Bey of Tunis

“ Yet more than one visitor to Tunis who has afterwards recorded his impressions of the place in writing, has fallen into the ludicrous error of confounding this work with the Phœnician or Roman aqueduct by which Carthage obtained its water-supply.
In one respect the country round Tunis resembles that round Paris. Almost every height which commands the city is crowned by a fort. On nearly all these forts to-day the French flag was flying above that of the Bey. ”

“ I am an independent prince as well as the Bey of Tunis, and I can hurt the commerce of any nation as much as the ruler of Tunis."
The President paid no heed to these threats. Thereupon, on May 18, 1801, the Bashaw cut down the flagstaff of the American consulate at Tripoli. Consul Cathcart quitted the city, and a state of war was declared.
Matters came to a head with us in Tunis in March, 1803. Commodore Morris had been detained in port by the Bey because the American squadron had seized a Tunisian vessel bound for Tripoli, with which country the United States was at war. ”

“ For nearly two hundred years those of our race who finished their days in this strange country have been buried here, and the rose, the heliotrope, and the myrtle have been left to flower and fade luxuriantly above their dust. Many English Consuls are buried here; some of them having been the representatives of England at the Court of the Bey at the time when Tunis was a nest of pirates, and [119] when cruelty and lust such as nowadays it hardly enters into one’s mind to conceive were rampant on this spot. ”

“ Tunis, less venturesome, but still formidable, infested the Eastern Mediterranean, and made the passage of Malta and the Adriatic its special hunting grounds. At Tunis thirty Deys, appointed by the Sublime Porte, succeeded one another from 1590 to 1705—giving each an average reign of less than four years. Most of them were deposed, many murdered, and one is related on credible authority to have been torn to pieces and devoured by the enraged populace. In 1705 the soldiery, following the example of Algiers, elected their own governor, and called him Bey ”

“ And then from each in succession there was poured forth a catalogue of the dangers, difficulties, and hardships which I was certain to encounter if I ventured into the dominions of the Bey. “Do you not know that the country is in a state of war; that a French army is on the point of occupying the city of Tunis itself; that the Arabs are murdering every European they can catch, and the French, not to be behind them, are doing the same by the Arabs?” “Have you read those [2] horrible revelations about the prevalence of typhoid fever in Tunis? They say they are dying there by hundreds daily.” ”

“ French many troops in Algeria? Have they more than Muley Abd-Errahman? Could they conquer Morocco? Why don't the English drive out the French from Algeria? The Mussulmans of Algeria are now corrupted by the money of the Christians. The Bey of Tunis is the friend of the French. The Sultan of Constantinople, Mehemet Ali, and the English are against the Bey of Tunis and the French. Now, the Christians have great power in the world, but they will soon be cut off, when shall appear the new warrior of the faithful. Is the Sultan of Stamboul strong? ”

“ It is a grand place for seeing life, for crowds always collect, especially on the days when the Bey comes to Tunis, and they stand and watch him as he sits in a gilt chair near a window, resting after his morning’s work. ”

“ After a residence of several years on the shores of North Africa—during which time he seems to have mastered the various dialects of the Arab tribes, and of course studied their manners—Mr Davis, the reverend author, catches sight of an excellent opportunity for visiting the interior. “Sidy Mohammed Bey,” he says, “the heir-apparent of the throne of Tunis,—a prince possessed of excellent qualities, among which extreme kindness and affability are not the least prominent,—was on the point of making a journey into the interior, in order to regulate some public affairs ”

“ Ah, I know all about that, M. Joyeuse. But, to leave it with honour, money is needed, much money, a fresh sacrifice of two or three millions, and we have not got them. That is exactly the reason why I am going to Tunis to try to wrest from the rapacity of the Bey a slice of that great fortune which he is retaining in his possession so unjustly. ”

“ French armies were in occupation of different points in the Regency, and were about to begin the march to the sacred city of Kairwan; and Tunis itself had, as a matter of precaution, been strongly occupied by the soldiers of the Republic. As a result of this state of things it had become dangerous for any Christian to go beyond the very limited districts in which the French troops were actually posted. Even in Tunis itself it was perilous to visit certain quarters of the city at any time, and after dark no European could walk about the streets safely. ”

“ There seems to me to be no evidence that he is a bona fide purchaser on his own account. Tunis is the really ticklish point in our relations with France.
The Enfida Estate case was not only unsatisfactory on account of Mr. Levy not being a very desirable protégé, but because it enabled the French to manufacture a grievance against the Bey, and [Pg 240] gave the Italians an opportunity to encourage that unfortunate potentate in the belief that he would receive foreign support in the event of French aggression. ”

“ Since then, however, it has been seen that England either will not or cannot interfere to save the Regency from the clutches of the French; and as a natural and inevitable consequence, Mr. Reade is no longer regarded as a powerful mediator on behalf of Tunis. In one word, our political influence in the country, once all-powerful, has now been completely destroyed, as the result of the French aggression. That our commercial influence will suffer can hardly be doubted. At present England supplies Tunis with the greater part of the European goods she consumes. ”

“ The French have now been installed in Tunis for some days. They entered it at the earliest hour of dawn last Tuesday morning, the inhabitants waking up to find themselves in the power of a Christian host. Intense excitement and indignation have since prevailed in the native quarters of the town, and rumours of an impending rising are commonly current. Many of the Europeans, I am told, live in a state of perpetual alarm; but others have confidence in the power of the French to put down any [70] attempt to overpower the non-Mussulman population. ”

“ The streets of the city are narrow and exceedingly dirty. Modern civilization seems to have done little in the way of improving their sanitary conditions.
At Tunis is situated the palace of the bey, or Turkish ruler. There is nothing remarkable about its exterior, but the interior is furnished with all the luxuriance of the Moorish style. This palace is used as a residence for distinguished foreigners. The bey has his residence at El-mersa, which is situated on the sea coast about three leagues from the city. ”

