Ruins of Tekedemta—Abd-el-Kader’s schemes—Attempt to convert
me—More tribute—Terms of exchange—Tumblers and Singers—Restoration
of Tekedemta.
On the morning of the 29th I begged the Sultan to allow Meurice and
myself to go and see the ruins of Tekedemta, and the works carried on
there by his troops. He told us to go without fear, and ordered one of
his negroes to accompany us. We accordingly started, and after walking
for half an hour we reached the ruins of Tekedemta. The ground on
which the city stood is very broken and without a trace of vegetation;
part of the wall of a fort was still standing, it was about ten feet
thick at the base, and a few feet from the ground it fell back to
the thickness of about seven feet. The wall was defended by nine
towers, the foundations of which were still to be seen: they were
without the line of the wall, but joined to it. The whole enclosure
is one thousand eight hundred feet long, by one thousand one hundred
and fifty feet broad. The remains within the fort prove that it was
filled with streets, shops, and houses. On a hill a few hundred yards
from the citadel, may be traced the foundation of the ancient Casabah
or Bey’s palace, surrounded by fortifications: on these foundations
Abd-el-Kader is going to build a new one. At the foot of the hill,
about ten minutes’ walk from these ruins, flows the Ouet Mina. The
site of the town is commanded by lofty mountains on every side, except
towards the west, where a gentle ascent leads up to it. A road runs
from hence to Mascara.
After examining the ruins, we went towards a redoubt which
Abd-el-Kader was constructing at a distance of two hundred yards to
the eastward of the Casabah, and there we found the Sultan with his
Chief Secretary, Ben Abu, and Milud-Ben-Arrach, reclining on the
earth, which had been thrown up in digging a ditch. There was nothing
in his costume to distinguish him from the common labourers: he wore a
huge hat plaited of the leaves of the dwarf palm tree, with brims full
three feet in circumference fastened with a worsted cord and tassels
to the crown, which was at least a foot and a half high and pointed at
the top.
He greeted us kindly, and motioned us to sit beside him: encouraged by
this gracious reception I ventured to ask him what were his projects
in rebuilding Tekedemta.
“My predecessors, who dwelt in this city,” replied he, “ruled from
Tunis to Morocco, and I will restore it to its ancient splendour;
I will gather together the tribes in this place, where we shall be
secure from the attacks of the French, and when all my forces are
collected I will descend from this steep rock like a vulture from his
nest, and drive the Christians out of Algiers, Oran and Bona: if,
indeed, you were content with those three cities I would suffer you
to remain there, for the sea is not mine and I have no ships; but you
want our plains and our inland cities and our mountains; nay, you even
covet our horses, our tents, our camels, and our women, and you leave
your own country to come and take that in which Mahomed has placed his
people. But your Sultan is not a saint and a horseman as I am, and
your horses will stumble and fall on our mountains, for they are not
sure-footed like our horses, and your soldiers will die of sickness,
and those whom the pestilence has spared will fall by the bullets of
the Arab horsemen, for you are dogs who never pray to God.”
I made no reply to this pompous harangue, but went to look at the
works. The men were digging a ditch to enclose an area of about fifty
square yards: they carried the earth which they dug out towards the
spot on which the redoubt was to stand, as we do in throwing up
blockhouses. This fort was intended to receive a garrison for the
protection of the workmen. It stands on a slope and is commanded by
the ruins of the ancient citadel and by a hill, so that even without
cannon the garrison might easily be forced to evacuate.
After taking a cursory view of these works, we returned to the
ruins of the citadel, still accompanied by the negro, who could not
understand what pleasure we could find in walking about among old
stones, and who kept muttering that we were “dogs” and “asses” all the
time that we were exploring.
At sunset we returned to the camp, where we heard a great uproar, and
soon discovered a crowd of Arabs fighting and struggling in the midst
of a dense cloud of dust: they were all rolling on the ground and
wrestling together, screaming, swearing, and abusing each other, while
the chaous were showering blows to the right and to the left upon them.
