No. 36.
Mr. Heap to Mr. Hunter.
Tunis, December 31, 1874. (Received February 3, 1875.)
Sir: Recent sensational dispatches in the German and French papers have caused anxiety in some quarters as to the status of this regency. They seemed so devoid of truth or probability that I did not deem it necessary to mention them to the Department, but they have been the occasion of an active correspondence between the English, French, and Italian governments and their agents here. These dispatches were to the effect that a secret convention had been signed between the Ottoman government and General Kéredine, the Bey’s prime minister, by which the government of this country was to be vested in him and his descendants, with the title of Pasha, and that the Bey and his family and his late prime minister, the Kasnadar, were to be removed from the country and a sufficient provision made for their maintenance. When this report appeared in the Constitutional, the Duke Decazes sent a telegram to the Baron de Billing, the French chargé d’affaires here, asking him if he had any knowledge of this convention. Mr. de Billing intimated that there was an understanding of the nature stated in the papers between the Porte and General Kéredine, and that he had taken every precaution against a threatened insurrectionary movement on the part” of the native population. This extraordinary reply naturally excited much surprise in Paris, and the Duke Decazes telegraphed to Mr. de Billing [Page 69] that he could not conjecture the nature of his precautions, since he had not communicated on the subject with the foreign office, nor with the commander of the French fleet in the Mediterranean, nor the governor-general of Algeria to place troops on the frontiers. The dispatch closed by directing Mr. de Billing to leave at once for Paris, without waiting for the arrival of his successor, Mr. Roustan, late consul-general at Beirut. Mr. de Billing left accordingly on the 22d instant, and Mr. Roustan arrived on the 26th in a man-of-war from Algiers. It is supposed that this alarming report was concocted here by the enemies of General Kéredine, to prejudice the Bey against him and get the late minister restored to power. The latter has been in close confinement in his house since his removal from office, fourteen months ago. It is my belief that it has no foundation in truth.
As stated in a previous dispatch, (No. 176,*) an expedition sent to the south last summer to punish some insubordinate tribes on the borders of the desert was entirely successful, and, with the exception of the mountaineers on the borders of Algeria, near the coast, all the tribes of the regency have quietly returned to their allegiance. General Kéredine has quietly, though slowly, pursued a system of internal improvement which, if continued, will bring this country up from the wretched condition to which it had been reduced by the preceding administration. He has established schools in the interior, and a lyceum in the capital. The prison-system, which was horrible before, is now established on humanitarian principles which will compare favorably with the best in Europe. I have been asked by the minister to inspect the new prison here, and shall make a special report when I do so. A charter has been granted for a railroad to Begia and the lead-mines in that neighborhood, which will open to trade the richest agricultural region of North Africa.
Our own relations with this government continue on a very satisfactory footing, and my intercourse with the Bey and the members of his government is of the most friendly character.
I learn that the French government still cherishes the idea of creating an inland sea to the south of Algeria and this regency, and a large expedition, under competent officers, is about to commence a careful survey of the region it is proposed to submerge. The notes and maps I had the honor to transmit in my dispatch (No. 188†) of the 14th of November last give some idea of the nature of this work. There is no doubt that there is a considerable depression in the desert south of Biskra and the Aures range, but this depression will, probably, be found to decrease eastward toward the Mediterranean, and cease altogether at a considerable distance from the sea. An important objection to this work is the destruction and ruin it would bring upon all the towns and villages situated around the schotts and sebkhas. The only springs of potable water are found where the depression is greatest, and the population is grouped around them. There are some important towns—Nefta, Tozer, &c.—and numerous douars, or villages, which will be entirely submerged, should the waters of the Mediterranean be let in. The principal wealth of this region consists of dates and sheep; the former will be drowned and the pasturage for the latter will be destroyed. On the higher lands, to which the inhabitants will be driven, there are no springs or vegetation. This government is utterly opposed to the project on political grounds.
The weather has been unusually severe there this winter, and I am informed that the Aures Mountains to some distance down their southern [Page 70] slopes are covered with snow to the depth of several feet. A traveler who has recently arrived here from the region of the Sahara, south of these mountains, told me that he was detained eighteen days by the snow. This does not quite agree with the popular notion of the Great Desert.
I am, &c.,
- See Foreign Relations for 1874, p. 53.↩
- Ante.↩