“ Men now living in Tunis can remember the time when slaves were sold here; it was, indeed, the father, and the predecessor of the present English Consul, the late Sir Thomas Reade, who succeeded in putting an end to the abominable traffic. I was glad to turn away from the bazaar, and to take a walk with Afrigan through those higher and more aristocratic parts of Tunis which are reserved for the native population, and in which no Christian or European is allowed to dwell. ”

“ It is not always easy to realize the [237] personal tragedies which are involved in the great political movements of the world—the private woes which must ever accompany the development of a State policy. But nobody can have been in Tunis during the last three months without being able to realize all this.
Away to the right of the palace was the barren desolate site of Carthage; and still further to the right was the Arab town of Sidi bou Said, where my friend Ben Ayad has his favourite residence. ”

“ The Tunisians, the common people of Tunis, are protégés of France, and France is doing her best to protect them and lead them to prosperity, assisted of course by the good-will and influence of the ruling Bey, whom she keeps in luxury and quasi-power. ”

“ But though there has been nothing brilliant in this mean achievement, and though the struggle with the Arabs has been hardly advanced a single step by the occupation of this city, it has a degree of importance. The excitement and resentment among the Arab population of the Regency has been greatly intensified by an outrage upon a shrine which they have long regarded as sacred. [298] Here in Tunis, the Arabs openly declare that the insult thus put upon their faith must be avenged in blood; and outside the city walls the populace is seething with rage. ”

“ That recent events in Tunis have not been very favourable to these persons is only too certain. Some thirty British subjects have been killed during the course of the war between the French and the Arabs, and an enormous quantity of property, belonging not merely to Maltese, but to English merchants trading through agents in the Regency, has been destroyed. The loss of life is chiefly due to the Arabs ”

“ Malta, Nov. 5th.—The rains were beginning to set in over Tunis when I left the Regency, and with the commencement of the rainy season the best authorities were agreed in believing that the fighting would cease. The Arabs have spent several months, during which no work could be done upon the land, in assailing their hated enemy, and they have inflicted upon him not only severe losses, but the necessity of taking the most costly and extensive measures for maintaining his hold upon the country. ”

“ Steamers were also starting at the same time as the Sicilia for Bone and Marseilles, and for Susa and Tripoli. So we had on board with us an unkempt and not particularly clean Frenchwoman, who was somewhat disconsolately making her way back to her native land, not having found Tunis, so far as she herself [232] was concerned, quite the field of promise that she had been led to believe it was; a smart-looking commercial traveller bound for Marseilles; half a dozen Arabs going down the Gulf of Hammamet laden with merchandise wrapped in filthy carpets ”

“ The victim was one of the unfortunate Maltese coachmen of Tunis; the murderer a major in the service of the Bey. The major engaged the coachman to drive him to Carthage, and when opposite this palm-tree shot him through the heart. There were plenty of Arabs upon the road at the time, but none of them interfered. It was only a wretched infidel who had met with his deserts: why should they trouble themselves in the matter? So the assassin got clean off, and has not since been heard of; nor does anybody believe that he is likely to be punished. ”

“ Every traveller almost forms a different opinion, and frequently the very opposite estimate, respecting the strangers amongst whom he is sojourning. A few Jewish artizans have always been tolerated here, on condition of wearing a black handkerchief round their heads, and not mount a horse, &c. Recently the Bey, however, by solemn decrees, has placed the Jews exactly on the same footing of rights and privileges as the rest of his subjects.
Nefta is the intermediate entrepôt of commerce which Tunis pours towards the Sahara, and for this reason is called by the Arabs, "the gate of Tunis;" ”

“ This utterly failed, with the loss of many of their men; and Ward, having sold his prizes and ransomed those of his men who were prisoners, made friends with the Turks, and for the following years cruised, especially against the Venetians and the Knights of St. John, under the Turkish or Tunisian flag, making Tunis his principal port, and building there a palace, ‘beautified with rich marble and alabaster,’ ‘more fit for a prince than a pirate,’ and second only to that of the bey in its magnificence. ”

“ An interesting example is the attempt made by General Kheir-ed-Din to modernize Tunis. This man, a Circassian by birth, had won the confidence of his master, the Bey, who made him vizier. In 1860 he toured Europe and returned greatly impressed with its civilization. ”

“ The great difficulty and unpleasantness of travelling in Tunis is, that without such orders it is impossible to get on at all; no one will exercise any hospitality to a traveller, or will even aid him to purchase such provisions for himself and forage for his horses as may be absolutely necessary. With an order from the Bey, the officials feel bound to supply his wants and those of his attendants, but it is often done with ill-concealed reluctance, most unpleasant to witness. ”

“ Levy led me. Few were more than five feet wide, many of them being still narrower; and everywhere the architecture showed that the Jew’s house in Tunis is of necessity his fortress also. Every window was heavily barred, the grating generally being of the curious curved shape which is one of the distinguishing features of street scenery in the Regency. The doors of stout oak were studded with heavy iron bolts, and secured by ponderous locks and bars. As in other parts of Tunis, the streets often run under a kind of tunnel, the houses being built over them for a considerable distance. ”

“ Austria was forced to sue for a treaty, and had to pay an annual tribute (1784) . The Danes sent a fleet to beg leave to hoist their flag over their consulate in Tunis: the Bey asked fifteen thousand sequins for the privilege, and the admiral sailed away in despair. After the Venetians had actually defeated the Tunisians several times in the war of 1784-92, Venice paid the Bey Hamuda forty thousand sequins and splendid presents for the treaty of peace. About the same time Spain spent one hundred thousand piastres for the sake of immunity from piracy ”