SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Twee.%

Narrative of a Campaign against the Kabailes of Algeria; with the Mission of M. Suchet to the Emir Abd-el-Kader for an Exchange of Prisoners. By Dawson Borrer, F.R.G.S., Membre Correspondent de la Societe Orientate a Paris ; Author

of A Journey from Naples to Jerusalem." Longman and Co.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE,

The Jesuit Conspiracy. The Secret Plan of the Order. Detected and Revealed by the Abbate Leone. With a Preface by M. Victor Considerant, Member of the Na- tional Assembly of France, and of the Municipal Council of the Seine. Translated, with the Author's sanction, from the authentic French edition.. Chapman and Bali.

Promos,

Madeleine ; a Tale of Auvergne. Founded on Fact. By Julia Kavanagh.••Bentley.

BOBBER'S NARRATIVE OF A CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE KABA1LES OP ALGERIA.

Arras journeying from Naples to Mount Sinai and Jerusalem,* Mr. Bor- rer appears to have passed a year or two in Algeria. In 1846, he made a running tour through the province of Constantine to the Oasis of Biskra; in 1847, he accompanied the expedition against the Kaballes, which Mar- shal Bugeaud undertook, contrary to the opinion of the Commission of the Chambers, and, it is supposed, to the wishes of the Km' g and Gui- zot. As the narrative of these two enterprises was scarcely sufficient for the desired volume, Mr. Borrer has written some remarks on the colony, and translated M. Sachet's account of his mission to Abd-el- Kader for an exchange of prisoners, as well as some other papers of fic- tion or matter-of-fact designed to illustrate the character of the Arabs, or the condition of the settlement.

The scamper through Constantine, was made under unfavourable cir- cumstances : the weather was often bad ; and travelling in Algeria, even in the subdued districts, is not the safest of pastimes, as to wander from your attendants in search of plants or to examine antiquities sometimes involves the risk of a shot at your life. The miscellaneous papers, though containing useful information in reference to the colony, or clever sketches of manners in the form of a tale, have such an air of stuffing that per- haps their merit is undervalued from that impression. The "Campaign against the Kabailes " is an interesting narrative on various accounts. It furnishes a picture of French warfare in Africa; it contains some good incidental sketches of French camp life and military feeling ;. without re- cording any great events of war, it exhibits what is equally interesting to the reader, incidents of personal adventure, and fights just large enough for the whole to be embraced in the coup d'ceil. The more stirring nar- rative is well varied by quieter pictures of scenery, and the usual features of descriptive travel ; the novelty of the subjects endowing the pictures with an attraction which Mr. Borrer could hardly impart from himself.

