CHAPTER XXXIV
ORIENTAL VIEWS IN ALGIERS
The party from the Guardian-Mother continued their walk towards the upper town till they came to a large square, which was laid out with lime and orange trees, and surrounded by the best buildings in the town, which were in European style. Captain Ringgold found a hotel there of considerable size, which he entered, and presently returned with a guide who spoke English and Arabic.
"This is the Place Royale," replied this man in answer to a question.
"You have all sorts of people here," said the commander. "Are there many English here?"
"Very few English and Americans; only once in a while one who comes to look at the city."
"Most of the nations seem to be represented here."
"Arabs, Moors, Jews, French, Spaniards, Germans, Italians, Maltese, and Turks," added the guide. "That street is Bab-el Ouad, and a little farther is Bab-azoun, two of the best streets in the city; and they are very fine."
"They are built like the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, with colonnades on each side; but they are very narrow, like the streets of most Spanish and Oriental cities. Bab means street, I take it," said the captain, as the party stopped to look down the first of the two streets. "When the sun is hot that would be a very comfortable place to walk."
After the party had spent an hour in the Place Royale, with a short walk in the Bab-el Ouad, the guide conducted them up a narrow and irregular street to the upper town, where the scene became vastly more interesting because it was novel and strange.
"I should think we were back in Mogadore," said Mrs. Belgrave, the only Oriental city she or any of the other passengers had ever seen, and every person and object commanded their attention.
The people of this section were nearly all Mohammedans, and the few women they saw were veiled. Most of them were fat and dumpy, for obesity is a chief attraction in an Oriental belle. The Nubians were jet black, but they were as closely veiled as those who were whiter. Many mosques were in sight all the time, and the commander spoke to the guide about them.
"There are one hundred mosques and marabouts in the city," said he.
"What are marabouts?" asked the captain, and all the others were gathered around him to hear what was said; and the natives gazed at them as much in wonder as the tourists at the strange sight before them.
"A marabout is a tomb, or the sanctuary of a saint, and some of them are very elegant edifices."
"What is this in front of us?"
"That is amesjid, which means a second-class mosque, as you Americans would say. The principal ones are calleddjamas, and some of them are very elegant. The tomb of a dey or a very rich pacha is often exceedingly fine."
"The houses here are very queer, Mr. Belgrave," said Miss Blanche; "but they are like those we saw in Mogadore, and not at all like those in the lower town."
"That is a French town, and I saw two or three buildings five and six stories high. They have earthquakes here, and I should rather be in one of these Moorish houses than on the sixth floor of one of those lofty structures," replied Louis, who had read up a little as soon as he returned to the ship. "These dwellings all have flat roofs, Miss Blanche. Do you know why that is so?"
"So that the rain can get into them, I should suppose," replied the beautiful maiden; and not only the French but the Moors had paused to get a second look at her.
"Hardly for that; but as soon as the sun has gone down, in the cool of the evening, the people pass their time on the roof. I read some stories by a French writer who had spent some time in Algeria, and he speaks of passing his evenings on the roof of the house he had hired, a Moorish house in Bougie, on the seashore."
"These houses have no windows, as we understand the word," said Blanche, who was taking in all the strange sight before her. "They are nothing but peek-holes, with iron bars, which make them look like so many prisons."
"These houses would not suit us any better than ours would the people who live in them. These narrow streets keep out much of the glare of the hot sun, and make the place cooler than it would otherwise be. You noticed the same thing in Cadiz and Seville, and it is an Oriental idea."
"It looked very odd to see omnibuses in the Place Royale, just as we see them in Paris."
"The French have introduced a great many improvements here; in fact, they have everything here as they do in France, even to the horse-racing, of which the Arabs are very fond, as well as the Frenchmen."
"Where did you learn so much about Algiers, Mr. Belgrave?" asked Miss Blanche, bestowing a pleasant smile upon him.
"I have not had time to look up much about this town; but the ship's library contains books treating of all the cities in the world," replied Louis, who felt just as though he was floundering about in a sugar-bowl all the time.
"Before we come to another place I want to learn something about it, and I wish you would put me in the way of finding what I shall want."
"I will do so with the greatest pleasure if I happen to be on board of the ship; but I shall probably continue to be a deck-hand on the Maud for the next week," replied Louis; and he thought of the only disadvantage that came to his mind in being in another craft than the Guardian-Mother.
"You must have fine times on board of the Maud, Mr. Belgrave."
"We all have to do duty there as the officers and seamen do on board of the ship."
"I should like to sail some of the time in the little steamer, Mr. Belgrave," said Miss Blanche, looking her chaperon full in the face as if to ascertain the possibility of such a change.
