MOORISH CEMETERIES DESTROYED.

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CHAPTER V.

THE beautifully-traced road by which the traveller descends from the Fort of the Emperor to the Fauxbourg Bab-Azoun (the southern extremity of Algiers), was constructed by the army under the Duke de Rovigo (General Savary) during his short administration of the province in 1832. In its formation, as well as in that of the esplanade outside the Bab-elOued, it was necessary to destroy a Moorish cemetery ; and this proceeding, which under any circumstances would have shocked Mahometan feelings, was conducted with such disregard of all decency, that even the French civilians were scandalized. No provision was made for the re-interment of the partially decomposed remains; and when the engineer's line passed, as was often the case, through the middle of a grave, one half of the skeleton was left exposed to view in the bank, while the other part was carted away with the earth that had to be removed, to form an embankment a little further off.

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ROAD MAKING OF THE FRENCH

Another branch of the road descends upon the esplanade just mentioned, and is no less admirable as a work of engineering. It was finished by General Voirol, the great road-maker among the governors of Algeria, in the year 1834; and then, for the first time, it became possible to make the circuit of Algiers in a wheeled carriage. The descent in both these branches is at the uniform pitch of one in twenty, and great pains have been taken to provide means for carrying off the water which falls in the rainy season. General Voirol extended this road southwards for nearly fifteen miles beyond the point where its two branches meet, through the villages of Dely Ibrahim and Douera, to the very verge of the plain of the Metidja, at an Arab settlement called Ouled-Mendil. was subsequently prolonged as far as Blidah, on the other side of the plain; and the part constructed by Voirol is undoubtedly the best, as well as the most important, of all the Algerian routes.

It

Another road, no less admirably traced, but in worse condition, quits Algiers by the Bab-Azoun, and winds up the Sahel through the village of Mustapha, a charming situation, where some of the principal French functionaries have country houses, which are for the most part old Moorish villas. Mustapha is only about a mile and a half from Algiers. The plain which lies beneath, between the hill and the sea, is partly occupied by some cavalry barracks, in which

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are quartered the 1st Regiment of the Chasseurs d'Afrique. Their colonel, the Vicomte de SalignacFénélon, whose courtesy and high cultivation are not inferior to his acknowledged abilities as an officer and administrator, occupies one of the country houses on the hill above, in the immediate neighbourhood of the palace of Marshal Randon, the Governor-General of Algeria, who is his father-in-law. Beyond the cavalry barracks is an extensive common, on which the reviews of the troops stationed in Algiers take place. Skirting this, another road likewise constructed by General Voirol, runs along the foot of the hills, and in about six miles reaches the Maison Carrée, just after crossing the river Harash on a stone bridge of some centuries old.

Following the course of the route through Mustapha, the visitor, after passing the culminating point (on which a column is placed, commemorating the names of General Voirol and of five regiments of the African army, by whom the operation of making the road was executed), begins to descend through an undulating country, seamed with ravines, of which the sides are richly wooded and the bottoms fertile, to a pretty village called Birmandreis. It only consists of two or three houses, one of which is a café,—the first essential of French existence; but the plentiful supply of water, and the luxuriant foliage of the trees with which it is surrounded, invest it with the highest

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beauty in the eye of an African. It has, however, a bad reputation for unhealthiness, being surrounded by hills which prevent a free circulation of air. About two miles further is a larger village-Birkadem (Well of the Negro), so called from a fountain, ornamented with a marble façade, by the side of the road. The village is built in a hollow, below a mamelon on which, in the early part of the French occupation, a fortified camp was established. From another hill, little more than a mile off the village on the south-east side, a good view of the lower portion of the Metidja, and of the Atlas behind it, may be obtained.

There are communal schools here both for boys and girls, but very scantily attended. The mistress of the latter complained that there were some absences from fever, which much surprised me at that time of the year (the middle of January), and the master did not assign any such reason for the small number of his scholars. All the settlers in Birkadem are engaged in agriculture, with the exception of one who was employed in the preparation of crin végétal, the stringy fibres of the leaves of the dwarf palm, which is used instead of wool for stuffing mattresses. Among the children in the school I found two or three Mahonnais and Germans, the latter of which could understand their native language, but had become unable to speak it. The schoolmaster told me there was also a Moorish school kept up by the Government, which was well

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attended. I asked if care was taken to teach the scholars French, and he replied that they rarely learnt more than the few words which would be useful to them in intercourse with the officials.

Beyond Birkadem the road approaches the Metidja more apparently, and in about three miles reaches it by descending rather suddenly on the Oued-el-Kerma, which is there crossed by a stone bridge. I estimated this point to be very little more than thirty feet above the level of the sea. Here the work of General Voirol terminated; but the road is now continued, in a westsouth-west direction, along the skirts of the plain, till it cuts the prolongation of the Dely Ibrahim and Douera road, about a mile to the south of Ouled Mendil, at a place called Les quatre chemins. There is a posting station here, and one or two inns to supply the wants of travellers; but nothing can exceed the melancholy appearance of the place. Immediately to the south of it is a fen, through which, at the expense of great labour, the road to Blidah is carried; and this-which is the chief, and indeed only direct military communication between the seat of government and the most important post in the central province-is so rotten, and lies so low, that in the whole of England it would not be easy to find a farming road which would not, taking the whole year round, prove a more secure route. At its lowest point, which is about three or four miles before reaching Bouffarik, it is probably