Chapter XXIX: August 1881

The position of affairs at the beginning of August was singularly unfortunate. Fever and dysentery now began to make sad havoc amongst the French troops, almost wholly unaccustomed to the tropical heat of a Tunisian autumn; raids on the homesteads almost in sight of the walls of Tunis increased and multiplied, and the Bey was making feeble efforts to raise a small force to send to Testour “to protect the French railway,” and to borrow the money wherewithal to pay the cost of it. On the 2d of August, an unbroken Moslem supremacy of three centuries terminated in the landing of two battalions of French troops at Goletta, and even the presence of the Bey’s band failed to attenuate the real state of the case in the minds of the Arabs. Just after the French had passed through the streets, the steamer from the coast arrived, bringing on it 300 of the Tunisian soldiers, who had lately deserted, and who had been persuaded to return. As soon as they saw what had happened they became very excited, and openly said they would again desert, as they could not be wanted if the Bey called in French troops to “protect” him. From this time French troops began to land in great numbers at Goletta, and on the 6th August, 2000 men encamped at Hammam-el-Lif on the other side of the bay, to remain there till the arrangements for the great Kairwán expedition, which was to calm all parties, including the French electors, were completed. Meanwhile the insurrectionary movement in Northern Tunis grew apace. The insurgent Arabs made a night attack on Medjez-el-Bab, ill-treated the townspeople, carried away their cattle, destroyed a portion of the subsidised French railway, and tore down the telegraph wire and posts. More pressure was now put on the Bey to send his “army” towards Medjez and Testour, but his “protectors” would not come to his aid, and he only succeeded (in spite of the presence of several French financial houses in the country) in scraping together a loan of £37,000, at an annual interest of _fourteen per cent._

At last 500 soldiers belonging to the irregular Tunisian militia were sent one march forward towards Testour, but over 200 deserted _en route_. The 300 men who came back to Goletta from Susa likewise disappeared.

About the middle of the month the Arabs around Susa, and between Susa and Kairwán, assumed a menacing attitude, and many of the tribes between Tunis and Algeria prepared to rise. To add to the difficulties of the situation the telegraph wires were again and again cut. Although reinforcements continued to arrive, and General Saussier came on the 13th August to study the campaign, now become inevitable, no movement could be executed to check the depredations of the insurgents. Even the very day after the Commander-in-chief’s arrival, and almost in his presence, fifty of the heavily chained convicts, confined in a pestilential dungeon beneath the Goletta fort, contrived to break their fetters, and about dusk rushed into the street. A cry was at once raised that the Bedouins had entered the place; shops and houses were barricaded, and the panic palpably extended to the French officers and soldiers, who, in the cool of the evening, were discussing their absinthe or vermouth before the different cafés. The prisoners, although armed with guns, pistols, and bayonets, hurt no one, and quickly gained the open country. As soon as the alarm subsided, everybody was becomingly valorous after the event, but as the Bey did not wish any French soldiers to join in the pursuit, only a few Arab irregulars, armed apparently with poles and sticks, made a vain and burlesque attempt to capture the fugitives.

The Austrian Consul-General, Herr Theodorovich, happened to meet the runaways outside Goletta, and fled precipitately to the French camp near Carthage, bringing the alarming news of the “taking of Goletta by the insurgents.” The soldiers had already been got under arms, when the true state of the case transpired, but it was thought necessary to provide the representative of Austria with a suitable guard to accompany him back to Goletta. This serio-comic incident indicates sufficiently the extent of the insurrectionary movement, even close to the capital itself.

The deserters from the Tunisian army seem to have nearly all joined the insurgents threatening Susa, and the Governor, General Bacouch, now acknowledged that his authority outside the town walls was gone. On the evening of the 14th August, a Tripolitan Arab appeared in the streets of Susa with a drawn sword, and with the ominous cry of “_jihad! jihad!_” stabbed to death an unoffending old Maltese tradesman in his own shop. The shouts of the murderer had been echoed by others, and there is no doubt but that the accidental arrival of H.M.S. “Monarch” and the calm presence of mind of Captain Tryon, alone saved the European colony from some terrible disaster. Captain Tryon at once prepared to land his marines, but before this could be done, Sy Muhamed Bacouch had succeeded in restoring order. The assassin was sent to Tunis and subsequently hung.

Having arranged the plan of the Kairwán crusade, General Saussier returned to Algeria on the 19th August, leaving Arab anarchy rampant and unchecked, until cooler weather should allow the realisation of his projects. Urgent letters from the Governor of Kairwán, however, now rendered some kind of immediate movement necessary. About 2000 Tunisian irregulars were collected; and on the 20th August these started in the direction of Testour, commanded by Ali Bey and the Generals Ahmed Zerouck and Ali Ben Tourkia. Two French columns of 1500 each started about the same time for Hammamet and Zaghouán. Little progress could be made by the Tunisian force, as all the baggage camels had been stolen in the great _razzia_ of the Zlass tribe in July.

The town of Susa was now practically in a state of siege. A Maltese, who went to his garden outside the walls, was at once shot dead, and as the villagers and tribesmen had agreed to join in an attack on the town, the gates could only be opened at intervals. The Arabs speedily contrived to cut off communication between the Hammamet and Zaghouán columns and Tunis; several convoys of carts were intercepted and robbed, and the drivers escaped with the loss of their property and horses. A Maltese courier was killed close to Zaghouán, and a native guard who accompanied him was also shot. The relatives of the latter were carrying away the body, when some more carts, now escorted by French troops, appeared. Unluckily enough the mourners were mistaken for marauders, and shot by the soldiers before any explanation could be given.

The Hammamet column under Colonel Corréard now sustained a severe check, and was finally obliged to fall back towards Hamman-el-Lif. This was, perhaps, the only success gained by the Arabs in a fair fight during the whole campaign, and they certainly made the most of it. Ali Bey seemed to be unable to quit the vicinity of the capital, and to add to the perplexities occasioned by the equivocal attitude of his “irregulars,” he received a letter from Ali Ben Hlifa, saying that he would be attacked by the Arabs as an “infidel and a Frenchman” at the first opportunity.