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ET. 57.]

PARIS-LETTER TO MR. ROGERS.

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be entitled to in November; and the draft which I shall send you on George Webster* in November, will be as sure of acceptance as a bank-note.

66

By November I must be in Algiers, where I have a vague sort of fear of not receiving cash so far from London. AgainI mean to write a book about the colony; and it will be a great thing if I can afford the assistance of a good artist, of whom, I am told, there are some in the French army.

"When I explain to you the sole reason for wishing my resolution of proceeding to Algiers-provided the means reach me -not to be known yet for a little time, I am sure your kind heart will enter into my feelings. Though I have not had the means of joining my fate with a certain inestimable person whom you have seen, and whom, perhaps, I need not name, yet our friendship is unabated, and her anxiety about my health and welfare is as watchful as ever. In good time I shall communicate to her my intention; but, if I did so suddenly, and at present, her imagination would conjure up all manner of deaths and dangers as awaiting me-fevers-Arabs of the desert! &c. Now-though I know there is a sort of fever in the colony-I am one of the fearless creatures that never catch contagionand, altogether, I would wish that my African scheme were not mentioned."

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"At the distribution of prizes among the élèves at the sourdsmuets, a French lady sent in my name to the president, and we were transferred from a bad station near the door to the dais, and seated fast by the President's chair. One of the ex-élèves, a remarkably sprightly young man, came up to me, making signs of great cordiality, and wrote a very complimentary note on the crown of his hat-saying, that he knew English well, and proved to me that he had read my poems by a quotation. He sat near me, and we conversed on paper. He mentioned, also, your works with evident acquaintance and admiration. was going to say he spoke-for there was almost speech in his gesticulations. The exhibition of the poor young creatures was touchingly interesting: but the effect was a little spoilt by a pedantic schoolmaster, who was their show-man. I saw, at an exchange of looks, that my friend the ex-élève had the same

I

* George Webster, Esq., W. S., Old Palace Yard, "legal agent for the Scotch property held in life-rent by Campbell," and now inherited by

his son.

VOL. II.-14

opinion of him with myself. I wrote to him-' Your orator makes me begin to doubt if speech be such a blessing; for this half hour I have been wishing myself deaf, and him dumb!' My dumb friend rubbed his hands with a look of delight, and immediately turned round to another ex-élève, telling him my joke on his fingers. He again told it to his neighbor; and, in a few minutes, it was telegraphed through the whole benches of the ex-élèves. T. C."

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Aug. 30th.*--I wrote to you, I think, a fortnight ago, but I have other reasons, besides that of not having heard from you, for concluding that you have not received my letter-at least in due time. I am going to Algiers. . . being therefore anxious to fortify my purse against the African expedition, I proposed to borrow 251. of your kindness. . . . . This, however, will not now be necessary; for I shall have no need of any new supply before December; and by that time, so easy is the transaction of money matters with Algiers, that the money due to me in November, in England, can be forwarded to me at Algiers, as easily as if I were at Paris. Had I known this I never should have troubled you.†

"Monsieur Laurence, the government Inspector of Algiers, has offered to take me with him in his carriage to Toulon; but as he cannot accommodate my baggage, I shall prefer travelling singly. I am anxious to get to Toulon, where we shall embark, so that I shall leave Paris on Tuesday, the 2d of September. I shall be delighted to hear from you; and I am anxious to know the fate of my letter. If you have forwarded any draft to me, it will be sent back, or, at all events, not changed; for I see my way clearly as to money matters, though I should be a twelvemonth abroad. Excuse your troublesome but affectionate friend. T. C."

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* London post-mark, September 2d. Address-" Samuel Rogers, Esq., St. James's Place," &c.

The previous letter of the 15th, owing to some unaccountable delay, did not reach London until eight days after date-Paris post-mark, August 21; that of London, August 23-hence the anxiety felt by Campbell as to its reception. During this suspense he had recourse to a fresh calculation, and thus all difficulties were removed.

ET. 57.]

AFRICA-ALGIERS-ORAN.

315

CHAPTER XII.

AFRICA-ALGIERS-ORAN.

CAMPBELL'S sudden determination to visit Africa took his friends by surprise. On first starting for the Continent, his tour was not intended to exceed the limits of Italy; but once in Paris, where much of the conversation turned upon the new "empire of Algeria," his curiosity was excited, and, with that ardent thirst for information and novelty, which formed a leading feature in his character, he fixed his thoughts on the Regency. "One day," he writes, "that I was in the King's Library, exploring books on ancient geography, I cast my eyes on a point of the map-the ancient Roman city of Icosiumthat corresponded with the site of Algiers. Its eventful history rushed on my thoughts, and seemed to rebuke me for dwelling on the dead more than the living. Is not the question of how widely this conquest of Algiers may throw open the gates of African civilization, more interesting than any musty debate among classic topographers? To confine our studies to mere antiquities, is like reading by candle-light after the sun has risen. So I closed the volume I was perusing, and with all my soul wished myself at Algiers! Ah, but the distance—the heat that must be endured-the pestilence that may be encountered!-do not these considerations make the thing impossible! No-the distance is not so great-the risk of contagion has been braved by thousands-I will see this curious place! Yes, the prospect of seeing a new quarter of the globe, of descrying, even afar off, Mount Atlas, with his head in the clouds and his feet in the sands of the desert, made my thoughts I may almost say delicious; and I blessed my fate that I had not in youth exhausted the enjoyment of travelling."

