During the struggle with the French, many of these tribes of the mountains were in the habit of seeking refuge with their flocks and treasures in the caves of the vicinity. On one occasion, a tribe, when hotly pursued by the French, took refuge in one of these immense caves. The colonel of the French troops ordered the refugees to surrender their firearms and horses, promising life and liberty. The offer was scornfully rejected by the Kabyles, who set at work to collect fagots, which they placed at the entrance of the cave and then ignited.
Three different times the French colonel sent a flag of truce and begged the imprisoned natives to surrender and accept the terms offered, but without avail. The last messenger was met by a discharge of firearms by the dauntless mountaineers. The fire was then rekindled and the intrepid Kabyles met their death in what had proved a prison rather than a refuge.
Later, when the cave was examined, some six hundred dead bodies were found. Counting those natives who, though alive, did not long survive, and those who could not be reached, it has been roughly estimated that about eight hundred must have perished. Some had been suffocated, others trampled to death by the maddened cattle which had been confined in the cave with their owners.
The capital of Algeria is Algiers. It was built some nine hundred years before Christ. An Arab chief was its founder. It rises from the sea coast up the sides of a bald, rugged hill.
Viewed from a distance the city is somewhat like a triangle in shape. The apex of the triangle is occupied by an ancient fortress. It stands five hundred feet above sea level and commands the whole city.
The modern part of the city is built lower down. On the side facing the sea it has a strong fortification, which the French have improved at a great expense.
It has been estimated that Algiers has a population of between fifty and sixty thousand people.
Oran and Constantine are both situated upon the sea coast. The former is a strongly fortified town upon the west. It is quite Europeanlike in appearance. Its seaport, about five miles to the north, is said to have one of the finest harbors on the northern coast of Africa.
STREET IN ALGIERS.