We hastened to our tent somewhat alarmed at the scuffle, and on asking
the cause of it, we heard that the chaous had been distributing barley
among the horsemen, and that a few measures had been left over: the
Arabs instantly rushed upon them, and in their efforts to seize a few
handfuls of barley they made the riot we had seen.
I was sitting in the tent waiting for supper, when one of
Abd-el-Kader’s cousins, a marabout, hastily entered. “I am sent by the
Sultan,” said he, “to ask whether thou wilt embrace the true faith and
remain among us, and to tell thee that if thou wilt, he will make thee
as powerful as himself.”
I replied, that I wished to return to my own people.
“Thou shalt have women, horses, arms, and plenty of powder, and thou
shalt be as rich, as great, and as powerful as the Sultan himself.”
“If,” said I, “the Sultan will give me the command of a ship I will
become a Mahomedan, and I will go to the coast of Cherchell to fish
for coral with the Italian prisoners, and we will enrich the Sultan.”
I suppose the marabout guessed where I should really go if my
conditions were accepted, for he left the tent without saying another
word.
While we were at the ruins, the tribes who dwelt at half a day’s
march from Tekedemta had brought kuskussu and a roasted sheep, and
the people of Milianah, all kinds of fruit. Ben Faka regaled us
sumptuously with white bread, fruit, and a roast leg of mutton. The
white loaves were brought to the camp every day by the tribes, and
were the only pay given to Abd-el-Kader’s workmen.
Just as I was ending my splendid repast, Ben Faka came to me with
Abd-el-Kader’s command to go his tent. I hastened to obey the
summons, full of the hope of liberty. The Sultan received me as usual,
with enquiries after my health, after which he commanded me to write
to General Rapatel, and to ask him whether he would give in exchange
for me three of the Arab prisoners at Marseilles, to be selected by
Abd-el-Kader. I refused to write unless the Sultan would at the same
time name a ransom for my fellow-prisoners, and for Lanternier and
the four women at Droma. After a very long discussion he agreed to
exchange Meurice, the three Italians and myself, against twenty Arabs,
but he refused to give up the women at all, and as I knew that poor
Lanternier would not thank me for separating him from his wife and
daughter I did not mention him in my letter to the General. When I
had finished it the Sultan asked me whether I would not write to my
family, and perceiving my hesitation, he assured me that I might write
without fear for that no one should read my letter. I accordingly put
both letters into the same cover, sealed them with a huge seal, and
saw the Sultan give them to a man from Milianah, with orders to take
them straight to Algiers.
I returned to the tent in high spirits to tell Meurice what I had
done; the poor fellow laughed, wept, and thanked me all at once: we
talked of our country and of our friends, and promised to stand by
each other in good as well as in evil fortune, for we already looked
upon our deliverance as certain. We were about to lie down to sleep,
full of these delightful thoughts, when we found that our rug was
gone. I should have complained to Abd-el-Kader, but he was at his
prayers, so we were forced to stretch ourselves on the bare ground.
The cold was piercing, and in the middle of the night a violent storm
came on, so that before morning we were soaked to the skin.
On the 29th, Abd-el-Kader sent Milud-Ben-Arrach with the cavalry
towards Mostaganem to reconnoitre, and gave us leave to revisit the
ruins of Tekedemta. Some of the workmen were carting stones to build
the Casabah, others preparing clay to serve as mortar, and others
again finishing the redoubt. The neighbouring tribes came every day
with provisions and oxen laden with wood, and a party of Moors was
sent to burn lime at the nearest spot at which it could be found,
about half a day’s journey from Tekedemta. At about a hundred and
fifty paces to the east of the Casabah, some soldiers were busied
in clearing a very large old vaulted cistern, which Abd-el-Kader
has since turned into a general ammunition store; in order to avert
suspicion, he has bricked up the door and built a sort of guardroom
on the top. The tools were all very bad, with the exception of a few
picks and shovels that had been stolen from us. The ditch varied
in breadth and depth, and the slopes were uneven; and although the
redoubt stood on a declivity, there was no opening to carry off the
water; the earth was only bound together with branches of gum tree and
oleander, and as the winters are very severe in these mountains it is
more than probable that by this time the rain has washed the slopes
into the ditch and that the Sultan’s redoubt is reduced to a heap of
mud.
