If I should die in this voyage, these notes are not to be published, as they are memoranda only for myself, and unintelligible, and designed to be so, to anybody else.
This contains a record of his journey from November 5, 1765, till December 30 in the same year. At the end are a few rough details of architecture, and copies of inscriptions.
3. A few sheets of native paper, as if torn out of a note-book similar to, but not exactly the same size as the preceding, containing a note on the Aqueduct at Arriana, and the records of his journey from December 29, 1765, till his arrival at Gabes about the middle of the following month. It is marked No. 7, which is erased, and No. 3 substituted. A fac-simile is given of one page of this manuscript (Plate XXV.).
4. A note-book, 12mo., of Arab paper, marked No. 2, containing notes on the Pentapolis, and of his subsequent journey in Syria and the Red Sea.
5. A similar book, marked No. 6, containing notes on the Pentapolis.
6. A volume containing, as its name indicates, ‘Basso-relievos, Statues, and Inscriptions, 1765.’
7. Draft of original letter, in Bruce’s handwriting, to Mr. Wood, author of the work on ‘Baalbec and Palmyra,’ dated Tunis, April 2, 1766, published in Vol. I. of ‘Bruce’s Travels,’ Appendix No. XXIII.
8. A note on ‘Tripoly in Africa,’ certainly not written by Bruce.
9. An autograph memoir on the Island of Tabarca.
10. An autograph memoir on Tunis and Djerba, the island of the Lotophagi.
11. An original letter, dated London, June 16, 1775, to Mr. Seton (of Touch?), giving an account of his adventure with the Arab chief at Lambessa. This has been published in Major Cumming Bruce’s pamphlet, 1837.
In addition to these manuscripts and drawings, Bruce brought a very interesting collection of antiquities from North Africa, consisting of fragments of sculpture and inscriptions, including part of the frieze of the Temple of Hercules at Kef, a number of medals and coins, a small bronze statue of Mercury, and an exquisite bronze vase, which forms the design on the cover of this work. It has four faces, two of nymphs and two of satyrs, very beautifully executed, of a date probably not later than the second century. These are all in the possession of Lord Thurlow.
There is little doubt that Bruce transcribed his rough notes, and added many particulars, then fresh in his memory, which he did not think it necessary to record in his daily journal. This occurred during his residence at the island of Djerba. Probably this manuscript was not included amongst the books and drawings which he forwarded from Tripoli in Africa to Smyrna, or those which he despatched at Bengazi to Tripoli in Syria, in which case they would certainly have been lost during the shipwreck at Bengazi. His pocket-book was saved there, and may be the manuscript which I have numbered 2, into which 3 would naturally fit, but almost everything else he possessed was lost, especially
A book with many drawings, and a copy of M. de la Caille’s Ephemerides, having a great many manuscript marginal notes.
In addition to illustrating Bruce’s travels, I have had another object in view—to furnish an advanced hand-book of travel to those who, like myself, dislike diligence routes and French auberges, and revel in the delightful liberty of life on horseback and under canvas. I hope they will find many such suggestions as to routes here, as I should have been glad of myself, though they must not expect to be treated with the same amount of hospitality.
And here I think I ought, in justice to myself, to acknowledge the authorship of ‘Murray’s Handbook to Algeria.’ I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to avoid any allusion to the districts therein described; but this was not always possible, and passages will, no doubt, be found, which, but for this avowal, might lay me open to the charge of obtaining my information from a popular work in everybody’s hands.
Every word of these manuscripts relating to his Barbary journey I have embodied in my text, either in the order in which I visited the places, or, where I was unable to do so, as a continuous narrative in his own words.
I have elsewhere acknowledged my deep obligations to Monsieur César Daly, with whom I had the pleasure of making the first part of my journey. I would also record how much I am indebted to Professor Donaldson, the Nestor of British architects, who, ever since he signed the letter to Major Cumming Bruce, before quoted, in 1837, has felt the deepest interest in Bruce’s work; he greatly aided me in making the best possible selection of the drawings for publication, and in many other respects he has given me the benefit of his great professional knowledge and experience.
