One day that I was in the King's library at Paris, exploring books on ancient geography, I cast my eyes on a point of the map* that corresponds with the site of this city. Its recent eventful history rushed full on my thoughts, and scemed to rebuke them for dwelling on the dead more than the living. The question of how widely and how soon this conquest of Algiers may throw open the gates of African civilization, is it not infinitely more interesting than any musty old debate among classic topographers? To-confine our studies to mere antiquities is like reading by candle-light with our shutters closed, after the sun has risen. So I closed the volume I was perusing, and wished myself with all my soul at Algiers. Ah, but the distancethe mare sævum et importuosum" of Africa-the heat that must be endured-and the pestilence that may be encountered-do not these considerations make the thing impossible? No, not impossible, I said to myself, on second thoughts; the distance is not so great, and the risk of contagion has been braved by thousands with impunity; I will see this curious place. I went to my friend, M. Galignani, and told him my intention; he introduced me to Mons. Lawrence, who was soon to return to the colony as the Procureur du Roit. M. Lawrence, with the greatest friendliness, sent me about a dozen books relating to the colony, and offered, if I would accompany him in the mail-post to Toulon, to procure me a passage from thence to Algiers in the Government steam-packet. Unfortunately for me, I had too much baggage to be accommodated in the mail, so I had to set out in the diligence, trusting to meet with M. Lawrence at Marseilles. As I travelled night and day, I had but a hasty view of the country, and when I reached Marseilles, I found that the Procureur du Roi had got before me, and (as I concluded) was already embarked at Toulon. A merchant-vessel was to sail for Algiers the next morning; I took a berth on board of her, being anxious to get across before the season of the equinoctial gales; I have since learnt that these gales are not so punctual in their visits to the Mediterranean during the autumn as to other seas. Meanwhile, an advice which M. Lawrence had given me dwelt in my mind, namely, by all means to take a servant with me from Europe, as the Algerine lodging-houses leave you very much to serve yourself. The only day therefore which I spent in the most interesting city of Southern France was devoted, not to seeing its curiosities, but to searching for the most valuable of all curiosities-a faithful domestic. A young man with an *The ancient Roman city Icosium.

Corresponding with our Attorney-General.

Oct.-VOL. XLV. NO. CLXXVIII.

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honest-looking countenance, who reminded me of your inestimable servant George, brought me a certificate of his character for a twelvemonth past; but farther back the recommender could not speak for him, and there was a mystery over his anterior biography which makes me fear that he was only an outside resemblance of George. I engaged him, nevertheless. He said he was a British subject, and a native of Gibraltar; but when I took him to the British Consul, his answers were not so satisfactory as to procure a passport. He then recollected that he had been born at Cadiz; the Spanish Consul, however, doubted the accuracy of his memory. Afterwards he discovered that he was a native of Naples, but with no better success. In fine, we went hither and yonder in search of some testimony as to the place of his birth, which seemed to be as doubtful as that of Homer, only with this difference, that the cities where he alleged he had been born seemed to vie with each other rather in disowning, than claiming, the honour of his nativity; and nobody would give him a passport. So I was obliged to embark alone-a knight-errant without a squire.

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I sailed from Marseilles the 11th inst., and we crossed the Mediterranean in six days. That they were not in all respects the pleasantest days of my life you will easily imagine, when I tell you that twelve of us adult passengers, besides an obstreperous child of four years old, were potted alive in a cabin nine feet square. There was refuge during the day-time on deck, for it seemed to be kept from being set on fire by the sun only by incessant buckets of water. It is true that we could sally from our den in the evening, and in the night-time we had some repose, but it was constantly interrupted at day-break by the impious brat I have mentioned, beating a toy-drum, and bawling lustily when it was taken from him. At last the very mother who had borne him lost all patience; she threw his plaything into the sea, and threatened to send the little drummer himself after it. Several of us humanely, but in vain, implored her to fulfil her threat. We were fortunate, however, as to our ship's crew, who, from the captain down to the mousse, or cabin-boy, were all assiduously attentive to us. The Mediterranean trading-vessels have generally a bad character for feeding their passengers with tough salt fish, and laying to at meal-times, so as to make the rocking of the ship an antidote to their guests partaking freely even of that sorry fare. But here we had excellent food and wine, though the passage-price was very moderate. One day we had even a fête and plenty of champagne; it was when a brother skipper came on board and dined with us. He was a strange mad-cap, who, not contented with being master of a ship, imagined himself also master of the "Belles Lettres" and philosophy. Nay, he was a poet to boot, and, to my misfortune, learning that I was a litterateur, he cruelly inflicted several dozens of his own verses on my naked ears. It was a voyage altogether with many sufferings, but with some consolations. The cool of the evening gave us breath and appetite to sup upon deck, and, in order to promote cheerfulness, it was made a law that we should all sing after supper in turn, whether we could sing or not. I never recognised more of the natural gaiety of the French character, and I fell in with it the more easily, inasmuch as that, bating the discomforts I have described, and in the absence of stomachic affliction, I was, as far as the mind is concerned, very tolerably happy. The prospect of seeing a new quarter of the

