PROCEEDINGS OF THE EXPEDITION
TO EXPLORE THE
NORTHERN COAST OF AFRICA,
FROM
TRIPOLY
EASTWARD;
IN MDCCCXXI. AND MDCCCXXII.
COMPREHENDING AN ACCOUNT OF
THE GREATER SYRTIS AND CYRENAICA;
AND OF THE ANCIENT CITIES COMPOSING
THE PENTAPOLIS.
BY CAPTAIN F. W. BEECHEY, R.N., F.R.S.,
AND
H. W. BEECHEY, Esq., F.S.A.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXVIII.
LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES,
Stamford-Street.
DEDICATION.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL BATHURST,
AND
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE,
&c. &c. &c.
My Lords,
We beg leave to submit to your inspection our account of the Proceedings of the Expedition to which we had the honour of being appointed by your Lordships; and to express our best thanks for the flattering encouragement which it receives from the sanction of your Lordships’ names.
A book of travels in countries so interesting as those to which our researches have been directed, would once have been considered, however indifferently it might be written, as a tribute of more than ordinary value to its patrons. But so much has been effected, during your Lordships’ administration, for the advancement of science and general knowledge, that a traveller of our own times appears before the public, unassisted by the presence of that little cloud of mystery through which he would formerly have been seen to so much advantage; and his work must no longer depend for its attractions upon wonders which have ceased to be marvelled at; or hair-breadth escapes, which have now become familiar, and no longer excite an awe, almost amounting to reverence, for those who return to tell of them. Our book will, however, possess the advantage of novelty; for the country through which we have passed is, even in the present day, little known to the general reader; and its remains have never been described with sufficient accuracy to make them properly intelligible. We confess that our narrative will chiefly be found acceptable to those who are interested in the description of antiquities, and have pleasure in tracing the connexion between the past and the present in countries described by ancient poets and historians. We must even allow that those parts of our journal which have been considered by some as the most entertaining, are those which we should spare with as little regret as the public would probably experience in parting with them. Such as our work is, however, we submit it, respectfully, to the attention, as well as to the indulgence of your Lordships; and shall be happy if the little tribute which we offer to private worth and public desert, may be found in some measure deserving of the honour which patronage so distinguished has conferred upon it.
If our researches have enabled us to contribute any matter of interest to that large and valuable fund of public knowledge, which has accumulated so considerably during your Lordships’ official career, it will be read with some feeling of internal satisfaction by those who afforded us the means of acquiring it; and we ourselves shall look back with pleasure upon labours which have not been unattended by advantage. If it might have chanced (as we have reason to believe) that, at a moment when economy had been less imperative than it was at the period of our Expedition, we could have extended our researches farther; we feel convinced, at the same time, that your Lordships would also, at a period more auspicious than that which we allude to, have enabled us to prosecute them with greater effect.
With these impressions, we have the honour to remain,
My Lords,
Your Lordships’ grateful and obedient Servants,
HENRY W. BEECHEY,
FREDERIC W. BEECHEY.
Harley-Street, June, 1827.
CONTENTS.
| Introduction | [xix] |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| Arrival of the Expedition at Tripoly;pleasing appearance of the Town from the Sea — Friendly Receptionof the Party by the Consul — Interview with the Bashaw, whopromises his protection and assistance — Appointment of the Escort— Visits to some of the Mahometan Residents in Tripoly — SidiMahommed d’Ghies — Preparations for the Journey — Adoption of theCostume of the Country — This precaution recommended on theexperience of the Party — Visit from the Arab Escort — Descriptionof their principal, Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah — Sketch of theShekh’s former Life — Friendly attentions of the European Residentsof Tripoly — Arrival of Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton | [Page 1] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| General Description of Tripoly; itsCastle and Port — The Buildings of Tripoly commended by LeoAfricanus — Present Condition of the City — Its existing ancientremains — Burial-ground of the Ancient City — Sepulchral urns ofglass discovered there by Mr. Consul Warrington — Remarks of LeoAfricanus on the soil and level of Tripoly in the fifteenth andsixteenth Centuries — Accumulation of soil since that period —Advance of the Sea, mentioned by Leo Africanus, still observable onthe Coast of Northern Africa — These appearances adduced inconfirmation of Major Rennell’s remarks on the Lake Tritonis andthe Lesser Syrtis — Historical Sketch of Tripoly — Its actual stateand improved condition