I cannot conclude these introductory remarks without allusion to a letter which has reached me since the manuscript was in the publishers’ hands, and which has to me almost the solemnity of a voice from beyond the tomb. Mrs. Whitely Dundas, of Clifton, after stating that she had seen in the papers a paragraph to the effect that I had recently been instrumental in erecting a stained-glass window and memorial brass in the church at Algiers to Bruce, and that I was occupied on a work to illustrate his travels in this country, adds: ‘I can well imagine, even after the lapse of so many years, how proud and gratified my mother would have been could she have lived to see this day. She was Bruce’s only daughter, and died before her father’s fame and veracity were fully established.’
If what has been to me so great a labour of love shall have the effect of adding one leaf to the well-earned laurel-wreath of my favourite hero, I shall be amply repaid. My work has had no other object, although I have thought it advisable to combine the result of my own journeys with his, and thus to give the subject a wider interest, and make it useful for travellers in little-known parts of Algeria and Tunis.
However badly my share of the work may be performed, Bruce’s merits can hardly fail to ensure its success. Never was a trite old saying more aptly applied than that adopted by his biographer, and which I have engraved on his monument at Algiers: ‘Magna est veritas et prævalebit.’
FOOTNOTES:
[1]This instrument still exists at Kinnaird.
[2]In searching for Bruce’s Barbary drawings in Her Majesty’s Library at Windsor Castle, eighteen drawings of Palmyra and Baalbec were discovered; they bore no names or signature, and the authorship was unknown to the librarian until I identified them.
[3]Zaghouan.
[4]This is evidently a clerical error; there is no good arch at Ain Tunga. Bruce probably means Zanfour.
[5]Tebessa.
[6]The Prætorium of Lambessa.
[7]This does not exist in the Kinnaird collection.
[8]Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2nd series, vol. ii. p. 96.
PART I.
BRUCE APPOINTED CONSUL-GENERAL AT ALGIERS.
The circumstances which induced Bruce to accept the post of Consul-General at Algiers are contained in the following extracts from his autobiography:—
My Lord Halifax, in many conversations, laughed at me for my intention of returning to Scotland. He said, the way of rising in this King’s reign was by enterprise and discovery; that all Africa, though just at our door, was yet unexplored; that every page of Doctor Shaw, a writer of undoubted credit, spoke of some magnificent ruins which he had seen in the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers; that now was the age to recover these remains of architecture and add them to the King’s collection.
Fortune seemed to enter into this scheme. At the very instant, Mr. Aspinwall, very cruelly and ignominiously treated by the Dey of Algiers, had resigned his consulship, and Mr. Ford, a merchant, formerly the Dey’s acquaintance, was named in his place. Mr. Ford was appointed, and, dying a few days afterwards, the consulship became vacant. Lord Halifax pressed me to accept this, as containing all sorts of conveniences for making the proposed expedition. The appointment was a handsome one, the salary was 900l. a year, and a promise was added that a vice-consul of my own appointment would be allowed to keep my place while on the discovery, and that, if I made wide excursions into Africa, and any considerable additions to the King’s collection, my former conditions of being made a baronet were to be preserved, and either a pension if I chose to retire, or my rank and advancement in the diplomatique line, preserved to me on my return.
Many conversations passed about the then unknown and despaired of fountains of the Nile; but this was considered as an enterprise above the power of extraordinary men, presumption to think it was within the reach of an untried ordinary man like me, but agreed on all hands that he that should achieve it, if he was a Briton, should not in this age despair of any reward.
In passing through Holland, I had collected all the printed books in the Arabic language, and at the time when I was to go to Algiers I was as good an Arabian as these books and dictionaries and this manner of study could make me.
Thus prepared, I set out for Italy through France, and though it was in time of war, and some strong objections had been made to particular passports solicited by our Government from the French Secretary of State, Monsieur de Choiseul most obligingly waived all such exceptions with regard to me, and most politely assured me that those difficulties did not in any shape regard me, but that I was at perfect liberty to pass through or remain in France with those that accompanied me, without limiting their number, as short or as long a time as should be agreeable to me.
On my arrival at Rome, I received orders to proceed to Naples, there to await His Majesty’s further commands.
