XLV. 1841. CHAP. marshal having attacked him a few days after the entry, he was worsted in a general encounter, which was only prevented from being converted into a total rout by an imprudent charge which the Duke de Nemours made in the centre; this caused the enemy to retire before the turning of their flank by the 17th light infantry, intended to cut off their retreat, had taken effect. Marshal Bugeaud was extremely disconcerted by this untoward event, concerning which he expressed himself in no measured terms, the more so as the presence of the princes at headquarters, with their large retinue and immense mass of baggage, seriously incommoded the troops. Having revictualled Medeah and Milianah, Bugeaud transferred his headquarters to the town of Mostaganem, on the sea-coast, near the mouth of the Cheliff, which was made the base of operations against the western tribes of Algeria, where the principal adherents of Abd-el-Kader were now to be found. The army advanced along the course of the Cheliff without experiencing any serious resistance, and the important town of Mascara was abandoned without striking a blow. The French general stationed a corps of two thousand men in that town to overawe the western tribes in the vicinity of Oran. Encouraged by these appearances, he sent letters to Abdel-Kader, inviting him to surrender, and representing the ruin which the continuance of the war was bringing on the country. But the Arab chief replied: "The submission of the Arabs will be represented by a horse without a tail; such an animal is unknown in our mountains; when our mares have produced one, we will send him to ii. 207, 208, you. The injury which your army does to the fertile Ann. Hist. Africa, in the furrows which it painfully traces in her 425. bosom, is less than is experienced by the ocean when the swallow plunges in its bosom to seize a fish."1 1 Regnault, xxiv. 423, Dividing his army into five columns, Bugeaud pressed the Arab chief on all sides: in the glowing language of the French annalist, he found an iron circle wherever he XLV. 28. of various west. turned. While he himself pressed the tribes which dwelt CHAP. between Mascara and the left bank of the Cheliff with twelve thousand men, General Lamoricière advanced be- 1841. tween Mascara, Oran, and Tlemsen; General Baraguay Submission d'Hilliers manœuvred on the right bank of that river, tribes in the between it and the sea-coast; while General Negrier south and acted on the offensive in the extreme east, in the provinces of Constantine and Setif. Thus the Arabs found themselves attacked in five places at once; the war assumed a unity of design by which it had never before been characterised; and Abd-el-Kader, in spite of all his activity and resources, found himself unable to withstand the reiterated attacks of so many different corps. in different places at the same time. That commanded by Bugeaud in person, setting out from Mostaganem on the 13th September, was for fifty-three days in con- Sept. 13. stant activity, in the course of which several severe cavalry actions took place with the Arab horse, in which the superiority of European discipline and courage was uniformly asserted. The results of this active campaign were very great. Tribe after tribe sent in their submission, or were driven off into the desert: the Medgeers first abandoned the cause of the Emir, and united their forces to those of the French; their example was soon followed by six lesser tribes, who also followed the tricolor standards. Strengthened by these alliances, Bugeaud at length led his forces against the Hachems, a powerful tribe in the west, and the principal source of the Emir's strength. They were driven from their homes to seek refuge in the desert: upon this success the whole other tribes in the west sent in their submission, Dec. 28. and on the 28th December, in a vast plain in front of Regnault, Tlemsen, swore allegiance to a new Sultan, Mohammed- Ann. Hist. ben-Abdallah, who the same day concluded an alliance, 424. offensive and defensive, with France.1 Amidst this wreck of his fortunes, the indomitable Arab chief still maintained, with mournful resolution, 1 ii. 209, 211; xxiv. 423, 1842. 29. Kader. Jan. 26, 1842. CHAP. the standard of independence, and when no longer able XLV. to keep the field against the increasing forces of the enemy, he shut himself up in Tlemsen, declaring his Final defeat determination to defend that stronghold to the last exand flight of Abd-el- tremity. Thither, however, he was followed by the indefatigable Bugeaud, who broke up from Oran on the 26th January, in the depth of winter, to drive the enemy from that last position. Abd-el-Kader evacuated the town on his approach, taking with him a large part of the inhabitants, with whom he retired towards the frontier of Marocco. Though joined by a few faithful adherents in his retreat, others more numerous fell off from his standards, so that he reached the banks of the Tafna, the frontier stream of Marocco, with only two hundred and fifty-eight horsemen. Thither he was followed by the French movable columns, who spent several days in searching for the Emir, and being unsuccessful, they advanced to Tapona, which had been erected into a strong fort by Abd-el-Kader, and formed his principal