CHAPTER XIX

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1845-1847.

Flushed with his recent triumph, and anxious to realise the hopes it had awakened in every quarter to which the news of it had reached, Abdel Kader, in the month of October 1845, carried his standards to the plains of Mascara. Here he was again hailed with as much enthusiasm as at the outset of his career. All the tribes which had submitted to the French rallied round him. The garrison of Mascara came out against him, but was driven back with loss. The French entrenched camps of Saida and Taza were strictly blockaded.

But other portions of the country required his presence. It was his policy not so much to adopt a system of combined attack against the French, which, from his want of regular infantry and artillery, was next to impossible, as to foment the spirit of insurrection in all parts of the Regency, to keep the French perpetually on the alert by his meteor- like appearance in districts apparently subdued, to revive hostilities ostensibly extinguished, and then, by the rapidity of his movements, to baffle all the measures directed against him.

He now advanced to Tekedemt with 6,000 cavalry, and prepared to descend into the valley of the Cheliff. The Beni Shaib, a large and important tribe, one hundred and fifty miles away to the south, were reported to him as about to go over to the French. The contemplated movement into the valley of the Cheliff was instantly suspended. The wavering tribe suddenly found itself attacked by Abdel Kader at the head of 5,000 cavalry. Their chiefs were seized, their flocks carried off, their coffers emptied.

The movements of the French had, in the meantime, compelled him to alter his plans. No sooner was it known that Abdel Kader was in the Tell, than all their efforts were concentrated in that direction. The columns of Lamoricière, Bedeau, Yoosuf, and Marcey, were all set in motion. Orders were given, that whichever column found itself in presence of Abdel Kader, was to fire a signal gun, on which the other columns were immediately to converge and lend their aid.

Lamoricière was the first to come up with him, near Tiaret, December 1, 1845. He was protecting the emigration of several tribes, who, under his direction, were withdrawing into the desert. The signal gun was fired. Bedeau, Yoosuf, and Bugeaud, rapidly emerged on the scene. But Abdel Kader, always admirably served by spies, frustrated this combination, and within forty-eight hours had removed the seat of his operations to the Ouarensis.

Bugeaud, Lamoricière, Yoosuf, and St. Arnaud, followed in breathless haste, and were again on the Sultan’s traces; but their ubiquitous foe everywhere gave them the slip, and for weeks led them a fruitless dance through the valleys of the Cheliff.

On one occasion he nearly succeeded in annihilating the third-named general. On encountering Yoosuf in person on 23rd December, near Temela, he pretended to fly. Yoosuf, falling into the snare, followed him up with 2,000 cavalry. After thus drawing the French on for some time, Abdel Kader suddenly faced about and charged them with 500 irregulars. The rain fell in torrents. The firearms of the French would not go off. Their horses were dead beat. They got lost in the intricacies of the ground, and were on the point of surrendering, when the unexpected advance of a column of infantry averted their fate.

That very night Abdel Kader slipped between the columns of Bugeaud and Lamoricière, made a sweeping razzia on the Beni Esdama, between Tekedemt and Mascara, carried off all their cattle, with abundance of corn and barley, and retired unmolested into the Sahara. Several tribes here brought him the usual tribute.

He now conceived the daring project of visiting the Djurjura, rallying the Kabyles, and making a dash into the Metija. Ben Salem, duly informed, prepared to second this movement.

Abdel Kader left the Sahara in February, 1846, followed by part of the Beni Hassan, passed, unobserved, through the Wady Isser to the east of Medea, and, making a razzia by the way on the Beni Hadoura, who served the French, reached the Djurjura, where the Kabyles stood ready to await his bidding. With a force of 5,000 warriors, accumulated as if by magic, he now swept down into the plains, ravaged and destroyed the French colonies, and advanced to within four hours of Algiers itself. The French generals were all the while searching about for him in the high ground of the Tell.

On the 7th February, he was encamped at the foot of the Djurjura. While engaged in midnight prayer, he heard the French order to charge. In another moment, the French were upon him. He sprang on his horse and called on his men to rally. The Chasseurs closed around him. He fought with them single-handed. Two horses were shot under him. He fought on foot. He became undistinguishable in the confusion of the skirmish, and aided by the darkness of the night effected his escape.

On the 28th Abdel Kader held a grand council of war at Burj bou Keni. Deputies from all the Kabyle tribes were present. The question of war was warmly mooted. For a time the majority were in favour of a continuation of hostilities. At this moment news was brought in that Bugeaud was advancing against them with superior forces. The moderate party immediately gained the ascendancy. Attack and defence were declared to be alike hazardous. Prudence was preferable to a fruitless enthusiasm. In that would be the best guarantee for the preservation of their liberties.

