The old fortress, which was demolished by the French fleet on the 26th April 1881, was an historical monument of no mean interest. Tabarca was the Tabraca of the Romans, and the little island on which the castle stands is just opposite the mouth of the Rubricatus river, now called the Oued el Berber. In the fourteenth century a galley of the Knights of St. John was wrecked there. The commander, a member of the Lomellino or Lomellini family of Genoa, managed to defend the place against the Arabs, and subsequently erected fortifications on the island. Charles V. granted it as a fief to the Lomellini, with the title of Marquis. This family held it till 1741. In the month of February in that year a monopoly of the Barbary trade was granted by the King of France to the _Compagnie Royale d’Afrique_, which very nearly succeeded in acquiring Tabarca. James Lomellino was anxious to dispose of it, but on Ali Pasha hearing of the proposed transaction, he resolved to himself seize the island rather than it should fall into the hands of the French. His son Heussein Ben Ali occupied Tabarca, and all its Christian inhabitants were brought to Tunis, where their descendants, the Tabarchini, still exist and form a little colony of their own. H. _An Arab’s Account of the French Expedition to Tunis in 1770._ El Háj Hamouda Ben Abdel Aziz, secretary of Ali Pasha, has left a curious account of a former French invasion of the Regency. The following extracts are translated and somewhat abridged from the Arab text:—“The following were the causes of the war which happened in the year of the Flight 1183. Hostilities had commenced between Tunis and the island of Corsica, when France resolved on its conquest. One after another of the Corsican towns fell into the hands of the invaders, and in order to ensure the safety of the provision transports, the French King asked our master to issue patents of protection for twelve ships. His request was granted. Shortly afterwards other Corsican ships were captured on the high seas, and the crews reduced to slavery. When the conquest of Corsica was completed, a high French functionary came to Goletta, and demanded that these captives should be released, and that the inhabitants of Corsica be treated as Frenchmen. Our master said, that as twelve patents were asked for, it was clear that all ships beyond that number had no claim to immunity. On the messenger confessing he had brought no letter from the King, the Pasha said, ‘Go and tell your master if he wants anything of me, let him write and I will send him an answer.’ The envoy went away, and this rupture became one of the causes of the war.