under the present Bashaw — Abolition ofPiracy, and partial discontinuance of the Slave Trade | [12] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| Departure of the Expedition from Tripoly— Passage through Tagiura — Fertile appearance of the latter — ItsMosque, and actual remains — Tagiura considered as the site ofAbrotonum — Existence of a Salt-water Lake at Tagiura, consistentwith Strabo’s account of Abrotonum — Present tranquil condition ofthe Country in this Neighbourhood contrasted with its dangerousstate in the time of Consul Tully — Sand-heaps to the eastward ofTagiura — Remarkson their formation, and on the accumulation of Sand in other places— Dangers of the Sand-storm considered — Passage over the SandyTract to the eastward of Tagiura — Arrive at Wady Ramleh — Stormyweather at that place — Take leave of our European friends who hadaccompanied us from Tripoly — Continuance of the gale — Arrive atWady’m’Seyd — Attempt to pass, without success, across theSand-hills to the Coast — Arrive at Guadigmata — Position ofGraphara, as laid down by Scylax, considered — Ancient remainsdiscovered by Captain Smyth in the neighbourhood of Wady’m’Seyd andAbdellata — Remarks on these, considered as the remains of Graphara— Scuffle with the Arabs at Sidy Abdellati — Remains at that placeindicative of an ancient military station — Cross the range ofSelem — Extensive view from its summit over the fertile plains ofLebida and Jumarr — Rains still continue — Distress of the Camels —Meet with the English Consul on his return from an Excursion toLebida — Report of a troop of marauding Arabs lying in wait for ourParty | [33] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| Arrival at Lebida — Remarks on itsposition and resources as compared with those of Tripoly — Shortaccount of the City and its remains — Allusion to the African TribeLevatæ (or Levata) by Procopius — The same Tribe mentioned by LeoAfricanus — Suggestions of Major Rennell on the resemblance betweenthe terms Levata and Libya — Former position of this Tribe near theCoast confirmed by Procopius — Remarks on the term Lybia — Visitfrom the Shekh of Lebida — Violent Storm at that place retards theadvance of the party — Intrusion upon the premises of a celebratedMarábūt — Dangerous consequences of this intrusion predicted by ourescort — Departure from Lebida — Remains of the Aqueduct, and ofthe Causeway mentioned by Strabo — Arrive at the River Cinyphus,now Wad’ el Kháhan — Remarks on the River and the Morass in itsimmediate Neighbourhood — Observations on the faulty position ofthe Cinyphus in the Maps of Cellarius — This position probablysuggested by some remarks of Pliny, Ptolemy, and Mela — Extremefertility of the region of the Cinyphus — Remarks on this district,and that of Byzacium — Suggestions of Signor Della Cella withrespect to them — Present appearance of the region of the Cinyphusconsistent with the description of Herodotus — Neglected conditionof the district under the Arabs — Account of Lebida and its remainsby Captain Smyth | [50] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| Arrival at Zelīten — Description of theVillage and District of that name — Harbour of Zelīten — Remains inits Neighbourhood probably those of the Cisternæ Oppidum of Ptolemy— Tomb of the Marábūt Sidy Abd el Salám — Respect shewn to it byour party in passing before it — General appearance of theseStructures — Arab credulity and superstition — Leave Zelīten —Remains between it and Selīn — Arrive at Selīn, the Orir,apparently, of Signor Della Cella — Proceed to Zoúia — Ports called by theArabs Mersa Gusser and Mersa Zoraig — Arrive at Mesurata, theWestern Boundary of the Greater Syrtis — Description of the Townand District of Mesurata — Account of them by Leo Africanus — Visitfrom the Shekh of Mesurata — Splendid Costume and Equipage of theShekh compared with that of our Bedouin Guide, Shekh Mahommed elDúbbah — Allusion to the report mentioned at the end of the ThirdChapter — Great demand for Medicine at Mesurata — Considerateconduct of Mr. Campbell — Speedy success of his treatment in manydifficult cases — Miraculous cure of a young Arab woman by anitinerant Sherif and Marábut — Detention of the party at Mesurata —Observations on Cape Mesurata, considered as the CephalusPromontorium of Strabo — Remarks of Signor Della Cella on thissubject — Alterations proposed by that gentleman in the punctuationof a passage in Strabo descriptive of the Promontory — Actualappearance of the Promontory sufficiently consistent with theaccount of Strabo — Well-founded Remarks of Signor Della Cella onthe extension of the Gharian Chain, &c. — Extensive View fromthe Sand-hills at the back of Mesurata — Singular contrastpresented by the view over the dreary wastes of the Syrtis comparedwith that over the plain of Mesurata — Hot wind, and swarm ofLocusts accompanying it — Alarm of the Arabs of Mesurata —Precautions adopted by them on the occasion — Destructiveconsequences (mentioned by Shaw) resulting from the visit of aflight of Locusts which he witnessed — Remarks of Pliny on the samesubject — Arrival of the Camels, and departure from Mesurata | [81] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Entrance of the Syrtis — Extensive Lake,or Marsh, described by Strabo — Remarks of Strabo