Abdel Kader left the Djurjura. In a few hours he was in the vicinity of Bayhan. There, on the 7th of March, he surprised, routed, and plundered the French Douairs, with his body guard of 2,000 cavalry. The booty was immense. All the mules and camels of the tribes scarcely sufficed to remove it. The long train and its escort entered the passes of the Djebel Amour, seeking by rapid stages the districts of the Beni Nail, in the Sahara.

On the 13th, while bringing up the rear guard with seventy men, Abdel Kader was again attacked by General Yoosuf, who, finding out the direction he had taken, had followed him up by forced marches. An open space of ground gave the French unusual advantages. Abdel Kader was conspicuous on a white charger. Alternately firing and charging, he kept the enemy at bay. His men fought with desperation. Forty were killed. At length, after two hours’ hard fighting, and after performing prodigies of valour, Abdel Kader was lost to view in a defile.

The French were amazed at his gallantry. When, at a later period, he was in Paris, the object of universal curiosity and admiration, the French general who commanded on this memorable day recalled to Abdel Kader the impression made on all who witnessed his chivalrous demeanour at a moment when to all appearances he was irrecoverably lost, “If one of our officers had displayed such extraordinary heroism,” said General Yoosuf, “the Emperor would have sent him the decoration of the Legion of Honour.”

Abdel Kader had hoped to recruit his forces amongst the tribes of the Sahara. But the French had forestalled him. Everywhere their columns and detachments made themselves felt. The Beni Nail, the Beni Shaib, the Beni Hassan, from whose resources he had long been accustomed to supply his wants, and with whom he had often found shelter in the hour of need, all submitted successively to the persevering foe. Wherever Abdel Kader presented himself he found lassitude and despondency. Indeed his presence began to be looked upon as an omen of misfortune, and a prelude to ruin.

He visited the Oulad-Sidi-Chirk, a large and powerful tribe at the southern extremity of the Sahara. Their chiefs and marabouts thronged about him. They condoled with him. They assured him of their warmest sympathies. They offered him a temporary hospitality. But they adjured him not to entail upon them the horrors of war, and so to expose the venerated tombs of their saints to the profanation of the infidel. Abdel Kader received the intimation with composure and resignation. Accompanied by his faithful escort, he now returned to his Deira, on the Melouia, in Morocco.

He arrived there July 18th, 1846. A terrible episode had just occurred. The French prisoners taken in the affairs of Sidi Ibrahim and Ain Temouchen, in September, 1845, had been sent to the Deira. They had been presented to the Sultan’s mother, had met with a most assuring reception, and had been well treated. Nothing was withheld that could mitigate the painfulness of their situation. Abdel Kader had more than once written to Bugeaud, offering an exchange of prisoners, but his offer had been treated with contempt. Such was the position of the prisoners when he had left the Deira, on his late expedition.

The Deira, to which was always attached a small body of regulars, was under the charge of Ben Hamedi. On the 10th of April, 1846, Mustapha- ibn-Thamy, the Sultan’s brother-in-law, arrived from the Sahara and took the command. He had left Abdel Kader three days after his brilliant

## action with General Yoosuf, in the Djebel Amour, and brought with him

several wounded and invalids. He found the Deira greatly reduced in numbers, by desertion, by suffering, by privation. Provisions had become scarce. The Moorish tribes in the vicinity would only furnish supplies for ready money; and of money there was little or none. Two hundred and eighty prisoners had become an embarrassment.

In this crisis a report reached Mustapha-ibn-Thamy that the Moorish troops, who were not far distant, were about to advance and rescue the prisoners. He had no force sufficient to resist such an enterprise if it was attempted. The idea of such a stain upon his honour preyed upon his mind. If he made his small band of regulars fight to keep them, Moslem blood would be shed, and probably fruitlessly shed, for the sake of infidels. If he tamely surrendered them, how could he look Abdel Kader in the face? He determined to make away with them. On the night of the 24th of April they were massacred. Ten officers alone were spared.

The first step taken by Abdel Kader on his arrival at the Deira, July 18th, was to endeavour to get the survivors exchanged. His efforts, as usual in such matters, failed. They were, however, finally ransomed for 30,000 francs. Abdel Kader felt it due to his own reputation, utterly guiltless as he was of this deed of blood, to address the following letter to the King of the French:—

“Praise be to God, the merciful and compassionate. Glory to our lord and master Mohammed.

“On the part of the Prince of the Faithful, Sid-il Hadj Abdel Kader-ibn Mehi-ed-deen, may God vouchsafe unto him his favour both in this and another world; to the Sultan of the Christians, the commander-in-chief of the French armies, King Louis Philippe, may God constantly promote the increase of his power, and the execution of his projects in all that relates to the happiness of his people, and especially enable him to exalt those who follow the good path, and to confound all who do otherwise.

