them by Commodore Stockton; and, on the afternoon of the 12th, the
combined parties entered the town in safety.

At this time commenced that memorable conflict between the two
commanders--General Kearney and Commodore Stockton--respecting the chief
command, which subsequently created so much trouble in the American
ranks and throughout the country. Commodore Stockton appears, however,
to have retained the authority; and, having organized a force
sufficiently strong to warrant the undertaking, and General Kearney
having accepted an invitation to accompany the expedition, on December
29th he marched from San Diego, with two officers and fifty-five
privates (dragoons, two officers and forty-five seamen acting as
artillerymen; eighteen officers and three hundred seventy-nine seamen
and marines acting as infantry; six officers, and fifty-four privates),
volunteers, and six pieces of artillery, against the main body of the
insurgents, near Los Angeles. The command appears to have been given, at
his own request, to General Kearney; and as the wagon train was heavily
laden, the progress of the column was very slow--the expedition reaching
the Rio San Gabriel on January 8, 1847--although the enemy had offered
no opposition to its progress even in passes where a small force could
have effectively kept it back. At this place, however, he had made a
stand to dispute the passage of the river; and here the second action
was fought between the Americans and the Californians.

The Rio San Gabriel, at the spot where this action was fought, is about
one hundred yards wide, the current about knee-deep, flowing over a
quicksand bottom. The left bank, by which the Americans approached, is
level; that on the right is also level for a short distance back, but
beyond this narrow plain a bank fifty feet in height commands the ford
and the intervening flat, while both banks are fringed with a thick
undergrowth. On this bank, directly in front of the ford, four pieces of
artillery were posted, supported on either flank by strong bodies of
cavalry, while on the slope of the hill and the flat in front were
posted the sharpshooters.

Against this position the American column moved; the second division in
front, with the first and third divisions on the right and left flanks;
the cattle and the wagon train moved next; the volunteer riflemen and
the fourth division brought up the rear. As the head of the column
approached the bank of the river the enemy's sharpshooters opened a
scattering fire; and the second division was ordered to deploy as
skirmishers, cross the river, and drive the former from the thicket;
while the first and third divisions covered the flanks of the train,
and, with it, followed in the rear. When this line of skirmishers had
reached the middle of the stream and was pressing forward toward the
opposite bank, the enemy brought his artillery to bear, "and made the
water fly with grape and round shot"; and the American fieldpieces were
immediately dragged across the river and placed in counter-battery on
the right bank in opposition to those of the enemy. The fire of the
Americans appears to have caused considerable confusion in the ranks of
the insurgents; and under its cover the wagon train and cattle, with
their guard, passed the river, during which time the enemy attacked its
rear and was repelled.

Having safely crossed the river the American column appears to have
deployed under cover of the high ground--the Californian grape and round
shot rattling over the heads of the men--and the enemy immediately
charged on both its flanks simultaneously, dashing down the slope with
great spirit. With great coolness the second division was thrown into
squares, and after a round or two drove off the enemy from the left
flank; the first division received a similar order, but as the
assailants on the right hesitated and did not come down as far as their
associates on the opposite flank, the order was countermanded, and the
division was ordered to charge up the hill, where the enemy's main body
was supposed to be posted. With great coolness this movement was
executed and the heights were gained, but there was no enemy in sight.
He had abandoned his position, and although he pitched his camp on the
hills in view of the Americans, when morning came he had moved still
farther back.

The strength of the Americans in this action (the action of the Rio San
Gabriel) had been shown already; that of the Californians was about six
hundred, with four pieces of artillery. The loss of the former was one
man killed and nine men wounded; that of the enemy is not known.

On the following morning (January 9, 1847) the American column resumed
its march over the Mesa--a wide plain which extends from the Rio San
Gabriel to the Rio San Fernando--surrounded by reconnoitring parties
from the enemy; and when about four miles from Los Angeles the enemy was
discovered on the right of the line of march, awaiting its approach.
When the column had come abreast of the enemy the latter opened fire
from his artillery on its right flank, and soon afterward deployed his
force, making a horseshoe in front of the American column, and opening
with two pieces of artillery on its front while two nine-pounders
continued their fire on the right.

After stopping about fifteen minutes to silence the enemy's
nine-pounders the column again moved forward; when, by a movement
similar to that employed on the Rio San Gabriel the day before, two
charges were made simultaneously on its left flank and on its right and
rear. Contrary to the positive instructions of the officers, in the
former of these charges the enemy was met with a fire at long distance;
yet, although he had not come within a hundred yards of the column,
several of his men were knocked out of their saddles, and a round of
grape, which was immediately sent after him, completely scattered his
right wing. The charge on the right and the rear of the column fared
little better; and the entire force of the insurgents was withdrawn.

The strength of both parties was probably as on the preceding day at the
Rio San Gabriel; the loss of the Californians is not known; that of the
Americans was Captain Gillespie, Lieutenant Rowan, and three men
wounded. The troops encamped near the field of battle; and on the
following morning (January 10, 1847), the enemy surrendered, when the
city of Los Angeles was occupied by the Americans without further
opposition.

