The Bey has just granted a concession to the French Company of Batignolles for the construction of a railway from Tunis to El-Badja, and so on to the Algerian frontier, following the course of the Medjerda. This will be joined to the existing line between Bone and Guelma by a branch passing through Souk Ahras, and it will probably entail the extension of that line as far as Ain Beida and Tebessa. This concession was offered in the first instance to an English company, and, wisely I think, declined by them. No guarantee of interest has been given, but instead, the Government of the Bey has conceded the lead mines of Djebba to the company, together with the buildings and plant which had formerly been erected for working them.
FOOTNOTES:
[228]Peyss., ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p. 214.
[229]El-Bekri, trad. de Slane, p. 137.
[230]Guérin, ii. p. 38.
CHAPTER XXIX.
ROUTE FROM EL-BADJA TO TABARCA.
My original plan had been to cross the Algerian frontier at El-Kef, and so proceed northwards to La Calle. But a paragraph in the last commercial report of my colleague, Mr. Wood, H.M. Agent and Consul-General at Tunis, induced me to modify my plans.
He says:—‘The Kabyles inhabit the mountains between the Pashalik of Tripoli and the Regency of Tunis to the south, as well as the ranges forming the western boundary which divides Tunis from Algiers. The former are docile and submissive when compared with the Kabyles of the west, who barely recognise the authority of Government. These latter are jealous, suspicious, and inhospitable. They allow no foreigner (not even an Arab) to visit their mountain fastnesses, which are protected by rugged ascents, and surrounded by the densest of forests. No approximate estimate can be possibly arrived at as to their numbers; but we know that they are able to bring 18,000 fighting men to the battle field.’