SPANISH SUPREMACY.
No sooner had the Spaniards quitted Tunis than insurrections broke out
against their ally, Mouley Hasan, in different parts of the country.
Holy Kairwán at once set the example by stoutly refusing to recognise a
prince who owed his throne to Christian intervention. The Sicilian
troops sent by the Emperor in 1537 to Susa were repulsed, and it was not
till two years afterwards that Andrea Doria succeeded in re-establishing
the authority of Mouley Hasan in the towns of the Tunisian littoral. An
attempt to crush the rising of Sidi Arfa in Kairwán wholly failed, and
the corsair Dragut became the acknowledged ruler of Susa, Sfax, and
Galippia. In the following year (1540) Doria once more recovered Susa
for Mouley Hasan, who nevertheless resolved to proceed to Europe in the
hope of persuading the Emperor to undertake a second expedition on his
behalf. No sooner had he left Tunis than his son and heir, Mouley Hamíd,
seized on the supreme power, and added the difficulties of a civil war
to those surrounding the already half-lost cause of the Beni Hafs. His
father hastened back to the Goletta, but he fell into the power of the
usurper, who caused him to be blinded and loaded with chains. Mouley
Hamíd was in turn overthrown by his uncle Abd-el-Malek, and a conflict
ensued during which Dragut once more obtained possession of the Tunisian
coast towns. On the 10th September 1551 Don Juan de Vega took Mehdia or
Africa, and established his nephew, Don Alvar, as its governor at the
head of 1500 men. Mehdia was given provisionally to the Maltese Order,
but it was finally abandoned and its fortifications destroyed in 1553.
Seven years later a Spanish legion was literally annihilated in the
island of Djerba. The pyramid of skulls which served to commemorate this
Arab triumph was only removed in 1846. Mouley Hamíd, who again recovered
his throne from his cousin, Muhamed, son of Abd-el-Malek, was attacked
and defeated by Ali Pacha, the Turkish governor of Algiers, on the
plains of Beja, and was compelled to take refuge with the Spanish
garrison at Goletta. He in his turn was forced to supplicate Philip II.
to send an army to Tunis, in order to uphold the last representative of
the Beni Hafs, and expel Caïd Ramdan, the agent of Ali Pacha. The
Emperor determined to crush for ever the Turkish power in North Africa,
and intrusted the execution of his design to his natural son, Don Juan
of Austria. The fortifications of Goletta were strengthened, and a
garrison of 4000 men occupied the citadel of Tunis. Mouley Hamíd,
becoming alarmed at these proceedings, endeavoured to draw back, and the
Spaniards were obliged to select a more docile instrument. Their choice
fell on his brother Muhamed, the Taib Bey of three centuries ago. A
Minister Resident was found for him in the person of the Count de
Cerballon, who played precisely the same part recently allotted to M.
Roustan. “The prince,” writes one of the annalists of Tunis, “was forced
to share his power with De Cerballon, who sat by his side when he
administered justice, suggested the decisions to be pronounced, and at
times even compelled him to obey his orders.” Meanwhile the Turkish
troops, under Hyder Pacha, had withdrawn to Kairwán, and waited
patiently the course of events.