"This was the last exertion made by the sons of California for the
liberty and independence of their country," say the Mexican historians,
"and its defence will always do them honor; since, without supplies,
without means or instructions, they rushed into an unequal contest, in
which they more than once taught the invaders what a people can do who
fight in defence of their rights. The city of Los Angeles was occupied
by the American forces on January 10th, and the loss of that rich, vast,
and precious part of the Mexican territory was consummated."




(1847) THE FALL OF ABD-EL-KADER, Edgar Sanderson


This great Mahometan was an Arab chief whose heroic conduct as leader of
the Arabs in their wars against the French in Algeria (1832-1847) gave
him a place among the eminent patriot-soldiers and statesmen of the
nineteenth century. In 1843 Marshal Soult declared that Abd-el-Kader was
one of the three great men then living; the two others also being
Mahometans. The final course and fall of this man, whose name means
"Servant of the Mighty God," is itself an important concern of history,
without regard to its effect upon the relations of empire. After the
French, provoked by the conduct of Hasan, Dey of Algeria, had occupied
Algiers, his capital, in 1830, a new government was set up in France,
Louis Philippe ascending the throne in place of the expelled Charles X.
At the time of this revolution in France the soldiers of Charles had
already overrun a great part of Algeria; but they had not subdued the
country, and their absolute dominion extended only a little beyond the
capital itself. The French commander fortified his territory, but had to
recruit his garrisons from among the natives. In 1833 Abd-el-Kader
raised the standard of the Prophet, the Arabs rallied to his call, and
for several years he carried on a stubborn war against the French, whom
in 1835 he signally defeated.

In 1836 the Arab leader, now Sultan, again fought the invaders in
several severe engagements on the Tafna River. In these affairs the
advantage lay with the Arab. In June, 1836, General Bugeaud was sent to
command the French forces, and he proved to be the strongest opponent
that Abd-el-Kader had met. There was more fighting on the Tafna; it was
indecisive, and in May, 1837, a treaty, known as the Treaty of the
Tafna, was concluded, General Bugeaud having received instructions
either to make peace with Abd-el-Kader or to subdue him.

The story of the Arab hero from this point in his career is told by
Sanderson, the faithful commemorator of great nineteenth-century
patriots, a high authority on modern Africa.

The famous Treaty of the Tafna, concluded between Abd-el-Kader and
Bugeaud, was a triumph for the Arab Sultan. With the consent of all the
great sheiks, the leaders of cavalry contingents, the venerable
Marabouts, and the most distinguished warriors of the Province of Oran,
the Sultan, not acknowledging the sovereignty of France, but ceding to
her a limited portion of the Provinces of Oran and Algiers, reserved the
free exercise of their religion for all Arabs dwelling on French
territory. He undertook to supply the French army with a large quantity
of corn and oxen and to confine the commerce of the Regency to French
ports. In return he received the administration of the larger part of
the Provinces of Oran and Algiers, and the whole of Tittery; the
important right of buying powder, sulphur, and weapons in France; and
freedom of trade between the Arabs and the French. In ceding the
Province of Tittery, Bugeaud had violated the strict orders of the
French Government, alleging in excuse to the Minister of War that any
other arrangement was "impossible." The treaty, in fact, confined the
French to a few towns on the seacoast, with small adjacent territories.
All the fortresses and strongholds in the interior were left in the
hands of Abd-el-Kader. He was the possessor of two-thirds of Algeria,
and he appeared before the world as the friend and ally of France.

The treaty was held by the French Government to be a high stroke of
policy, converting an enemy into an ally. The French people regarded it
as a humiliating surrender of French territory to a rival power. It was
the culminating point of Abd-el-Kader's career.

During the year 1839 the Sultan was engaged in the work of a statesman,
legislator, administrator, and reformer, displaying wonderful activity,
enterprise, vigor, and intellectual power as the founder of an empire
which, for the happiness of Algeria, was to be too short-lived. After
the Tafna Treaty he had received a magnificent present of arms from
Louis Philippe, King of the French, and, as a man who had subdued,
either by arms or by persuasive eloquence, the hardy, high-spirited
Kabyles he stood high in the estimation of his Moslem fellow-rulers in
Morocco and Egypt, Tripoli and Tunis, and of the _ulemas_, or bodies of
learned doctors in divinity and law, at Alexandria and Mecca, who
watched with joy, and with ardent expectation of yet higher things, the
career of one who seemed destined to revive the pristine glories of
Islam. The great Sultan, in order to consolidate his power both against
the French and over the Arabs, constructed a number of forts on the
limits of the Tell at Sebdou, on the west; at Saida, south of Tlemsen;
at Tekedemt, south of Mascara; at Boghar, south of Miliana; to the south
of Medea, and to the southeast of Algiers. Tekedemt, an old Roman town
about sixty miles southeast of Oran, was designed to be the capital, as
a great centre of commerce between the Tell and the Sahara.

