3-070-887 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The French Expedition to Tunis: fort on the mainland, opposite Tabarka, 1881. 'The invasion by the French of the territory of the Bey of Tunis, a vassal of the Turkish Empire, is ostensibly justified by the necessity of punishing an unruly frontier tribe, called the Khroumirs, who have committed some acts of violence across the border of Algeria...The Regency of Tunis occupies nearly the centre of the northern shores of Africa to the east of the French Algerine dominion... The island of Tabarka...is to serve as the base of the operations for the attack of the Khroumirs from the north...Three gun-boats, the Hyène, the Chacal, and the Leopard, each carrying two large guns,...were employed in a preliminary demonstration. The commander of the Hyène, Lieutenant Cluze, attempted negotiations with the commandant of the Tunisian garrison, who hoisted the Turkish flag and refused to surrender. On Monday week, the ironclad frigate Surveillante, which had meantime arrived, bombarded the fort of Bordj Djedid, on the mainland, killing about sixty men, and entirely destroying the old building. The garrison left it that night, and a French force of 1500 marines took possession of the island, which had likewise been abandoned by its defenders'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.