On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    28 ALGIERS FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    + They Another If Any Die; Quarter Enter...

    rising stood and in the praye far d distance with , clasped behind hands him . , the The snow whole peaks ceremony of the was Atlas very

    inter hical esting and -, artistic intensely as so I , said in every to the point Jesuit of abb view ewho , reli was gions tellin , philoso 1 me

    p , , , g that all the Catholics and Jews who consulted these spirits were excommunicated by the priests . ( By the byedo they excommunicate

    , those who consult the good and bad spirits in tables ?) Very interesting indeedbut not a little disgusting , to see these poor animals tormented

    , , and to walk on blood-sprinkled ground , and glad enough we were to walk on to Point Pescade and sit on the bold rocks overhanging the

    sea and watch the waves dash into the great dark cave which undermines the cliff on which is situated the ruins of an old Algerine fort ,

    probably the nest of pirates thirty-five years ago . This great black cave into which the water rushes and roarsmay well have been the

    birth-, place of Sycorax , the illustrious mother of Caliban ; Shakespere says she was born here in Africa , and we have not found any spot so likely

    to have been the scene of the great event as this wild spot out in the sea . The beautiful coast makes us think of Miranda and Prospero ,

    for their island -was somewhere between this and Tunis , and probably was of the same geological formation and had the same flowers and

    trees growing on it which we find here . Perhaps imagination , looking through the eyes of geniussees what that genius willsbut

    certainly we seem to find here the scenery , of the Tempest , as if _ShakesjDere , had drawn it from this coast . There is something exquisitely wild ,

    fantastic , and tender in the views by the sea on this side of Algiers : no trees but a solitary palm or two growing here and there up the

    side of the hill , which slopes suddenly from the sea and is crowned at the top by the Arab tombs of the Bouzareah .

    On the eastern side of Algiers , called Mustapha , there are gardens full of lovely fiowers , and trees green all the winter through , such as

    the olive , the orange , the carruba and the lentisk . The houses are more numerous , and the traffic much greater , as it is on this side that

    the roads lead across the plain in various directions to Blidah , to Fonduketo Arba & c . ; mounting the good French roads which zigzag

    up the hill , , or taking , the shorter and steeper Arab paths , we arrive at the top of the Sahel , and have lovely views , less extensive than that

    of the Bouzareah , but more dainty and beautiful , as the undulations of the hills are richer around usand the near landscape makes up

    by its diversity and beauty for what , we lose in extent . Somewhere here must have been the garden of the Hesperides , it was situated

    at the foot of the Little Atlas , and there is no more beautiful s £ > ot in the world than the Valley of the Hydraas it is called , which lies

    below as we gain the top of the hills above , Mustapha . We have some English friends living at Mustapha , and as their

    house and mode of life is such as English people generally find in Algierswe will describe it . We found them in a comfortable and

    large house , , built by the French on the remains of a Moorish house ,

    which was in its time very beautiful , having rows of twisted marble

    28 Algiers First Impressions.

    28 ALGIERS FIRST IMPRESSIONS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1860, page 28, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091860/page/28/