The first stone of the new city and fortress had been laid by the Sultan
in May, 1836; and as the place grew, a population of settlers from
Mascara, Mostaganem, and other towns poured in. Large stores of warlike
munitions were formed, and a factory, worked by mechanics from Paris on
liberal wages, turned out eight new muskets a day. A mint of silver and
copper coins was established. The defences carried twelve cannon and six
mortars. A French observer, who was a prisoner at the time when the
Sultan was personally directing the works at Tekedemt, describes his
simple costume, like that of a laborer; his large tall hat, plaited with
palm-leaves; his "incomparable grace" and "fascinating smile" as he
saluted the man who was rather a guest than a captive.

The reforms of Abd-el-Kader included a regular police, schools, and
local tribunals of justice. All the chief towns had factories conducted
by Europeans, working in brass and iron, cotton and wool. The army
contained the finest irregular cavalry in the world, amounting, with all
the contingents from the tribes, to about sixty thousand men, only a
third of whom, however, were ever assembled for any single military
operation. His regular force comprised eight thousand infantry, two
thousand cavalry, twenty field-guns, and two hundred forty artillerymen.
His great ideal embraced the making the Arabs into one nation; the
recall of the whole people to a strict observance of religious duties;
the inspiring them with true patriotism; the calling forth of all their
capabilities for war, for commerce, for agriculture, and for mental
improvement; and the crowning of the whole by the impress of European
civilization. In laying the foundation for this mighty work, he had
already overcome vast difficulties by means of wonderful enterprise,
activity, and vigor. His intellectual greatness had caused him to shine
as a warrior, diplomatist, orator, and statesman. The Provinces of Oran
and Tittery and the plains of the Northern Sahara had been won by his
military prowess.

A still nobler triumph in the exhibition of moral power was beheld in
his dealings with the region called Great Kabylia, the superb range of
the Djurjura Mountains extending eastward from Algiers. The hardy
Kabyles of that territory had remained unsubdued amid the changing
governments which had risen and fallen around them. As independent
little republics, bound together by the most exalted spirit of freedom,
they had ever preserved their usages, customs, and laws. In September,
1839, Abd-el-Kader, attended by only fifty horsemen, suddenly appeared
among them. Thousands gathered around his tent from the valleys and
fastnesses. He addressed them in a stirring and argumentative harangue,
pointing out union under his standard as the only safeguard against
French conquest. With loud shouts they accepted his faithful caliph, Ben
Salem, as their chief in war, and agreed to pay the regular imposts and
to go forth to the Djehad. For thirty days the Sultan made a progress
through the country, everywhere received with joy and enthusiasm as a
venerated _hadji_ and marabout, as a teacher of the law, as a man of
pious life, as a renowned warrior and an eloquent preacher. We cannot
dwell here on his educational and moral reforms, his earnest efforts to
enforce the teaching of the _Koran_, which was his guide in his public
and private life. His beneficent intentions were all to be frustrated by
the ambition of a European nation which was to signally fail, not in the
work of conquering Abd-el-Kader, but in turning her conquest to good
account.

Hastily drawn treaties are a prolific source of war. The Treaty of the
Tafna was a flagrant example of this class of diplomatic documents.
There were two drafts: one in Arabic, with the Sultan's seal; the other
in French, with Bugeaud's. The drafts were not carefully compared. The
limits of territory assigned to each of the parties were not made clear.
One instance of the lack of identity in the two forms of the instrument
will suffice. The French form declared that Abd-el-Kader acknowledged
the sovereignty of France. The Sultan had never dreamed of making an
admission which, in its effect on the tribes, would have cost him his
throne. What he had written, in Arabic, in the article which he
subscribed, was, properly translated, "The Emir Abd-el-Kader
acknowledges that there is a French Sultan, and that he is great."

A new Governor-General, Marshal Valée, had assumed his functions at
Algiers in November, 1837. Disputes arose as to the territorial rights
of the Sultan under the Tafna Treaty, and after vain negotiations and
missions to and fro matters were brought to a head by Marshal Valée in
the despatch of an expedition to march over some disputed ground as a
demonstration of French power and an assertion of French rights. A
column under the Duc d'Orléans started from Milah, in the Province of
Constantine, lately conquered by the French, to march across the
disputed territory and thence onward. A way was gained through a
formidable pass called the "Iron Gates," in October, 1839, by a simple
process. The defile was one which a few hundred men could have held
against any force, but the Kabyle sheiks were shown passports bearing
Abd-el-Kader's seal and authorizing the passage of French troops. The
seal of the Sultan had been forged. On November 1st Valée and the French
Prince made a triumphant entry into Algiers, after this despicable piece
of treachery, and were saluted as the heroes of the "Iron Gates."