compared with theactual appearance and extent of the Marsh — Remains considered asthose of the ancient Naval Station, described by Strabo, at theMouth of the Lake — Appearance of another Station more to thenorthward — Gulf of Zuca — Remarks of Signor Della Cella connectedwith it — Resemblance of the names Zuchis and Zuca — Non-existenceof the Gulf of Zuca in the Greater Syrtis — Error of D’Anville andmodern Geographers on this point — Remarks of Signor Della Cella onthe terms Marsh and Lake, as applied to the bodyof water mentioned by Strabo — Dimensions of the existing Marsh —Alleged danger of crossing it — Insulated spots in several parts ofthe Marsh, corresponding with the accounts of Strabo — Arrival atSooleb — Appearance of Pasturage in this Neighbourhood — Liberalityof Shekh Mahommed — Cause of it ascertained — Sooleb occupies theplace assigned in modern Charts to the Gulf of Zuca — Continuanceof the Marsh — Remains near Mahada called Kusser el Jébbah — Storyconnected with them related by the Dúbbah — Unwillingness of ourArab Guides to cross the Marsh — Cause of this ascertained — Narrowescape of two of our party — Nature of the Soil in thisNeighbourhood — French Inscription left by the Boats of theChevrette — Another left by the Barge of the Adventure — Arrive atMahàd Hassàn, probably the Turriss Hassàn of Edrisi — Remains atMahàd Hassàn — Arrive at Giraff, where the Marsh terminatesaltogether — Refractory conduct of our Camel-drivers —Improvement in theappearance of the country — Arrival at Zaffrān — Grateful verdureof its Pasturage — Remains at Zaffrān considered as those of Aspis— Their nature and appearance described — Port called Mersa Zaffrānconsidered as that of Aspis — Difficulties attending this position— Remains on the Beach — Supposed Date of the Buildings at Zaffrān— Remarks connected with them — Castles mentioned by Leo Africanus— Construction of the Forts at Zaffrān | [113] |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| Remarks on the City of Sort, or Sert, ofEdrisi and other Arab Geographers — Description of it by LeoAfricanus — Position of Sert, on the authority of Abulfeda —Zaffrān considered as Asna — Remarks of Major Rennell on thesePlaces — Remains at Medīnét Sultàn considered as those of Sort —Columns and other Remains described by Signor Della Cella, in theNeighbourhood of Zaffrān — Train of Argument adopted by the Doctoron this occasion — Remarks of the same Writer on the Tower ofEuphrantas, and the Town of Charax, as laid down by Strabo — Natureof the Inscriptions on the Columns alluded to by Signor Della Cella— Formidable Appearance of the Coast at Zaffrān — GeneralAppearance of the Country in its Neighbourhood — Species of Crocusabounding there — Obliging Treatment of our Party by the Arabs ofZaffrān — Arrival at Medīnét Sultàn — Description of its Remains —Further Remarks on the Tower of Euphrantas — Arrival at Nehīm —Aukward Situation of Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah — Visit of the Dúbbahto our Tent — Object of it discovered — Departure of ShekhMahommed, well pleased with the result of his Visit | [150] |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| Leave Nehīm — Arrive at Boosaida — ShekhHamed Shakshak — Return of Shekh Mahommed — Revival of the Reportabove mentioned — Motive for renewing it — Discharge our MesurataCamel-drivers — Treaty with the Dúbbah for others — Interestedconduct of Shekh Mahommed — Commencement of another Salt-Lake atSharfa — Easy mode of shifting Quarters practised by the Arabs —Their manner of travelling — Termination of the Lake — Arrive atShegga — Remains of Forts observed there — Other Remains in itsneighbourhood — Abundant Pasturage at Shegga — Fortress ofBengerwàd — Peculiarities of its Position — Bengerwàd considered asthe Castle of Euphrantas — Objections to this supposition — Reasonsin favour of it — Leave Wady Shegga — Cross a Tract of Red Sand —Spacious Bay at Ras Howeijah — Good Anchorage probably found there— Remains of an ancient Town near Ras Howeijah considered as thoseof Charax — Trade of Charax alluded to, as mentioned by Strabo —Further reasons for placing the Tower of Euphrantas at Bengerwàd —Allusion to the barter of Silphium at Charax — Emendations ofStrabo’s Text proposed by Signor Della Cella — Arrive at Hudīa —Alleged Origin of this Name as applied to the place in question —Hudīa lately infested by a formidable Band of Robbers — Precautionsof our Arab Escort to prevent any Attack — Rigorous Measures ofMahommed Bey apparently very necessary — RemarkableHill of Gypsum atHudīa — Celebration of Christmas-day by our Party at Hudīa —Fortress at Mahirīga — Arrival of a party of Pilgrims from theWestward — Disturbance at Linoof — Apparent causes of it — Illbehaviour of the Dúbbah — His sudden change of Conduct, and artfulManœuvres — Remarks on Arab Character — Satisfactory Termination ofthe Disturbance — Arrival at Mukhtár, the Boundary of the Districtsof Syrt and Barka | [178] |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| Barren and desolate appearance of theCountry in the Neighbourhood of Muktáhr — Sulphur Mines at Kebrīt —Extensive Marsh near Muktáhr — Arrive at Sachrīn, the southernmostPoint of the Gulf — Singularly desolate and comfortless Appearanceof it — Examination of the