are rounder, and their noses less prominent | sent a scene at once novel, striking, and picand aquiline than the Arabian types. The turesque; and although the vigorous commerArabs of the plains are a nomadic race, chief- cial life everywhere pulsating around is no ly dwelling in tents, who have preserved the doubt in a great degree factitious - - factitious manners, faith, and language of their pro- in the sense applicable to all numerously-gargenitors who immigrated to these countries; risoned towns-it is not the less impressive and flit hither and thither with their flocks and exhilarating; and you will not have been and herds, as fancy, caprice, or the need on shore ten minutes, before feeling quite satof water and fresh pasture dictates. Some of isfied that the contest going on between Asia, these tribes, however, reside in villages near and Europe on North African soil, is already the chief cities, and engage in the cultivation virtually decided so far as the capital of Alof the soil. They are of courageous temper-geria is concerned. The narrow, filthy streets, ament, and simple, abstemious habits; in with their dead walls of whity-brown houses, these attributes differing altogether from the have been or are in process of being cleared servile and luxurious Moors, who constitute and widened, and the houses turned round the bulk of the town populations-a mixed with their window-faces to the passers-byrace, descended from the various nations that to the unspeakable disgust and dismay of the have at different periods settled in North Afri- wealthy, luxurious Moors, at thus finding ca, although the Arabian element undoubted- themselves, their harems, servants the inly predominates, especially since the large ad- ner, shrouded life, in fact, to which they dition to their numbers consequent upon the were accustomed in their walled-in seclusion expulsion of the Andalusian Moors from Spain, after the conquest of Granada. The Jews, who also flocked thither in great numbers on being driven out of that country, need not be described · semper idem · -in Algeria, as elsewhere, the ubiquitous race are the brokers, pedlers, money-changers, jewel-dealers of the community. The Kooloolis are the descendants of the Turkish Janizaries of whose Algerine rule we shall have presently to speak - who, not being permitted to bring females with them to the Barbary States, intermarried with Moorish women or Christian captives. The negroes are, or rather were, slaves from the interior of Africa.

exposed, like the faces of Frankish, and, alas! of late, too many Moorish women, to impertinent observation and the common light of day. There has been an extensive emigration of rich Moors to the more congenial atmosphere of Tunis and Morocco, but the poorer classes, both of Moors and Kooloolis, have adapted themselves, with more or less of readiness, to a change by which they have unquestionably been greatly benefited; and as porters-a business they dispute with the emancipated negroes-waiters, clerks, household servants, boatmen, and the inferior occupations generally, display an energy and teachableness that could hardly have been predicted from their former habits and modes of thought. The Jews also remain, and make money of their new clients the French, with as keen a relish as they did of their old friends the Turks and Moors; and all the more agreeably, no doubt, that no apprehension need now be entertained of a sudden demand of " your money or your life" from a fierce aga of Janizaries, or other all-potent functionary, as in the days when their elastio shoulders stooped beneath the burden of Turkish rule.

As might be expected, the French occupation of Algeria shows to greatest advantage in the metropolis of their new possession and its charming environs, so easily accessible from Toulon and Marseille, especially if visited during the month of June, or early in July, when the heat has not yet become intolerable, and the gorgeous vegetation of the country is in its fullest vigor, and colored by its richest dyes. At this season of the year, the harbor of Algiers, formed by the artificial connection of a small island in front of the eity with the mainland, will be found alive! The new buildings- the Prefecture, Cawith shipping, steamers chiefly, with frequent- thedral, Theatre, Palace of Justice, handsome ly several crack specimens of the Royal Yacht structures all of them contribute greatly to Squadron intermingled with them. The bus- the rapidly-developing European aspect of tle on the quays, and in the steep and narrow the city. Then the principal thoroughfares streets which lead from them, the hurrying to are studded with brilliant cafes, milliners, and fro, and Babel hubbub of the motley confectioners', jewlers' shops, almost all kept population by which they are crowded, pre- by a monsieur or madame de Paris.