While waiting at Naples for instructions to proceed to his post, Bruce visited Pæstum, the ruins of which were then but little known, and at the suggestion of Sir James Gray, the British Ambassador, made accurate drawings of those ruins, and conceived the idea of illustrating the history of that city from its various coins of different periods. This idea, which he was the first to originate, he executed with great learning and ingenuity. On proceeding to Africa, he entrusted these drawings to Sir Robert Strange, for the purpose of having them engraved; but, from circumstances which have never been explained, copies of them were surreptitiously obtained, and, on his return from Abyssinia, he found that his work had been pirated and published under another name. In his autograph memoir he expresses himself strongly on this subject, but his chief complaint is
That the bunglers did not know how to avail themselves of the materials for the history of Pæstum which, by whatever means, had fallen into their hands.
To resume, however, Bruce’s own narrative:—
The Government was so kind as to send the ‘Montreal’ frigate to carry me to Algiers.
I pursued my plan, studied hard, was become now a good Orientalist in general. I speedily spoke the Arabic fluently; among the natives and among the servants I exercised myself every day. I was also an adept in Geer, or Ethiopic, as far as Ludolph and Memmers and the few books I had could make me, but these were as yet very few.
It happened at St. Philip’s in Minorca, as it always, I believe, happens, that when a fortress is surrendered to an enemy, the papers, plans, and documents found therein are to be delivered up to the captors. The French, when they took Minorca, had found in that fortress a multitude of blank Mediterranean passes, a number of these being always lodged for common demand with the Secretary of the Governor of Minorca and Gibraltar. The French, upon finding these, had countersigned them, and sold them to Sardinians, Genoese, Neapolitans, and Spaniards, who navigated under their authority with English colours. They had not even taken the precaution of putting an English supercargo on board, so that English colours were found everywhere, with not a man on board but the enemies of Algiers.
This Regency soon were informed of this in all its circumstances by the French and Swedish Consuls residing in Algiers; they could not read, their only trial of the passport was by a countercheck delivered them by the Consul. When they applied this to these false passports they all checked and agreed; when the ships were, notwithstanding, brought into Algiers, the English Consul detected the fraud, disowned the signature, and the ship was made a legal prize.
This secret, however obvious to everyone skilled in business of that kind, was inscrutable to pirates who knew no other rule but the check; the cruisers were on the point of mutinying; had I not been on good terms with the whole Regency, as well as with the common soldiers and merchants, I should have been burned in my house, or condemned to draw the stone cart in irons, as a short time before I had had the mortification to see the French Consul and all his nation do.
The event here alluded to is an extraordinary example of the terrorism which prevailed in Algiers at that epoch, and of the indignities to which even representatives of the most powerful nations were subjected, without provoking more than a passing remonstrance. The story is recorded in the private memorials of the Congrégation de la Mission, which have been obligingly placed at my disposal by the Superior-General in Paris. Well may he remark: ‘Nos confrères ont beaucoup travaillé et beaucoup souffert sur cette terre d’Afrique, où les Chrétiens avaient été si longtemps persécutés; maintenant la croix a heureusement triomphé, et puisque vous avez étudié l’histoire de ce pays, vous pouvez voir combien il a gagné à être délivré de la domination Mahométane.’
A French vessel had, through some mistake, fired upon an Algerian galliot, which made a prize of it, and brought it into the harbour of Algiers. Monsieur Vallière, the French Consul, went on the following day to request the Dey to restore the boat and its equipage, assuring his Highness that if the latter had been guilty of any infringement of the conventions between the two countries they would be severely punished in France. The Dey answered him that the French were only good at chicanery; they were liars, the greatest enemies of the country, and no better than spies of the Spaniards; he knew how to right himself, and would hear nothing more from the Consul, who might retire.
The Consul did retire, in company with his chancellor. In less than an hour he was again called to the palace, and, without further explanation, he was heavily chained, as were also the Vicar Apostolic, two other missionaries, the chancellor, the secretary, the Consul’s servants, and the crews of the four boats then in harbour, in all fifty-three persons. Every morning they were sent out to the hardest and most degrading labour, and exposed to the insults and jeers of the populace; harnessed two and two to stone carts and heavily ironed, they were compelled to drag their weary burden twice every day from the quarries at several miles’ distance to where the masons were at work, after which, though worn out with fatigue, the good priests’ first care was to console their fellow-captives, and to conduct public prayer in the Bagnio.