Coast from the Heights of Jerīa —Extreme Difference of its Outline from that laid down in modernCharts — Suggested Causes of this Error — Accumulation of Sand onthe Beach in this Neighbourhood — Alarm of Signor Della Cella inpassing it — Causes of this Accumulation considered — Character ofthe Country at the Bottom of the Gulf — Observations of SignorDella Cella respecting it — Allusion of the Doctor to theExpedition of the Psylli — Remarks on the Latitude of this part ofthe Gulf — Monuments of the Philæni — Record of their Patriotism bySallust — Various Positions of the Philænian Altars by the Ancients— Boreum Promontorium and Oppidum of Cellarius — Suggested Causesof their Position by this Author in the Bottom of the Gulf —Observations on the Nature of the Soil of the Greater Syrtis —Allusion to the March of Cato across it — Island called Bushaifa atthe Bottom of the Gulf — Gradual Improvement in the Appearance ofthe Country — Arrival at Braiga — Remains observed there — Harbourof Braiga — Heaps of Sulphur lying on the Beach there forEmbarkation — Salt Lake and Marsh at Braiga below the Level of theSea — Well-constructed Forts at Braiga — Braiga considered as theSite of Automala — Contest between the Avarice and Conscience ofthe Dúbbah — Its termination in favour of the latter — Arrival atTabilba — Excavations and Remains there — Tabilba considered as theMaritimæ Stationes of Ptolemy — Arrive at Ain Agàn — Chain of SaltLakes and Marshes said to extend two Days to the South-eastward —Island of Gàra, probably the Gaia of Ptolemy — Wells of sweetWater, two Miles to the North-east of Shiebah — Abduction of a Lambfrom an Arab Shepherd by our Party — Consequences of this Measure —Departure of the Dúbbah in search of his Camels — Arrival atCarcora — Two Boat Coves observed there — Springs of Fresh Waterwithin a few feet of a Salt Water Lake — Arrive at Ghimēnes — Fortsand Remains there — Excavated Tombs in the Neighbourhood — Changeof Weather experienced — Wasted Condition of our Horses fromFatigue and want of Water — Hardy Constitution of the BarbaryHorses — Treatment of them by the Arabs — Improved Appearance ofthe Country in approaching Bengazi — Singular Fences of Stonegenerally adopted in this part of the Country — Causes of theirErection — Position of Bengazi — Fertile Appearance of the Countryabout it — Arrival at Bengazi — Friendly Reception of our Party bySignor Rossoni, the British Resident there — Establish ourselves inthe Town for the rainy Season | [209] |
| CHAPTER X. | |
| OBSERVATIONS ON THE GULF ANDSHORES OF THE GREATER SYRTIS. | |
| The Dimensions of the Gulf, according toAncient Writers, considered, and compared with those resulting fromthe Observations of the Expedition — Difference in the Statementsof the several Writers quoted — Reasons why a Difference may beexpected in their Accounts — Observations of Major Rennell on theMeasurements of the Ancients — Ptolemy’s Outline of the Gulf morecorrect than any hitherto given — Number of Square Miles of Errorin modern Charts of the Greater Syrtis — The Ideas of AncientWriters (Herodotus excepted) with respect to the Nature andResources of the Syrtis (the Territory, not theGulf of the Greater Syrtis is here meant) more erroneousthan the Dimensions which have been assigned to the Gulf itself —The General Character of the Syrtis not that of a Sandy Plain —Incorrectness of the Arab Accounts of what is termed by them theDesert of Barka — Account of Herodotus considered — ApparentAccuracy of his Statements — Inferences drawn from them — AncientAccounts of the Gulf of the Greater Syrtis, dimensionsexcepted, very correct — Accumulation of Soil on the Shores of theGulf accounted for — Apparent Elevation of the General Level of theSyrtis — Advance of the Sea on the Northern Coast of Africa —Appearance of the Coast at Alexandria and Carthage consistent withthat of the Shores of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica —Observations of Major Rennell and Dr. Shaw on the Elevation of theCoast of Tunis, and the Advance of the Sea in that quarter —Observations of Lucan on the Level of the Greater Syrtis — Dangersof the Navigation of the Gulf of Syrtis considered — Inset into theGulf still existing to a great extent — Flux and Reflux of the Seamentioned by Strabo and Mela considered — Remarks on the Derivationof the term Syrtis | [254] |
| CHAPTER XI. | |
| The Rainy Season sets in at Bengazitowards the middle of January, and continues with littleinterruption till the beginning of March — Miserable Condition ofthe Town during that period — Construction of the Houses —Improvidence of the Arabs — Dirty state of the Streets — Swarms ofinsects which infest them — Position of Bengazi — Description ofits Harbour — Castle of the Bey — Visit to Bey Halīl — FriendlyReception of our Party by his Excellency — Occupations andarrangements during the Rainy Season — The Shekh el Belad Mahommed— Jews of Bengazi — Trade of the Town — Produce of the Environs —Wretched state of the Bullock Vessels — Mahometan Inhabitants ofBengazi — Alarm of the Lower Classes during our residence there —Confusion resulting from it — Mob collected at our door on thisoccasion — Narrow Escape of Mr. Giacomo Rossoni — Friendly Conductof our Mahometan Acquaintance — Parley with the Arabs — Dispersionof