“I would call to your recollection that we have ever been ready to accept conditions of peace. We have even accepted conditions which you thought proper to impose upon us. We rejoiced to be on a good understanding with you. Our alliance was cemented by good faith. Our treaties had your personal approbation. By an exchange of presents we likewise confirmed our mutual feelings of friendship.

“Such was our position up to the moment when certain influential persons in Algeria gave a too willing ear to perfidious insinuations tending to interrupt the harmony which existed between us, and represented us as being culpable and blameworthy, whereas it was we, on the contrary, who had every reason to complain of their injustice committed towards us.

“I have written to you many times, both officially and confidentially, and invariably my intentions were misconstrued to such an extent that the evil consequences spread themselves unchecked all over Algeria.

“During our late expedition in the East, and in the numerous battles we fought, God permitted many prisoners to fall into our hands. We rejoiced at the circumstance, because it gave us power to offer an exchange. Last year we were unable to treat for the deliverance of the Mussulman prisoners in your hands, because we were not prepared to offer you a proposition which would have suited you. In previous years, however, we have sent back to Marshal Bugeaud more than a hundred prisoners without exchange.

“Lately, when we had a certain number of your subjects in our power, we wrote more than once to those who represent you to propose an exchange of prisoners. We received no answer. All the bearers of our letters were imprisoned. That was a treachery foreign to French usage. Besides, a message between hostile sides is always considered neutral.

“Shortly afterwards it was rumoured amongst the Arabs that the French prisoners were to be rescued by force. It was known that French agents had offered large sums of money to any who would conduct the prisoners to the French outposts. It was, moreover, openly declared that the Emperor of Morocco had undertaken to rescue the prisoners in spite of us. Your own agents thus became the chief cause of the deplorable event which has occurred, by their persistence in refusing to treat of an exchange of prisoners.

“We have never made any difference between the prisoners and our own men as regards their food and lodging. As soon as we saw there were amongst them men of rank and honour, who scorned to seek for means of escape, we gave them a marked preference over the others. We found them grateful. We proposed to set them at liberty. Their chief (Cognord) knows all the arrangements which were being made for their liberation. He knows that we never received any reply to our letters, and that this contemptuous silence was the cause of the cessation of the good understanding between you and us.”

Abdel Kader concluded with an urgent appeal for the release of some Mussulman prisoners, and a warm exculpation of himself from all knowledge or connivance at any measures whatever which were contrary to justice and religion. This letter, like all the preceding, remained unanswered.

During Abdel Kader’s late absence from the Deira, several Arab tribes had been gradually crossing the frontier, and fixing themselves on Moorish territory. The Moorish Sultan had given them lands to occupy. The jealousy of the French was awakened. They feared that the emigrants might eventually become the nucleus of an invading force. The late massacre added to their impatience. They called upon Sultan Abderahman to show at once by his deeds the sincerity of his professions. They demanded the immediate expulsion of Abdel Kader from his empire.

Abdel Kader, meanwhile, only anxious for freedom from molestation, had already commenced sowing the grounds near the Melouia for the subsistence of his Deira. Bou Maza wrote to him inviting him to join him in renewing the struggle. He rejected the instigation. With whatever the future might be pregnant, for the present he sought only repose and tranquillity. But these blessings he was not allowed to obtain. Mouley Abderahman sent him a letter to the effect that he must immediately withdraw, with his Deira, from Moorish territory.

Abdel Kader assembled his followers, and read them the letter. They unanimously declared it would be ignominious to yield to the demand of a recreant who had betrayed his faith and signed a humiliating treaty with the infidel. “We have pledged ourselves by oath,” they said, “to fight with you to the death. We are ready to follow you wherever you choose. But into Algeria we will not follow you. Abdel Kader conveyed these sentiments to Abderahman, promising at the same time not to attack the French. In his Deira he would resignedly await the decrees of God.

The Moorish tribes were now secretly instructed to molest the Deira. They refused to sell it provisions. Its foraging parties were attacked and robbed. Abdel Kader wrote a strong appeal to Abderahman against such conduct. He got neither answer nor redress. He endured this treatment patiently for six months. Again he addressed the Moorish Sultan, and warned him that if such annoyances were continued he should vindicate his own rights.

In self-defence he now re-assumed a hostile attitude. His body-guard of 1,200 cavalry and 800 infantry patrolled the country on all sides. The Moorish aggressors were chased to their very tents; they were brought to the Deira and chastised. By a few such acts of vigour his position was improved; provisions flowed in. More than one Moorish tribe offered to join the Deira. Wherever Abdel Kader showed his person he was welcomed with professions of submission and allegiance; his material strength increased hourly. The large and influential tribe of the Beni Hamian sent in their adhesion.

