Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/313

 by the name of Metz. It lies at the issue of the route descending from Great Kabylia over the Shellata Pass. The whole valley is strewn with Roman remains, and here stood the city of Tubusuctus, whose site is still unoccupied by any modern town.

Bougie, the Saldæ of the Romans, is a decayed place, although since the middle of the century it has recovered most of its former population. It was twice a royal capital, first under the Vandals before the capture of Carthage, and again under the Beni-Hammads at the close of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth century, when it is said to have contained no less than twenty thousand houses. Even after ceasing to be a political centre, Bejaïa, so named from one of the

neighbouring hill tribes, continued to enjoy considerable commercial prosperity, thanks to the advantages of its port, one of the most sheltered on the Algerian coast. At this point Mount Lalla Guraïa, over 2,300 feet high, advances seawards in the direction from west to east, the bay thus enclosed being completely protected from the dangerous west, north-west, and north winds. Its relations with Europe became so frequent that, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, Bougie placed itself under the protection of the kings of Aragon, in order to contend successfully against the other seaboard towns. But the period of legitimate trade was followed by one of piracy, during which Bougie became a nest of daring corsairs. Reduced in 1509 by Pedro of Navarre, it was retaken by the Turks in 1555, after which it