the Mob — Prejudices of the Arabs respecting the Treatment ofDiseases — Fatal Effects of this species of Folly at Bengazi —Prevalent Diseases in Bengazi and its vicinity — Singularcause of Alarm among a Party of Arab Shekhs — Arab notions ofdecorum and propriety contrasted with those of European Nations —Bengazi supposed to occupy the Site of Berenice and Hesperis —Existing Remains there — Little regard manifested by Turks andArabs for the relics of Antiquity — Probable Limits of Berenice —Quarries, and singular Chasms in its Neighbourhood — Gardens ofHesperides — Position of the Gardens according to Scylax, Pliny,and Ptolemy — Conjectures of Gosselin and others respecting them —Circumstances which appear to favour our position of the Gardens —Lakes and Subterranean Caverns in the Neighbourhood of Bengazi, (orBerenice) — Concealed Body of Water observed in one of the latter —Examination of the Caverns — Remarks of the Bey respecting it — TheSubterranean Stream in question considered as the River Lathon, orLethe — Testimonies of the Ancients on this point — SupposedCommunication of the Subterranean Stream with the Lake adjoiningthe Harbour of Bengazi — Signification of the term Lathonalluded to — Further Remarks in confirmation of our suggestedPosition of the River, and of its probable Communication with theLake above mentioned — Remarks of Strabo and Cellarius on thesubject — Temple of Venus, and Lake Tritonis of Strabo — Remarks onthe name Berenice — Total ignorance of the Arabs ofBengazi with respect to the former celebrity of their City —Pleasing little Fable of Kazwini, on the changes which take placein the Nature and Appearance of Places, and the little knowledgewhich remains, after a lapse of time, of their former Condition,even on the spots where they existed | [281] |
| CHAPTER XII. | |
| Remarks on the Soil of Bengazi and theCountry in its Neighbourhood — Distinction of Sex in the Palm-tree,&c., noticed by the Ancients and by Mahometan Writers — PersianAnecdote of a Love-sick Date-tree — Remarks of Shaw on thePropagation and Treatment of the Palm — Arab Mode of cultivatingthe Sandy Tracts in the Neighbourhood of Bengazi — Journey toCarcora — Completion of the Coast-line from that Place to Bengazi —Return to Bengazi, and Departure for Teuchira and Ptolemeta —Description of the Country between Bengazi and these Places —Remains observable in this Track — Correspondence of the Towercalled Gusser el Towēl with that of Cafez, mentioned by Edrisi —Probable Site of Adriane — Arrival at Birsis — Remains in itsneighbourhood, at Mably (or Mabny), considered as those of Neapolis— Hospitality of the Arabs of Birsis — Remains of Teuchira —Position of the City — Quarries without the Walls covered withGreek Inscriptions — Teuchira a Town of Barca — Walls of the Cityrepaired by Justinian — No Port observable at Teuchira — Mistake ofBruce in confounding Teuchira with Ptolemeta — Good Supply of freshWater at Teuchira — The excavated Tombs of the ancient City used asDwelling-houses by the Arabs of the Neighbourhood — Indispositionof our Chaous (or Janissary) — Route from Teuchira to Ptolemeta —Remains at Ptolemeta — Port and Cothon of the ancient City — OtherRemains observable there — Ptolemaic Inscriptions — PicturesqueRavines in the Neighbourhood of Ptolemeta — Position of the City —Remains of Bridges observed there — Advantages of its Site —Extreme Drought at Ptolemeta, recorded by Procopius — Reparation ofthe Aqueducts and Cisterns by the Emperor Justinian — ExistingRemains of an extensive Cistern at Ptolemeta, probably among thosealluded to by Procopius — State of the Town, its Solitude andDesolation — Luxuriant Vegetation which encumbered its Streets whenthe Place was first visited by our Party — Change of Scene onreturning to it in Summer-time | [339] |
| CHAPTER XIII. | |
| OBSERVATIONS ON THE CITIES OFTEUCHIRA AND PTOLEMETA. | |
| Actual Condition of the City of Teuchira— Perfect State and great Strength of its Walls — Suggested Periodof their Erection — Mode in which they are constructed — Gates ofthe City — Narrow Passage communicating with them — ProbableAdvance of the Sea at Teuchira — Line described by the Walls —Estimated Circuit of them according to Signor Della Cella — GreekInscriptions cut in various parts of them — Suggestions of SignorDella Cella respecting them — Actual Nature of the Inscriptions —Excavated Tombs in the Quarries of Teuchira — Egyptian Names ofMonths generally adopted by the Inhabitants of the City — GeneralNature of the Plans of the Tombs — Some of the Bodies appear tohave been burnt, and others to have been buried entire — NoDifference appears to have obtained at Teuchira between the Modesof Burial adopted by its Greek and Roman Inhabitants — EncumberedState of what are probably the earliest Tombs — Solitary instanceof a Painted Tomb at Teuchira — Remains of Christian Churches, andother Buildings within the Walls — Disposition of the Streets —Remains without the Walls — No Statues, or Remains of them,discovered by our Party at Teuchira — Remarks on the Wall ofPtolemeta — Remains of a Naustothmos, or Naval Station, observedthere — Other Remains of Building on the Beach near the Station —Further traces of the City-Wall — Dimensions of Ptolemeta — Remainsof Theatres found there — Description of the larger one — Ruinsdescribed by Bruce as part of an Ionic Temple — Other Remains inthe Neighbourhood of these — Remarks on the Style of some of theBuildings of Ptolemeta, as contrasted with those of Egypt and Nubia— Probable Date of its existing Remains | [367] |
