XLV. mass of infantry and cavalry, which was striving to rally CHAP. in the rear; it was speedily put to the rout, and the whole took to flight. The victory of the French was 1844. complete the Moors lost eight hundred killed, and double that number wounded, besides eleven guns and their whole tents and ammunition; while the French were only weakened by twenty-seven killed and ninetysix wounded. Marocco. These repeated disasters, and more especially the last 43. bloody defeat, convinced the Moorish government that Peace with the star of Islamism was not now in the ascendant, and Sept. 10. that the only wisdom was to come as soon as possible to an accommodation. The cabinet of the Tuileries had equally cogent reasons for wishing to restore peace to Africa, for its relations with Great Britain at that period stood on the most precarious footing, owing to the Otaheite dispute; and the recent increase of the strength of Admiral Owen's squadron to six sail of the line at Gibraltar, revealed the imminent danger in which their Algerine possessions would be placed, if, when engaged with a formidable enemy on the African shores, their communications with home were to be cut off by the superior fleets of Great Britain. Influenced by this pressing consideration, they agreed to terms with the Government of Marocco, more favourable than the latter could have expected after such a series of disasters. These were, that the extraordinary Moorish armaments on the frontiers in the neighbourhood of Ouchda should be dissolved, the officers who directed the attack on the French on 30th May punished, Abd-el-Kader outlawed and banished from the Marocco territory, and the frontier between the two States settled on the footing on which it stood before the rupture, when the province of Algeria was in the hands of the Turks. On these terms the treaty was concluded, and Abd-elKader withdrew into the desert. The Prince de Joinville, who was the plenipotentiary on the part of France, was very indignant that the Moors were not obliged to pay CHAP. the expenses of the war. XLV. 1845. 1 Journal But the opinion of Marshal Bugeaud prevailed. Why stipulate for a payment of money? It would never be paid, and another war would be the consequence of their failure to do so." The Opposition journals in Paris were also loud in their condemdes Débats, nation of the treaty for the same reason, and openly asserted that it was to propitiate England that terms Ann. Hist. so discreditable were agreed to; but a happy expression Doc. Hist.; in the Journal des Débats in some degree appeased their indignation-" France is rich enough to pay for its glory."1 Sept. 24, 1844; Treaty, xxvii. 155, Regnault, iii. 15, 17. 44. After this treaty, the Duke d' Aumale, who had disCampaign tinguished himself in the war, was made Governor of against the Kabyles, Algeria, and Abd-el-Kader withdrew beyond the limits and fresh alike of the French and the Marocco possessions into efforts of Abd-elthe desert. The campaign was commenced in the followKader. ing year by a grand expedition of Marshal Bugeaud into the Greater Kabylie, which, after a great deal of hard fighting in the defiles of the mountains, defended by thirty thousand mountaineers, terminated in the submission, for the time at least, of the hardy tribes which inhabited it; and the capture of the important post of Azrou, which it was hoped would overawe them in future. Meanwhile, Abd-el-Kader was not idle; he had again collected a considerable army, but his hostility was now directed against the Emperor of Marocco, whom he accused of having shamefully deserted his cause and that of the Prophet, by having concluded a treaty with the French. He obtained at first considerable success in this new warfare; but the Emperor, having collected considerable forces, and the French frontier being carefully guarded, the Emir ere long found himself reduced to considerable straits, and his troops, as usual with Asiatics in such circumstances, began to desert him. In the hope of reinstating his sinking fortunes, he adopted the gallant resolution of making a nocturnal attack on the Dec. 18. Marocco camp, which, in the first instance, was attended XLV. 1847. with entire success. But when day dawned, and the CHAP. small number of the assailants became visible, the Moors returned to the charge, and the Emir was constrained to make a precipitate retreat. The Marocco columns pursued him with vigour, and he was soon driven up against the French frontier. Finding farther retreat impossible, he made a desperate attempt, at the head of a few followers, to break through the Marocco lines on the banks Dec. 21. of the La Malonia river; but he was driven back with great slaughter. Upon this he made straight for the French frontier, which he crossed, and on the morning Dec. 22. of the 22d December two officers appeared at the head-1 Regnault, quarters of General Lamoricière, saying that Abd-el- Ann. Hist. Kader wished to tender his submission, which was imme- 280, 283. diately accepted.1 iii. 331-33; xxx. 274, tion of Kader, Next morning the famous chief made his appearance 45. at the French outposts, when he was received by Colonel CapitulaMontauban at the head of four hundred horse, by whom Abd-elhe was conducted to Generals Lamoricière and Cavaignac, it's to whom he