My first expedition in the footsteps of Bruce commenced at Bone early in April 1875, and was devoted to that part of his route which lay within the French colony of Algeria. I was accompanied by a few very valued friends, and I trust that the retrospect of the two months we spent together may prove as pleasant to them as it does to me. One of them was Monsieur César Daly, Architect to the French Government, the learned and accomplished founder of the ‘Revue Générale de l’Architecture et des Travaux Publiques,’ a distinguished veteran in his own department of art, whose voluminous works are almost as highly appreciated in England as they are in France. His thorough knowledge of the subject enabled us to appreciate the Roman ruins we visited in a manner that without such a companion would have been impossible; and I cannot sufficiently thank him for the great aid and encouragement he has continued to give me in the preparation of this work.
Bone is too well known to all the tourists who visit Algeria to require any description; they visit the ruins of Hippo or Hippone, rendered sacred by memories of St. Augustine, and make various other pleasant little excursions round about; very few, however, make the most interesting one of all, the ascent of Djebel Edough, the Mons Papua, where took place some of the most important events in the history of North Africa.
When the Vandal King Genseric laid siege to Hippone, during the year in which St. Augustine died, the inhabitants of this mountain witnessed from their natural fastnesses the extinction of Roman power in Africa. A century later Belisarius reconquered the country, and Gilimer, the last of the Vandal monarchs fleeing before him, took refuge in these mountains, whence before his surrender he sent the well-known message to his conqueror, requesting that he might be supplied with a lyre, a loaf of bread, and a sponge. On being questioned as to the meaning of this strange request, his messenger replied that his master wished once more to taste the food of civilised people, from which he had been so long debarred, to sing to the accompaniment of the lyre an ode to his great misfortune, and with the sponge to wipe away his tears.
In the neighbouring port of Hippo was captured the great treasure of the Vandals: ‘Silver weighing many thousand talents, and a huge mass of royal furniture (Genserick having sacked the palace at Rome), amongst which were some monuments of the Jewes brought to Rome by Titus after the destruction of Jerusalem. Subsequently, at the triumph of Belisarius in Constantinople, a Jew espying the same, standing by one of the emperor’s familiar friends—“It is not good,” quoth he, “to bring these monuments into the palace, for they cannot continue but where Solomon first put them. Hence it is that Genserick sacked the palace in Rome, and now Belisarius that of the Vandals.” The emperor, hearing this, sent them to the Christian church in Jerusalem.’[16]
For several years after the French occupation of Bone, Edough maintained a sort of independence; its inhabitants avoided all intercourse with the conquerors, and abstained from all acts of aggression.
In 1841, however, a Marabout, who lived near the Cap-de-Fer, imagined that Providence had called him to become the liberator of his country, and, as then was always the case, the moment a fanatic began to preach the Jehad or holy war, he was surrounded by a host of followers as ignorant and fanatic as himself.
Several acts of hostility and brigandage were perpetrated, which could no longer be tolerated, and a force was sent to pacify Edough, under the command of General Baraguay d’Hilliers. Three columns ascended the mountain simultaneously, from Constantine, Philippeville and Bone, and compelled the tribes to recognise the authority of the French. For a time, however, the Marabout Si Zerdoud continued at liberty, and urged his followers to resistance. The advancing columns drove the hostile Arabs on to a small promontory occupied by the Koubba of Sidi Akesh, between Cap-de-Fer and Ras Takoush, when, seeing that all further resistance was hopeless, they demanded aman. This was at once accorded; but while the negotiations were going on, a shot from the thicket behind wounded an orderly of the General, who immediately gave the order for a general massacre. Many of the Arabs threw themselves into the sea and were drowned, the rest were slaughtered without pity.
Si Zerdoud escaped at the time, but was captured shortly afterwards, and was immediately shot.[17]
My principal object in ascending Edough was to visit the copper-mine of Ain Barbar, which had lately been acquired by an English company. The road is not absolutely impracticable for carriages, as carts descend daily with timber and ore and mount with supplies; but it is exceedingly rough, and after bad weather must be quite impracticable. By far the best plan is to go on horseback, and we had no difficulty in hiring excellent little animals at a moderate rate in Bone. The road ascends the southern side of the mountain, which is at first rather bare and covered with tufts of diss grass, but very soon cork oaks begin to appear, and long before reaching the culminating point the road traverses a thick forest of these trees and deciduous oak (Quercus Mirbeckii).
On the top of the hill, 3,294 feet above the level of the sea, is the village of Bugeaud, created in 1843 and named after the well-known Maréchal. It is situated in a clearing, from which there is a magnificent panoramic view of the sea on one side, and of the bay and plain of Bone on the other, bounded by the mountains of the Beni Saleh.