The news reached Abd-el-Kader at Tekedemt. He sprang on his horse, and
in forty-eight hours, riding night and day, was at Medea, whence he
despatched a reproachful and defiant letter to the French Governor. He
called the tribesmen to arms, formally declared war, swept down on the
plains, destroyed the French cantonments, agricultural establishments,
and outposts; slew many colonists, burned the villages and drove
panic-stricken fugitives headlong into the city of Algiers. The French
Government then ostentatiously declared the adoption of a firm policy
and announced Algeria to be "henceforth and forever a French province."
Reënforcements were rapidly sent to Algiers, and the effective army of
Valée was soon raised to thirty thousand men. The Sultan headed about
the same number of cavalry, regular and irregular, and six thousand
regular infantry. A fair trial of strength, Frenchman against Arab, was
now to be made.

Concentrating his army at Blidah, at the foot of the lesser Atlas range,
the French Marshal marched on Medea and Millana. The river Chiffa was
passed on April 27, 1840. The Sultan's cavalry appeared in large numbers.
By a feigned movement, Abd-el-Kader induced his enemy to enter the
mountains by the gorges of the Monzaia, which he had spent months in
fortifying. Every eminence useful for the purpose was cut into
intrenchments. A redoubt with heavy batteries crowned the highest peak.
Near this were placed his regular infantry, officered by French
deserters. Arabs and Kabyles swarmed in all directions, and, crouching
in nooks, were ready to open fire on the French army as it wound its way
with steady march along the narrow causeway which hung midway on the
mountain slopes.

Valée had divided his force into three columns, one of which was led by
Lamoricière, a man to become famous in Algerian warfare. The Sultan was
now to see the value of French infantry. To the astonishment of the
Arabs, the enemy, leaving the road, came darting over the steeps.
Ravines, woods, and rocks were all mastered in the rush. Slowly but
surely they were reaching the intrenchments, when a thick veil came over
the scene from the smoke of incessant fire. The mist rolled away before
the breeze sweeping through the pass, and the combatants met and fought
hand to hand. The Arabs and Kabyles clung desperately to their places of
shelter, but the French clambered up, grasping at shrubs and branches,
ever winning their way. Abd-el-Kader made a last stand in person at the
great redoubt, while his regulars and masses of Kabyles gathered round
him. The converging columns of the French came creeping on amid the roll
of drums and the blare of trumpets. The Arabs, bewildered by foes
attacking them both in front and rear, wavered, broke, and fled.
Lamoricière and his Zouaves, Changarnier and the Second Light Infantry,
burst over the intrenchments, and the tricolor waved on the summit of
the Atlas.

Abd-el-Kader retreated on Miliana, while the conqueror, entering Medea,
found it abandoned and half burned. The Sultan had made his last attempt
to fight the French on the principles of European warfare. His caliphs
and chiefs were ordered never again to meet the enemy in masses, but to
harass them in hanging on their flanks and rear, cutting their
communications, attacking baggage and transports, and waging a contest
of feigned retreats, ambuscades, and sudden sallies in order to bewilder
and weary the foe. Miliana was evacuated by Abd-el-Kader on Valée's
approach, but the chance of Arab warfare came when the French entered
the mountain passes. Unceasing attacks, day and night, caused severe
loss to the lately victorious French, with the capture of baggage and
the abandonment of all wounded men. The French garrisons in Medea and
Miliana were soon reduced to want by blockade of the surrounding
country, and by October, 1840, the garrison of Miliana had almost
disappeared, from the effects of fever and famine. Out of fifteen
hundred men, the half had perished; five hundred were in hospital and
the remainder were haggard wretches who could hardly hold their muskets.
Such was the warfare in the mountains of the Province of Tittery, and
Abd-el-Kader by his swift movements kept the enemy ever on the alert,
and often in trouble, from the frontiers of Morocco to those of Tunis.

The real and decisive struggle began early in 1841. The right man was at
last found by the French to deal with the hitherto indomitable Sultan of
Tittery and Oran. The Government at Paris had begun in some sort to
understand the power of their formidable adversary, and a serious effort
was to be made. On February 22, 1841, General Bugeaud assumed office as
Governor-General of Algeria. He had now come, not in the mood and with
the policy of the day when he concluded the Treaty of the Tafna, but as
one whose task it was to crush every rival power in Algeria. For this
end, eighty-five thousand men were placed under his command. Thomas
Bugeaud was a man of great ability, and he has the credit of devising
the only method by which such an antagonist as Abd-el-Kader, in such a
country, could be subdued.

Against an adversary so mobile, so full of expedients and resource,
mobility and incessantly offensive movements offered the only chance of
success. The French Commander knew that it was no mere army, but a
people in arms, that he was to encounter. His forces were at once
organized in many small, compact columns, each composed of a few
infantry battalions and two squadrons of horse, with a little transport
train of mules and camels and two mountain howitzers. Picked men alone,
acclimatized and used to toil, were employed, and they carried nothing
but their muskets and ammunition, with a little food. These columns were
placed under the command of such energetic leaders as Changarnier and
Cavaignac, Canrobert and Pélissier, Bedeau and Lamoricière, St. Arnaud
and the Duc d'Aumale.