Our treaties, made and renewed by captains of men-of-war, from time to time, who know no more of the interest of their country in the Mediterranean than I know of directing a line-of-battle, afforded no sort of remedy for this grievance, which was new, because Port Mahon falling into the hands of the enemy was a new event not to be foreseen.
These treaties were growing worse every day; they were a monstrous heap of confusion not understood either by the Turkish or the British Government. I wrote home repeated letters explanatory of the mischief and the causes of it. I either got no answers at all, or short ones, that showed me they did not attend to the subject. We were on the very eve of having all our Mediterranean and Straits trade carried into the Barbary ports as prizes, when letters were said to be expeded (sic) by the Secretary of State—I think the Duke of Grafton or Lord Shelburne—desiring the Governor of Mahon and Gibraltar (for Mahon was now restored to the English) to recall all these old irregular passports signed by the French, and in their place to issue what was called passavants, under the hand and seal of the Governor of those fortresses, importing the ship bearer thereof to be British property, and that this should serve as a passport during a limited time, after which new checks and new passports were to be issued by the Admiralty for the ships then in the Mediterranean and the Barbary cruisers that visited them. But no intimation was sent to the Consuls of this, nor was such passavant to be found in the treaty, nor did any new checks or passports come for a long time from the Admiralty.
In the meantime the Algerine cruisers were more exasperated than before; they had still no way of knowing an enemy from a friend but by the check the Consul gave them, and that had been declared as no longer of use, as covering fraud, and was issued no more.
· · · · · · ·
All Algiers was in arms, and to excuse our Government was impossible; they never did know Barbary politics in my time.
· · · · · · ·
British Consuls in the Straits, or in the Barbary States, are generally men that have failed in their own mercantile affairs; they are afraid to write the true situation of things to a Secretary of State, because they fear hurting their interest at Algiers and losing their posts at home. Government have for some years been afraid of Algiers, or so complaisant as to recal the British Consul upon a complaint they do not like him, and often for having done his duty.
I was no merchant, and afraid of neither; I had stated the thing as it was constantly, and one day when a few of these pirates had come home in disappointment at meeting nothing but what was covered by these passavants, crossing me in the street, one of them, drunk, I suppose, fired a large horse pistol directly in my face at the distance of sixteen yards. It was loaded with slugs, one of which cut the loop where my hat was buttoned, another cut the skin of my eyelid, and a third wounded me slightly in the left arm. Government seized the unhappy beast and would have put him to death, had I not saved him by the trouble of some application and interest, and even a little expense.
It was no vain boast on the part of Bruce that his intercession had saved this man’s life. Monsieur Laugier de Tassy, in his ‘Histoire du Royaume d’Alger,’ published at Amsterdam in 1727, gives the following account of what happened to another unhappy wretch who had insulted a British Consul, and there is little doubt that if Barbary justice had been left to take its course this man would have fared no better.
‘In 1716 Mr. Thomas Thompson, British Consul, going to the Assembly Rooms of the ship captains, met on the pier a young Moor, who, it is generally believed, was drunk. The pier is very narrow, and much rain having fallen, the passage was by no means easy. The Moor would not make way for the Consul, but began to quarrel and even pushed him. The Consul asked him whether he wished to throw him off the pier, adding that he thought it rather impertinent of him not to turn aside. The Moor answered that it was well for a Christian to wish to pass before him, and at the same time seized the Consul, boxed his ears, tripped him over, threw him on the ground and placed his knee on his stomach. The Captain of the Port, having witnessed this scene from a distance, came forward and threatened the Moor, who thought it better not to wait for him and ran away. The Captain took the Consul to the house where the captains met, to console him and to repair the disorder he was in. The Admiral expressed his regret at what had happened. He told him he would report the matter to the Dey, and the Moor would soon be punished for his crime. The Admiral had great regard for the family of this young man, for his father was a friend of his and an honest merchant. When, therefore, he had laid the whole affair before the Dey, he begged him not to condemn the man to death, as he deserved, as he belonged to a respectable family, and that drink, to which he had been tempted by libertines, had been the cause of his crime. The Dey answered that he deserved to be hanged, but that out of regard for him he would be pardoned. As an example, however, and for the sake of the insulted Consul, it was necessary to punish the wretch; the Dey therefore asked the Admiral to choose the kind of punishment he liked. The Admiral chose the bastinado, and the Dey said to him, “Out of regard for thee I will spare him.” The Consul soon after arrived. The Dey, seeing him, said, “Consul, I am doing what you desire. I am sorry for what has happened to you, but you shall have justice; remain there.” He gave orders at the same time to the Moorish Bach-Chaouch to bring the accused before him. As he had not hidden himself, he was soon found and brought before the Dey, who, in great anger, said to him, “Wretch, what hast thou done?”