Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/207

 TUNIS. leo ranean. Thus tho town of the Tunisian isthmus was almost impre^able on two of its sides, while it also commanded the valley which connected th^ valleys of tho Mojerda and the Wed Melian. Moreover " the Little Sea," although not very deep, was sufficiently so to receive vessels of light draught. Sheltered from rough weather, they could safely discharge their cargoes on the beach of Tunis. At the same time, certain conditions which were at one time favourable have, during the course of centuries, become the reverse. The low-lying lagoon of the Bahrra, into which our modern veesels of heavy tonnage cannot penetrate, has changed into a vast open drain flooded with foul stagnant water. Thus Tunis now enjoys but a small share of the advantages usually associated with a maritime situation ; it has become an inland town, endeavouring, by an artificial port, to regain the privileges with which nature had formerly endowed it. Probably of an origin anterior to Carthage, Tunis, or Tunes, had its periods of great prosperity. When mention is made of it for the first time, it had already been eclipsed by its powerful neighbour, Carthage ; but, after the destruction of its rival, Tunis became for a short time the most populous city of that region. Carthage, however, was soon rebuilt by the Romans, and again took its place as mistress of the country. At the end of the seventh century of the vulgar era, Carthage, again overthrown, ceased to exist, and since that period Tunis, one of the centres of the Mussulman power, has remained the capital, in spite of constant civil dissensions and foreign wars. Throughout a period of twelve centuries it once alone fell into the hands of the Christians. In 1270 Louis IX. succeeded only in gaining possession of the " castle " of Carthage, dying on his bed of ashes before Abu Mohammed, King of Tunis, was forced to sue for peace. But in 1535 Charles V., assisted by twenty thousand slaves, who had revolted against Kheir-ed-Din, entered Tunis, which he gave to a vassal prince, at the same time erecting the fort of Goletta, so as to command the communications between the capital and the sea. But before the year had drawn to a close it was retaken by Kheir-ed-Din, and from that time it remained under the government of beys, vassals of the Turk, till 1881, when the official suzerainty ceased to belong to the Sublime Porte, and passed into the hands of the French. Before the Turkish rule, Tunis, "the white, the odorous, the flowery, the bride of the west," was looked upon by the Mussulman world as a city without equal. It was the " rendezvous of travellers from the east and the west, and it contained all the advantages that man could desire. Whatsoever the whim of man might fancy could be obtained in Tunis. Its power and glory placed it as a sovereign above its rivals, the capitals of the east and west." Tunis might well have said, " I am the ladder of the temple, by which the faithful mount up to heaven." At the present day Tunis is still considered by all the North African Mussulmans, except those of Egypt and Marocco, the city of good taste, literature, and fashion — in short, a kind of African Paris. Covering a superficial area of over one square mile, and yearly increasing in size, Tunis slopes eastwards on the gentle incline of the hills commanding the western bank of the Bahira. It extends about a mile and a half from north to 48— AF