Between the Desert and the Sea by Isabelle Lilias Trotter

Isabella Lilias Trotter [1853-1928] was a noted watercolour artist, who having attended several of the Keswick Conventions, became a missionary in North Africa. She was one of the founder members of the Algier Mission Band, which, as the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions notes, “…became part of the North Africa Mission, which continues to the present day, now as Arab World Ministries.” [p.680]

This present volume contains 16 stunning pages of watercolours, which I have scanned in full-colour. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of the book for digitisation. This title is in the public domain

I. Lilias Trotter, Between the Desert and the Sea (with 16 paintings). London & Edinburgh: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd., n.d. Hbk. pp.63. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

• Foreword

1. The Remains of the Pirate City
2. Behind Blida
3. Away West
4. A Stronghold of Marabouts
5. South by East
6. A Town of Harlequins
7. The Land of Palm Branches
8. Moslem Mystics
9. The Land of the Buried River
10. Retrieval

Foreword

It is stirring after an age-long sleep, this land framed in between the gold of the desert and the azure of the sea. Fifty years back it was hardly known except to the French officials and colonists who were bravely reducing it to order. Fifty years back again, and it was a Corsair State, living in medieval conditions.

Suddenly, since the war days closed, the surrounding lands have also awakened to the fact that it may have a future as well as a past. Tourists have realized that it is only twenty-eight hours from Marseilles, and the nearest viewpoint for an Eastern setting. Explorers have discovered that it is a rare starting-point for the penetration of the Sahara and its secrets. And the Church of Christ has begun to see that it is not an agglomeration of backward Moslem races, but a strategic centre.

So we ask you to come and look at it. The colour pages and the letterpress are with one and the same intent-to make you see. Many things begin with seeing in this world of ours. [Continue reading]