A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION
NATIVE WOMAN CARRIER.
Frontispiece.
A SOLDIER
OF THE LEGION
AN ENGLISHMAN'S ADVENTURES UNDER
THE FRENCH FLAG IN ALGERIA
AND TONQUIN
BY GEORGE MANINGTON
Edited by
WILLIAM B. SLATER and ARTHUR J. SARL
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1907
TO THE MEMORY
OF MY COMRADES WHO FELL IN THE FORESTS OF
YEN-THÉ AND THE JUNGLES OF KAI-KINH,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
PREFACE
Sitting at the terrace of a well-known café, on the main boulevardof the French capital, some time ago, I happened to glance down thecolumns of a Parisian newspaper, and was struck by a realistic accountof the recent combat at El-Moungar.
After describing this action,—a long, arduous, but successful defenceof a convoy of arms and ammunition by a handful of men from the ForeignLegion against the repeated attacks of more than a thousand fanaticalMoorish horsemen,—the journalist expressed his admiration for thecourage and disinterested devotion of which this corps has so oftengiven proof.
The final phrase of his article can well[Pg x] serve as an excuse for, andintroduction to, the present volume:—Si quelque philosophe ouvrait unjour une chaire pour enseigner l'heroïsme et le dévouement, son courspourrait se tenir tout entier dans la lecture des citations obtenuespar la Légion Étrangère.
G.M.
HONG-KONG.
EDITORS' NOTE
The restless spirit of adventure which prompted the author, Mr GeorgeManington, to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, at a later datecalled him post haste from London, and thus caused us, his friends, topromise to see the manuscript of "A Soldier of the Legion" through thepress.
Though well under forty years of age, he had been a student in Franceand Germany, a prospective doctor in Paris, a soldier in Algeria andTonquin, a man of commerce in Indo-China, an interpreter, traveller,and journalist in South China, besides a participator in more fleetingoccupations in many lands, including Japan and the Philippines.
It was in the restful periods between these various enterprises thatthis book was written.[Pg xii] Malaria and kindred ailments, contracted duringhis military service in Tonquin, hampered him from time to time, andwhile he was recuperating in England from an attack, "A Soldier of theLegion" made most progress. Presently a journalistic offer came fromHong-Kong, and the prospect it afforded of more adventurous missions inthe remoter regions of the Far East proved irresistible. He acceptedby cable, called upon us to deal with the manuscript, and within a fewdays was mailing further sections of the book from ports "somewhereeast of Suez."
We have dealt as lightly as possible with the manuscript, for it ispermeated with the brave and cheery spirit of the author, and, beyondgiving an eye to the connection of t