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ritory reaching only to a very small distance from the walls of the capital. The conquest of Algiers was one of the last works of a dynasty which has since fallen, and the restless and unsettled state of the French government itself since that period has rendered impossible any energetic measures with regard to the settlement established there. The present attempt on Constantine seems to show a renewal of activity; but what has hitherto been done, and the sacrifices which it seems to have cost, lead us to think that the only circumstance which will drive the French to extend their territory effectually, will be the necessity either of doing so, or of giving up what they hold, an unprofitable possession certainly, but one to which France appears to attach-we scarcely think it deserves it-no little share of importance and glory. The expedition against Algiers was probably first taken up seriously as a means of carrying away people's thoughts from what was going on at home, and of employing restless minds, who might otherwise be embarking in dangerous plans against the government. We are not sure that the colony is not still chiefly valued as subserving more or less to the same purpose.

Enough, however, of this! we are not going to run into political speculations: had the colonization of Algiers by a European power been considered worth the pains, it would doubtless have been executed long ago. It is our intention first to follow rapidly Captain Rozet in his descriptions of the territory already occupied by the French, as well as of that which, though traversed by their armies, has not yet been permanently subdued. In so doing, we shall cast a glance from time to time on the narrative of our German Prince, whom we shall afterwards follow into the neighbouring state of Tunis. We are now going to visit the city of Algiers, which has been denominated the Warrior,-not, we presume, on account of the greatness of its military expeditions, but rather from the absence of the contrary principle at home,-from the little acquaintance which it could claim with peace even within its own walls; and it comes upon us with all its old associations of piracy and slavery, of flesh-hooks and other not less dreaded instruments of execution upon its walls, and of machines for torture in its prisons. Captain Rozet is naturally much more detailed in his description of the capital than in that of the other towns, where his residence had been more brief, and, on the whole, under less favourable circumstances.

The city of Algiers-which in form has been compared to a triangle, whose base rests on the shore, and whose summit is identical with that of the hill which also rises from the sea, and

which, from the liberal coating of whitewash that has been bestowed on every part of the exterior of its houses, is said to have, from a distance at sea, the appearance of a great chalkpit-stands in lat. 36° 47′ 25′′ north, and in long. 0° 42′ 25′′ east of the meridian of Paris. We will not stop to occupy ourselves on things so common-place as the general appearance of the town, or of the dirty, narrow, crooked streets, or the outsides of the houses, the only part which generally in Mahometan cities strangers are allowed to see, because in all these things there would be little of novelty; but we are strongly tempted to venture into the interior of the latter, because we have hitherto had little information on the domestic economy of Turkish houses, and because our French visiters, armed with strong introductions, seem by no means to have waited at the door to stand upon ceremonies.

"The houses of Algiers are all alike in form and disposition, though some are better than others; they are squares or rectangles, formed by four walls, which rise commonly to the height of a third floor, pierced by certain small holes to let the air pass, but scarcely ever furnished with windows. These latter are almost entirely confined to the houses inhabited by the Jews, and even there they are fortified by very thick gratings. Each house has but one entrance, which is tolerably large and circularly vaulted, and which is approached by a flight of steps. Among the Algerines, the ground-floor is almost invariably occupied by stables, warehouses, the rooms of the slaves, and the vestibule, at which we arrive immediately after passing the door. This is a rectangular apartment, very large in the houses of the rich, of which the two sides are furnished with a long raised seat of masonry, ornamented with a range of columns of white marble or of stone, supporting a pediment, or sculptured moresque arches, and thus forming small arcades, under which the master of the house squats himself down, smoking his pipe, to receive visits or treat of business; the entrance to the other apartments being forbidden to strangers, both on account of the women, who are there, and from the force of long habit.

"This hall of reception is called skifa. On the long seats where the visiters place themselves are laid rush mats, sheep-skins, or carpets. When you are seated, the slaves present you with a pipe and bring you coffee, which you drink with the master, after having shaken hands with him.