Let us

Leaving this market, and passing out of the city by one of the barriers of the upper town, we find ourselves near the plateau-summit of Le Sahal, with one of the most splendid landscapes in the world stretched out before us. Beauty breaks in everywhere, encircles us in all directions. The verdant,

walk on to the principal bazaar or market- the novel and, to a stranger, burlesque scene. place, not very far from the Place de Maren- The gendarmerie maure, who are expected to go, which has not only a fresh and pleasant keep order in this and similar localities, are look at this season of the year, with its pyra- recruited from the ranks of these noisy, busmids of delicious fruits cherries, peaches, tling errand-men. pomegranates, oranges, dates, jujubes, melons -but is perhaps the very best place in Algiers for obtaining a good, collective view of its shifting, miscellaneous population. Here we are, and the first glance assures us that officers and soldiers in the blue and red uniforms, gold, silver, and worsted epaulettes, and lace of the French army, are abundantly numer- slightly-undulating surface of the far east ous; Zouaves and Spahis, native troops in and west extending hills is profusely dotted the service of France (fighting Arabs and with white, villa-like country-houses, peeping Kabyles - not Moors), in ornamented bornouse out from amidst vine-gardens, orange and (cloaks), are scarcely less so. Yonder, a muf- palm groves, bouquet-like clumps of pomefled Moorish lady hurries past, followed by a granate, jujube, cypress, and almond trees; huge negro carrying her marketings, the lady above us is the deep, cloudless blue of Italian intensely scrutinized by a bevy of elegantly- skies; and far below, murmuring at the base attired French dames, who, escorted by their of Le Sahal, and closing the distant horizon smart and lithe, if not very gigantic husbands, on the north, are the bright and calmly-heavthat talk much more and louder than their ing waters of the Mediterranean the fresh greatly better-halves, are come over to take a breeze from whence sensibly moderates the peep at the capital of L'Afrique Française intense heat. Even in the shade of this luxone or more of them possibly to ascertain if uriant foliage, the thermometer stands at 100 an eligibly-situated magasin de modes is in the degrees Fahrenheit: a month later in the market. At a stall near them is a gay sou- year it will be at least ten degrees higher — brette, unmistakably a recent importation, still higher when the south wind blows and with her unexceptionable cap and glittering scorches, as with the breath of a blast-furear-drops, who wonderfully contrives at one nace, every leaf and blade of verdure in AÞand the same moment to bargain for a fowl geria - baking them as brown as an Arab's with her fingers, dispose of a peach with her face, save it may be the oleander tribe, and teeth, and play off the artillery of laughing one or two similar fire-and-frost defying everlips, bright eyes, and the prettiest feet in the greens; with the exception, also, of the oasis world, at a young sous-lieutenant, in the uni- upon which we are now standing, which, at form of a Chasseur d'Afrique, who happens an immense cost, has been completely interto be standing by. Here and there flash laced with a silver net-work of streams, shieldpast, showily attired, jewelled Jewesses, ed from the sun's rays by the overarching whose lustrous Eastern eyes are, after all, foliage which they nourish and sustain. L their brightest ornaments. These grave-look-Sahal was the earthly Mohammedan paradise ing swarthy men in white bornouse are Ka- of the chiefs of the Janizaries and the wealthy byles, who, first leaving their arms at the bar- Moors, till the cannon of the Franks awoke rier, are come to ascertain how wheat, maize, them from their sensuous dreams of security; millet, which they cultivate on the slopes and and, judging by the numerous epaulettes and in the valleys of the Little Atlas, are ruling silk dresses that glance and flutter through in Algiers to-day. There are but few Arabs openings in the trees and groves, it is not less present, except those in uniform - the free the favorite resort of the gallant soldiers and air of the plains doubtless suiting them bet- fair dames of France. Other luxurious reter than the close atmosphere of towns, treats in the vicinity of Algiers are the reGiaour-governed towns more especially; but nowned gardens of Blidah and Koleah, situthere is a large number of Kooloolis and the ated, as previously stated, one at the base of lower sort of Moors running about in all di- the near Atlas range, the other on the Medirections, in the reality or pretence of busi-terranean shore, slightly westward of the city. ness, and bawling and gesticulating in a way The towns themselves may be called gardens, that greatly adds to the din and confusion of the narrow streets being roofed in, as it were,