| CHAPTER XIV. | |
| JOURNEY FROM PTOLEMETA TOMERGE. | |
| Departure from Ptolemeta — Romantic andPicturesque Appearance of the Road — Luxuriant Vegetation whichadorned it — Arrive at the Summit of the first Range — BedouinTents on the Plain above — Pleasing Manners of their Inhabitants —Character of the Scenery on the Summit of the Lower Range — Beauty ofthe Route continues — Arrive at the Plain of Merge — Character andPosition of the Plain — Our Camel-Drivers refuse to proceed —Artful Conduct of Abou-Bukra — Appeal to Bey Halil — ProjectedMission to Derna — Abou-Bukra comes to Terms, and brings his Camelsfor the Journey — Pools of Fresh Water collected in the Plain ofMerge — Use made of them by the Arabs — Prevalence of a VirulentCutaneous Disease among the Arab Tribes of Merge and itsNeighbourhood — Remains of a Town at one extremity of the Plain —Remarks on the District and City of Barca — Testimonies of Strabo,Pliny, Ptolemy, and Scylax, respecting the Port of Barca — Remarkson the Position of the City of that Name — Arab Accounts of Barca —Edrisi, Abulfeda, &c. — Unsatisfactory Nature of the Accountsin Question — Mode of reconciling the Arab Accounts of Barca withthose of Scylax — Suggested Position of the Ancient City —Peculiarity of Soil attributed to Barca — Observations on itsProduce and Resources — State of Barca under the Arabs — Decay ofthe Ancient City after the building of Ptolemais on the Site of itsPort — The Barcæans remarkable for their Skill in the Management ofHorses and Chariots — Their Country formerly celebrated for itsexcellent Breed of Horses — Degeneracy of the present Breed —Account of Barca by Herodotus — Other Accounts of its Origin —Siege and Plunder of the City by the Persians under Amasis —Subsequent state of the City till the building of Ptolemais | [386] |
| CHAPTER XV. | |
| JOURNEY FROM MERGE TO CYRENE. | |
| Departure from Merge — Deep Marks ofChariot-wheels on the Stony Road indicative of an ancient Track —Valley of Bogràta — Ancient Wells observed there — Valley ofHareebe — Beauty and Luxuriance of the Country continue — Roses ofthe Cyrenaica mentioned by Athenæus as celebrated for theexcellence of their Perfume — Oil (or Ointment) of Roses made atCyrene in the time of Berenice (probably the Daughter of Magas) —Difficulty and Danger of some Parts of the Road — Apprehensions ofour Arab Conductors — They appear to have been groundless — Arriveat Margàd — Bad State of the Road continues — Quarrel betweenAbou-Bukra and one of our Servants — Consequences of the Quarrel —Departure of Abou-Bukra — Continue our Route alone and succeed infinding the right Track — Return of Abou-Bukra and his people —Satisfactory Termination of the Disturbance — Oppressive SiroccoWind — Nature of the Country on approaching Cyrene — FirstAppearance of a Plant resembling the Daucus, or Wild Carrot —Resemblance of this Plant to the Silphium, as expressed on ancientCoins — Points in which it differs from it — Remarks on theSilphium as mentioned by ancient Writers — Testimony of Herodotus,Arrian, Theophrastus, Pliny, Athenæus — Bill of Fare of the Kingsof Persia, stated by Polyænus to have been discovered in the royalPalace by Alexander the Great — Silphium mentioned in this amongother articles of Food — Description of the Plant by Theophrastusand Pliny — Celebrity and Scarcity of the Silphium and of the Extract from it —Extraordinary Cause of the first Appearance of the Silphium in theCyrenaica, as mentioned by Pliny on the authority of Greek Writers— Effects produced by the Plant on the Sheep and Cattle who wereallowed to eat it — Similar Effects produced by the Plant observedby the Expedition on Camels — Extraordinary Medicinal Qualitiesimputed to the Silphium by Pliny — The use of it recommended by theRoman Naturalist as a sovereign remedy for almost everything butthe Tooth-ache — Fatal Consequences recorded by Pliny, of applyingit in the Case last mentioned — Silphium offered by the People ofCyrene to their first King Battus, as the most valuable Productionof their Country — State in which the Plant observed by theExpedition most resembles the Silphium on the Coins of Cyrene —Partition of the Road from Merge to Cyrene — Extensive Traces ofBuilding observed along the ancient, or lower Road — Approach toCyrene indicated by innumerable Sarcophagi and Tombs — Position ofthese along the sides of the Roads, as observable at Pompeii andother ancient Towns — Frequent Traces of Chariot-wheels stillobservable along the Roads, deeply indented in the rocky Soil ofthe Place — The earlier Tombs distinguished by their simplicity andgood taste — The later by a more ornamented and less perfect style— Busts and Statues scattered everywhere about among the Tombs —Difference of Style and Character observable in these — Remains ofan Aqueduct — Fountain of Cyrene | [405] |
| CHAPTER XVI. | |