"When we leave the skifa we mount a staircase, the steps of which are formed of pieces of slate and of tiles of china-ware, and sometimes of marble or stone, by which we arrive at a square court on the first floor, surrounded by a colonnade of stone or marble, which supports the second floor. This court is not covered; it is by it that air and light are admitted into the chambers, each of which has a door and several windows looking inwards. These chambers are long rooms, occupying each the whole length of a side of the building; there are generally but three, one side being occupied by the place of the staircase, but some

times there are four on each floor. The chambers are entered by a great arched door, which rises two feet above the ceiling, and which is closed by two folds, within which are two little square doors, which are those most commonly opened; the others are only opened when it is absolutely necessary, or on grand ceremonies. The windows, which are placed on each side of the door, are not glazed; but they are furnished with bars of iron or brass, and are closed in the inside by shutters. The chambers of each house are nearly all alike; they are oblong: at each extremity is a raised frame of wood or masonry, on which are placed the beds; and these frames are often so high that they are obliged to mount them by means of a ladder, so that in each house are found ladders destined solely for this purpose. Opposite to the entrance there is generally a kind of niche or hollow place in the wall, covered by an arch, in which is placed the divan or cushions on which the women sit during the day. On each side of the divan are cupboards made in the solid wall, which are used to lock up the delicacies or the objects used in the toilet of these ladies; above each, as likewise beneath the windows, there is a semi-circular niche for the reception of different objects.

"The furniture of each room consists of one, or at most two, wooden chests, tolerably well made, and ornamented with extremely fantastical paintings, which in the houses of the great are richly gilt, and painted with much care; of a little round table, of the height of two or three decimetres; of cushions which compose the divan; of carpets or rush mats which cover the ground; lastly, of beds placed on the raised frames before mentioned: these beds are composed of tolerably good mattresses of wool, with a bolster, sheets of linen or calico, and a coverlet of silk or of very light wool. This is the sum-total of the furniture in the apartment of an Algerine, which is repeated verbatim in every chamber. This furniture differs in beauty according to the wealth of the proprietor; in the houses of the poor they are sometimes very bad; many have no mattress, and sleep on sheep-skins or rush mats. Beside the staircase, where there is no chamber, are found on each floor a kitchen and wardrobe, which are kept extremely clean. The kitchen is the only room in the house where there is a chimney: this chimney, of which the mantel-piece is about the height of a man, occupies the whole breadth of the room; beneath, at a very small elevation above the pavement, are several small circular stoves made of brick; each of them is covered by a grate, on which the pot is placed. The kitchen utensils used at Algiers are made of earthenware, or of a kind of bronze mixed with tin, which contains a sufficient quantity of copper to render it very dangerous to let the meats cool in them.

"The floors are all distributed in the same manner; there are three in a house; but the third contains generally at most but one or two chambers, the rest being a platform on which the women go to take the air. Above the chambers of this floor there are also little terraces, to which these ladies mount by ladders after sunset, at which time it is forbidden to the men to go out upon the terraces."— (vol. iii. p. 18-23.)

It will be seen, by the reference to the volume whence this extract is taken, that we do not follow the same order in treating

the subject as that adopted by Captain Rozet. We ought, perhaps, to have stated, that he has made three distinct divisions of his work, the first volume being confined to the natural history of the country, the second to the characteristics and manners of the different tribes who inhabit it, and the third to the description of the country itself. We have preferred taking the latter first, as containing the personal narrative of the author; and the first volume we shall pass over entirely. We will not occupy our space and time with the description of the public buildings of the capital, but we cannot omit one which is more intimately connected with all the associations that the name of Algiers raises in our mind,-we mean the prison of the slaves taken in piratical expeditions :—

