that I should pay them only a stated and small gratuity, for here, as elsewhere, he said servants are spoilt if you overpay them. I hired, also, a strong mule to carry our provisions, among which was a small keg of wine, and a larger one of water, as the water of the African streams that we were to meet with is turbid and unwholesome. Moreover, I was happy to anticipate, as companions of my journey, three Frenchmen, my fellow-lodgers in the Marine Hotel. I ought to mention, with gratitude, that I had an offer from the Polish exiles at Oran, who, to the number of forty, are quartered here; and though not called on for military service, are allowed-the common men a franc a day, the officers more, on which they can live in barracks that are given them, very comfortably, the price of meat being but 2d. a pound. My friends, the brave Sarmatians, deputed one of their number to tell me that though they had not horses they had muskets and cartridges, and legs that would not fear a march of forty miles a day for many days consecutively, and that they would gladly turn out to a man to guard me into the interior; they had even arranged to get the loan of tents from the Kasbah. I need not tell you how much my heart, which has Poland next to England nearest its core, was touched by this mark of their regard; but it occurred to me that I ought to decline it. My Polish friends are powerful boys, but it would have been cruel to exact their keeping up on a journey with men on horseback. Then the appearance of a numerous and armed pilgrimage might alarm the natives; and in case of any misunderstanding, there might be awkward consequences.

I refused, therefore, the most flattering honour, in the shape of an escort, that was ever tendered to me. Still the presence of French companions in the journey was important to me, and it is better to travel over this part of the regency in a group of ten or twelve than in a smaller number. The natives are not dangerous, as tribes or as a general population; but there are vagabond cut-throats among them, attached to no tribe or encampment, who go generally in couples, at most never more than three; and these, if they fall in with a very few travellers in a body will be apt to beset them; but meeting a larger group, they will reconnoitre, count muskets, and come to the conclusion that it would be a pity to shed blood. In point of fact, on our return from Mascara we met with three persons who crossed us and recrossed us, and had a suspicious appearance of belonging to this description of travellers. We were nine in number, and there was among us a French dragoon sergeant bearing dispatches from the French Consul at Mascara to Oran, a tall, stalwart swordsman, whose sabre would have been a match for three yatagans. By his advice we tried to keep as near to them as we could without deviating from our main course, in order to show that we had no dread of them. My horse indeed, by far the fleetest of the party, was so strongly convinced of the policy of showing no fear, that if I had not curbed him and kept him by the side of our French dragoon, he would have very soon brought me up to the three vagrants. They disappeared ere long. I have my doubts whether they were marauding or merely hunting gazelles.

At ten

I have finished my journey in safety, but I shall never forget the night of anxiety which I spent at Oran before setting out. in the evening, the three French gentlemen, my fellow-lodgers at the hotel, told me that they would not go to-morrow to Mascara. It would

be madness, they said; several murders had been committed that very day by the Arabs, in the vicinity of Oran, and the road was haunted by assassins. An impartial person testified that he had seen two of the sufferers brought, mortally wounded, into the hospital. The very Arabs I had hired came in to signify that without an immense deal more money than I had bargained for, they could not venture their lives in escorting me. One of my French fellow-lodgers paid off an Arab whom he had hired; and the last words that he said to me, as I retired to my chamber vowing that if the road were lined with murderers I should set out for Mascara, were—" Well, take your course, but I am not so fond of getting ny throat cut."

In my life I was never more vexed. Here, methought, is all my trouble in coming to Algiers thrown away. To have seen the halfFrenchified Africans is nothing; I want to see the unsophisticated natives in tent and town. Mascara, and the country between, were but yesterday within my reach, but they are now beyond it. I must be in Europe by a certain time--I must return re-infecta, and with my finger in my mouth; s'death, I am spited at my stars! And yet, let me think-a yatagan poked into my stomach would be indigestible diet. To be murdered, ah! it would be very unpleasant; but, by all that is tantalizing, I will be murdered sooner than give up going to Mascara. During the night I rather dreamt than slept now and then; but rose by daylight, spitefully resolved to get into the interior. I knocked up my worthy Lagondie, at his quarters in the Kasbah. He calmed my fever by most welcomely assuring me that the number of murders outside the gates had been greatly exaggerated, and that they would deter no man but a coward from the journey. "But you know Mr. Busnach, the most influential Jew in the Regency, he understands Arabic; he mediated between the French and the Arab tribes, and was the chief means of bringing about peace. Let us call on him." We did so; and consulted him. This Mr. Busnach was, like his father before him, a partner of the house of Bacri and Co., once the most opulent merchants of Northern Africa. They had a capital amounting to millions sterling, but in a transaction with the French Republic they suffered severely, from a large debt being unjustly withheld from them. The present Busnach is a man universally respected, and is a member of the Legion of Honour. When I saw him first, his appearance reminded me strongly of that of the late statesman Windham. I thought him haughty, even to an air of misanthropy; but still there was something of strong character which I liked in his mien and manner. This was the second time I had ever spoken to him, and you may guess that I was agreeably surprised when he said," Mr. Campbell, be under no uneasiness; the murders that have been committed are no real indication of danger in travelling to Mascara. I will explain this to the Arabs and Zouaves, who ought to attend you. I will myself accompany you half way to Mascara, introduce you to the patriarch of a tribe, and see you set off in safety next morning." With that, he immediately ordered his horse to be saddled. The Arabs joined us; I believe he said something to them in Arabic, about persons who break bargains deserving to be bastinadoed or flayed alive. I could not gather exactly what it was; but it must have been something very pleasant, for it made them all in the best possible good humour to proceed on the journey. I shook hands with Lagondie, leaving him my gold watch and

