If Abd-el-Kadir had not been playing a game, at all events a game was played in his person. He was necessary to the French military system of Algiers. He is known to have been three times in their hands, and to have been suffered to escape.
From one who had been for seven years the companion of Abd-el-Kadir, I give the following incidents. After the destruction of the Turkish Government, the most powerful chief was Mahmud Ben Ismael, the descendant of the man who had first entered Oran on its evacuation by the Spaniards. Abd-el-Kadir came next by his family and religious character: differences arising between them, the latter had to fly, and took refuge in Oran, asking the assistance of the French. They did not neglect the opportunity to sow divisions between the tribes, and gave him arms, ammunition, and twenty thousand dollars. With these means he defeated his rival, who, in like manner, came to the French, and said, “You have strengthened my rival against me; deal fairly now by me.” They required that he should acknowledge himself the vassal of France; but this proposal he rejected. Abd-el-Kadir from that time continued at war with the French, till the treaty of the Tafna, by which the French appeared to gain some show of title, but in reality invested Abd-el-Kadir with a quasi sovereign character.
The rupture of this treaty was occasioned by the violation of the Emir’s territory by the Duke d’Aumale, when returning from Constantine. He led the troops through passes which exposed them to be cut off, had not treachery been at work. A French renegade had insinuated himself into the confidence and affections of Abd-el-Kadir. This man stole the seal of the Emir, and wrote letters to the Chiefs, requiring them to allow the French to pass. A Jew, who in the pillage of the treasury of Algiers had secured a quantity of jewels, and had, therefore, to fly, and was in the deira, discovered the fraud. High words ensued in the tent of the renegade: the conversation was carried on in French, and M. Lascases, a French advocate, who, compromised in the affairs of July, had taken refuge with Abd-el-Kadir, entered the tent to implore them not to speak so loud. He thus became acquainted with the transaction. (He afterwards came to Morocco.) The Jew was quieted, and induced to remain and sup with the renegade. Next morning the renegade had left, and in the tent the Jew was found dead. At Mascara the renegade took one of Abd-el-Kadir’s people to accompany him, as if proceeding somewhere by his orders. On arriving at the French posts, he clapped a pistol to his companion’s ear and blew out his brains. He rejoined his countrymen, and was immediately appointed to an important post in the army of Africa.
The renegade whose opinions I have been reporting, saw the absurdity of the attempt to change the national costume. The haïk and other clothing of the horsemen might appear an embarrassment, though, in fact, it was not so to them; but the sulam or bornoos of the foot soldiers was a costume rather to be adopted by other nations than changed by the Moors. The most interesting part of the conversation was the anxious inquiries they made respecting the successes of the Circassians, of which vague rumours had reached them through Egypt. One of these men had been with the Aï Fatu, one of the most powerful tribes, numbering thirty thousand horse. The Sultan has built several fortresses round them, but the most of these they have taken and destroyed.
Their mode of attack is this. They allot certain portions of the wall to the different tribes or families; they then advance simultaneously on all sides, with bags and hurdles to fill up the ditch, and make a bridge to the rampart. Many fall, but those who follow march on. If any hang back, their wives are taken from them, and they are not allowed afterwards to marry. Here is the Roman testudo, or perhaps the origin of it. Their cry is, “Shields to the wall.” They shave their beards.
Speaking of the difference between the Arabs and the Turks, this story was told by one of the former. When Mahomet left this world, he delivered to the Turks a standard, and to the Arabs a standard, telling them that he should return in forty years to require it of them. Then the Arabs took their standard and cut it into many pieces, and each man put his piece by in his breast; but the Turks took care of the standard, and, making a chest of cypress-wood, they put upon it forty locks, and they laid in it the standard, and gave a key to each of the elders of the forty tribes. At the end of the years Mahomet came to the Arabs, and said: “Where is your flag?” and they all called out, “Here it is—here it is!” and each man put his hand into his breast, but the pieces could not fit; so Mahomet said to them, “Unworthy servants, the empire is departed from you.” And then he went to the Turks, and said to them, “Where is your flag?” They answered, “We have laid it by;” and he said, “Bring it forth.” So they called the elders together, but one was wanting. So he said to them, “This is a pretence, for you have lost the flag;” and they said, “The elder is gone to look after his flocks—an elder of the people cannot be wanting. Come again to-morrow.” So Mahomet came the next day, and there were the forty elders with the forty keys; so they opened the chest and brought forth the flag; and Mahomet said, “Good and faithful servants, the empire is taken from the Arabs and given unto you!”
CHAPTER V.
THE SULTAN: HIS COMMERCIAL SYSTEM.
Rabat, Dec. 12th.
I find it was not the Sultan who went to the mosque last Friday, but his son. To-day I saw the real potentate overshadowed by the Sheriffean umbrella. He wore a green sulam, with a white sash or turban bound over it, which had a most singular effect. The umbrella was carried by a horseman on his left. The umbrella is of the ordinary size, but the spokes are straight. It is covered with crimson velvet, and has a depending fringe or border. Two men carried before him long lances upright, to spear on the spot, as I was told, whomever he might point out for that purpose. I could distinguish through my glass his broad Mulatto features, as he inclined right and left to the saluting crowd. As for two Fridays he has not been to mosque, his appearance to-day, and his look of health, have occasioned great rejoicings. Selam said to me, “Moors not like English—look much to king.—English king die; no troubles Gibraltar, Malta—Moorish king die; all cut one another’s throats.”
Muley Abderachman has reigned twenty-three years. He had been employed both as governor and minister, and was assiduous and incorruptible. He was originally a merchant of Larache, where the loss of a cargo first made him known to the late Sultan, his uncle, and he gave him, in consequence, the government of Mogadore. His conduct in that post induced the Sultan to appoint him his successor, as being worthier to reign than any of his own sons. He was not, however, seated on the throne without bloodshed, and the commencement of his reign was marked with severity. His authority once established, his previous mildness reappeared. He is fond of money, and no one ever knew better how to gratify that taste; but his word is inviolable, and he is no less orderly than upright in his commercial dealings, which extend to every portion of his kingdom. Wise in small matters, he is foolish in great ones; and his merits render tolerable, or his astuteness sustains, the false and ruinous commercial system he has introduced.