—“I have beaten a Christian, a dog who wanted to be more than myself, and who insulted me.” The Dey, enraged at his arrogance, said, “Is it true that you have treated the British Consul in such and such a way?”—“Yes, my Lord,” he answered. “Is it worth sending for me for such a trifle?” Then the Dey, furious, cried out, “That is enough,” and pronounced sentence, which was that he should receive 2,200 stripes. This was done at once, in the presence of the Consul. He received 100 blows on the soles of the feet, so that his feet were taken off as far as the ankles, or held on by so little that Mehemed Effendi Khasnadar drew his knife and cut the skin by which they hung. As further blows would have caused death, and as the Dey was anxious that he should suffer well before such a thing happened, he gave orders to conduct him to prison, so that he might regain strength. The following day, at nine in the morning, the Dey sent for the British Consul, and also for the prisoner, who there and then received the remaining 1,200 blows on his back, which was so cut up that he lost both speech and breath. But, as he was not yet dead, the Dey ordered him to be taken back to prison, and to be shut up there alone, and without help. This was done, and the poor wretch was suffered to die of pain, hunger, and thirst.’
To resume however Bruce’s narrative:—
This dispassionate behaviour reconciled all the soldiery to me, already well-inclined to a man as to personal friendship. I gave Government a long detail of the situation of their affairs, without fear or disguise; I begged them to send out a man of some knowledge and dignity in business, who with me might go through the treaties, renew them, and make them intelligible, who might bring out new Mediterranean passes, a thing to be done in a very short time, after which I was satisfied that things would be settled on a peaceable and permanent footing. I claimed the King’s promise to be allowed to appoint a man, who had nothing to do but to sign the passports, while I made the excursions into Africa, which were the object of my voyage, for which I was fully prepared, and wished to defer no longer.
I received an answer that His Majesty commanded me to stay, till an Ambassador should be sent, to explain and settle the matter and the disputes with the Dey of Algiers. At the same time it said, slightly enough, that it undoubtedly was the King’s wish I might continue at Algiers; but since I did not choose it, His Majesty was resolved, that these places should not be sinecures, and therefore another Consul would be sent over, unless I certified my resolution to stay in course.
This mandate, which was a direct breach of the faith of Government, filled me with indignation.
· · · · · · ·
A relative of my own, a Captain C———,[9] son to the Secretary of the Admiralty, a man that I knew much better than those that sent him, came as the King’s representative to Algiers, and brought with him a city attorney,[10] that had somehow or other connected himself by marriage with the family of Egerton, as Consul.
None of them understood a word of the language, none of them a word of sense; they quarrelled from the beginning, and the Ambassador privately engaged the Dey to send the Consul home again by the end of the year, when he would bring out another and new presents from the King.
· · · · · · ·
The Dey[11] continued my fast friend; he furnished me with all the necessary letters to his provinces. I told him I was going for some necessaries to Mahon. I should then go down the coast by Bona, to Tunis. I should then come back to Constantine and return again to Tunis by the foot of Mount Atlas.
He assured me of every mark of friendship and protection, which he kept through the whole course of the voyage.
The Ambassador, in the Phœnix, man-of-war, and I in a small Mahonese barque, sailed together from Algiers for Mahon.[12]
In the night we were overtaken by a violent storm of wind, which lasted all the next day, broke our mainsail yard, and did us other considerable damage. We saw no more of the Phœnix; she had held her wind, which though violent was fair, and arrived at Gibraltar.
I put into Quarantine Island in Mahon, and announced my arrival there and the reason of it to General Townshend, desiring it might be entered in some book, where the authentic evidence of day and date might be referred to. Every sort of politeness was shown me by that officer, who ordered immediately to give me pratique. Having nothing to do in Mahon, I refused it, and set sail for Tunis.
