CASTELLANE'S MILITARY LIFE IN ALORRIA. * Tin effect of this work
is by no means proportioned to its mate- rials. Count' de Castellane 'seised some ten years in Algeria, from 1842 to 1851. Ile has for his subjects several of the great opera- tions of the African war, as well as lesser affairs, and razzias. lie saw or served under Bugeaud, Changarnier, Cavaignac, Reclean, Lamoriciere; and he paints them without over-reserve, personally as well as publicly. That strange collection of natives of every European country, as well as Turks and Arabs, in addition to the great substratum of Frenchmen which forms the "army of Africa," is a frequent topic. The natural features of the country, the appearance of the towns, the natives either in their independ- ent or their subject condition, are introduced into the book, -with garrison and bivouac life, and sundry small adventures. But the work is not very attractive, unless when some striking military incident rouses the reader. It is too French, of a bad school. It aims at grace and attains little more than flippancy. The subject is quite subordinate to the Count. Whether he is describing a battle or a march, a bivouac or a fortification, something fierce, something tender, or something sentimental, the workman, and the nation as embodied in the workman, are more important and made more prominent than the thing itself. There is also a sense of doubt as to the accuracy of the statements : the reader often feels uncertain how much is dramatic or poetical, and how much matter of fact.
Yet there is frequently a large amount of the real standing out through the florid graces of French rhetoric and compliment. This _ is more especially the case where the subject is in itself thoroughly French. In the conflicts, (they are scarcely battles,) in the bearing of the wounded, in the burial of the dead, on the march, and in the camp, we see the ostentatious bravery, the resignation to the inevitable, (an Englishman ever grumbles,) the sentimental or dramatic propriety, the gayety under inconveniences, and the in- souciant philosophy which makes the best of what it has got, and enjoys without criticizing, that distinguishes the French soldiery. The military instrument which these African campaigns have formed, for daring, endurance, or exertion, is also strongly im- pressed. No doubt, the reckless bravery, the power of marching such terrible marches, of braving heat, cold, rain, and storm, and of living the while upon almost anything, has been attained by a fearful loss of life ; yet those who have stood the seasoning are equal to any military exertion. This picture has its darker shades : a total oblivion of right or wrong ; and a disregard of life and feeling, more frightful for the gayety which accompanies it. Nor is this confined to the soldiers : it is true, they may do the deeds, but it is the officer who narrates them. Thus, the Count de Castellane tells us, on a march—" Our Orleans Chasseurs found plenty of amusement in burning villages on the way, and giving proof of their dexterity in firing and hitting the living tar- gets flitting in affright all around them." Again—" General Luzy, less fortunate, could only fire a few distant shots into the enemy ; but Colonel Bouscaren, from the top of the hills, fell the midst of them ; and the Chasseurs and Spahis sabred away at their good pleasure." And again—" If the 19th had been a merry day in the French camp, the 20th was a feast day, for our soldiers had the pleasure of cutting up the Sabyles in masses." It is said in Rupert's Land, that an Indian will live where a wolf would starve. As a wolf is to an Indian, so are other soldiers to the French in the art of extracting subsistence from a district. The army under Massena in front of Torres Yedras astonished the Duke of 'Wellington by their skill in this way, and that skill has not diminished by transportation to Africa. "When the division took possession of the conquered city [Mascara] there was not a house whole, not a shelter. Those most tenantable were put first in repair for storehouses and hospitals, as it was of urgent necessity care- fully to preserve the small stock of provisions we had brought with us. The place could not be revictualled before four months, and we had but one month's TwovIsions. 'Never mind,' said General Lammieike ; the Arabs live and keep the field; we will live as they do, and beat them ' : and as he said, so be did. The flock brought from Mostaganem was carried off the first time they were driven out to pasture ; but night forays and rapid raz- zias soon furnished meat for the soldiers. Our biscuits were very economi- cally served out, but there was corn in the country ; buried, it is true, in subterranean granaries, which the Arabs call silos. We could discover • Military Life in Algeria. By the Count de Castellane. In two volumes. Pub- lished by Hurst and Blackett. them, however, and our portable mills enabled the column to make their own flour and 'bread, and so to protract our sorties through the winter. When the reports of the spies informed us of the whereabouts of any silo, the manner in which the soldiers went to work to discover exactly where it VMS was really a sight to see. They would prick the soil with their ramrod; first trying one place, then another, till the ground yielding to the fortunate ramrod the precise spot where the treasure was buried was found out. The fortunate soldier then received ten francs, and the regular distribution com- menced: for corn represented in the hands of the intendant many sorts of provisions,—rice, sugar, coffee, biscuit, and I know not what besides— corn. rice, so many pounds ; corn-sugar, so many pounds; then the mills were in movement, and the flour was metamorphosed into cakes between two por- ringers, which answered for an oven when there was no time to scoop one out of the earth, which a few hours sufficed to do. This, no doubt, was a hard life ; and I suspect that the dandies of the Cafe de Paris would hardly have been content with the fare of the column at Mascara. But there is an intoxication in success, and nothing makes one support fatigues better than the complete success of a coup de main. And as our spies were well paid, and our information very correct, our coups rarely failed."
