r, far
west, and then turned northward into Spain.

Notwithstanding all this, Algeria affords an ample field for study for
the scientist, especially the mountain regions to the south, where
Berber clans and desert tribes may be reached in a manner impossible
yet in Morocco, but the student of oriental life should not visit them
till he has learnt to distinguish true from false among the still
behind-hand Moors.

XXXIII

TUNISIA VIEWED FROM MOROCCO

"The slave toils, but the Lord completes."

_Moorish Proverb._

Fortunately for the French, the lesson learned in Algeria was not
neglected when the time came for their "pacific penetration" of
Tunisia. Their first experience had been as conquerors of anything but
pacific intent, and for a generation they waged war with the Berber
tribes. Everywhere, even on the plains, where conquest was easy, the
native was dispossessed. The land was allotted to Frenchmen or to
natives who took the oath of allegiance to France, and became French
subjects. Those who fought for their fatherland were driven off, the
villages depopulated, and the country laid waste. In the cities the
mosques were desecrated or appropriated to what the native considered
idolatrous worship. They have never been restored to their owners.
Those Algerines only have flourished who entered the French army or
Government service, and affected manners which all but cut them off
from their fellow-countrymen.

In Tunisia the French succeeded, under cover of specious assurances to
the contrary, in overthrowing the Turkish beys, rehabilitating them in
name as their puppets, with hardly more opposition than the British
met with in Burma. The result is a nominally native administration
which takes the blame for failures, and French direction which takes
the credit for successes. All that was best in Algeria has been
repeated, but native rights have been respected, and the cities, with
their mosques and shrines, left undisturbed as far as possible. The
desecration of the sacred mosque of Kairwan as a stable was a notable
exception.

The difference between the administration of Algeria and that of
Tunisia makes itself felt at every step. In the one country it is the
ruling of a conquered people for the good of the conquerors alone, and
in the other it is the ruling of an unconquered people by bolstering
up and improving their own institutions under the pretence of seeking
their welfare. The immense advant