We saw the three Italians at work here, upon which I expostulated
with the Sultan, and represented to him that they were sailors and
not labourers, and that moreover he was not at war with the nation
to which they belonged; but he replied that they must earn their
food, and that he was at war with every nation, for that as he had
no seaports their friendship was useless to him, and that he was the
greatest and most powerful of all Sultans, and feared no one.
On returning to the camp we found that a party of tumblers had arrived
there and were performing for the amusement of the soldiers, who
watched them with great attention. But we had other diversions besides
this; every evening an Arab crouching in front of Abd-el-Kader’s tent,
sang for hour after hour. I never could catch all the words, but the
following phrases were constantly repeated to a monotonous tune—
“The Sultan is great, but Mahomed is yet greater.”
“The Sultan is very great, he is generous, brave, and holy.”
“The marabouts of Mecca are very great and holy.”
“The Sultan has fine horses; the Sultan has many horses, and they are
all excellent.”
“The Sultan has immense treasures and much powder.”
“The Arabs have fruitful plains; they have mountains covered with
trees, and many rivers flow from them.”
“We have beautiful women.”
“Our horses are fleet: no other horses can keep up with them.”
“Our camels are very strong; we have great herds of cattle and sheep.”
“Our guns are very good.”
“We have powder—plenty of powder.”
“Let us pray that all Christian dogs may perish.”
“Plenty of powder.”
The soldiers flocked round the singer and listened with deep interest
to this patriotic and religious hymn.
A marabout, a friend of Ben Faka’s, came nearly every evening to our
tent, and sang for hours in the same style; but his voice was so harsh
and shrill, and the burden of his song so tedious, that one of our
chief annoyances was the having our ears assailed for such a length of
time by his deafening psalmody.
On the 2nd of October it froze even within the tents in this
mountainous region, and there was no grass left for the camels near
Tekedemta; accordingly the Sultan sent them to the table land to the
southward where there was excellent pasture. These mountains abound
in game of every kind, which the soldiers caught and ate unknown to
Abd-el-Kader. The market established by the Sultan at Tekedemta is
well supplied with game, and with fish from the Ouet Mina which is
full of them, and of a sort of tortoise which lives in the mud and
is equally disagreeable to the taste and the smell, whereas the land
tortoises, which are nearly as numerous, are delicious when properly
cooked.
Abd-el-Kader carried on the works at the redoubt with great ardour;
fifty workmen were constantly employed upon them. To celebrate the
inauguration of the new Tekedemta, the Sultan had the cannon brought
to the redoubt, where it was loaded with stones and fired off three
times, but so unskilfully that the stones flew into the midst of the
camp to the great peril both of man and beast. At each discharge the
marabouts and the workmen cried out “The Sultan is great!”
Abd-el-Kader has since sent seven cannons from Mascara to Tekedemta:
they were old Spanish six and eight pounders, which had all been
spiked, and were mounted on very bad carriages of Arab manufacture.
Fifteen or twenty families have emigrated from Mascara to Tekedemta,
at the Sultan’s command: but it will not be easy to induce the whole
population of Mascara to leave their habitations and to settle in a
cold, unhealthy spot to which all provisions must be fetched on mules
from the distance of a day’s journey, and where they consequently are
very dear. Abd-el-Kader hopes to breathe new life into these remains
of past greatness and splendor, but the descendants of the men who
founded and built this city are unable to tell the prisoner or the
traveller so much as the very name of the Sultans who had their
capital in these mountains.