| Description of the Fountain — Excavationswhich enclose it — Sculptured Tablet discovered at the entrance ofone of the Chambers — Early Character of its Style — BeautifulBas-Relief in white Marble discovered near the Fountain —Indications of Porticoes in front of the excavated Chambers — GreekInscription cut over one of them — Remains in front of the Fountain— Aqueduct above it — Peripteral Temple, probably of Diana — FemaleStatue discovered there — Position of Cyrene — Delightful View fromthe Town — Excavated Galleries and Tombs — Nature and Style of theTombs — Variety displayed in the disposition of their Interiors —Remains of Painting discovered in them — Suite of what appear to beAllegorical Compositions, painted on the Metopes of one of theDoric Tombs — Practice, at Cyrene, of painting the several Membersof Architecture — Remarks connected with this Practice | [424] |
| CHAPTER XVII. | |
| Arrival of Captain Smyth at Derna — OurParty set out from Cyrene to meet him — Remains of Ancient Forts,and Sarcophagi observed on the Journey — Marks of Chariot-wheels inthe Stony Track indicative of an ancient Road — Barren Appearanceof the Mountains which rise at the back of Derna — Perilous Descentfrom their Summit to the Plain below — Exhausted condition of ourHorses in accomplishing it — Arrive at Derna, where we found theAdventure, and wait upon Captain Smyth — Description of the town ofDerna — Ravages occasioned by the Plague there — Prompt Measures ofMahommed Bey in subduing it — Some Account of Mahommed Bey — Civility and attentionreceived by our Party from Signor Regignani the British Agent atDerna — Take leave of Mr. Tindall, who sails on board the Adventure— Departure from Derna on our road to Apollonia — Gradual increaseof Vegetation observed on the Route — Thickly-wooded Ravines anddangerous Passes on this Road — Beautiful Stream at Elthroon —Arrive at El Hilal — Capacious Harbour at that place — AncientRemains observed there — Arab Encampment at El Hilal — DishonestConduct of our Chaous — Arrive at Apollonia — No Water to be foundthere — Begin to dig a Well in order to procure some, our stockbeing wholly exhausted — Bad Success of this attempt — Continue ourJourney to Cyrene — Miss the Path over the Mountain, and lose ourway among the Thickets and Underwood — Inconvenience of thismistake to all Parties — Find the right track, and at length reachthe Fountain of Apollo — Rencontre of our Servants with some femaleInhabitants of the Mountain — Singular position of the Caves whichthey lived in — Gain intelligence at Cyrene of a Spring in theneighbourhood of Apollonia — Set out again for that place —Description of the Road — Architectural Remains, and beautifulappearance of the Country through which it passes — Meet with anHyæna in the dusk of the evening — The forest much infested bythese animals and Jackalls — Peculiarities of both — Arrive atApollonia, and find the Springs described to us — Other Caves inthe Mountain — Unwillingness of their Inhabitants to admit us —Description of the City of Apollonia | [467] |
| CHAPTER XVIII. | |
| Observations on the Position of Ras Sem —Remarks of Bruce connected with this place — Difficulty ofreconciling the several positions assigned to it — ExtravagantStories related of its Petrifactions, supposed to be those of HumanBeings — Fallacy of these Statements as recorded by Shaw — Reportof Petrified Remains at Ghirza made to Captain Smyth by Mukni (Bey,or Sultan, of Fezzan) during the progress of his Excavations atLebda — Journey of Captain Smyth in search of the objects describedto him — Description of the actual Remains at Ghirza — MonumentalObelisk discovered there, and Tombs, combining a mixture of theEgyptian and Grecian styles of Architecture — Indifferent Taste andExecution of these Remains — Veneration in which they are held byMahometans of all classes, who suppose them to be Petrified HumanBeings of their own persuasion — Geographic Position of Ghirzadetermined by Captain Smyth — Further Observations on the Remainsat Apollonia — Return of our party to Cyrene — Account of that Citycontinued | [501] |
| CHAPTER XIX. | |
| Historical Sketch of Cyrene — ItsFoundation by a Lacedæmonian Colony — Dynasty of the Battiades, orFamily of Battus — Cession of the Country to Ptolemy Lagus — Andafterwards to the Romans by Apion, the last of the Ptolemies whopossessed it — Cyrene becomes a Roman Province, and is united inone Government with Crete — Illustrious Persons who were natives ofCyrene — Tenets of the Sect of Philosophers termed Cyrenaic — Decayof the City and its final Desertion in Christian times after theTransfer of the Bishopric to Ptolemeta — Return of the Expeditionto Bengazi, and its subsequent Departure for Malta | [558] |
APPENDIX.
| OBSERVATIONS ON THE PORTS AND HARBOURS FROM TRIPOLY TO DERNA, IN THEIR ACTUAL CONDITION. | [Page iii] |
| REMARKS ON THE NAVAL AFFAIRS OF THE ANCIENTS, AND THE RATES OF SAILING OF THEIR VESSELS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. | [xvii] |
| REMARKS ON THE NAVAL AFFAIRS OF THE ANCIENTS, AND THE RATES OF SAILING OF THEIR VESSELS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. | [xxxii] |
| OBSERVATIONS ON ROAD MEASUREMENTS DEDUCED FROM THE ORDINARY WALKING PACE OF HORSES AND CAMELS. | [xlii] |
| TABLE OF DISTANCES MEASURED BY CAMEL AND HORSE PACE. | [xliv] |
| POSITION OF PLACES BY OBSERVATION. | [xlv] |
| OBSERVATIONS FOR VARIATION. | [xlviii] |
LIST OF PLATES.