As the first portion of Bruce’s journey is not given in the order in which he made it, I subjoin the dates of the various stages, as nearly as they can be made out.
1765.
FOOTNOTES:
[9]Captain Cleveland.
[10]Mr. Robert Kirke.
[11]Baba Ali, 1754-1766.
[12]Bruce’s passport for Tunis, signed by his successor, Robert Kirke, is dated August 19, 1765.
Julia Cæsarea.
There is no written account remaining of Bruce’s explorations to the west of Algiers, and the only allusion to them is the fact that he first used his camera obscura in delineating the Kubr-er-Rumiah, or Tombeau de la Chrétienne, as it is now called.
The illustrations he has left of Julia Cæsarea, which, doubtless, he visited while still Consul-General at Algiers, are as follows:
1. A perspective view in water-colours and distemper of the Kubr-er-Rumiah, or Tomb of Juba II. No architectural details are shown, as the débris around the base had not then been cleared away.
2. Finished drawing to scale, in Indian ink, of restored plan, and elevation of Tomb.
3. Perspective view in water-colours of the same building, taken from the S.E. In the foreground are architectural fragments, including Ionic capitals, frusta of columns, and portion of entablature. [Plate I.]
4. Finished drawing to scale, in Indian ink, of front and side elevation of capitals of Ionic order; plan of columns. Elevation and section of architrave. [Plate II.]
5. Duplicate of 2; dimensions not figured.
6. Duplicate of 4.
7. Pencil drawings of coins: six coins of Ptolemy, one of Juba II.
8. Pencil drawings of coins: eight coins of Juba, four of Juba and Cleopatra Selene, one of Cleopatra Selene.
9. Pencil sketch of Tomb, very similar to 3.
10. Perspective view of Aqueduct of Cherchel. [Plate III.]
11. A view of the same, in distemper.
12. Elevation and section of the same to scale.
13 to 15. Three ornamental titles of proposed work.
The site of the ancient city of Jol, subsequently Julia Cæsarea, is marked by the modern town of Cherchel, about 72 miles west of Algiers.
After the surrender of Jugurtha to Marius by his son-in-law and ally, Bocchus King of Numidia, the latter reunited to his own kingdom the provinces, which extended from Saldae, the modern Bougie, to Molocath, the modern river Molouia, on the confines of Morocco. At his death, about 91 B.C., he left the western portion of his dominions to Bogud, and the newly annexed portions to his second son Bocchus.
Fifty years later we find these two divisions of Mauritania still existing, and governed by kings bearing the same names as before, but with this difference, that it was Bogud who was King of Eastern Mauritania, and Bocchus who governed the western portion or Tingitana.[13]
The former of these took part with Cæsar in the war, which terminated in the defeat of the Pompeian army at Thapsus, and the suicide of Juba I. King of Numidia. The infant son of that monarch was taken to Rome, where he graced the triumph of the great dictator; a part of the forfeited kingdom was given to Bogud, and subsequently the western province was added by Augustus, during the reign of his son Bocchus III. That prince reigned five years over the two Mauritanias, his capital being Jol, and died B.C. 33.
In the meantime the young Juba had been carefully educated at Rome, where he attained a high literary reputation, being frequently cited by Pliny, who describes him as more memorable for his erudition than for the crown he wore, glorious as it was. Plutarch also calls him the greatest historian amongst kings.
All his works have disappeared, though a long list of them has survived; they treated of a great diversity of subjects, including history, antiquities, arts, science, grammar and geography.
In the year 26 B.C. Augustus, desiring to give to the people of the late monarch a sovereign of their own race, fixed upon this son of Juba, and restored to him the western portion of his father’s dominions, trusting to his thorough Roman education to secure his submission, and on the prestige of his race and name to win the affections of the Numidian races, and to hasten their fusion with the conquering nation.
He removed his capital to the ancient Phœnician city of Jol, to which he gave the name of Julia Cæsarea.
He died in A.D. 19, leaving a son, Ptolemy, the last independent prince of Mauritania, who was far from sharing the high qualities of his father.
Plate II.
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
TOMBEAU DE LA CHRÉTIENNE OR TOMB OF JUBA II.
