acquire a knowledge of the rude language of
these mountaineers, to speak their patois,
and, moreover, to give public proof of
incontestable courage. Finally to show them, in
public sittings, which he proposed to hold,
that he was cognisant of all their social
habits; of all the tales that affected their self-
esteem, and of the previous history of the
principal groups of the whole population.
In a few months he had obtained success;
and, five years afterwards, being called
to fill other functions, he was sufficiently
master of the spirit of his Arabs to induce
them to undertake important industrial
works.

Passing by the administrative system
which the French apply to their Algerian
possessions, and which is well worth at least
the study of our Indian statesmen, we will
confine ourselves to Monsieur Hugonnet's
record of the way in which military men,
both officers and soldiers, are obliged to
be inured to fatigue. He personally witnessed
what he describes; and he divides the
career of the French army in Africa, from
eighteen hundred and thirty to the present
date, into three distinct phases. The first
period (answering to the era of Clive in
Hindostan), is especially the warlike epoch;
during which there were the greatest
number of partial combats; of dangers arising
from the struggle with the indigenous
inhabitants. The want of sufficient resources,
and the ignorance of the generals—who had
not yet discovered the mode of warfare most
suitable to the situation—were the principal
causes of the events which took place during
the first nine or ten years. The annals of
Algeria are filled with little else than detachments
surprised, supplies carried off, posts
planted too far apart, or defended by feeble
garrisons becoming daily weaker from the
active pressure of the enemy, from disease
and from the want of provisions and
regular communications with the principal
towns. But, as soon as General Bugeaud,
the commander-in-chief, had taught the
African army what henceforward must be the
constitution of the war in Algeria, the state
of things, although retaining its distinctive
character of an armed struggle, nevertheless
changed its aspect in this respect;—that the
conquering race definitely took the upper
hand over the hostile natives of the country,
and established incontestably its warlike
superiority. We hope that we have arrived
at exactly this very same point with the
Indian insurrection. During the second
period, of about five years, the French army
in Africa had to endure very great fatigue.
This epoch is characterised by extraordinary
marches. The enemy, who offered no serious
resistance hardly anywhere, had to be
ceaselessly pursued; and their extremely rapid
movements compelled the French to perform
the most painful and difficult changes of
place. From eighteen hundred and forty-
seven up to the present time, the army of
Africa has been principally employed in the
execution of great civil-engineering works,
and in finishing the conquest of the Kabyle
masses. The corresponding period, in India,
is still before us.

But we cannot allow Monsieur Hugonnet
to relate the superhuman efforts which his
men were gradually trained to make, without
first giving some idea of the resisting
race, as sketched by General Daumas, who
knew them thoroughly. The Arab of the
Desert is the real warrior, and the last to be
subdued; although even his existence depends
on supplies of corn from the Tell or cultivated
country, which Tell and its inhabitants he
despises utterly. By the Arab of the Desert,
the lord of the tent, is meant he who, leading
a wandering life, is never more than a fortnight
or three weeks without a change of
dwelling-place, and who goes only once a
year to the tiresome Tell to purchase corn.
This cavalier, hunter, and warrior combined,
is a man of dry and wiry constitution, with
sunburnt countenance and well-proportioned
limbs, tall, but nevertheless setting but little
value on the advantages of lofty stature—
"the skin of a lion on the back of a cow"—
unless it be accompanied by address, agility,
good health, vigour, and, above all, by courage.
Still, while esteeming courage thus highly, he
pities, but never despises or insults, those
who have "no liver." It is not their fault.
Allah has not willed it. The Desert Arab
practises extreme sobriety; but, accommodating
himself to all sorts of circumstances, he
will not neglect any opportunity of feasting
luxuriously and plentifully. His daily food
is simple and unvaried; but he knows how
to entertain his guests worthily when occasion
requires. When el-ouda, or the annual fête
of a friendly tribe arrives, he will not insult
his acquaintance by neglecting to join
them; and, were it eighty or a hundred
miles off, go there he must, to fill his
stomach and cheer his friends. On the
other hand, they are well aware that he will
cheerfully return the compliment, and that
they have not to do with a rascally town-
trader, the whole amount of whose hospitality
consists in the offer of four feet square as a
sitting place, a pipe of tobacco, and a cup of
coffee, sugared or not, after abundance of
preliminary speech.

With the Arab of the Desert everything
concurs to a powerful manifestation of
exterior life. He is sinewy, hardened, sober,
although occasionally of vigorous appetite.
His visual power is sure and piercing. At five
or six miles distance, he boasts that he can
distinguish a man from a woman; at ten or
twelve miles, a drove of camels from a flock of
sheep. Nor is this empty brag; the extent and
clearness of his sight are attained, as with
sailors, by the incessant habit of looking over
immense and naked areas. Nevertheless,
diseases of the eyes are frequent; the reflection