorating influence 

 upon the moral and material influence of the colony, and upon 

 the colonists also. They do not build and plant for posterity, 

 but for the day, and having little interest in the adopted coun- 

 try except as a sponge to suck money from, it is hardly likely 

 that they will serve her interests save as they fall in with their 

 own. Yet we might apply Sidney Smith's speech regarding 

 Australia to Algeria, " But tickle the soil with a hoe, and it 

 laughs into a harvest." Anything, everything, can be done 

 with it. And besides the sources of cereal wealth, are an in- 

 finity of others, as yet unworked and offering quite a new field 

 for enterprise. 



We are by no means disposed to overlook counterbalancing 

 difficulties. The incendiaries of the Arabs alone have ruined 

 many a hard-working farmer, and we, have only to glance at 

 the Rapport de la Commission d'Enquete on this subject, pub- 

 lished in Paris last year, to be sensible of the fatal antagonism 

 still existent between Arab and Frank, Mussulman and 

 Eoumi. 



Not entering upon this intricate and interminable subject, 

 however, we will say a few words about Algeria from a tourist's 

 point of view, and then speak more especially of the climate. 