The omission of a map to the volume is a great defect : our common atlasses do not contain the region on a sufficient scale to enable the reader to follow the route of the army, and the French geographers would have furnished one ready to hand. The situation of the Kabylie or dis- trict of the Kabailes is South-east from Algiers towards the frontiers of Tunis and Tripoli, the extreme Easterly part of the Kabylie touching the Mediterranean. The country is mountainous, forming a portion of the Little Atlas, but fruitful. The inhabitants are supposed to be an aborigi- nal people : in general character they apppear to resemble the Afghans; being barbarous, cruel, treacherous, and not over brave, measured by European standards. It is not a matter of wonder that the French Chamber and the Ministry disapproved of the expedition ; for beyond striking terror and enforcing a nominal submission it had no end what- ever. The Kabailes had given no offence except declining to submit themselves formally to Marshal Bugeaud; though forays were continually taking place between the garrison of Bougie and the adjacent tribes. No other object was achieved, or probably designed, than that of making an example of the Kaballes, and gratifying the vanity of the Marshal ; which was accomplished at the loss of some lives to the army, and the destruction of much property and much life among the natives. Some villages were carried and sacked ; the army marched triumphantly and safely through the mountains ; and Marshal Bugeaud embarked at Bougie on his return to France, which many thought his recall. Though all this served the purposes of " la gloire," it is very questionable whe- ther the campaign ought to be called successful. The destruction of their crops, the burning of their villages, the abase of their females, and the indiscriminate murder of old men, women, and children, must leave a rankling feeling in the minds of these mountaineers, (who rigidly enforce the law of blood for blood,) that may breed much more trouble to the future colonists than Marshal Bugeaud's fame will counterbalance. The following is a part of the principal affair. "The villages were all surrounded with walls of about twelve feet in height and composed of stones cemented together with mud mingled with chopped straw; a strong fence of thorny bashes crowning them, and impenetrable hedges of the prickly pear growing along their base. The inhabitants fired chiefly film the loop-holes pierced in these walls and in the walls of the houses. Upon the terraces of the latter also might be seen picturesque groups of gaunt warriors, their flowing burnooses thrown back as they handled with activity their long guns. In one of these last villages some half-dozen of them boldly remained, after the great body of their comrades had fled, in a large square building com- manding the entrance of the village on the side we approached, and kept up a determined fire at' bout portant.' It was all to no avail, however: the narrow streets were soon crowded with French troops, ravishing, massacring, and plun- dering on all sides. Neither sex nor age was regarded; the sword fell upon all alike. From one house blood-stained soldiers, laden with spoil, passed forth as I entered it. Upon the floor of one of the chambers lay a little girl of twelve or fourteen years of age: there she lay, weltering in gore and in the agonies of death: an accursed ruffian thrust his bayonet into her. God will requite him. In ano- ther house a wrinkled old woman sat crouched upon the matting, rapidly muttering in the agony of fear prayers to Allah with a trembling tongue. A pretty child, of six or seven years old, laden with silver and coral ornaments, clung to her side, her eyes streaming with tears as she clasped her aged mother's arm. The soldiery, mad with blood and rage, were nigh at hand. I seized the fair child: a moment was left to force her into a dark recess at the far end of the 'Spectator, 1844; page 1237.

building; some ragged matting thrown before it served to conceal her; and whilst I was making signs to her mother to hold silence soldiers rushed in: some ran- sacked the habitation; others pricked the old female with their bayonets. So!- will you slay an aged woman ? "No monsieur,' said one fellow, we will not kill her; but her valuables are concealed, and we mast have them.'

"In nearly every house were vast jars of oil, (for the Kaballes make, consume, and sell vast quantities,) often six or seven feet in height, and ranged in rows around the chambers. Holes being rapped in all these jars, the houses were soon flooded with oil, and streams of it were pouring down the very streets. When the soldiers had ransacked the dwellings, and smashed to atoms all that they could not carry off or did not think worth seizing as spoil, they heaped the rem- nants and the mattings together, and fired them. As I was hastily traversing the narrow streets to regain the outside of the village, disgusted with the horrors I witnessed, flames burst forth on all sides, and torrents of fire came swiftly glid- ing down the thoroughfares; for the flames had gained the oil. An instant I turn- ed, the fearful doom of the poor concealed child and the decrepid mother flashing on my mind. It was too late: who could distinguish the house amongst hun- dreds exactly similar? The fire was crackling, blazing, with increased fury, and there was no time to lose. The way of the gateway was barred with roaring flames. Scrambling to the terrace of a low building, I threw myself over the walL The unfortunate Kabyle child was doubtless consumed with her aged parent.

