AUGUST 1881.
The position of affairs at the beginning of August was singularly
unfortunate. Fever and dysentery now began to make sad havoc amongst the
French troops, almost wholly unaccustomed to the tropical heat of a
Tunisian autumn; raids on the homesteads almost in sight of the walls of
Tunis increased and multiplied, and the Bey was making feeble efforts to
raise a small force to send to Testour “to protect the French railway,”
and to borrow the money wherewithal to pay the cost of it. On the 2d of
August, an unbroken Moslem supremacy of three centuries terminated in
the landing of two battalions of French troops at Goletta, and even the
presence of the Bey’s band failed to attenuate the real state of the
case in the minds of the Arabs. Just after the French had passed through
the streets, the steamer from the coast arrived, bringing on it 300 of
the Tunisian soldiers, who had lately deserted, and who had been
persuaded to return. As soon as they saw what had happened they became
very excited, and openly said they would again desert, as they could not
be wanted if the Bey called in French troops to “protect” him. From this
time French troops began to land in great numbers at Goletta, and on the
6th August, 2000 men encamped at Hammam-el-Lif on the other side of the
bay, to remain there till the arrangements for the great Kairwán
expedition, which was to calm all parties, including the French
electors, were completed. Meanwhile the insurrectionary movement in
Northern Tunis grew apace. The insurgent Arabs made a night attack on
Medjez-el-Bab, ill-treated the townspeople, carried away their cattle,
destroyed a portion of the subsidised French railway, and tore down the
telegraph wire and posts. More pressure was now put on the Bey to send
his “army” towards Medjez and Testour, but his “protectors” would not
come to his aid, and he only succeeded (in spite of the presence of
several French financial houses in the country) in scraping together a
loan of £37,000, at an annual interest of _fourteen per cent._
At last 500 soldiers belonging to the irregular Tunisian militia were
sent one march forward towards Testour, but over 200 deserted _en
route_. The 300 men who came back to Goletta from Susa likewise
disappeared.
About the middle of the month the Arabs around Susa, and between Susa
and Kairwán, assumed a menacing attitude, and many of the tribes between
Tunis and Algeria prepared to rise. To add to the difficulties of the
situation the telegraph wires were again and again cut. Although
reinforcements continued to arrive, and General Saussier came on the
13th August to study the campaign, now become inevitable, no movement
could be executed to check the depredations of the insurgents. Even the
very day after the Commander-in-chief’s arrival, and almost in his
presence, fifty of the heavily chained convicts, confined in a
pestilential dungeon beneath the Goletta fort, contrived to break their
fetters, and about dusk rushed into the street. A cry was at once raised
that the Bedouins had entered the place; shops and houses were
barricaded, and the panic palpably extended to the French officers and
soldiers, who, in the cool of the evening, were discussing their
absinthe or vermouth before the different cafés. The prisoners, although
armed with guns, pistols, and bayonets, hurt no one, and quickly gained
the open country. As soon as the alarm subsided, everybody was
becomingly valorous after the event, but as the Bey did not wish any
French soldiers to join in the pursuit, only a few Arab irregulars,
armed apparently with poles and sticks, made a vain and burlesque
attempt to capture the fugitives.
The Austrian Consul-General, Herr Theodorovich, happened to meet the
runaways outside Goletta, and fled precipitately to the French camp near
Carthage, bringing the alarming news of the “taking of Goletta by the
insurgents.” The soldiers had already been got under arms, when the true
state of the case transpired, but it was thought necessary to provide
the representative of Austria with a suitable guard to accompany him
back to Goletta. This serio-comic incident indicates sufficiently the
extent of the insurrectionary movement, even close to the capital
itself.
The deserters from the Tunisian army seem to have nearly all joined the
insurgents threatening Susa, and the Governor, General Bacouch, now
acknowledged that his authority outside the town walls was gone. On the
evening of the 14th August, a Tripolitan Arab appeared in the streets of
Susa with a drawn sword, and with the ominous cry of “_jihad! jihad!_”
stabbed to death an unoffending old Maltese tradesman in his own shop.
The shouts of the murderer had been echoed by others, and there is no
doubt but that the accidental arrival of H.M.S. “Monarch” and the calm
presence of mind of Captain Tryon, alone saved the European colony from
some terrible disaster. Captain Tryon at once prepared to land his
marines, but before this could be done, Sy Muhamed Bacouch had succeeded
in restoring order. The assassin was sent to Tunis and subsequently
hung.
Having arranged the plan of the Kairwán crusade, General Saussier
returned to Algeria on the 19th August, leaving Arab anarchy rampant and
unchecked, until cooler weather should allow the realisation of his
projects. Urgent letters from the Governor of Kairwán, however, now
rendered some kind of immediate movement necessary. About 2000 Tunisian
irregulars were collected; and on the 20th August these started in the
direction of Testour, commanded by Ali Bey and the Generals Ahmed
Zerouck and Ali Ben Tourkia. Two French columns of 1500 each started
about the same time for Hammamet and Zaghouán. Little progress could be
made by the Tunisian force, as all the baggage camels had been stolen in
the great _razzia_ of the Zlass tribe in July.
The town of Susa was now practically in a state of siege. A Maltese, who
went to his garden outside the walls, was at once shot dead, and as the
villagers and tribesmen had agreed to join in an attack on the town, the
gates could only be opened at intervals. The Arabs speedily contrived to
cut off communication between the Hammamet and Zaghouán columns and
Tunis; several convoys of carts were intercepted and robbed, and the
drivers escaped with the loss of their property and horses. A Maltese
courier was killed close to Zaghouán, and a native guard who accompanied
him was also shot. The relatives of the latter were carrying away the
body, when some more carts, now escorted by French troops, appeared.
Unluckily enough the mourners were mistaken for marauders, and shot by
the soldiers before any explanation could be given.
The Hammamet column under Colonel Corréard now sustained a severe check,
and was finally obliged to fall back towards Hamman-el-Lif. This was,
perhaps, the only success gained by the Arabs in a fair fight during the
whole campaign, and they certainly made the most of it. Ali Bey seemed
to be unable to quit the vicinity of the capital, and to add to the
perplexities occasioned by the equivocal attitude of his “irregulars,”
he received a letter from Ali Ben Hlifa, saying that he would be
attacked by the Arabs as an “infidel and a Frenchman” at the first
opportunity.