The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893)(about) |
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Saturday 4 July 1846
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CATCHING ABD-EL-KADER.
(From Punch.)
There can't be the slightest question
That the French are a very great nation,
But the special line In which they shine
i Is the spread of civilization.
Wltii pride they may point to Algiers,
And ask you, in Africa where is
Another town
Where a man may sit down. To dine à la carte as at Very'a?
Some millions of men and money
An insignificant price is, -.
For instructing shoals
Of Mahometan souls _ In the practice of Christian vices. ?"" John Bull complains of the razzias,
From Bona to the Sahara;
But they're all a joke, And end in smoke,
As witness the caverns of Dahra. The world says Bugeaud's troopers
Give no quarter at all in battle,
But 'tis false, I declare, They oetes spare
The women, and always the cattle. With these philanthropic feelings,
Can anything be harder,
Than that glorious France, ' In each advance,
Should be thwarted by Abd-el-kadert So with unfeign'd satisfaction,
We heard that the conqueror of Isly,
Brave Marshal Bugeaud, Was determined to go
And take this chieftain so grizly.
He made the most perfect arrangements
For catching him ere he started,
But whenever he got To a suitable spot,
Abd-el-Kader had just departed.
When the Marshal after him trundled,
To secure the rascal trusting,
All at once he-'d appear, And anncy his rear
In a manner the most disgusting.
There was great expectation in Paris,
But to the War Minister's sorrow,
The telegraph's tale
Ran thus, without fail,
" The capture's put off till to-morrow." Then the Marshal sent General Yussuf, With his cavalry to match him ;
They ne'er met with defeat, And always beat;
But somehow, could never catch him. France won victories by dozens
' And each day, as the Marshal strode on,
We were sure to hear
That they'd miss'd the Emir, ' But kill'd tiie horse he rode on. Sit times they've shot Bon-Maza,
And given his Arabs a licking;
But each time he was slain, He got up again
And still is alive and kicking.
And there's one fact grows more puzzling
As one thinks about it the longer;
Abd-el-Kader's horde,
Tho' oft put to the sword,
Keeps still getting stronger and stronger. ~ But stit!» that he will be taken,
i Is certain from one reflection
That 'tis ever so long,
Since the folks at Toulon,
Made " arrangements for his reception." - If the îrarshaXcan't make the capture,
He'd bptler^at once have own'd itf*
And tt) gave delays,
Said, in play-bill phrase,
He'd "indefinitely postponed" it. Of course v»t. wouldn't insinuate
That brave Bugeaud cold throw the hatchet
- But we venture to print Mrs. Glasse's old hint
About dressing a hare-" first catch it."