Affairs in Tunis grow worse for the French. Not only
are the tribes " up " everywhere, but the Bey has lost all authority, and the Tunisian troops cannot be trusted, the effect being to throw even fatigue duty on the French soldiers, in a climate which this year almost precludes movement. General Saussier reports from Oran that he can do nothing till October. The affair at Sfax is, however, the most ominous. The French shelled the town from a powerful squadron with such effect as to destroy every house, without producing the least impression on the Arabs, who, as fast as the walls fell down, built up barriers of the bales of esparto grass collected for exportation. The French then landed 3,500 men, but the Arabs, though defeated, charged the cannon twke and killed more than eighty men, and fought their ruined houses one by one. They then retreated, and are still under arms, the French having gained nothing but a heap of ruins. All this means that the Arabs are in earnest, and do not care for the destruction of their country, if only they may harass the French. The latter will need an army of cavalry before they have done, which implies enormous expense.