FAC SIMILE OF PLATE OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS
EXECUTED BY BRUCE AFTER HIS RETURN TO SCOTLAND.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.
His reign was characterised by debauchery and misgovernment, and the Mauritanians were not slow to rise in revolt, under the leadership of Tacfarinas. This war lasted for seven years, shortly after which Tiberius died, and was succeeded by Caligula, who summoned Ptolemy to Rome, and, after having received him with great honour, caused him to be killed, as he thought that the splendour of his attire excited unduly the attention of the spectators. It is more likely that he desired to appropriate the wealth that Ptolemy was known to have accumulated. This murder was followed by a serious revolution in Mauritania, which lasted several years.
The Tombeau de la Chrétienne figured by Bruce is well known to all visitors to Algiers. It is one of three somewhat similar edifices, one of which is found in each province of Algeria, the other two being the Medrassen, or Tomb of the Numidian Kings in Constantine, and El-Djedar in Oran.
This, however, is the only one mentioned by any ancient author. Pomponius Mela, in his work ‘De Situ Orbis,’ written about the middle of the first century, after the death of Juba II., but before the murder of his son Ptolemy, mentions both Cæsarea (Cherchel) and Icosium (Algiers), and states that beyond the former is the monumentum commune regiæ gentis.
This at once decides the nature of the building, which, though intended to be seen far and near, is yet entirely concealed from view at Cherchel by the mountain of Chennoua, the presumption being that the king would not care to have constantly within sight of his royal residence, the tomb which he had caused to be constructed for himself.
The resemblance to the Medrassen, or Tomb of the Numidian Kings, from whom Juba was descended, is another presumption that it was erected by him in imitation of his ancestral mausoleum.
Bruce’s illustration (Plate I.) of this monument is the only inaccurate one in the whole series. Until long after his time the podium was so encumbered with débris that it was impossible to make out the architectural details, and he has represented this portion of the edifice rather as what he imagined it to be than as it actually existed.
Juba II. married Cleopatra Selene, daughter of the celebrated Egyptian queen by Marc Antony, and there is every probability that this monument served only as his tomb, and that of his wife, who died before him. It is hardly likely that the remains of his son Ptolemy, the last of his race, could have been transferred from Rome to Africa.
The tomb must have been violated at a very early period in the search for hidden treasure. A careful examination of the accumulated earth and dust within revealed traces of successive races, who had visited the place, some of whom had even made it a place of residence, but none whatever of the bodies for whose reception it had been erected.
It is called by the Arabs Kubr er-Roumiah, tomb of the Roman, or rather Christian woman, the word Roumi (fem. Roumiah) being used commonly by Arabs all over the East to designate strangers of Christian origin.
Various explanations are given of this name. Marmol mentions a tradition, that under it were interred the mortal remains of the beautiful daughter of Count Julian, over the story of whose misfortunes the muse of Southey has shed so strong an interest.
Shaw[14] states that amongst the Turks it was known by the name Maltapasy, or Treasure of the Sugar Loaf; and the belief, that it covered some great accumulation of riches, has exposed it to attacks, by which it has been much ruined, and before which a less solid structure would have altogether disappeared. Marmol adds:
‘In the year 1555 Solharraes[15] attempted to pull it down, hoping to find some treasure in it; but when they lifted up the stones there came a sort of black poisonous wasps from under them, which caused immediate death wherever they stinged, and upon that Barbarossa dropped his design.’
Many other legends and traditions are connected with it, which it would be out of place here to reproduce.
The Tombeau de la Chrétienne is built on a hill forming part of the Sahel range, 756 feet above the level of the sea, covered with a brushwood of lentisk and tree heath, situated nearly midway between Tipasa and Koleah, and to the west of Algiers.
It is a circular, or rather polygonal, building, originally about 131 feet in height; the actual height at present is 100 ft. 8 in., of which the cylindrical portion is 36 ft. 6 in., and the pyramid 64 ft. 2 in. The base is 198 feet in diameter, and forms an encircling podium, or zone, of a decorative character, presenting a vertical wall, ornamented with sixty engaged Ionic columns, 2 ft. 5 in. in diameter, surmounted by a frieze or cornice of simple form. The capitals of the columns have entirely disappeared, but they are represented in Bruce’s drawings as having very small volutes, most of the space between which is occupied by a honeysuckle flower. There are two tendrils, one on each side of the flower, but growing out of the surface of the capital, and not continuous with the flower. The necking between the capital and the shaft is composed of a succession of four small petalled flowers, flatly applied, contained between an upper and a lower fillet.
