times. The hostility of the Sultan of Morocco was latent. At Touat,
where the assassination of Flatters and of Frescaly had already been
concocted, connivance was being given to the plots of our enemies.
Touat was the center of conspiracies, of razzias, of defections, and
at the same time, the depot of supply for the insatiable nomads. The
Governors of Algeria, Tirman, Cambon, Laferriere, demanded its
occupation. The Ministers of War tacitly agreed.... But there was
Parliament, which did nothing at all, because of England, because of
Germany, and above all because of a certain _Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen_, which prescribed that insurrection is the
most sacred of duties, even when the insurgents are savages who cut
your head off. In short, the military authority could only, at its own
discretion, increase the southern garrisons, and establish new posts;
this one, Berresof, Hassi-el-Mia, Fort MacMahon, Fort Lallemand, Fort
Miribel.... But as Castries puts it, you don't hold the nomads with
bordjs, you hold them by the belt. The middle was the oasis of Touat.
Their honors, the lawyers of Paris, had to be convinced of the
necessity of taking possession of the oasis of Touat. The best way
would be to present them with a faithful picture of the plots that
were being woven there against us.

The principal authors were, and still are, the Senoussis, whose able
chief has been forced by our arms to transfer the seat of his
confederation several thousand leagues from there, to Schimmedrou, in
the Tibesti. They had, I say _they_ through modesty, the idea of
ascertaining the traces left by these agitators on their favorite
places of concourse; Rhât, Temassinin, the plain of Adejamor, and
In-Salah. It was, you see, at least after leaving Temassinin,
practically the same itinerary as that followed in 1864 by General
Rohlfs.