How many others may have shared her fate ! • "One vast sheet of flame crowned the height which an hour or two before was ornamented with an extensive and opulent village, crowded with inhabitants. It seemed to have been the very emporium of commerce of the Beni-Abbes: fabrics of gunpowder, of arms, of balks, burnooses, and different stuffs were there. The streets boasted of numerous shops of workers in silver, workers in cord, venders of silks and other stuffs, and articles of French or Tunisian manufacture, brought by their traders from Algiers or Tunis. All that was not borne away by the spoilers was devoured by fire, or buried amidst the crashing ruins; and then the hungry flames, vomited forth from the burning habitations, gained the tall corn growing around these villages, and running swiftly on, wound about and con- sumed the scattered olive-trees overshadowing it. Fire covered the face of the country, and the heavens were obscured with smoke. "The soldiers pronounced the country 'joliment nettoye; and I heard two ruffians, after the sacking was over, relating with great gusto how many young girls had been burnt in one house, after being abused by their brutal comrades and themselves. They pronounced that house joliment nettoye ' also. Indeed it was a very favourite phrase with them. • • "As for lamentations and weepings in the French camp, for comrades sacrificed upon the altar of La Gloire,' they were not in vogue at all, and any symptoms of regret were soon drowned in the wine-cup. Ah dam! aojourd-htu lui, do- main moi!—Hazard de la guerre !

" A vaincre sans peril on triomphe sans gloire.' " The character of the war seems very similar to that which we waged on the right bank of the Indus during the Afghan invasion. The strength of the country is so great that a few resolute men could hold an army in check; but, however brave the men may be individually, they never stand against the equal bravery of others in array. The hardships aris- ing from climate are as great as in Asia, or greater ; the privations per- haps more severe, from the deficiency of the French commissariat.

"The column pursued its march over beds of sand, rubble, and water-worn rocks, concealed in winter by the rushing torrent. It was for the infantry and convoi extremely fatiguing; for so winding was the course of this river that it was necessary continually to ford it, and sometimes to march in its waters a consider- able distance. Though it flows in so narrow a space, yet eighteen times did the column ford it in a few hours, the water often reaching above the saddle-girths, sad the current being in places very strong. Thus had the poor foot-soldier, the perspiration streaming from his weather-beaten face, continually to plunge into the cold water and to contend with the current, laden with his weighty accoutre- ments, shot sun beating fiercely upon his head; then to drag himself dripping wet over beds of heaving sand, or rolling stones, again to plunge into water above his middle. Attacks of coup de soleil,' or fever, were nor then surprising. One man became a confirmed idiot, and so remained, until, upon the return of the column, he one day wandered from the rear-guard, and of course was seen no more. "The fatigues of this expedition were, however, a mere nothing. Indeed our marches were, as it may be remarked, always very short, and the season the most favourable for an expedition. To judge of the sufferings of the French army in Africa, it is necessary to join an expedition during the winter-rains, or the great heats of summer; when it is no uncommon thing to behold man after man throw himself upon the earth, from which neither entreaties, threats, nor the certainty of his miserable fate if left there, will raise him; whilst others, seized with fear- ful accesses of madness, blow their own brains out with their muskets. Then, during the chill and heavy rains and cutting night-air, many a poor wretch has been found in the morning a cold and stiffened corpse. Again' during the great heats at mid-day, stifling exhalations rise from the earth; so that at a halt the Wearied soldiers, having cast themselves down with their faces in close contact with the earth, have been discovered upon the trumpets sounding the march to be in a perfect state of asplayxy. A trumpeter, formerly in the Spahis of Oran, told me that he once saw above fifty together in that state; and that, during the same expedition, several destroyed themselves from desperation brought on by fatigue. To prevent the danger of asphyxy, the troops during a halt are now often forbidden to sit down, or if not, only allowed to seat themselves upon bag- gage or other raised seats, so that they may not inhale the heavy murderous atmosphere floating upon the ground."