The campaign opened with the revictualling of Medea and Miliana, with
great losses to the French, as Abd-el-Kader disputed every inch of the
ground. Bugeaud, personally operating in Oran, reached Tekedemt on May
25th, and found it deserted and in flames. Boghar, Saida, and other
fortresses were successively destroyed. The enemies of the Sultan were
paying a heavy price for success. At the end of 1841 Bugeaud, out of
sixty thousand men in the field, had only four thousand fit for duty.
The rest had perished or were invalided for the time, from the toil of
marches, incessant fighting, and the heat of the climate. The French
Government's proposals of peace, on certain terms, only confirmed
Abd-el-Kader in his resolve to try the extremities of war.

Bugeaud's main object was to establish permanent centres of action in
the very heart of the Arab confederation of tribes, and, by rapidly
consecutive expeditions radiating from these centres, to give his troops
the ubiquity of Abd-el-Kader's forces. The chief seat of the Sultan's
power was the Province of Oran, and this was made the principal scene of
operations. Mascara was held by Lamoricière, Tlemsen by Bedeau.
Changarnier was in observation on the western frontier of the plain of
Algiers; Tittery was menaced by D'Aumale. From Oran and Mostaganem three
columns were sent forth against the tribes occupying the large expanse
of territory lying between the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean,
and the tribes extending toward the Sahara. The first force, headed by
Bugeaud in person, marched along the valley of the Chéliff, and then
joined the second column under Changarnier, coming from Blida. The third
body, under Lamoricière, aimed at pushing Abd-el-Kader back to the south
in order to separate him from the tribes assailed by Changarnier and
Bugeaud.

The plan of campaign was formidable for the Arabs, but it was
encountered by the Sultan with wonderful skill and daring in a struggle
which involved some thrilling episodes, Lamoricière, in his efforts to
overtake the foe, was constantly baffled. Hearing that Abd-el-Kader was
before Mascara, he hurried thither by forced marches, only to find that
his enemy had passed by his rear and was raiding a tribe friendly to the
French. Pursuing in the new direction, the French leader was outmaneuvre
by the Sultan's bold and rapid dash across the Chéliff, placing his
Arabs between Bugeaud and the sea, and recovering his ascendency over
the tribes in that region. Abd-el-Kader then swept in a _razzia_ to the
south of Miliana, and soon appeared in full force in the Sahara as the
bewildered French pursuers returned to their cantonments in despair of
reaching him. This is a sample of the evolutions by which genius made
amends for inferiority of force. The ablest military combinations were
rendered abortive by an enemy that was ever slipping between columns,
flitting in the front, hovering on the flanks, assailing the rear, and,
with perfect knowledge of the country, was sometimes in the mountains
and again in the plains, ubiquitous, unattainable for serious conflict.

Abd-el-Kader, leaving his caliphs to maintain this exasperating species
of warfare in the Province of Oran, made for the frontiers of Morocco.
There many tribes had submitted under the influence of Bedeau's military
and diplomatic skill. The Sultan's communications with the country
whence he drew his weapons, clothing, and ammunition were seriously
threatened. His appearance at once brought back the Kabyles of Nedrouma
to their allegiance, and their example was followed by other tribes,
with the result that his army was increased to the number of three
thousand cavalry and five thousand infantry. Able now to confront the
enemy, Abd-el-Kader during the months of March and April, 1842, had
frequent encounters with Bedeau, The issue was yet indecisive when the
Sultan was called away to Mascara to deal with Lamoricière, who had been
gaining ground and winning over tribes, including even a large part of
Abd-el-Kader's own people, the Hashems. Lamoricière, believing the
Sultan to be still engaged with Bedeau, had marched toward the Sahara,
and Abd-el-Kader, by a mingling of severe punishment and mild treatment,
regained most of his old authority.

Lamoricière, on receiving the news of his presence, hastened back to
find his recent work undone and to be assailed by the tribes who had so
lately joined him. Fighting his way bravely on to an encounter with the
great leader of the Arabs, the French general heard of him as in force
at Tekedemt. When he reached that place he found that Abd-el-Kader had
fallen on Changarnier toward Miliana. That general, knowing nothing of
the Sultan's approach, found himself enveloped by a vast force of Arabs
and Kabyles, regulars and irregulars, horse and foot, led on by
Abd-el-Kader in person and charging furiously on all sides.

After two days and nights of incessant battle, in which men closed
fiercely with pistols, swords, bayonets, and yataghans, the Sultan
vanished with his force, leaving the French too exhausted and crippled
by their losses for pursuit. Two days later tidings reached them that he
was in the Metidja, ravaging the plain and carrying terror to the very
gates of Algiers. Abd-el-Kader then bore away to the Atlas, ascended the
mountains, penetrated beyond Tittery and reached the Sahara, everywhere
inspiriting the tribes and raising fresh forces. After sweeping over
three hundred leagues of ground he returned, in recruited strength and
new energy, to press upon Lamoricière and his garrison at Mascara with
all the rigors of a winter blockade.