One night, while the Deira was still at Ain Zohra, an assassin glided, unperceived by the guards, into the tent of Abdel Kader. The Sultan was reading. Hearing a footstep, he raised his head, and saw standing before him a tall, powerful negro, with a dagger in his hand. Suddenly the man dashed the weapon to the ground, and threw himself at his feet. “I was going to strike you,” he exclaimed, “but the sight of you disarmed me. I thought I saw the halo of the Prophet around your head.”

Abdel Kader, rising slowly from his seat, and without betraying the least emotion, placed his hand on the negro’s head and said, “You came into my tent as an assassin. God, who moved you to repent of your wicked intention, has ordained that you should leave it an innocent man. Go, then, and remember that the servant of God has pardoned you.”

In the month of July, 1847, the Deira was encamped in Wady Aslaf, on the territory of the Kabyles of the Rif. While in this position it was suddenly menaced by a large Moorish force led by Mouley Hashem, the Sultan’s nephew, and the Kaid El Hamra. The Prince began by sending out a strong reconnaissance, which was immediately repulsed by the Deira’s outposts. Abdel Kader sent to the Prince to demand an explanation as to the cause of this hostile proceeding in the midst of peace. He received a haughty and disdainful answer. That very night he fell upon the Moorish camp by surprise, and completely routed and dispersed it. The Kaid El Hamra was slain, and Mouley Hashem barely escaped with his life.

A great quantity of baggage was taken, and specie to the amount of £2,000 English money. Abdel Kader and his chiefs viewed with mingled feelings of scorn and triumph the splendid cloaks and burnouses which the Moorish Prince had packed up in cases, for the purpose of distributing them amongst the Sheiks of the Rif tribes, and inducing them by such gifts to join him. On his return to the Deira Abdel Kader found that the Beni Kullayieh, availing themselves of his absence, had made an irruption into his camp and carried off all the camels. Without a moment’s repose he pursued the marauders, slew upwards of a hundred of them, and captured all their Sheiks.

The rumour of Abdel Kader’s renewed activity, and of the momentary gleam of success which shone upon his efforts, was quickly bruited throughout the Moorish empire. It created a sensation amongst its fanatic population which thrilled to the very capital. The emigrant Algerian tribes, which had been located by order of the Moorish Sultan within three days of Fez, longed to regain their adored chief. The Beni Amer entered into correspondence with him, and begged him to assist them in effecting a junction.

Sultan Abderahman got notice of the design. In his terror he fancied Abdel Kader thundering at his palace and hurling him from his throne. Not a moment was to be lost; a force of 15,000 men was at once despatched against Beni Amer. The tribe, taken unawares, was cut to pieces, while the women and children were carried away into slavery.

Such persevering and even barbarous acts of hostility filled Abdel Kader with despair and indignation. But what could his handful of men effect against the combined armies of France and Morocco, amounting to 100,000 men? He determined to make a last appeal to his old friend, patron, and admirer. He sent his Khalifa, Bou Hamedi, on a mission to Fez. In the most solemn manner he invoked the glorious recollections of the past. He claimed the sacred rites of hospitality in the name of every tie of friendship and religion.

But the days of country, of fraternity, of holy sympathy, were irrevocably past. Mouley Abderahman saw himself daily environed with fresh difficulties. The French Government hourly demanded the literal execution of its treaty. Bou Hamedi was thrown into prison, where he shortly afterwards died. Abdel Kader at length received the following imperial mandate:—“Abdel Kader must either surrender himself in person to Sultan Abderahman, or return to the Algerian desert. In case of refusal or delay, the imperial armies will march against him.” The last link was thus broken between him and his only hope. He stood at bay, alone.

Calm and undismayed, he now saw the toils closing around him. In the Deira all was grief and despondency. His own brothers had left him. Ben Salem—the faithful, long-tried, and devoted Ben Salem—was a voluntary prisoner in the French camp. His whole available force barely amounted to 2,000 men, but among these there were 1,200 horsemen, the flower of the Algerian cavalry. Most of these men, also, had been the Sultan’s inseparable companions, partakers in all his hardships and dangers throughout the whole of his heroic career.

During the short period of rest which Abdel Kader now enjoyed, he daily summoned them around him. He was incessant in vocal prayer and exhortation. The bronzed old warriors hung with rapture on his accents. Fired with martial enthusiasm, they prepared for the final act.

At other times Abdel Kader retired to his tent, and kept long and lonely vigils. One night he stood up for seven successive hours while he repeated off by heart the whole of the Koran, from beginning to end. In such religious exercises he renewed his soul’s strength. Ever worthy of his destiny, he now towered above it.

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