as at the _werry_ beginnin',
just arter Adam and Eve like; 'zactly so--fire away!"

"Well, I'm not quite sure," replied Lucien, with a laugh, "that they
came here immediately after the time of Adam, but at all events they
came before the time of an authentic history, for our earliest
historians record the fact that before any other nation invaded the
northern shores of Africa, the country was in possession of a very
warlike race, who, although overcome and driven from the plains by the
more civilised and better-armed nations that successively attacked them,
remained in the fastnesses of the Atlas Mountains absolutely
unconquerable, and the descendants of these original inhabitants, known
as Kabyles, remain a free and independent people at the present day,
having successfully defied the might of Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and
others, since the beginning of time." (See Note 1.)

"You don't say so, sir," remarked Flaggan, blowing a thin cloud of
admiration into the air; "well, an' how did things git along arter the
abridginal inhabitants was fust druv back into the mountains?"

"They did not get along quite so quietly as might have been desired,"
said Lucien.

"The early history of the northern shores of Africa, now known as
Algeria," he continued, "is involved in the mists of antiquity."

"Arrah! now, don't misremimber," said Ted, with a quiet grin, "that I
ain't bin edicated quite up to _that_."

"Well, the beginning of it all," said Lucien, returning the grin with a
smile, "is rather foggy."

"Ah! that's plain enough. Heave ahead, an' whativer ye do, steer clear
o' jaw-breakers," murmured the seaman.

"The region," said Lucien, "was first known as Numidia and Mauritania;
Numidia being so named by the Greeks, who styled its wandering tribes
_Nomads_. They were pastoral in their habits and thievish in their
propensities, without laws or government worthy of the name. The Mauri,
or Moors, devoted themselves to more settled pursuits, became traders
and inhabitants of towns, and were a mixed race, although originally
springing from the same stock as the _Nomads_, or Arabs. These were the
early inhabitants, who lived during the foggy period.

"The Medes, Armenians, and Persians afterwards founded a colony, and
traded with the natives of the interior. Then the Phoenicians landed,
and began to build towns, of which Carthage, founded B.C. 853, was the
chief. The Punic wars followed; Carthage, the city of Dido, fell