globe, and of descrying even afar off Mount Atlas, with his head in the clouds and his feet in the sands of the desert-this prospect every now and then made my thoughts, I could almost say, delicious; and I blessed my fate that I had not in youth exhausted the enjoyment of travelling. We passed between the islands of Majorca and Minorca, but at too great a distance to observe distinctly the features of either of their shores.

Early in the morning of the day before yesterday, I awoke to the joyous sound of land having been discovered from the mast-head, and to the sight of land-birds wheeling around our sails. I should think that as far as thirty miles off we saw the whole portion of the Algerine territory, which stretches on the east along Cape Matifou, and on the west along the peninsula of Sidi Ferruch, where the French first landed in their invasion of the regency. At that distance, and even when you come nearer, by a great many miles, the view of Algiers from the sea is not beautiful. It is true that the tops of the lesser Atlas form a fine background in the south, but the prospect assumes not its full picturesqueness till you come almost within a mile of the shore. Farther off, the city itself looks like a triangular quarry of lime or chalk, on the steep side of a hill, whilst the country-houses that dot the adjacent heights seem like little parcels of the same material lying on fields that are to be manured. On nearer approach, however, the imagined quarry turns out to be a surprising city, and the specks on the adjoining hills to be square and castle-like houses, embosomed in groves and gardens.

No town that I have ever seen possesses, in proportion to its size, so many contiguous villas as Algiers; and their brilliance and high position give a magnificent appearance to this suburban portion of the coast. Meanwhile the city itself, when you come in full view of it, has an aspect, if not strictly beautiful, at least impressive from its novelty and uniqueness. Independently, indeed, of its appearance, its very name makes the first sight of Algiers create no ordinary sensations, when one thinks of all the Christian hearts that have throbbed with anguish in approaching this very spot. Blest be our stars, that we have lived to see the chains of slavery broken here, and even about to be unrivetted on the other side of the Atlantic! But, without these associations, the view of Algiers is interesting from its strangeness to an European eye. It is walled all round in the old style of fortification, its whole mural circuit being, I should think, about a mile and a half. It forms a triangle on the steep side of a hill, the basis of which is close to the sea, whilst its apex is crowned by the Cassaba, or citadel. That strong place was the palace of the last Dey. His predecessors had dwelt at the foot of the town; but so many of them had died a violent death, that Hussein Pasha thought a higher position would enable him to take better care of his loving subjects and faithful Janissaries; so he removed quietly one night, with all his treasures, to the Cassaba. Farther off, on a still higher hill, stands the Emperor's Fort-so called from having been built by Charles V.—which commands the whole town. The terraced and square houses which rise, seemingly condensed, close behind one another, are, like the forts and city walls, all washed with lime, and dazzling as snow. These objects, together with the pier and light-house, the batteries, lined, tier over tier, with hundreds of enormous cannon on the sea-side rocks, give an imposing aspect to the city that seems to justify its old

appellation of "Algiers the warlike." At the same time the mosques and minarets, surmounted by the crescent, remind you that you are now among the Moslems; whilst a palm-tree which is visible, though remotely, seemed to me like a graceful characteristic feather on the brow of an African landscape.

