The Land of the Bey: Being Impressions of Tunis Under the French
9781465684653
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Recent events have attracted so much attention to Northern Africa, and to that part of it over which the Bey of Tunis has hitherto ruled, that it seems unnecessary to offer any apology for the publication of this volume. But if an apology is unnecessary, an explanation is undoubtedly called for. Let me say then that I make no pretensions to any special knowledge of Tunis. I have not attempted to write a history of the Regency—though such a history could hardly fail to be intensely interesting; nor have I even sought to give a complete account of the country as it is now to be seen by visitors from a distance. Several circumstances made it impossible that I should do this. During the time I spent in Tunis, as will be gathered from the following pages, the country was not only in a state of war, but was under the influence of a very vehement anti Christian feeling. That feeling had found expression in hideous massacres of Christians who had fallen into the hands of the so called “insurgent Arabs.” French armies were in occupation of different points in the Regency, and were about to begin the march to the sacred city of Kairwan; and Tunis itself had, as a matter of precaution, been strongly occupied by the soldiers of the Republic. As a result of this state of things it had become dangerous for any Christian to go beyond the very limited districts in which the French troops were actually posted. Even in Tunis itself it was perilous to visit certain quarters of the city at any time, and after dark no European could walk about the streets safely. Consequently it was not possible for a visitor at this particular moment to see so much of the country as he could have done under happier circumstances—or, indeed, so much of it as he may see now, when there appears to be a temporary lull in the excitement of the Arab population. My story therefore is not a complete one. But I have endeavoured to tell, as simply and honestly as possible, the tale of a brief visit paid to the Regency at a very exciting time, and to give some account of the many scenes and persons of interest I encountered during my sojourn in the Land of the Bey. As it happened, I had some advantages as a traveller which enabled me to meet with people and to enter houses not usually accessible to Englishmen; and I have sought to tell an unvarnished and straightforward story about them. I might have added a great deal of information about the Regency generally, and the city of Kairwan in particular, for I gathered not a little knowledge of these subjects whilst I was in Tunis; but since I left the country Kairwan itself has been visited by Europeans, and is now accessible to travellers, and I do not think it desirable therefore to inflict my secondhand evidence upon the reader. If what I have written of my own experiences and actual observations should induce him to follow my example, and to spend a holiday in Tunis, I feel certain that he will consider himself well repaid for his pains by the enjoyment which the novel and picturesque sights of that strange and romantic land cannot fail to afford him.