with interlacing branches of the palm and wilderness the fair-seeming plain itself, a vine, partly for shade to the dwellers therein, pestilential swamp in winter, and in the sumbut chiefly to prevent the drying up during mer, still more fatal to human life, from tho the summer heats of the limpid waters of the deadly vapors issuing from the cracked surChissa, which are made to flow through them. face of the undrained ground. Hundreds of The shop-windows of these leaf-shaded streets, colonists perished miserably; and those whom opening like trapdoors, give to view peculiar fever spared, fell by the hands of the Arabs industries going on within-such as the and Kabyles, who, issuing from the Col de manufacture and ornamentation of silk bor- Teneah, swept the Metidjah repeatedly with nouse of various colors, rich saddlery, slip- sword and flame. The hapless condition of pers, sabre-sheaths, &c., and fruit and sweet- the scattered colonists, in this last respect, meat shops are well supplied and numerous. may be estimated from the remark of Baron Each establishment is watched in front by Pichon, civil intendant of Algeria - "that the proprietor, who, squat upon a mat, and the government model-farm, distant only about not unfrequently dabbling with his feet in the six miles from Algiers, always required a batcool stream, regards the intrusive Franks with talion to guard it, and a half-battalion to inthe same dull furtive expression of cowed ma- quire every morning after their comrades' wellignity which one sometimes detects in the fare, and the manner in which they had passed quickly-drawn glance of his richer country- the night." The incursions of the Arabs have man of Le Sahal; seeming, like him, to be been at length effectually restrained by a wall searching his opium or tobacco muddled and chain of block-houses, which completely brains for a solution of the mysterious decree encircle the Metidjah -a sort of miniature of Allah, which permits the unbeliever to Chinese wall, devised by General Bugeaud in command in places once sacred to the faith- 1845; but the deadly pestilence has been mitful, and trodden by the Christian only as a igated only by the partial draining that has slave. taken place, and millions must be yet sunk in These are no doubt exceptional spots, but the devouring soil ere the rate of mortality can Algeria, generally speaking, is of considera- be reduced to a satisfactory average. And it ble average fertility. The slopes of the At- is only in the Metidjah that any serious atlas-three ranges of which rising one above tempt at agricultural colonization has been the other, can be discerned from the plateau of made. The vast plains at the eastern provLe Sahal are clothed, in most instances, ince are still solitudes, broken only by the to the summit with wood and verdure; shifting locations of the nomadic Arabs. In the intervening valley, watered by innumera- fact, after twenty-two years of unparalleled ble streams, bring forth abundantly; and sacrifices and prodigious exertion, the French the plains of Bona and Constantina have a are still only encamped in Africa, not settled historical reputation for productiveness. The there. Their dominion, according to Marshal experimental agriculture of France has not Bugeaud, an unexceptionable authority upon yet, however, produced very favorable results. such a point, is limited to the range of their Soon after General Bourmont's conquest, the cannon "Nos boulets marquent les limites glowing reports sent home relative to the ca- de notre puissance en Afrique." This is the pabilities of the magnificent expanse of the thrice-told tale of French colonization, for Metidjah-comprising forty-five square leagues which that versatile and ingenious people do of dead-level ground, in the immediate vicin- not indeed appear to possess the slightest apity of Algiers-induced considerable num- titude. They colonized Canada during more bers of French farmers, spite of their gene- than two hundred years; and when Wolfe's rally unenterprising character, to quit la belle victory over Montcalm finally wrested it from France, and encounter the perils of the Med-them, Canada could boast of 23,000 colonists, iterranean, with a view to locate themselves men, women, and children; twenty years afpermanently in a land of such splendid prom- terwards, the number reached 113,000. The ise. Pestilence and the sword, however, chief cause of these lamentable failures seems quickly dispelled the sanguine dreams of the to be their entire lack of faith in any associative unfortunate colonists. The beautiful green- enterprise which is not originated and domisward was found to be a forest of tall, reedy nated by the government. They appear to grass, in which, without a compass, a man have a downright passion for being regulated might be lost as easily as in an American organized" is the favorite term - by

moreover, which may perhaps in some degree reconcile the apparent contradiction between the confessedly unsatisfactory result of the war and the unusually large number of brilliant military reputations that have been created by it.

