The Oued Froor, where we passed it, flows in a south-easterly direction, but I had no means of ascertaining its ultimate course. It appeared to be an affluent of some other stream, which probably joins the Oued Oulad Sidera, and not to flow directly towards the Mediterranean.
The river of the Oulad Sidera flows in a similar direction, and is probably an affluent of the Oued el-Kebir in the upper part of its course.
The French have not shown their usual sagacity in fixing the boundaries of their colony, or rather I should say a desire to avoid even the appearance of encroaching on their neighbours, and perhaps some pressure from other European Powers, has induced them to abandon much valuable territory, which, if the prescription of eighteen centuries deserves to be taken into account, undoubtedly belonged to Algeria.
After the fall of Jugurtha, 106 B.C., the country between the east coast of Tunis and the Atlantic was divided into three provinces, Africa proper, Numidia and Mauritania. At subsequent periods these were further subdivided, but two great landmarks remained constant during all the political and geographical changes of North Africa—the river Tusca, or Oued el-Kebir, formed the eastern boundary of Numidia, and the Malua or Molochath, the modern Molouia, the western one of Mauritania Cæsariensis, dividing it from Tingitana, the present Empire of Morocco.
These boundaries continued, almost to the period of the French conquest, to limit the territory owning allegiance to the Dey of Algiers and the Bey of Constantine. When the present boundary question had to be settled, the French naturally claimed the line of the Tusca on the east; the Tunisians as stoutly contended that La Calle belonged to them; so a compromise was effected fixing Cape Roux as the limit; about as unsatisfactory and undefined a frontier line as it is possible to conceive.
The same thing happened to the west. The French claimed the ancient line; the Moroccans demanded the Tafna, and, as a compromise, the Kiss was accepted—a small river which does not run more than twelve miles along the boundary line. This latter compromise was the less necessary as the country in dispute was actually in the military occupation of the French. The consequence is, that Algeria has no natural frontiers at all, and it has on either side of it one of the strongest, most warlike and most turbulent tribes in North Africa, the Khomair to the east and the Beni Snassen to the west.
Some little distance from where we crossed the frontier, not perhaps more than two miles in a direct line, though we traversed very much more ground to reach it, is a douar of Arabs; and a ruined stone building, called Bordj el-Aïoun, Castle of the Wells, from which a high road, very rough at first, but gradually improving, leads through a magnificent forest of cork oak to the copper mines of Kef Omm-et-Taboul, a large and prosperous establishment exporting 600,000 francs’ worth of mineral per annum, situated on the last slope of the mountain, and so past the fine fresh-water lake of Guerah el-Hout (lake of fish), along the plain to La Calle, where we arrived, men and beasts both thoroughly exhausted, at half-past eight at night. Our day’s march, measured on the map, was not perhaps more than from 28 to 30 miles, but we must have actually gone over at least 44 miles of ground. Our horses, which had borne us so bravely all the way from Susa, here gave in entirely; on the following day they were unable to move, but the baggage mules were as fresh as ever, and seemed absolutely incapable of fatigue.
La Calle is the nearest French town to the Tunisian frontier, and though it has a very small and inconvenient harbour, it is the headquarters of the coral-fishery, and a place daily rising in importance. The old town was contained within the present fortifications, built on a ridge of rocks about 400 yards long, surrounded by the sea, except on the east side, where a bank of sand 150 yards in length connects it with the land. A new town has been built on the mainland, and there is a project for creating a military port and harbour of refuge at a short distance to the west. A new and highly profitable branch of trade has sprung up within the last few years, the salting and preparation of sardines, which bids fair to become one of the staple industries of Algeria. But its former history interested us more than its actual condition. The traveller going from Bone to Tunis usually touches here for a short time, and it is right that he should know what an important part it once played in the relations between France and the Barbary States.
The French Compagnie d’Afrique was established under Louis XIV. Its principal factory was at first established at the Bastion de France, and its object was to fish for coral and to purchase grain; in the latter pursuit it had as a rival an English company established at La Calle, but on its failure, the entire trade fell into the hands of the French, for which privilege, however, they were obliged to pay very heavy taxes to the Government of Algiers and the Bey of Constantine. Gradually, as the coral fisheries began to fail, the Company devoted itself more to commerce, and purchased large quantities of cereals, wool, leather and wax.
An interesting picture of life at La Calle is given by the Abbé Poiret, who travelled in Barbary from 1785 to 1786.