money, all but some five-franc pieces, to keep till my return. As we sallied out of the gate, I could hardly believe in my own good fortune. "Mr. Busnach," I said, "you lay me under an overwhelming debt of gratitude;" and do you wonder that I felt most sincerely when I said So. Here was a proud man, in every sense of the word a gentleman-to whom I could have no more offered a remuneration, without insulting him, than if Mr. Windham had come alive again-taking the trouble to ride forty miles under an African sun, which is now becoming very hot, and who must measure back the same journey to-morrow morning, ay, and sleep on the ground in an Arab tent, all out of gratuitous kindness to your humble servant!

To be sure the journey turned out, like most things in life which we eagerly desire and obtain with difficulty, to be more pleasant in prospect than when attained. The country is monotonously wild-not naturally sterile, I believe; for excepting the tracks formed by the beasts of travellers-which are the only roads-and some rocky spots on the hills, there is no ground that is absolutely bare or sandy; and on the plain there was now a strong natural vegetation of asphodel, fennel, coarse grass, and wild thistles or artichokes, the tops of which contain a heart which our Arabs were constantly eating. But the eye is very soon sated with this houseless wilderness. Some twelve miles from Oran we passed the spot where, a year and a half ago, there had been hard fighting between the French and the natives. The French soldiers, though an overmatch for the Arabs, suffered dreadfully from heat and thirst. Their store of water was exhausted-the breath of the Simoom set in-the cavalry stood its shock, and by their elevation from the ground were able to respire, but the foot soldiers fell by companies, gasping for breath. A captain of dragoons who was in the scene, told me that there was more than one instance of the infantry soldier, driven to madness by thirst and agony, putting his head to the mouth of his musket, and his foot to the trigger, and committing suicide. One infantry officer alone gave way to despair; and though it is probable that he was, in those circumstances, no more a responsible agent than a man in the delirium of a fever, yet it was better, perhaps, that he did not survive the occurrence. He pulled his purse from his pocket; he said to his men, "I have led you into battle with courage, and I have always been a kind officer to you-the horror of my sufferings is now insupportable; let the man among you who is my best friend shoot me dead, and here are thirty louis d'ors for his legacy." No man would comply with his request; but he had hardly uttered it, when he fell down and expired.

The sameness of our journey was relieved only by the sight, though far between, of Arab encampments, with majestic camels kneeling before them in rows of from fifteen to twenty. Our Arabs started several gazelles, and parted from us for a mile at a time to pursue them; but, to my great satisfaction, they returned without being the death of one of them. At twilight we reached a dusera, the patriarch of which was known to Mr. Busnach. With Oriental etiquette, we halted at a respectful distance, and the Arabs shouted to call for a conference. A messenger came out. Our request for hospitality was complied with; and we entered the principal tent amidst the barking of innumerable dogs, who, I thought, would have fastened on the legs of our horses. The women about the tents were milking goats and cows. The tent, covered

with camel-hair cloth, was as large, I should think, as twenty-five feet in diameter, and very lofty. It was divided into two compartments by a cloth screen, but not so as to divide its tenants either by sex or species; for though I heard female voices and squalling infants in the adjoining compartment, we had men, women, and cattle in the one where we supped and reposed. A wood-fire was lighted under the tent, the smoke of which would have choked us, but that it found vent under large open spaces beneath the tent-curtains, which only here and there are pinned down to the ground. We had for supper eggs, milk, and couscousou. The fashion is variable here as elsewhere. There was a time when an Arab would have stabbed you for the insult of offering him money for his hospitality; but I was told at Oran that it is now much better to give him silver than either presents or thanks; so in cosing with my venerable host, I put some money into his hand, and he received it civilly. We slept on the bare ground, with our cloaks about us.