authority, whether the purpose be great or small- the mode of waiting at the doors of a theatre, or of founding a great colony; a remarkable idiosyncrasy, which has no doubt its value in a military point of view, but is quite incompatible with the self-relying energy, the individual vehemence and determin- Algerine piracy owes its origin, in reality, ation which constitute the vital force, the in- to a war of proselytism, initiated by Ferdiherent and expansive life, of all permanently nand, called the Catholic, of Spain. That successful colonies. Still, as the French na- monarch, not satisfied with expelling the Motion prefer being organized for such enter- hammedan Arabs from Spain, pursued them prises, let us hope that the railways which with relentless zeal to Africa, where they had the Journal de l'Empire announced in Decem- fled for refuge; and his forces obtained posber last to be contemplated by the government session, in the commencement of the sixteenth (one from Algiers to Blidah across the Me- century, of Oran, several minor points on the tidjah, the other from Philippeville to Con- coast, and the small island in front of Algiers, stantina by the Saza Valley), will not only be then unconnected with the mainland. Eutespeedily accomplished, but that the correlative mi, the Saracen chief of Algiers, terrified at decrees which the emperor may issue, com- the progress of the invaders, applied for asmanding the prompt and permanent coloniza-sistance to a co-religionist and desperate pirate tion of Algeria, will be as effectual as those called Baba Horush (Father Horush), corof Louis Philippe were notoriously futile and rupted by European sailors into Barbarossa, useless. This, by the way, is not an entirely whose exploits in the Levant had invested his disinterested aspiration; for if there is one name with a terrible celebrity. He acceded thing clear in the hazy domain of international to the request with alacrity, landed his seapolitics, it is that France, by establishing her- banditti near Bona, and, in concert with the self in Algeria, has entered into a bond to keep Moors, recovered from the Spaniards all their the peace towards Great Britain to the full acquisitions, except Oran and the island bevalue she places upon its retention; and, as fore Algiers. He next slew Eutemi, and gov earnest friends of peace, we shall rejoice at erned the Moors in his stead with brutal the success of any measures which may tend ferocity. At length, on returning from the to render the pledge of amity more precious sack of Tlemecen, he was attacked near Oran in the eyes of the French people. The pro- by the Spaniards and revolted Moors, defeattests of successive British ́ministries before ed, and slain. His brother, Khair-ed-Din, alluded to, were from the first solely dictated who succeeded to his authority, lost no time by anxiety for the independence of Morocco, in placing himself and his dominions under with which this country has important commercial relations, and whence, moreover, the supplies for Gibraltar are drawn. That point conceded, as it has ultimately been, the French settlement in North Africa is a matter of con-itime counterpoise to the growing power of gratulation for Great Britain, not jealousy.

the protection of the Commander of all the Faithful, Selim I., sultan of Constantinople, who, guided chiefly by religious motives, accepted the charge as affording a valuable mar

Spain, and the zeal of the Knights of St. It will be necessary to introduce our sketch John, established at Malta for the avowed of the war, still unconcluded, that has for so purpose of enforcing Christianity in the Medmany years desolated the interior of the coun- iterranean by fire and sword. Khair-ed-Din try, whose more salient physical and moral was created a bey, subsequently capudan features we have briefly glanced at, by the pacha, or high-admiral, and was furnished shortest possible summary of the origin and with a body of Turkish Janizaries, who as character of the Turkish power encamped sisted him to retake the island in front of his there, in nearly the same positions as the capital from the Spaniards. The organization French now occupy, for three hundred years of Algerine piracy dates from this time; and previous to the capture of Algiers by General so vigorous and rapid was its development, Bourmont. And it may be as well in this that when Charles V. ascended the throne, place to request the reader to bear in mind the corsairs of Barbary were not only the ter especially when his blood flames and his eyes ror of the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, fill with indignation and pity at the bare re- but insulted the very coasts and harbors of cital of deeds which outrage the humanities Spain almost with impunity. In 1541, Charles even of war, if such a phrase is permissible-V., the most powerful monarch at that time that we transcribe those passages from records in Europe, sent a great armament against furnished by the perpetrators of the deeds Algiers, which resulted in disastrous failure. themselves, and necessarily so, inasmuch as the adverse parties in the terrific contestthe Kabyles and Arabs-publish no newspapers, indite no bulletins; a circumstance,

The fleet was shattered by a hurricane, and the army compelled to reembark in confusion and dismay. The insolence of the Algerines now overtopped all bounds, and indiscriminate

page of the military annals of the new empire. We now commence the narrative of a war, of which we have just quoted the latest triumph.

