Sahara is well known to the French; but of the country of the Beni M'zab and the districts south of it no account, I believe, has yet been published in any European language, beyond the meagre and often most inaccurate descriptions gathered by General Daumas from native travellers.
Geographical research appears at the present moment to be concentrated on the great continent of Africa; and Livingstone, Barth, Petherick, and Speke have been revealing to us countries but yesterday undreamt of. Still, in less mysterious regions there may be some scraps of interest left for tribes and oases hitherto known only by name, and which must soon fall more directly under European power. The policy of France up to the present time has been to follow the example of her Roman predecessors, to leave these friendly or neutral tribes in the enjoyment of selfgovernment, and to treat the Sahara as a natural frontier. That policy, we learn from the 'Moniteur,' is now about to be reversed. No natural frontier is to be acknowledged in Africa; and we are promised in the coming winter a regularly organized expedition, which is to push through the M'zab, Waregla, Touat, and the Touareg, to Timbuctoo, and so to unite French Algeria with French Senegambia.
How far such an advance is likely to result in anything beyond the destruction of the unhappy Corps d'Afrique engaged in it may be conjectured by the difficulties which beset even in the first portion of the route a small party of travellers enjoying the assistance of the natives. Against the suspicions of the inhabitants of the oases, and the Parthian attacks of the indomitable Touareg, it