In spite of his wonderful efforts, the Sultan could not but feel that he
was struggling with adverse fortune. The enemy by the seizure of his
fixed establishments had gained possession of a large part of his
territory and of the strongholds that had contained his stores of war.
His regular army had almost disappeared, and much of his credit among
the Arabs had departed. The _ketna_, which was his ancestral abode, had
been laid waste. He could not protect the families of his most faithful
adherents from constant exposure, in spite of his vigilant activity, to
the outrages of the detested infidels. In this position, he resolved to
remove from the scene of warfare those whom it was impossible for him to
desert with any regard to feelings of religion and humanity. He formed
his famous _smala_, a new and remarkable organization consisting of a
gathering of private families. To this moving asylum of refuge and
safety the Arab tribes sent their treasure, their herds, their women and
children, their sick and aged persons.

The smala was a great travelling capital, containing at first more than
twenty thousand souls, following the Sultan's movements; sometimes in
advance to the more cultivated regions, or in retreat to the Sahara,
according to the fluctuations of the contest which he was so bravely
waging. In the Sahara, the tents of the smala spread to the distant
horizon. In the Tell, they filled the valley and rose up the slopes of
the hills. All the arrangements were of military regularity. The
different _deiras_, or households, with tents varying in number with
their dwellers, were distributed into four great encampments. Each deira
knew its appointed place. Each chief had his station marked and his
special duties assigned. Four tribes were set apart to protect and guide
the smala in its wanderings, and the guard was composed of regular
troops. The existence of this organization, ever growing in extent,
became a powerful check on the disaffection of the tribes. When the
French leaders tempted them with fair promises, the warriors bethought
them of the pledges: the women, the children, the flocks and herds,
which were in the Sultan's hands. The genius of Abd-el-Kader had created
a new and widely extended political engine.

When the French leaders had learned to appreciate the importance of the
smala its capture or dispersal became a chief object with all officers
from the generals of corps to the colonels in charge of detachments. The
campaign of 1843 was opened by Lamoricière, who occupied Tekedemt.
Abd-el-Kader with about fifteen hundred horsemen watched his movements
from some neighboring woods. He knew that the French commander's object
was the smala, and he remained in ambush for twenty days. He and his men
lived on acorns; the horses were fed on leaves. One day a stray sheep
was found. The Sultan would have none of it, and said, "Take it to my
starving soldiers," as he turned to his meal of acorns. Twice was
Lamoricière repulsed in his search, and then a traitor revealed the
exact place of the smala encampment.

Lamoricière remained to occupy the attention of Abd-el-Kader, and the
French column stationed at Medea was selected for the attack. The
leadership was intrusted to the Duc d'Aumale, and on May 10, 1843, he
started from Boghar with thirteen hundred infantry, six hundred horse,
and two field-guns.

The indicated place of encampment was found empty, and the French column
wandered about in uncertain fashion.

At break of day on May 16th the traitor made known the new spot of the
smala's halt, and D'Aumale at once daringly advanced with his cavalry
alone. The surprise created a panic among the people. The guard of five
hundred regulars fired a volley and fled. A handful of the Hashem tribe
bravely strove to stem the torrent, but they were swept away in the
rout, and in an hour all was over. The smala was broken up amid scenes
of terrible confusion and despair, including the extraordinary sight of
a promiscuous mass of camels, dromedaries, horses, mules, oxen, and
sheep careering and plunging on the plain. There was little bloodshed,
but the French victors were in possession of hostages of the utmost
value in the families of Abd-el-Ka-der's most influential chiefs. His
own family had escaped. The booty taken was immense, comprising
thousands of animals; the Sultan's valuable library of rare Arabic
manuscripts; the military chest containing some millions of francs, and
the chests of his caliphs and other high officers, filled with gold and
silver coins and costly jewellery. The French soldiers baled out dollars
and doubloons in their shakos, and helped themselves to diamonds and
pearls.

This dreadful blow, when the news reached him in the woods where he
watched near Lamoricière's command, almost overwhelmed, for a time, even
the exalted and undaunted spirit of the Sultan. He spent some hours
alone in his tent, in meditation and prayer. He came forth with a smile
and addressed his chiefs, his officers, and men as they stood outside in
groups, some downcast and silent, some bitterly cursing their foe and
fate. He reminded them that the dear objects now lost had impeded the
movements of the holy war against the infidels, and that those who had
fallen were now in paradise. The next day he wrote to his caliphs,
bidding them not to be discouraged; they would thenceforth be lighter
and in better order for war. In fact at the time of the Duc d'Aumale's
attack, the population of the smala amounted to not less than sixty
thousand. Not more than three thousand prisoners were taken; the rest of
the Arabs were dispersed in all directions. Some fell among Arab tribes
who plundered them; others were overtaken by Lamoricière.