"The public establishments of Algiers, which have had the greatest celebrity in Europe, on account of the cruelties which were committed there, are the prisons in which were shut up as slaves the prisoners taken by the Corsairs, from the vessels which they had captured. When Algiers was in its highest prosperity, there were several of these prisons within the town, wherein were detained a great number of Christian slaves; but by the treaty imposed by Lord Exmouth, these prisons were emptied, and since that period, their piracy having been much restrained, particularly during the three years of our blockade by sea, there have been scarcely any Christian slaves at Algiers. Many of the prisons were closed; and when we took the town there was but one left. It was situated in the street of Bab-Azoun, not far from the great barrack of the janissaries. There we found imprisoned the victims who had escaped from the massacre of the crews of the two brigs which were wrecked, a few French prisoners taken during the war, whom the Turks had snatched from the yatagan of the Bedouins, and a few Greek and Genoese slaves, who had been there two years,-in all a hundred and twenty-two persons.

"I went to see this prison shortly after our entrance into Algiers, and I saw some slaves who were still there, and two of our soldiers, who were shut up with them. I asked them how they were treated, and they gave me the following information :-They were chained together in couples like galley-slaves, but they were allowed to walk in the prison; they were allowed every day two little black loaves about as large as one's fist, and some water; they slept upon sheep-skins and a few rags. The men who guarded them treated them rudely, but they did not strike them; the slaves who had been there several years were led every morning to work, and always in chains. They gave them two loaves more than the others, which raised their ration to about a pound and a half; but, in compensation for this indulgence, they were often beaten by their

overseers.

"The prison of which I am speaking was an old building, which was falling into ruins. The hall occupied by the prisoners, in which there was scarcely room for them all, was eighteen metres long by nine broad. It was an ancient Catholic chapel; it adjoined at right angles a great

gallery divided into several parts, which also had been used for a similar purpose, but it was so ruinous as to be no longer habitable; all that remained in good condition was a little chamber in the middle, where the keepers lodged. In the hall occupied by the prisoners there was a great cistern beside the places of ease, and, just beside the entrance, a little closet full of chains. At first all the windows of this building had been walled up; but as the prisoners were almost suffocated by this operation, it was found necessary to open them; they were without shutters, so that the prisoners had no shelter from the wind, and when it rained they were all wet."-(vol. iii. p. 43.)

We turn willingly from the dark side of the view, and will present our readers with a picture of Algerine sociability, in the two chief places where people assemble for the purpose of passing their time and amusing themselves, that is, the coffee-houses and the barbers' shops. These latter, it will be seen, are at Algiers, as in every other country, the places of assembly for those who seek the news and the scandal of the day.

"I have counted at Algiers not fewer than sixty coffee-houses kept by the inhabitants of the town; but of this number, five or six only merit the attention of the observer, the others being very often established in holes not more than six feet square. The most remarkable of all was situated in the street of the marine, not far from the mosque; it was composed of several narrow but very long galleries, supported by small marble columns, and furnished on each side with seats built in masonry, and covered with rush mats. Next to the street of the marine, there was a little square ball, entirely open, in the centre of which rose a superb jet-d'eau. The laboratory was in the middle of the gallery; it was a little black kitchen, four feet wide, in which was a stove, and upon it two great tin coffee-pots, in which the coffee was made, whilst three other little ones kept warm by the fire the coffee which was to be served out. On each side of the kitchen were two tolerably high piles of wood for burning, but so placed that they might easily have taken fire and so burnt the whole establishment.

The Moors and Turks came and squatted themselves gravely on the seats, and soon after came the waiter with a burning coal to light their pipes, and a little cup of coffee without sugar, placed in another cup half full of water, in order that it might be held without burning the hand. This coffee is weak, very ill made, and somewhat like that which they drink in England; it is not however dear, for two cups cost but a halfpenny.

"In all the coffee-houses of any importance you find one or two musicians from the afternoon till the evening. These musicians touch the guitar whilst they make grimaces with their eyes and head, or play very seriously and in a most tiresome manner on a violin with two cords. The persons present appear to take great pleasure in listening to them and in seeing their grimaces.

"The Mussulmans betake themselves to the coffee-house about ten o'clock in the morning, and remain there sometimes the whole day, drink

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