Count de Castellano says little about the colonization of Algeria; his taste, apparently, not running in that direction, and his scien- tific principles being those of his countrymen in general—that settlers are to be administered into prosperity. The following is about the fullest picture and it is not very promising. "At three o'clock we creased the wooden bridge, and the drummer of the post saluted with a fine roll the entrance of the General into the village of Sig, which is composed of six barracks and a stone house. .As for the other habitations, they were either only about half built, or merely, projected, and the few colonists who were not laid up with fever in the hospital passed their time in disputing and quarrelling with each other. The year before, when the circuit of the village was marked out, there was a general belief that it would prosper rapidly. This part of the plain was healthy, and the soil proverbially fertile. The cannon then woke up all the echoes of the valley ; Arab cavaliers galloped along the water-courses, firing off salutes at the water, gushing through the channels made for it over the plain ; and the whole population enjoyed quite a fête-day. The occasion, indeed, called for a fête, for under the skilful direction of the engineer Captain Chapelain, the old Turkish lock had been removed. Nothing could grander than the masonry of this work. It was more than a hundred feet broad, built of great stone blocks, nearly all taken from Roman ruins, which covered the ground for a circumference of about four thousand meters. The water, run- ning between two rocks, and stopped by this obstacle, overflowed now both its banks into two canals, spreading Will and abundance over all the ad- jacent fields. * * * "It was the General's object to inform himself of the causes that had crippled the growth of a village so advantageously situated. He invited, then, all the colonists who had anything to say to meet him it five o'clock. Never was a spectacle more melancholy than this audience, held in the smoky room of a wooden cabaret. Seated on a miserable joint- stool, the General interrogated with great kindness all these unfortunates; whilst notes were taken at a rickety table, of their names, their families, their resources, and their wants. They all had the same story to tell : there was no one to employ their hands and to remunerate their labours; whilst disease and death decimated their families. Two families, however, from _the Pyrenees, had got on pretty well ; their fields yielded them profit- able crops, they had each a little flock, and all they wanted of the General was a ram. The General took pleasure in listening to them, and said to the woman, Well, you are happy here' you are better off here than in France? "Oh yes, General,' replied the good woman, we are doing very well here; but there is one thing hard to bear—it is a sad thing never to hear the sound of the church-bell.' And, indeed, for the suc- cess of a colony in Africa, it is necessary not only to think of the body, but of consolation also, which recalls the souvenirs of infancy— the church and the church-bell. The first order, therefore, that the General gave was for the construction of a chapel at St. Denis-du-Sig. One man alone, named Nassoie, besides the two families, had done well. He possessed a long handsome house built of stone, where all the wagoners, who passed and repassed incessantly on the Oran road, were in the habit of stopping : but he was an old hand, having been many years in Africa. Skil- ful, energetic, and industrious, he turned everything to account; and, who will believe it? the bank-note, thanks to him, had become known to the Arabs,—not notes of the bank of France, but notes of the bank of Nassois. A note from him would pass current, from hand to hand, throughout all the markets of the environs, as ready money."
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