I had soon, however, a less agreeable indication than the palm-tree of having got to a southern latitude. There was no keeping below when one came close to so interesting a scene; and, as the day advanced, the deck became burning hot. The officers of health, as they are called, detained us for two hours in the harbour, gasping and execrating them, before they would visit the ship and permit us to land. I had been recently so sick as to bring up blood. I now grew feverish, faint, and almost blind. I felt bereft of every faculty except my fancy, and that was ill-naturedly busy in persuading me, falsely, that I was about to die. When the boat arrived that was to take us ashore, I could not so much as rise to see my luggage put into it. It was then that a fellow-passenger befriended me at my utmost need. This was a smart, intelligent, little man of the name of Biron, whom I had supposed, from his appearance, to be some officer pretty high in the civil service; but he told me that he was returning to his perruquier's shop in Algiers. However, if he was not in the civil service, his humanity calls me to remember him as a most civil and serviceable friend, and I need not say that I associated romance with his name. He took charge of my effects, and saw them safely through the Custom-house. What passed in that hour of landing in Africa -when I fell on my knees on the shore, like Scipio, but from exhaustion and not enthusiasm is but indistinctly marked in my memory; but I recollect being glad that there were no ladies in the boat, for we passed many young Arabs, obviously grown to manhood, some of whom were fishing in barges, and others swimming about, as naked as they were born. I recollect, also, that the native porters seized on our baggage with as much impudence as if they had been at Calais, and that my languid spirits were much refreshed by the sound of some hearty whacks of his cane which my friend, the perruquier, bestowed on those infidels. Without the aid of his arm I could not have got to the nearest inn. On reaching the hotel, its solid walls seemed to me to rock like the ship which I had quitted. I threw myself on a bed; my predominant sensation was thirst, but the roof, the floor, and the sides of my apartment were all sheer masonry, and there was neither bell nor other means of summoning a waiter. My faithful Biron, however, soon returned to my relief. He procured for me lodgings and a servant. slept soundly that night, except when I was shortly, but not unpleasantly awakened, by the chaunt of the Mouzeens on the minarets, proclaiming the hour of prayer.

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I now write to you from lodgings which I have taken in the house of M. Descousse, a respectable merchant in Algiers, who was formerly a captain in Napoleon's cavalry, and is at present colonel of the national foot-guards of Algiers. The national foot-guards, I understand, amount to between five and six hundred; there is a national horse-guard also, but it reckons only one company. M. Descousse's house formerly belonged to the Aga of the Janissaries; it may be surpassed by one or two mansions of Algiers in gilded alcoves, sculptured fountains, and other ornaments, but, upon the whole, it is a fair sample of the best Algerine habitations.

From the street you enter into the lowest, or ground floor, which is dimly lighted by a window over the door. The main apartment here is employed by my landlord as a porter's hall; but, in bygone times, the Aga, surrounded by his servants, used to sit in it smoking his pipe and receiving visitors. On one side of this gloomy hall there are vaulted apartments which were formerly used as stables; but, since the Christian conquest of Algiers, they have been converted into wine-cellars. From the ground, you ascend by two flights of white marble stairs into full daylight, and to a court of some thirty feet square, paved with marble. This court, with a gallery passing in front of each side of its quadrangle, tier over tier, to the height of three stories, reminds you of our old English inns; only it is more elegant, and the white marble pillars, contrasted with the green and yellow glazed tiles that line the staircases, as well as the arches and floor of each gallery, produce a rich effect. From these galleries, large and handsome folding doors of wood, curiously carved, open into the rooms. The internal aspect of the house, as you look up to it from the court, is upon the whole imposing, and on the terrace of the uppermost story there is a commanding and magnificent view of the city, the sea, and its ships, and the distant mountains. To save the eyes from being painfully dazzled, it is however necessary to consult this prospect either by moonlight or by mitigated daylight. Here I meet with my fellow lodgers in the cool of the evening, among whom is Dr. Revière, physician to the civil hospital, an intelligent, far-travelled, and accomplished man. He distinguished himself much in Egypt by his skilful treatment of the plague. His lady is a fair daughter of Pennsylvania. In the Turkish time, men were not privileged to walk on these roof-terraces; the women enjoyed them alone, and used to visit each other by climbing ladders up and down to the contiguous houses. Hitherto I have seen no Moorish ladies upon them; but the Jewesses ogle their admirers on the house-tops with a sort of feline familiarity.

Notwithstanding all this showy architecture, the apartments of the Moorish houses are gloomy and comfortless. They have a few loopholes in the outer wall towards the street, but receive their air and light principally through windows that look inwardly upon the court. These windows, which are latticed either with black or white iron, and without glass, except where Europeans have put it in, give the mansion a look of what it really was meant to be, when constructed—a family prison, where it was as easy to watch the inmates as in any of our most approved penitentiaries. Niches in the walls, which have generally doors, serve for presses and cupboards. One side of each quadrangular story, in an Algerine house, contains only one long and narrow room, but a show of three apartments is made out by a wall, built half-way up to the right and left of the central room, which faces the door. At the risk of broken bones, you ascend by a ladder to the top of these walls, and there you find a new floor of glazed tiles in either side-room, with a curtain hung from the roof so as to form two quasi apartments. Until the French arrived, a chimney was unknown to the Algerines, except in their kitchens, or, peradventure, in the house of a foreign consul; and it is still difficult to find lodgings with such a comfort. Yet the climate, they tell me, is very chilly in the rainy months; and a Frenchman who has been in Norway declares to me that he had suffered less from cold there than here. The sole objects of Moorish house-building seem to have been to exclude the heat and confine the women.