For the horrors of the system of warfare Mr. Borrer offers reasonable explanations. Of the colony he gives an indifferent account, either by inci- dental pictures or direct description. The first motive of an enterprise influences its whole career, not only by the character it indicates of the undertaker, but by the course of conduct it induces and the opposition it creates. The colonies of Britain have been founded with industrial ob- jects; and though much cruelty and crime may have been exercised upon aborigines, these have been caused by quarrels, and probably by provoca- tion; a war upon the savages, much less their destruction, formed no part of the original design. Our East Indian conquests have been matter of accident or necessity. For a century and a half the English remained factors ; their first territorial power and its subsequent increase were forced upon them, often unwillingly. The first expedition against Algiers was a planned conquest, not justifiable by public usage, and de- signed and maintained with no other motive than to get rid of unquiet Spirits and bad subjects. When colonization was determined on, the con- quest and its wars were ill fitted to conciliate the natives ; but two evils were at work besides. The French as a people are not well adapted for colonization, or for ruling other peoples. Their bonhommie and all their other good qualities are apt to vanish under the prospect of an advantage or the pressure of a difficulty ; their public men have not that respect for other people's rights, or that consideration for other people's feelings and opinions, which distinguishes the English officials, though personally

we may not be so tolerant of peculiarities. Hence various acts of sys- tematic oppression, and great shocks to religious and other prejudices in Algiers,—such as pulling down a mosque to make a road, and breaking up the stones for road metal. The corruption which Louis Philippe in. trodueed generally into France was extended to Algiers, and aggravated ; while the systems of our "Mr. Mother-Country" seem improved with additions.

"Algeria is divided administratively into three zones: the population of the first being chiefly European—this is the civil territory or zone; the second by Arabs and a few Europeans—this is the mixed territory; the third by Arabs only —this is the Arab territory par excellence. The administration of the first is the principal and most serious; and this is pronounced by all, and especially by the Commission charged this year (1847) with the examination of affairs in Algeria, to be defective, imperfect in its functions, complicated in its system, slow in its working, making much ado about nothing, doing little and that little badly. The functionaries of whom it is composed are pronounced ignorant of the lan- guage, usages, and history of the country, and unacquainted with the duties im- posed upon them. Their proceedings, instead of being rapid and simple, as so necessary in a new colony, are ill-advised, ill-executed, and supereminently slow. The latter defeat is chiefly attributable, perhaps, to the fact that the centraliza- tion of affairs is in Paris, and all the acts must be referred to the head bureau there before the least move of the most trivial nature can be effiicted. During the last year only, above twenty-four thousand despatches were received from thence by the Administration Civile,' and above twenty-eight thousand sent to Paris by this branch affair in Algiers.

"The immense number of functionaries appertaining to the corps of civil ad- ministrators in Algeria is astonishing. At the present period there are above two

thousand; yet there is a cry that they are insufficient- • * "Another and great reason for the slow growth of the colony is the extreme tardiness with which the administrative forms requisite to the establishment of emigrants are carried out. For instance, though assignments of land are pro- mised, yet a year or eighteen months after application frequently elapses before the grantees are put into possession. The majority of those arriving from the mother-country having but very small capital, it in the intermediate period dis- appears; they are compelled to devour it to keep body and soul together; and when it is gone their assignment may be allotted them, with the parental advice, There sit ye down, increase and multiply': but it comes too late; their only pro- spect is starvation; and they are fortunate if sufficient remains to them to permit them to shake the dust from off their feet and fly the inhospitable shore, thus preventing others from arriving: for will they not return with outcry and rela- tions of their sufferings? It is even a fact well known to all, that men of capital, rich French proprietors, arriving in Algeria under the auspices of the Minister of War, have remained as long as five or six years before being able to obtain a pro- mised concession. Others again established provisionarily upon a tract of land, the assignment of which has been promised them have built upon it, cultivated portions of it, and otherwise fulfilled all required conditions; when at last the definite answer is given them—the title to it is refused! Being able neither to alienate nor to mortgage, they have thus been brought to rain.

"The generally desolate state of those poor emigrants who do become esta- blished in Algeria is painful enough. The villages scattered about the Sahel or Massif of Algiers are, with one or two exceptions, the type of desolation. Perch- ed upon the most arid spots, distant from water, there the poor tenants lie sweltering beneath sun and sirocco wondering, as their haggard eyes rove acmes vast tracts of inexternainable palaietta and prickly bushes, what there is them 'to increase and multiply' upon, as recommended."