DESCRIPTION OF ALGIERS.
Arrival in Algeria.--Murray's Guide-books, and their
Amenities.--Disembarkation in the Port of Algiers.--Our
Fellow-travellers.--Algiers and its Inhabitants.--The Dey's
Palace.--Cause of the French Invasion.
Next morning, at eight o'clock, came the waiter with the
intelligence--"_Nous sommes dans la baie d'Alger, monsieur, a une
heure de la ville._" My desire to see Algiers was vehement indeed; but
scarcely less strong was the craving of the inner man for bread and
coffee. With the nectar of Arabia, however, the inspiration of the
Orient seemed to percolate my veins; but when a fragrant glass of
cognac crowned the meal, the aroma of the East enveloped me, the
delicious strains of Bulbul rang in my ears, the Calaisien and the
Marseillais, sitting stolidly before me, became straightway
transformed into camels, the stewardess into a houri, and the noses of
the passengers were as masques in my enraptured sight.
But the book at my side was not the Koran, though it might have been,
for the strange farrago it contained.
It was a celebrated traveller's manual in the English language, and
in red binding. The king of the Cannibal Islands has not in his
library a more absurd volume than this manual; for in its pages
pathetic bagmen give vent to their ludicrous ebullitions concerning
the Alhambra, or the Rhine, or any foreign lion you please to name;
and young boys just escaped from school dish up their first
impressions of the Continent in a style as savoury as the flavour of a
Spanish olla podrida. And yet, ascend the Rhine, go to Venice or to
St. Petersburg, and ten to one for the chance, that when you meet an
Englishman he will have that eternal manual clutched in his British
grasp.
Oh, my dear and well-beloved countrymen, what creatures of fashion and
precedent we all are, from high to low! What one does, the rest must
do; and in the self-same manner. I verily believe, if the late Albert
Smith had left it on record that, in ascending Mont Blanc, he planted
his foot in a certain hole in the snow, every one of his successors in
that glorious undertaking would have paid their guides an extra dollar
for indicating to them the identical cavity, that they might go and do
likewise. Thank goodness, Algeria is as yet encumbered by no manual or
"Hand-book," as our modern Germanised phraseology elects to call the
egregious productions; so shall we travellers be at liberty to follow
our own noses, to go exactly where we like, and to do what we please,
even to dressing like Arabs, should the whim seize us. Moreover, we
may do in Rome as Rome does, and enjoy a French breakfast washed down
with good wine in lieu of bad tea, without having ourselves or our
proceedings stigmatised as "shocking," as would undoubtedly be our lot
at Paris, or Brussels, or Berlin.
Behold us, then, in happy hour, ready to disembark in Algiers, with
the children of the desert thronging on board to act as porters. Their
appearance pleases me much, as they come forward, with their tall,
striking figures, dark eyes, and distinguished mien. "Perfect
gentlemen, these," said I to myself; but beneath the outside crust
little remains that can be called gratifying. These men are like the
apple of Sodom; at least, so I thought on landing, after a long
squabble with them respecting the passage money, carried on in bad
Italian and French. A nearer acquaintance with them may, perhaps,
modify my views on this subject.
"Well, it has been a pleasant time on board the packet," is my parting
reflection as I step ashore; nor shall I lightly forget the captain,
so different in his politeness and urbanity from the sea-bear with
whom I sailed in the North Sea; nor the honest Hamburgher, who
appeared to have an equally beloved wife in every land and in every
place we came to; nor the would-be dandy, who lit cigars innumerable,
and invariably flung them overboard after the first puff; nor the
priests, who seemed to possess the gift of invisibility, so rarely did
they show themselves; nor the hundred thousand events and personages
that flash upon our path for a moment on our journey through life, and
then linger in the memory only as the dim phantoms of a dream that has
passed away.
Algiers, seen from the sea, presents the appearance of a vast
triangular cone, situated on the slope of a mountain. Like all the
inhabitants of Northern Africa, the Algerians were at an early period
Christians, and it was only after several battles that the Mahometan
religion was finally established all over the coast of Barbary. Before
the French occupation, the Algerian ladies, like the females in all
Mussulmen countries, were kept in the strictest seclusion. The wife of
a rich Moor never left her home except to go to the baths, and even
that expedition was undertaken only at night. When it became
absolutely necessary that ladies should go abroad in daylight, their
faces were covered, and the whole figure so concealed by a redundancy
of wrappings, that a stranger would be puzzled to find out what the
moving bundles were. The luxury of the bath is greatly used by them.
There are public as well as private baths. They consist of three
apartments. The first is a large hall, for dressing and undressing; in
the second, the visitors perspire; and the third is for bathing
proper, or otherwise, as tastes and opinions somewhat differ. After
the bath, those of the male sex repair to the first room for lemonade
or coffee, or for a pipe. The modern Mahometan ladies of Algiers have
almost abandoned this seclusion. They are seen gadding about
everywhere, and are reported as being by no means particular or
difficult in their conquests. French ideas and morals have percolated
them considerably. Excessive obesity is regarded among Mahometans as
the perfection of beauty; so that, instead of using powders and other
nostrums to reduce themselves, like some of my friends at home, they
devour seeds and _couscous_, the national dish, especially employed
for fattening people. Some young ladies are crammed to such a degree
that they die under the operation.
On a fine, hot day in February, 1860, I mounted the conical hill on
which Algiers is built. The weather was magnificent. The sun of Africa
already made his approach felt, and the mountains in the far horizon
stood out like _bas-reliefs_ against the azure sky. Here stood the
palace of the Dey before the French occupation. The building is now
called the _casbah_, and used as a large barrack; outside are the
Moorish houses, and the chief part of the Moorish population.
The cause of quarrel between France and Algeria, which resulted in the
conquest of the country by the Gallic legions was as follows:--The
Dey, a pasha of the old Turkish school, was, it appears, a potentate
of extravagant disposition, and owed the French Government a
considerable sum of money. The creditors, being in a hurry for their
cash, dunned the Dey incessantly, through the agency of their consul.
Unaccustomed to the eagerness of French importunity, the Dey, on one
unlucky occasion, made a gesture of impatience with his fan, as a man
might do with his riding-whip, if his tailor became too pressing for
the settlement of his account. It proved an expensive gesture,
however; for within a few weeks it brought 10,000 French soldiers to
the shores of the Dey, and cost him his entire realm. The bulk of the
Mauresque and Turkish population quitted Algeria with their families
on the arrival of the French. Those who remain are the poorer classes,
and now live, if report speaks true, in an immoral state. These events
took place in the reign of that peaceful monarch, Louis Philippe.