After Bruce had left Algiers in 1765, he visited the island and proposed to the Ministry of the day to obtain possession of it as a station for the British trade in the Mediterranean. He remarked:—
As a fortress, Tabarca has these advantages, it is situated nearly south from the mainland of Italy, the north end of Corsica, the Bocca de Bonifacio, and the south end of Sardinia, forming three channels; the two first are the constant stations of cruisers, to which if the third be joined, a chain is formed across the Mediterranean, through which the whole Levant trade must pass. The mountains opposite Tabarca are covered with oak-trees of immense size, where, I think, the Mediterranean ports might be easily supplied with timber for construction.
M. Desfontaines, who travelled in Tunis from 1783 to 1786, was equally desirous, that this island should be taken possession of by the Government of France, and expressed his conviction that it would be more useful for his country than Port Mahon was for the English, and that, were it occupied, France would be able to lay down the law throughout the Mediterranean, and that England would be excluded and lose the Levant trade.
On the mainland opposite to the island are several ruins of European construction, and on the hill above, a modern fort, occupied by a detachment of troops from Tunis. Traces of Roman occupation exist in the plain, but no remains of any importance, and we could hear of no inscriptions.
FOOTNOTES:
[237]El-Edrisi, trad. Jaubert, i. p. 266.
[238]Peyss., ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p. 263.
[239]Ibid. p. 257.
[240]Desfontaines, ap. Dureau de la Malle, ii. p. 243.
[241]Rousseau, Annales Tunisiennes, p. 127.