VOYAGE TO TUNIS. 373 CHAPTER XIII. ON the 28th of April I embarked for Tunis on board the French mail steamer, and found the accommodations very clean and good, but the commander the most uncivil Frenchman it was ever my fortune to fall in with. We steamed out from Bona at about one o'clock in the afternoon, with a strong although favourable wind. The ship was very narrow and quite light, and rolled terribly; to such an extent that when I lay down in my berth at night I was thrown from side to side, and should have been actually pitched out had I not pulled up the board at the side of the berth to considerably above its proper height, and converted the bed into a regular child's crib. However we made a remarkably quick passage; and on waking early in the morning, and finding no motion, I concluded that we must have got round Cape Farina (the Promontorium Apollinis of Pliny), which forms the western extremity of the Gulf of Tunis. I therefore got up, and on reaching the deck found my conjecture verified. 374 PILGRIMS TO MECCA. It was about four o'clock, and as the light gradually appeared, the low flat land of the beach of the Goletta showed itself, with high mountains (as they seemed) rising on the eastern side of it. Soon after four o'clock we dropped our anchor about a mile from the Goletta. This is the name given, originally by the Venetians, to the narrow entrance in the bank of sand which separates the Lake of Tunis from the sea. It was, however, not till nearly eight o'clock that we were enabled to land. We had about fifty Arabs on board as deck passengers, who were going on a pilgrimage to Mecca; and they were here to be transferred to another vessel which was to take them on to Alexandria. The poor creatures were treated with a degree of discourtesy and want of common humanity which was very painful to witness. Soon after the ship let fall her anchor, the agent of the other steamer boarded us, and the captain immediately requested him "avoir la complaisance de me débarrasser de ce vermin là." It was very natural that he should wish to get rid of any or all of his passengers, and no doubt it is rather difficult to make an Arab stir from any position he has taken up: but ruffianism never helps matters on. I came afterwards from Malta to Gibraltar in an English steamer where we had nearly a hundred pilgrims returning from Mecca to Morocco; and although the class of skippers is certainly a lower one socially in England than in France, the constitu RUFFIANISM OF FRENCH SAILORS. 375 tional good nature and good feeling of the British seaman exhibited itself in the conduct both of com mander and crew to these poor people throughout a tedious voyage of six days; and when we reached our destination, I believe not a man, woman, or child quitted the ship without a friendly feeling towards the English. But in the debarkation at Tunis, when a boat at last came alongside, the packs of the pilgrims were fished up from the hold and tumbled— not seldom kicked-with an ostentatious carelessness into it. Of course the owner continually poked himself forward, with the nervous manner of an unprotected female, to snatch at some pot or pan or basket which he fancied in peril; and this proceeding, which a very few words of Arabic would have prevented altogether, was met by scizing him by the neck and hurling him back by main force. At last, when the luggage was safely stowed in the yawl, the pilgrims had to follow it. By bringing the boat round to the ladder-side of the steamer the whole party might have descended in an orderly manner in three minutes. This however would, I fancy, have been considered a breach of etiquette, and disrespectful to the cabin passengers. The Arabs were sent down the rope-ladder, and when this proceeding, from their nervousness, their exhaustion from sea-sickness, and the encumbrance of their huge bournouses, naturally occasioned some delay, the poor wretches were forced by menaces to jump from the side of the steamer into the boat as she lay surging, a height of eight or nine feet. Some of them were aged and even infirm men, of sixty or seventy years old, who fell and rolled on the pile of luggage; and in several instances a very unseemly spectacle was presented and even danger incurred. Væ victis, when the Gaul is the conqueror! The French sailors, and, I am ashamed to say, some of the passengers, considered the whole affair as an excellent joke. One of the greatest obstacles, in fact, which the Government have to surmount in reconciling the native population of North Africa to their newly imposed yoke, arises from their treatment generally by the bourgeoisie, who hate them as the Calcutta shopkeepers do the Hindoos, the more for the fear which underlies their dislike. By the military the commou Arab is rarely ill-treated, although the insolence of command sometimes unnecessarily galls the pride of some ancient native chief; and the high offices of administration are generally filled by persons who feel the responsibility of their position, and act as statesmen, if not as Christians, in their relations to the subject class. There are only two hotels at Tunis in which an European can find quarters, and in one only of these are the bedrooms provided with doors, and the doors with fastenings. This, the Hôtel de France, is kept |