Early on the forenoon of April 4 we went to present our respects to the Bey, who received us at the Kasr Säid, or happy palace. This is just beyond the Bardo, and is his favourite place of residence during the winter months. It belonged originally to one of his brothers-in-law, who, having got mixed up with the insurrection of 1867, disappeared and had his property confiscated. Now Es-Saduk Bey has considerably added to and adorned it; but though a comfortable and spacious residence, it has no architectural pretensions as a Moorish palace. Our interview was a most pleasant one. His Highness was very gracious, and seemed pleased to be able to converse with me without the intervention of an interpreter. A little later I paid a visit to the Wuzir, or chief minister, General Kheir-ed-din, at his palace at Manouba, a short distance beyond the Bardo. His Excellency gave us letters of introduction from the Bey, and special recommendations from himself, addressed to all the Government officials throughout the districts in which we were likely to travel, and placed four mounted men at our disposal, two Hanbas and two Spahis, to accompany us wherever we might feel disposed to go.
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. If the traveller, like myself, occupies a public position, all offers of payment are rejected, and if, to satisfy his own scruples, he makes a liberal present on his departure, he is almost sure to do so to the wrong person, who has had no share in furnishing the supplies. Thus the passage of a party like ours is a serious tax on some one, wherever they pass the night. In most cases this falls on the Government of the Bey, as the officials who exercise hospitality in his name obtain a corresponding remission of taxation; but it is extremely unpleasant to feel that a journey, made at great expense to the traveller, is also a heavy burthen to others—a double charge which he is quite powerless to prevent. Should the traveller have no such official character, he will be fleeced unmercifully in every direction, and even at an extortionate price he will often be unable to obtain what he requires. No very great evils result from this, simply because the amount is mitigated by the extreme rarity of travellers in these regions; but in time, as the interesting Roman remains scattered broadcast over the land become better known, they cannot fail to attract tourists, who have tried Switzerland and the Carpathians, and are satiated with the beaten paths of travel in Europe and the East.
I cannot refrain from expressing the great obligation under which I feel myself to his Highness the Bey, and to his minister, General Kheir-ed-din, for the great attention and hospitality we received throughout the Tunisian dominions, and I bear willing evidence to the extraordinary change, which has come over the country since the accession of the latter to power. Before that event the testimony of the few Europeans who have travelled in the country is unanimous, the roads were infested with robbers, tribes were at variance with each other, the husbandman sowed without any certitude that he would reap the fruit of his labour, and the exactions of the governing classes were the most insupportable of all. Wherever we went we heard the Wuzir’s name mentioned with affection and esteem by all good men, and as the terror of evil-doers. We can certainly testify that throughout all our wanderings we found the roads as safe as the streets of Tunis; we were shown places where a very few years ago the traveller could only pass with a strong escort and at the peril of his life, but nowhere were we molested; on the contrary, the hospitality shown to us was even burthensome, not from any love of us, but because the mighty Wuzir would be offended if a British official were not entertained with becoming distinction.
General Kheir-ed-din informed me that he contemplated the creation of a museum of antiquities and Tunisian industrial products, and he begged me to examine some of the former which he had in his own garden, and others which were stowed away in lumber rooms at the Dar el-Bey, or Palace of Tunis, and at the Souk el-Djidid opposite to it. I found many fragments of interest, both of sculpture and of Punic and Latin inscriptions, but no attempt at classification, and unfortunately very few of them marked with the name of the localities where they were found. Amongst others is the white marble sarcophagus which M. Guérin[124] describes as having been found at the Mohammedia, and of which he gives the inscription.
There are also four large blocks of stone, with deep bold characters, the first three of which have evidently formed part of the same inscription. They were brought from Bou Radeh, the ancient Oppidum Araditanum:—
1
. . . I.MAXIM . . .
M.COLVMNI . . . .
. . . . E MAVREL . . .
2