stated it as a condition of his submission, violation that he was to be permitted to retire to Alexandria or French. St Jean d'Acre. Afraid he might escape and renew the war if this condition was not acceded to, the two Generals at once agreed to this, and the Emir was conducted to Nemours, where he was introduced to the Duke d'Aumale, the new Governor-general of the province. Before entering, he put off his sandals at the doorway, stood up till the Prince made a sign to him to sit down, and he then said, "I could have wished to have done earlier what I have done to-day, but I awaited the hour appointed by God. The General (Lamoricière) has given me a promise to which I commit myself. I have no fear of its being violated by the son of a great King like that of the French." With these words he tendered to the Prince a beautiful horse, the Arab symbol of submission. The Duke at once ratified the promise made by his lieutenant, but it was immediately violated in a dishonourable manner. 1847. CHAP. Instead of being conducted to Alexandria or St Jean XLV. d'Acre in terms of his capitulation, he was embarked on the day following, with his wives, children, and servants, on board a frigate, which forthwith made sail for Toulon, from whence he was taken to a castle in the interior of France, where he was kept with his attendants in strict confinement! It is unnecessary to say anything as to this dishonourable breach of faith towards a noble and fallen enemy. It excited the indignation of every generous mind in Europe, many of whom, especially the late Marquess of Londonderry, whose chivalrous disposi1 Ann. Hist. tion led him warmly to sympathise with the fate of the xxx. 294, African hero, made the most strenuous efforts in his 295; Regnault, iii. behalf; and at length, under a new government, the stain was washed out from Christendom by his liberation, in terms of the capitulation, by the orders of Louis Napoleon.1 333, 334; Moniteur, Jan. 15, 1848. 46. General submission But how much soever the glory which the French arms acquired in the wars of Algeria may have been dim and pacifi-med by the unworthy act which signalised their conclusion, cation of Algeria. the submission of Abd-el-Kader was not the less decisive in terminating the contest on the African shores. All regular or national resistance to the French dominion was thereafter at an end. The Mussulmans received the blow as the stroke of Fate, to which it behoved them to submit as the decree of Providence. The submission of the Kabyles and other mountain tribes, however, was more nominal than real, and they were not finally subdued till 1857, when their entire subjugation was effected by General Macmahon, at the head of the veterans who had followed him to the assault of the Malakoff. But these hostilities, like those so long maintained by the Romans with the mountain tribes in the Rhætian Alps, or by the Russians with the Circassians in the defiles of the Caucasus in modern times, were not proper wars, but the struggles of indomitable mountaineers to maintain their independence, trusting to the strength of their mountains and the tenacity XLV. of their character. They were generally unsuccessful, CHAP. and of a local description, not interfering with the general administration of the province. 1847. 47. view of finally ac The province of Algeria, thus won after eighteen years of almost incessant fighting, and at length brought into General entire subjection only by an army of 95,000 men, con- Algeria, as stantly fed by reinforcements from France, was now a quired by region of vast extent, abounding in valuable resources of the French. many different kinds, and in part at least of extraordinary and surpassing fertility. The Libya of the ancients, it was for centuries the granary of the Roman Empire, and even at the time when it was devastated by the arms of Genseric and his Vandals, contained twenty millions of inhabitants. At present it did not contain of all nations and religions a fifth part of that number. It was divided. into three provinces, that of Oran on the west, of Algiers in the centre, and of Constantine on the east ; and its entire length, from Nemours on the west to a little beyond Bona on the east, was three hundred leagues. Its mean breadth was about forty leagues, but in that space was embraced nearly the whole country which was available for human sustenance between the ocean and the great desert. This vast region was checkered by every variety of country, from the level plain to the arid peak, and it was clothed with magnificent forests, exhibiting the richness of tropical vegetation. In the sunny vales, watered by the numerous streams which descend from the summits of the Atlas, tropical plants of every description are to be found in abundance, wheat grows in magnificent crops on the plains, and the climate brings to maturity 1Stat. d'Alsugar, coffee, and cotton, and all the choicest productions 274, 281. of warm climates.1 gérie, 1854, scale still of Although so largely gifted by nature, and bringing to 48. maturity the plants both of the temperate and the torrid Diminutive zones, this magnificent province, after a quarter of a its induscentury's occupation by the French, during the last half trial reof which the largest part of it has enjoyed unbroken sources. |