The blow was, on the whole, irreparable in its effects upon the
influence of the Sultan. Every day brought tidings of the defection of
some great tribe. The ranks of his enemies were swelled by large
contingents of Arabs.

Worse things were in store for the brave man contending with
ill-fortune. His ablest caliphs were removed by captivity or death in
action; the distant provinces fell a prey to the foe. The Province of
Oran became the scene of a desperate struggle. With a chosen and devoted
band of five thousand men Abd-el-Kader made his presence felt at all
points. Now he fell on recreant tribes; now he made head against the
French columns. Ever in the van, leading on the charge, plunging into
the thickest of the fight, by his example he encouraged and inspired his
followers. His bravest warriors fell around him; his horses were slain
under him; his burnoose was torn with bullets; but still he fought on.
The world's record can show no more brilliant instance of almost
superhuman heroism.

Once he was taken unawares. On September 23, 1843, he was encamped near
Sidi Yusuf with a battalion of infantry and five hundred irregular
horse. A spy made known his position to Lamoricière, who was at a
distance of six leagues. The French General at once led out in person
the Second Chasseurs d'Afrique. A night's march covered the intervening
space and the spot was reached in the gray of dawn. The Sultan was
aroused from sleep by cries of "The French! the French!" He had barely
time to mount. He might have escaped, but he preferred the risk of death
to the double stain of surprise and flight. His infantry seized their
arms and fired a volley; his cavalry rallied at his voice. Then as the
smoke slowly rolled away he dashed into the French chasseurs, dispersed
them by the sudden shock, and after a few minutes' hard fighting drew
off his whole force in perfect order.

The Beni-Amers, the men whose four thousand sabres had waved in
exultation around the young leader of the Djehad; the men whose splendid
courage had opened before him the path of glory and of empire, had gone
over to the French. Abd-el-Kader resolved to attack them. Suddenly
descending upon them he swept through their encampments, slew numbers,
and carried off a great booty. A French battalion stationed among them
vainly strove to arrest his progress. An Arab chief, one of his old
followers, boldly singled him out, rode up, and fired at him
point-blank. The ball missed, and Abd-el-Kader shot the traitor dead
with his pistol.

The Sultan knew that all was lost unless he could obtain external aid.
The smala was now reduced to his own deira, a bare thousand souls,
wandering about in miserable fashion. After another desperate engagement
with Lamoricière during which the Arab women cheered on the warriors,
and Abd-el-Kader and his men fighting in the presence of their wives and
children performed new prodigies of valor, he succeeded in safely
establishing the noncombatants on the territory of Morocco.

Bugeaud, now become a marshal, wrote to his Government declaring that
all serious warfare was finished. In the summer of 1844, the violation
of Abderrahman's territory by French troops under Lamoricière and Bedeau
led to some warfare, in which the Moroccan troops were twice defeated.
The people of the country were strongly in favor of Abd-el-Kader; and
when their Sultan, after a French bombardment of Tangiers and Mogador,
made a treaty with France by which the Algerian hero was "placed beyond
the pale of the law throughout the Empire of Morocco, as well as in
Algeria," and was to be "pursued by main force by the Moroccans on their
own territory," the Moorish population was filled with resentment.
Letters reached Abd-el-Kader from Fez, the capital, dictated and signed
by the first grandees in the State, both civil and military, and from
the commercial classes, inviting him to ascend the throne of his
ancestors. Had he been a mere adventurer or usurper he might have lived
henceforth, and died, Emperor of Morocco, But his whole soul was
patriotically bent on one object, the freedom and independence of
Algeria. He disdained to wear a borrowed crown. As he afterward
declared, "His religion forbade him to injure a sovereign chosen and
appointed by God."

During the year 1844 the Sultan had made a rapid incursion into the
Tell, everywhere appealing to the tribes; but he found the national
spirit overawed by the presence of French detachments in all directions,
and he returned to his deira in despondent spirit. He now received
appeals from some of his devoted caliphs to undertake a fresh campaign,
especially from the loyal and chivalrous Ben Salem, who dwelt in the
gorges of the Djur jura Mountains. To him Abd-el-Kader replied,
promising to come "as soon as affairs in the west were settled."

Months passed away and the Arab tribes who had submitted began to feel
the pressure of French domination and to resent the supercilious conduct
of French officials. In the spring of 1845 their former Sultan
reappeared. He swept down into the valley of the Tafna and routed and
cut to pieces a French detachment. In this action the lower part of his
right ear was carried away by a musket-ball, the only wound which he
ever received. Another detachment of six hundred men laid down their
arms without firing a shot. Some stir was made among the Arabs by these
successes, and the French commanders took alarm. Lamoricière, Cavaignac,
and Bedeau wrote pressing letters for reinforcements, and urged the
return of Bugeaud. The most formidable foe of Abd-el-Kader reached the
scene of action in October, 1845, bringing fresh forces, and in a week
he took the field at the head of a hundred twenty thousand men. This
fact is the highest eulogy that can be accorded to the military prowess
of a man who so long defied the power of France.