war was made upon the vessels of all Chris- recent storming of Laghouat, and, said Gentian nations that refused to pay them tribute.eral Randon, governor-general of Algeria, inAdmiral Blake, however, taught them to re- scribed with their victorious swords the first spect the English flag; the French, in 1684, bombarded the pirate-city with the like purpose and success; the Dutch, Swedes, and Danes, purchased forbearance by annual subsidies; but against the weaker maritime states, the piratical war continued with unabated audacity. The United States, after their separation from Great Britain, were supposed to be in that category-a mistake which the dey, in 1815, had to pay dearly for. The following year, Lord Exmouth battered Algiers, and compelled the liberation of every Christian slave in the dey's dominions not one of whom, by the by, was a British subject; and in 1830, as we have seen, the dominion of the Turkish Janizaries, after three centuries of ferocious misrule and oppression, was finally brought to an end.

Soon after the capitulation of Algiers, a considerable number of Arab chiefs met in council at Blidah, to consider whether it might not be politic to continue on the same terms with the new as with the old masters of Algiers, Bona, and Oran, the beys of which latter towns had already transferred their allegiance, whatever that might be worth, to France, and been confirmed in their authority. They, the Arabs, had been accustomed to purchase, by certain fixed payments, the priv ilege of grazing their flocks and herds within reach of the Turkish garrisons; and the continuance or discontinuance of this species of That turbulent and licentious militia, though tribute was the especial matter for discussion. always recruited in the Ottoman dominions, General Bourmont went to assist at the conhad long ceased to owe more than a nominal ference with 2000 infantry, two squadrons of allegiance to the sultan; and the deys, whom cavalry, and six pieces of cannon, for the sole they elected from their own ranks, held their purpose, as he stated, of personally assuring precarious state upon a throne but one step the Arabs that France had no other object in from a bloody grave, into which, at the ca- sending an expedition to Africa, than to reprice of the Janizaries, they might be at any lieve them of the detestable yoke of the Almoment hurled. The rule of the deys did not gerine Turks. The Arabs did not wait to extend beyond the towns and the Arab vil-receive this friendly message; and when the lages in the immediate vicinity; and they misunderstood general was returning the next were accustomed to make war upon the Kabyles and nomadic Arabs precisely after the corsair fashion practised in the Mediterranean—namely, by sudden incursions in quest of booty, the most valuable being the chiefs of principal families, and their wives and children, whom they bore off, not into absolute slavery, for-the prisoners being followers of the Prophet - that was forbidden by the law of the Koran, but into rigorous captivity, from which they were only released upon payment of heavy ransoms by their relatives or tribe. This system, incredible as it may appear, has been continued, and in some respects improved upon, by the generals of France. In the cities, the Turkish sway was ruthless; and as the arrival of the French brought only a change of masters, they were submitted to by the Moors with the same timid obsequiousness as they manifested when crouching beneath the iron rod of the Janizaries. The Jews and Kooloolis welcomed the new-comers from the first; so that France has really had to contend only with the Kabyles and nomadic Arabs, and not with all or nearly all of these, for many of the most warlike tribes have constantly sided with the invaders, and furnished the battalions and squadrons of Zouaves and Spahis, the most effective troops, according to French authority, in the army of Africa. It was the Zouaves who covered their new eagle with glory at the

day but one to Algiers from his abortive mission, he was assailed by such a swarm of Arab cavalry, and pressed so fiercely, that, spite of the unquestionable bravery and discipline of the troops under his command, it was only with the greatest difficulty, and after severe loss, that they succeeded in regaining the shelter of the city. The prosecution of the Arab war, thus rashly provoked by General Bourmont, was intrusted by Louis Philippe's government to General Clausel, who succeeded to the chief command in September, 1830. This officer's views in Africa embraced from the first a wide horizon; and the preliminary steps for their attainment were entered upon with vigor. He recommended colonization on a grand scale, commencing with the plain of the Metidjah, and the formation of native battalions, in imitation of the policy of Great Britain in India. These views were to some extent adopted by the French ministry; the immediate colonization of the Metidjah was decreed and formulized in the Moniteur Ab gérien, and a commencement made towards organizing a powerful force of Zouaves and Spahis. A foreign battalion, composed, according to one of them, whose narrative has been translated by Lady Duff Gordon, of adventurers and vagabonds from every nation in Europe, except Great Britain, but commanded by French officers, was formed and permanently attached to the army of Africa, which,