I have endeavoured to describe in as few words as possible the dominion of Tunis. The main object of this book is to furnish the last chapters in its annals, and to tell more particularly the story of its conquest. The unrivalled associations which surround this lately obscure province would naturally tempt one to be discursive at the onset. The chronicles of Carthage, the rise and fall of Roman power on its ruins, the invasions of the Greeks and Vandals, the legends of the African Churches, the Moslem conquest of Tunis from Arabia and of Spain from Tunis, the Crusade of St. Louis, the expedition of Charles V., and yet untold _gesta_ of the Knights of St. John on this part of the African littoral, are one and all a legitimate portion of Tunisian history. My concern is alone with Moslem Tunis. Down to the year 1830 its story has been ably written from a French point of view.[9] Since that time I am not aware that anything like a continuous narrative of events has been attempted. I shall therefore endeavour to take up the thread of M. Rousseau’s story by way of introduction to the more immediate subject of this book. Some knowledge of the previous political history of the Regency is essential to the just appreciation of the events of 1881. Before that time I shall content myself with the briefest résumé, except when I am able to place before the reader certain information which I have gathered from a careful examination of the ancient archives of Her Majesty’s Consulate General at Tunis, and which I trust will be both novel and interesting. CHAPTER II. THE DWELLERS IN TUNISIA. The wave of conquest has five times at least swept over Tunis, but, with the exception of the Arabs, none of the conquering races have left any visible imprint on the present population of the country. The levelling influences of Islamism has well-nigh obliterated all differences of origin, and the natives of Tunis are very often described generically as Arabs. Of Arabs _pur sang_, strange to say, there are none, and the name can only with any show of correctness be applied to the nomadic tribes of the interior, which have all mixed more or less with the indigenous Berbers. The term Bedouin is also frequently indiscriminately used when speaking of the tribesmen of Northern Africa. This, too, is an error. The term Bedouin in its strict sense is applicable exclusively to the dwellers on the borders of the Great Desert. The following classification of the inhabitants of Tunis may be conveniently adopted, viz.:—(1) Moors, (2) Arabs, (3) Berbers or Kabyles, (4) Turks, (5) Koulouglis, (6) Jews. The remaining race distinctions, always excepting the large European colony, have no practical importance.