Late on the evening of the 26th November I left Goletta in the steamer “Valette” belonging to the Compagnie Transatlantique, on a pilgrimage to the seat of war in the south. The hurry and bustle on board were naturally very great, as the “Valette” was chartered at the eleventh hour to carry provisions to Gabes, but Captain Cambernon, a good- humoured Breton, and as he often laughingly observed, “half an Englishman,” exerted himself under difficulties to do the honours of his ship, and maintain the proverbial good name of his employers for attending to the comforts of their passengers. We did not get under way till dusk, but shortly after daybreak the next morning the “Valette” anchored in the calm blue water off Susa, where the confusion and activity had, if possible, increased since I quitted it three weeks before. We were now joined by several other travellers, amongst whom were Dr. Samuel Pozzi and his charming wife, M. De la Mothe (the Tunisian special correspondent of the _Temps_), and several military and medical officers, on their way either to meet the column of General Logerot or to do garrison duty at Sfax or Jerba. The weather was delightful, the table unexceptionable, and everybody in the best of humours. I have had few better opportunities of becoming acquainted with almost every shade of French thought about Tunis than during the five days I spent on board the hospitable “Valette.” Dr. Pozzi had come to North Africa to probe the great sanitary question in the interests of the Red Cross Society, and could now talk perpetual ambulance with the army surgeons to his heart’s content, while M. De la Mothe, an ardent and eloquent Arabophile, fought over and over again the battle of the natives, with any Arabophobe warrior who had the temerity to accept his standing challenge.