The end of the great career was rapidly coming. After another vain
appeal to the Moorish ruler even Abd-el-Kader felt that all was lost. A
French writer in the _Biographie générale_ truly declares:

"The greatness of the man was strikingly displayed in the very hour of
his downfall. Destitute of resources, surrounded by foes, at open enmity
with the Emperor of Morocco, wandering like a hunted lion, with hardly
any comrade but his horse, no shelter except his tent, Abd-el-Kader
still inspired a terror which forced his enemies to keep a great army on
foot in Algeria for protection against possible attacks at his hand."

In his deira, at this time, all was despondency and grief. His own
brothers had abandoned him. Ben Salem, the faithful, long-tried, devoted
friend and follower, was a voluntary prisoner in the French camp.
Abd-el-Kader's whole force was fewer than two thousand men, but among
these were twelve hundred horsemen, the flower of the Algerian cavalry.
Most of them had been his inseparable comrades, partakers in all his
hardships and dangers, throughout his career. During a short period of
rest he summoned them daily around him and aroused new enthusiasm among
the bronzed veterans by his eloquent words.

On December 9, 1847, the deira was stationed on Moorish territory, at
Agueddin, on the left bank of the Melouia. It comprised in all about
five thousand souls. The next day news arrived that a great Moorish host
under the Sultan's two sons was only three hours' march away. On January
11th, Abd-el-Kader gathered his armed force, marched at dead of night
and fell furiously on the first division of the Moors and Arabs. The
slumbering foe awoke to see the thick darkness illumined by flashes of
light from muskets. Seized with panic, the men rushed away in all
directions, abandoning arms, tents, and baggage. In the mean time
Abd-el-Kader and his men swept onward and attacked the second division,
which was also defeated and dispersed. In half an hour the third
division was reached. This force had time to prepare for defence, and
the assailants withdrew before a steady fire of infantry and artillery
to an adjacent hill. At midday five thousand Moorish cavalry moved out
against Abd-el-Kader's little army. At charging distance he led on his
men, swept through the foe, and by a skilful combination of assault and
retreat regained his deira by the river Melouia, before sunset. The
deira had nearly effected its passage across the river, with the baggage
and the spoils taken from the enemy, when the Moorish army was seen
cautiously advancing.

The situation was full of peril. The deira had never been so exposed.
The ammunition was expended and the infantry was thus counted out of the
fight. Abd-el-Kader could only depend on his "Old Guard"--his matchless
cavalry. At length the Melouia was passed, and, although the foe was
pressing on, he would not leave its bank until the noncombatants had
gained a full hour in advance. Then the deira crossed another stream and
reached a place of safety, for the time, on French territory. Not a life
had been lost nor a beast of burden of all that crowd of men, women,
children, and animals. Coolness, intrepidity, and skill had been their
protectors. Of the fighting men, however, more than two hundred had been
slain, and nearly all the rest were suffering from wounds.

Abd-el-Kader now turned toward the hills inhabited by a tribe which
still, in part, adhered to him. His horsemen followed him in anxious
silence, suffering and exhausted. The rain fell in torrents. Their chief
was tormented by conflicting thoughts. A French camp was visible in the
distance, three hours' march away, occupying a pass. He and his cavalry
might yet escape by narrow defiles into the Sahara. But what of his aged
mother, his wife and children, his helpless followers in the deira? All
would become captives to the foe. He called his men around him and
reminded them of the oath which, eight years before on the renewal of
the war, they had taken at Medea that they would never forsake him in
any danger or suffering. All declared themselves ready still to adhere
to it. He set before them the peril of the people in the deira and
suggested submission. All the warriors cried: "Perish women and children
so long as you are safe and able to renew the battles of God. You are
our head, our Sultan; fight or surrender, as you will, we will follow
you wherever you choose to lead." After a few moments' pause
Abd-el-Kader declared that the struggle was over. The tribes were tired
of the war and there was nothing left but submission. He would ask the
French for a safe-conduct for himself and his family, and for all who
chose to follow him, to another Mussulman country. The universal answer
was, "Sultan, let your will be done!"

The incessant rain rendered it impossible to write down any terms.
Abd-el-Kader therefore affixed his seal to a piece of paper, and
despatched it in charge of two horsemen to the French general as a sign
of authorization on his part for demands to be verbally made. It was
Lamoricière who received the two emissaries; and he sent a verbal reply,
acceding to all proposals. Abd-el-Kader then sent a letter, and received
in reply a written promise and stipulation that the Sultan and his
family should be conducted to St. Jean d'Acre or Alexandria. The new
Governor-General, the Duc d'Aumale, was close at hand, and on the