The series of the colonnade has at the cardinal points four false doors, the four panels of which, producing what may have been taken to represent a cross, probably contributed to fix the appellation of Christian to it.
Above the cornice rise a series of thirty-three steps, which gradually decrease in circular area, giving the building the appearance of a truncated cone.
The whole monument is placed on a low platform 210 feet square, the sides of which are tangents to the circular base.
During the Emperor Napoleon’s last visit to Africa he charged the well-known Algerian scholar, M. Berbrugger, and M. MacCarthy, the late and present directors of the library and museum, to explore this tomb, which had never been penetrated in modern times, spite of the attempt of Salah Rais, in 1555, and the efforts of Baba Mohammed in the end of the eighteenth century, to batter it down by means of artillery.
SKETCH SHOWING THE CROSS ON THE FALSE DOORS.
In May, 1866, a hole was drilled by an Artesian sound, which gave indications of an interior cavity, and shortly afterwards an opening was made from the exterior to the interior passage. Entering by this, both the central chamber and the regular door were easily found.
Below the false door, to the E., is a smaller one, giving access to a vaulted chamber, to the right of which was the door of the principal gallery. Above this are rudely sculptured the figures of a lion and a lioness.
From this passage a large gallery, about 6 ft. 7 in. in breadth, by 7 ft. 5 in. in height, is entered by a flight of steps. Along it are niches in the wall, intended to hold lamps. Its total length is 483 feet. This winds round in a spiral direction, gradually approaching the centre, where are two sepulchral vaulted chambers, one 12 ft. 4 in. by 9 ft. 3 in., and the other 12 ft. 4 in. by 9 ft. 7 in., separated from each other by a short passage, and shut off from the winding passage by stone doors, consisting of a single slab capable of being moved up and down by levers like a portcullis.
Julia Cæsarea itself, corresponding to the charming little French town of Cherchel, is situated further on, at a distance of 71 miles from Algiers, and twenty from the nearest station, El-Afroun.
Close to the twenty-second kilometric stone, counting from where the Cherchel road branches off from the main one to Miliana at Bou-Rekika, and at a distance of between six and seven miles from Cherchel, is the subject of Bruce’s second illustration (Plate III.), part of the aqueduct which led the waters of the Oued el-Hachem, and the copious springs of Djebel Chennoua into Julia Cæsarea. This consisted of two converging branches, following the contour of the hills as open channels or traversing projecting spurs by means of galleries. In only two places was it necessary to carry the water over valleys on arches; the first was at the place here illustrated, and the second about three miles further on, at the junction of the two branches, where the united waters were carried over the valley of the Oued Billah on a single series of arches, of which five are still entire.
Many piers of the others remain, and the high road now passes between two of them.
Bruce has, as usual, left no names or indication of locality on his drawings of this structure, but its condition at the present day is hardly different from what it was a century ago. And amongst his MSS. I discovered a small scrap of paper containing a memorandum in pencil, which would have removed all doubts on the subject, had any existed.
‘Shershell arches. View is that of the east side. River Hashem. Shenoa on the east. The mountain of Beni Habeeb that seen through the broken arch.’
At this spot a small stream winds through a deep and narrow valley. The aqueduct is carried over this on a triple series of arches, nearly all of which are still entire, with the exception of the gap exhibited in the illustration.
The lower and middle series consisted each of seven arches, of which five are complete, and the upper one had sixteen, of which thirteen remain.
The construction of the building cannot compare with that of the great aqueduct of Carthage; the arches are irregular in form, where irregularity does not appear to have been necessary. The masonry is of cut stone only as far as the spring of the middle arches, above which it is of rubble; all the superstructure above the bottom of the specus has disappeared, but at the south end there still remains a circular basin, intended, no doubt, to break the fall of the water, which descended at a steep incline, and to collect the stones and other substances which might be washed down by it, and thus allow only a stream of clear water to flow over into the duct beyond.