Animated by this delightful vision, Campbell left Paris on the 2d of September, embarked at Toulon on the 11th, and,

* Extract from a letter addressed to Miss W. M.

crossing the mare sævum et importuosum, landed at Algiers on the 18th. But as the incidents of the voyage-with his residence in Algiers, and excursions among the Arab tribes-have already appeared in his "Letters from the South," I shall restrict myself, in what follows, to extracts from various letters, and other documents, still new to the public. Of these, the first is a letter to Mr. Richardson :

ALGIERS, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1834. "YOUR letter, my dear and good old friend, bearing date the 28th of August, is the first from Europe which I have opened in this foreign land. . . . After I had made up my mind at Paris to this expedition, I met with M. Laurence, a distinguished Deputy of the French Chamber, who was nominated Inspector of the Colony. He offered to take me in his own carriage to Toulon; but, as he could not accommodate my baggage, I preferred going by Diligence. We set out the same day.... On reaching Marseilles, I found that he had passed through it, and was assured that he had sailed from Toulon on board the steamer. This was a false report; but I believed it; and, in despair, took my passage for Algiers on board a wretched merchant vessel. In six days we crossed the Mediterranean, a fairly short passage; but oh, such days of sickness, where there was no choice but between a burning deck and a filthy cabin, eight feet square, in which twelve live passengers were potted!

"I was all but a dead passenger when I got ashore, and staggered, with the help of a friendly fellow, a barber, to the best hotel-and bad is the best! They laid me up in a stoneroom, where I could not get a drink of water. . . . I had no servant. M. Laurence had advised me to hire one at Marseilles, and so I had; but my squire, though I got a passable character with him, turned out a vagabond. When he went to the Police, he gave himself out one day for Piedmontese-another, he was born at Naples-another, at Genoa. In short, he made out as many birth-places as tradition ascribes to Homer; but the rivalship among the cities was rather to disown than claim the honor of his nativity, for not one of the Consuls would give him a passport; and I was obliged to go forth, a knight-errant without a squire. My little barber, however, who is the exact

*

"With a shaver from France I came o'er,

To an African inn I ascend;

I am cast on a barbarous shore,

Where a barber alone is my friend."

Epistle from Algiers to Horace Smith.

ET. 57.]

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LETTER FROM ALGIERS-CHARACTERS.

was very attentive to me.

317

He came to the

hotel, and kindly explained the meaning of my English in more significant French than I could translate.

I then told my

friend to go and take private lodgings for me. He came, after having done so; but warned me that they would cost thirty francs! I supposed, of course, by the week. Humph, I said, that is as dear as London! but let me get into them. When we reached the house it was wretched enough. What!' I said, 'thirty francs a-week for such rooms?' Oh, no!' quoth the barber; by the month. Well, I grudged throwing away thirty francs, so I have put up with the rooms between two and three weeks.

"The people are all civility; but it will not do to be thus meanly housed; so I have bespoken apartments in one of the finest houses of the town. The landlord is a retail merchant-a broker; but, without exception, one of the most gentlemanlike and best informed men I ever knew. He is an old officer of Napoleon's staff--a noble-looking fellow-a great amateur of music, painting and natural history, and colonel of the National Guards. The first time I called on him was to see his cabinet of Moorish antiquities, when he very civilly pressed on my acceptance a silver Roman coin, that was dug up during the siege. I had not at that time any idea that he let a part of his house; and when I came next day to ask the price of the chambers-It is only,' he said, 'for fear of hurting your feelings that I don't offer them to you for nothing.' He then named a price notoriously below the value of the rooms. 'Monsieur Descousse,' I said, 'they are worth twice that rent. I am rather a rich man than otherwise, and let me pay for them what is fair and just.' But he would take not a sou more.

"The British Consul, Mr. St. John, offered me apartments in his town-house; but, as it is necessary for me to maintain the character of an independent English gentleman among the French officers here-on whose information I depend-I declined his friendly offer. Mr. St. John is a known Tory; I have brought with me the character of a staunch Whig; and it is a curious fact (I assure you I am not romancing) that, in a French

In a note to the poem it is added:-"On board the vessel I met with a fellow-passenger, whom I supposed to be a physician from his dress and manners, and the attention he paid me. He turned out to be a peruquier; but his vocation did not lower him in my estimation-for he continued his attentions till he passed my baggage through the Customs, and helped me, when half dead with exhaustion, to the best hotel."

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