"I don't believe you would be as comfortable there as you are on board of the ship," replied Louis, not a little moved by the suggestion of the young lady.
"I know I couldn't live on her; but I mean to ask Captain Ringgold to let me spend a day on board of her," persisted Blanche.
The young millionaire thought it would be absolutely delightful for him to take his trick at the wheel with Miss Blanche standing on the lee side, with the privilege of looking at her occasionally,—for he never permitted himself to stare at any lady,—and the idea invested the Maud with a new charm.
The sun had become very hot in the middle of the day, and they found the shade of the narrow streets very agreeable as they descended the rough thoroughfare to the lower town. The party were all complaining of the heat, and the commander sent the guide to procure an omnibus for them.
"They found the shade of the narrow streets very agreeable."
"They found the shade of the narrow streets very agreeable."
"They found the shade of the narrow streets very agreeable."
"The professor said the thermometer was only 63° here; but I should say it was 90° now, Mr. Belgrave," said Miss Blanche while they were waiting for the vehicle.
"He spoke of the average temperature for the whole of Algeria, and there are snow and ice on some of the mountains. The professor only meant to say that it was not so hot as it might be," replied Louis, as the omnibus came for them. "To-day the south-west wind brings the hot air of the desert to Algiers."
It was but a short ride to the custom-house, and the party embarked in the Maud. The tourists were glad enough to get on board the Guardian-Mother again, for it was comparatively cool under the awning on deck. The passengers all said they had seen enough of Algiers; for none of them were artists, antiquarians, or archæologists, and it would have been a bore for them to stay there a week, though the student of art or history would have found enough to occupy his time for a much longer period.
A lighter was alongside the ship, filling up her bunkers with coal, and another supplied those of the Maud in the afternoon. At lunch the commander consulted the party in regard to their wishes. Something was said about putting in at Tunis by the professor; but the captain shook his head.
"It is more than thirty miles off our course, and then at the head of a shallow lake nine miles farther," said he.
"But it is within three miles of the ruins of ancient Carthage," interposed the professor.
"Delenda est Carthago," replied the commander, laughing. "I believe that means that Carthage must be destroyed, or, in other words, a war of extermination; and I fear we must make that of Carthage in this instance, for the navigation is difficult. I went there when I was a boy during the war in the Crimea, and I can assure you that Tunis is a dirty hole, though it has some fine mosques, well-supplied bazaars, and the palace of the Bey is magnificent; but it hardly pays to go there. The professor is a fine classical scholar, and he would enjoy it more than any of the others. But if you wish to go there, I will take the ship to Tunis with the greatest pleasure imaginable."
"Don't go there on my account, Captain Ringgold," protested Professor Giroud.
"I will put it to vote, and the majority shall decide," replied the commander, and he proceeded to do so.
No one, not even the professor, voted in favor of the visit, and the question was decided in the negative. In the middle of the afternoon the captain went on shore in the first cutter to attend to the formality of clearing. On his return the order was given to heave up the anchor, and the ship's company of the Maud was sent on board of her. The officers took leave of the party that were to proceed in the ship.
"I want to sail some day in the Maud, Captain Ringgold," interposed Miss Blanche.
"Not now, I hope, for it will soon be night, and there are no accommodations on board of her for you," replied the captain.
"No; I mean some day when the sea is not too rough," added the maiden.
"There will be no difficulty at all about it, Miss Woolridge; and I thought of sending all my passengers on board of the Maud when we get to the Archipelago, for then we shall be in sight of land all the time among the islands. I can easily put you on board of her some morning when it is pleasant, and you say the word."
Louis was satisfied that Miss Blanche would soon be a passenger on board of the Maud for a day, and he went to his duties on board of the little steamer. He had talked with the professor about his studies, and he took his books with him. The pilot was on board the Guardian-Mother, and the Maud was to follow her out of the harbor. The two steamers went to sea that night, and the weather was delightful. The rough sea had subsided, and the commander anticipated a prosperous voyage.
He was not mistaken in his prognostication; for in four days and sixteen hours the steamers were off Cape Matapan, the southern point of Greece. The professor became enthusiastic when the name was announced; Dr. Hawkes and Uncle Moses, both of whom were graduates of colleges and interested in classic lore, were not unmoved.
Off Cape Bon, which is within seventy-five miles of the island of Sicily, and with the exception of Spain at the Strait of Gibraltar, is the shortest distance between Europe and "The Dark Continent." At this Cape Miss Blanche was put on board of the Maud, and remained there till evening, greatly to the beatification of the millionaire deck-hand. Two days later the visit was repeated, this time in company with Mrs. Belgrave; and they were on board of the Maud when she made Cape Matapan.