CONQUEST OF ALGERIA - Théodore JUILLET-SAINT-LAGER (Guadelou - Lot 236

CONQUEST OF ALGERIA - Théodore JUILLET-SAINT-LAGER (Guadeloupe 1809 - Bab-el-Oued 1878), an astonishing character in the novels of Charles Fourier, whose website provides a fascinating biography: after a spell in the army, he took part in attempts to set up Utopian farming groups in Algeria in the 1840s, became president of a Phalansterian club in Algiers, founded a solidarity bank and went into business in Algeria, then became interested in colonizing Texas, became a mercenary in Chile, returned to France and was hired as cashier for the Suez Canal by Lesseps, resigning to avoid condoning embezzlement, returned to Algiers, where he set up a bookshop and printing house, and wrote pamphlets on Algeria and colonization; moved to Paris when France was invaded by the Prussians in 1870, and became a lieutenant-colonel in the Garde Nationale, assistant to Schoelcher, returned to Algiers to resume his publishing activities; in 1874, he became an anticlerical candidate in Martinique) / Important autograph manuscript signed, entitled "Ali-Bey", 26 p (mostly in-8) paginated plus some twenty pages (in-8) of drafts, repeats and notes of the same text; the manuscript itself is written on a few reused papers, including the end of a draft letter signed by Juillet-Saint-Lage, dated May 1874, and a dispatch from Agence Havas, also dated May 1874 - an autograph letter signed by a French lawyer in Algiers (signature not deciphered), preserved with the manuscript, dated April 4, 1874, addressed to Juillet-Saint-Lager, sheds light on this manuscript, which we understand to be the text of a brochure written and published by Juillet on Ali-Bey, intended to rehabilitate the lawyer's client Ali-Bey in the eyes of the colonial authorities (who told him "your work is perfect", but "the client would like you to soften the brushstrokes"), the lawyer therefore modified certain passages that would pose a dilemma for the Superior Administration, and deleted a passage that frightened Ali-Bey, "I am his desire, not mine", he asked for the cost of publication) - We also understand why this manuscript was so reworked - The text starts from the recent arrest in March 1874 of Bou-Choucha, a bloodthirsty character who, with a band of brigands, attacked Ouargla, whose agha was Ali-Bey, in 1871, seized this town to make it his military base, then continued his work of pillage as far as Touggourt, where he committed the worst massacres, remaining master of the whole area until his capture by Saïd-ben-Dris, Ali-Bey's brother, who handed him over to the French authorities(n.b.But now that the raids and other atrocities are over, the colonial authorities are settling scores, notably with Ali-Bey, who is accused of having delivered Ouargla to Bou-Choucha out of greed: he received considerable compensation from France to preserve this oasis land for horsemen who did not exist, he was accused of having fled Touggourt without organizing his defense) - Juillet-Saint-Lager, known in Algiers as a specialist in indigenous and colonial affairs, was commissioned to write this memoir to rehabilitate Ali-Bey: At length, he "drowns the fish" by developing the customary law of the native chiefs, with their hereditary and dynastic laws, and their ancestral internecine wars - This document is all the more precious for the history of the Algerian Conquest, as it was written "on the spot", right at the heart of the events.