depot of arms and military stores. This last place of refuge was taken and destroyed, while the Emir sought refuge in the solitude of the desert, and all the tribes in the vicinity laid down their arms. At the same time, General Lamoricière pursued to the last extremity some remains of the tribe of the Hachems, which still on the frontier of the desert maintained the cause of independence, and forced them too to seek refuge in its solitudes. The power of Abd Bugeaud's Feb. 5, el-Kader seemed, by this long and active campaign, to Marshal be finally broken; he had been driven into the wilderDespatch, ness beyond the utmost limits of the French territory, 1842; Mo- and the tribes which had constituted his strength were niteur, Feb. now for the most part ranged under the French standgnault, ii. ards against him. To secure these important advanAnn. Hist. tages, Marshal Bugeaud stationed General Lamoricière, 425. with six thousand men, in Mascara, while General Bedeau, 27; Re 239, 240; xxiv. 424, with five thousand, was placed in Tlemsen.1 XLV. 1842. pearance. To all appearance the power of the Emir was now CHAP. finally broken, and the French dominion firmly established in the north of Africa. This flattering illusion was con- 30. firmed by the conduct of the chief of the Arab tribes on the His reapfrontier of Marocco and the desert, who, like all Asiatics, bowed, for the time at least, to superior strength, and ranged themselves on the side of victory. But meanwhile the Emir was not idle. At the head of a few faithful followers, he went from chief to chief, from tribe to tribe, in the wilderness, everywhere preaching a holy war, and calling on all true believers to join in a general crusade for the extermination of the infidels. In the remote situation, simple habits, and limited knowledge of these secluded tribes, he found resources which he never could have found on the frontiers of civilisation. The horsemen of the desert had never met the French troops: they were ignorant of European arms and discipline, and took up arms at the eloquent words of the Emir, as their ancestors had done at the voice of Mahomet. The French marshal had just sent a steamboat to Tangiers to remonstrate against the shelter afforded to Abd-el-Kader in the Marocco territories, when suddenly the unconquerable chief appeared at the head of 6000 horsemen in the vicinity of Tlemsen, and commenced pillaging the tribes which had entered into amicable relations with the French Government. A vigorous sortie by General Bedeau repelled them from that vicinity, but the Emir withdrew to the desert with his forces undiminished, and laden with booty. Encouraged by the success of this enterprise, numbers of Arabs joined his standard, and the whole French frontier was soon in a state of alarm from Cherchell to Milianah. A long and fatiguing cam- 1 Regnault, paign followed, consisting chiefly of cavalry actions, in ii. 324, 325; which, though success was various, yet the advantage was xxv. 305, generally on the side of the French.1 At length, however, 216, 217. an occasion presented itself, in which the Duke d'Aumale Ann. Hist. 306; xxvi. CHAP. struck a blow which affected the Emir in the most sensitive XLV. quarter, and powerfully influenced the imaginative and 1843. 31. the harem of Abd-el Kader. May 16, 1843. excitable minds of the Arabs. In the middle of May 1843, Abd-el-Kader, pressed Capture of by General Lamoricière with the forces brought from Tlemsen, and two other columns which had issued from Medeah and Mascara, was skilfully extricating himself from their pursuit, and making for the mountains of DjebelAmour, when accident brought him into the vicinity of the Duke d'Aumale, who was coming from Boghur with 500 horse to join in the pursuit. Informed of the place where his redoubtable adversary was encamped for the night, the Duke, without waiting for his infantry coming up, set off with the utmost expedition to make the attack. Favoured by darkness, the surprise was complete. The Arabs were ten to one, but they were overwhelmed by the sudden charge of the chasseurs and spahis. The Emir had scarcely time to mount on horseback and make his escape with a few followers. His mother and chief wife got off with the utmost difficulty, but the remainder of his harem, the wives and daughters of his principal lieutenants, with his whole camels and baggage, fell into the hands of the enemy, whose loss was very trifling. After this disaster Abd-el-Kader fled into the deserts to the south-west of Tlemsen, where he hoped to effect a junction with one of the most able of his officers, Sidi-Embauck, who brought to his standard from the eastern province 700 men, the remains of the garrisons of Medeah and Milianah. Before the junction could be made, however, Sidi-Embauck was attacked and routed by Colonel Tempoure, himself slain, and his followers entirely dispersed. Upon this the whole tribes on the frontiers of the desert made their submission, and for the first time since the 1 Regnault, French invasion of the country, tranquillity reigned in the Castellane, whole provinces of Algeria, from Algiers to Boghur, and Borrer, 179. from Constantine to Tlemsen.1 In acknowledgment of Bugeaud was made a ii. 325, 327; 372, 374; these glorious services, General |