Next morning I took leave of Mr. Busnach, and proceeded, with my Arabs, to Mascara, which we reached before sunset. I had an introductory letter to the French consul, whose house could be my only refuge, as there is not a single inn in Mascara. The country begins to be more hilly within the last twenty miles towards Mascara, and you begin to see symptoms of settled habitation in approaching the town. For a radius of two miles about it there are corn-fields, gardens, vineyards, and orchards; but both the horticulture and agriculture seemed to me to be wretched, though the grain was a little better bladed than on some patches of the desert farther off, where there is now and then a miserable barley-field, enclosed with dry thorn-bushes piled on each other. I observed many luxuriant vines, and plenty of oranges, but missed the date-trees which I had expected to find so far to the south.

We crossed on our way to Mascara only two considerable rivers,the Sigg and the Oued-el-Hamman,-if rivers can be called considerable which, except when they are swollen by rain, can be forded on horseback. It gives one a dismal conception of barbarism to find those streams unfurnished with either a bridge or a ferry-boat.

A sample of ingenious barbaric simplicity met us on the same journey. We passed some Arabs who were sitting naked on the ground, with their habiliments spread out beside them. "What does this mean?" I inquired. I was told that their garments were purposely spread upon ants' hillocks; and that the ants, after devouring all the vermin which they find on the clothes, retire from them well satisfied into their nests. How instructive it is to see the world!

The French consul at Mascara is an Egyptian by birth; but being a Christian, he joined the French when they invaded Egypt, and has risen to be a captain in their service. He complained to me of the dismal dulness of his situation, as he has no companion but the French sergeant of dragoons already mentioned, who convoyed me back to Oran. My visit, he said, was a God-send to him, and he implored me to stop for a week-a request with which I could not comply.

Mascara is to be seen out and out in a few hours. It is about half as big as Algiers, encircled by a wall fifty feet high, without any ditch, but having some flanking towers. Its houses are square and flat-roofed, seldom more than a story high. Abd-el-Kader's palace has a quadrangular court, and a fountain in the middle of it, and consists of buildings that I think would let in London for about 100l. a-year, not counting

taxes. I went to see his powder-manufactory, which consists of a few rollers and mortars-a miserable concern. The market-place is pleasant and airy, and supplied with abundance of fruit, butter, and wool. I remarked the simplicity of manners in the weights being pieces of stone. Nevertheless, there are some shops filled with European articles. I visited a tannery that displayed some beautiful prepared leather; and I saw weavers with the regular looms making fine white woollen cloth. What most surprised me was an embroiderer's shop: his articles were splendid. I priced one of them, but it was so costly, that I could not purchase it. The consul walked with me over the villa and garden grounds of Abdel-Kader, about a mile out of town; there are vine-trellices, orangegroves, and even chiosques, but the whole appearance is poor in comparison with the villas round Algiers. When we came home and dined, we received crowds of Mascaran Moors in the evening; every day the consul told me that they come and drink about fourscore cups of coffee with him, and beg other gratuities besides, which he cannot refuse. There were Maraboots in their white mantles among these gentle beggars. After two days' residence I left Mascara; the consul rode out with me a couple of miles on the way: he had cautioned me not to drink of the turbid water of the streams we had to recross, without mixing it with spirits or wine, and I knew that my keg of wine ought not to have been exhausted. But when we halted at the river Hammam, twenty miles from Mascara, no wine was to be found. The Arabs had unquestionably tricked us on this occasion, and they certainly can both steal and drink. But still this does not affect my general impression, that their inebriety and dishonesty are very infrequent. Here we were, however, without a drop of wine, spirits, or vinegar to unpoison the river water we had to swallow. I would have given more money than I had in my pocket for but a cruet full of vinegar, but I determined to abstain from the yellow stream, and exhorted the Frenchman not to slake his thirst at it. We rode on for four hours under a sun that would have poached eggs on the crown of my hat; I suffered tormentingly from thirst, but at last we reached a dasera, and waiting an hour till the milk was churned by being beat in a skin, for the Arabs will never sell you the fluid unchurned, we got gallons of butter-milk, which "we quaffed with ecstacy, and cooled our souls."

I found the people of this dascra very sociable. The women, who have none of the reserve of the city females, came about us, and I astonished them with my fine silk umbrella, which, strange to say, seemed to them a total novelty. The ladies chuckled and strutted about with it-nay, it seemed so popular among them, that I feared I should be obliged to leave it as a souvenir; but the headman of the dascra brought it back to me on my presenting him with a parcel of choice tobacco. I showed them also a phosphoric fire-kindler, expecting they would be in raptures with it; but they looked very shyly at it, and when I asked the reason, I was told, through the interpreter, that they liked the umbrella because it was the work of man, but, for the other machine, it was the work of the devil. I protested to them that I had never in my life had anything to do with the devil, and asked them if there was anything more wonderful in sulphur and phosphorus kindling flame, than in a spark from flint igniting gunpowder. They shook their heads, and said that they did not suspect me of having got this thing immediately from the devil, but that it was clearly of his contrivance.