His troops also confronted a new and difficult style of warfare. “This is a war of Arabs,” Leclerc complained to Bonaparte. “We have barely passed before the blacks occupy the woods surrounding the road and cut off our communication.” His troops suffered at the hands of “rebels” who “hide themselves in the bushes” and in the “impenetrable woods that surround the valleys.” When they were repelled, they retreated to safety in the hills.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 398