| Chapter | ||
| 1. | Solitary Palm-Tree at Arar, remarkable as beingthe only Tree in the Greater Syrtis | [VI.] |
| 2. | Formidable Appearance of the Coast atZaffran | [ib.] |
| 3. | Remains of an Ancient Bridge at Ptolemeta | [XII.] |
| 4. | Remains of an Ancient Mausoleum atPtolemeta | [ib.] |
| 5. | Remains of an Ionic Building at Ptolemeta(Vignette) | [ib.] |
| 6. | Remains of an early Christian Church atPtolemeta | [ib.] |
| 7. | Singular Position of Two Inhabited Caves in theNeighbourhood of Apollonia | [XVII.] |
| 8. | Position of the Amphitheatre, the Fountain ofApollo, and some other Remains at Cyrene | [XVI.] |
| 9. | Elevation of the Internal Façade of anExcavated Tomb at Cyrene | [ib.] |
| 10. | Suite of Allegorical Figures painted on theMetopes of One of the Excavated Tombs at Cyrene | [ib.] |
| 11. | Partial View of the Tombs on the Heights ofCyrene | [ib.] |
| 12. | Architectural Front of One of the Doricexcavated Tombs at Cyrene | [XVIII.] |
| 13. | Entrance to the Fountain of Apollo at Cyrene(Vignette) | [XVI.] |
| LIST OF CHARTS ANDPLANS. | ||
| General Chart of the Route | [I.] | |
| Chart, showing the Differencebetween the Coast Line of former Charts, and that obtained by theExpedition | [X.] | |
| Plan of the Port and Neighbourhoodof Bengazi | [XI.] | |
| Plan of the City of Teuchira | [XII.] | |
| Plan of the City of Ptolemeta | [ib.] | |
| Plan of the City and Environs ofCyrene | [XV.] | |
| Plan of the City, on a largerScale | [ib.] | |
| Plan of the Town of Derna and ofthe Port of Zaffran | [XVII.] | |
| Plan of the Port and City ofApollonia | [ib.] | |
INTRODUCTION.
In offering to the Public an account of the mission, the proceedings of which will form the subject of the present Narrative, it may be proper to state briefly the circumstances which gave rise to it, and the objects to which its inquiries were chiefly directed.
When Captain Smyth visited the Northern Coast of Africa, in the year 1817, he had many opportunities (during the course of his Survey) of obtaining information connected with the state of the country and the points most deserving of notice which it presented. The exertions of this active and intelligent officer procured at Lebida the matter for the only plan which we have of that city and its antiquities, while his journey to Ghirza made us acquainted with the actual nature of those remains, so important in Arab estimation, the account of which is given at the latter part of our narrative[1].
Captain Smyth had proposed to extend his journey eastward; for the friendly disposition of the Bashaw of Tripoly had been diligently cultivated by himself and Colonel Warrington, His Majesty’s Consul-general at the Regency, and the whole tract of country between Tripoly and Derna was open to the researches of the English. Circumstances, however, prevented him from doing so, and on returning to England he submitted the information which he had been able to collect to the Admiralty, and suggested that a party might be advantageously employed in exploring the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica, as well as the country to the eastward of Derna as far as Alexandria and the Oasis of Ammon.
Many spots of more than ordinary interest were comprehended within the limits of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica: some of these had been the favourite themes of mythology, haunts in which the poets of Greece and Rome had loved to linger; and others had been celebrated in the more sober language of historians whose fame is less perishable than the objects which they describe. But whatever might once have been the state of a country placed before us so conspicuously in pages which are dear to us, there had not in our own times been any opportunity of ascertaining its actual condition. The name of Cyrene was familiar to classic ears, but no one had visited its remains; the “secret springs” of Lethe and the Gardens of the Hesperides had almost been confounded with the fables of antiquity; and the deep and burning sands, overspread with venomous serpents, which were supposed to form the barrier between Leptis Magna and Berenice, had rarely been trodden since the army of Cato had nearly found a grave beneath their weight[2].
The outline of this extensive Gulf (the Greater Syrtis), the coast of which was as formidable to the vessels of the ancients as its sands were supposed to have been to their armies, had never been accurately laid down in modern charts, and the contradictory statements of its form and peculiarities appeared to call for minute investigation. There were many geographical points to be determined in the space between Tripoly and Bengazi, and remains of several ancient towns (besides Cyrene) were known to exist in the Pentapolis, of which no plans had hitherto been made. Under all these circumstances it appeared to Captain Smyth that, as he was himself about to sail in the Adventure to finish his survey of the northern coast of Africa, it might so be arranged that a party on shore should proceed simultaneously along the tract of country mentioned, communicating from time to time with his vessel as occasions might offer in the course of their route. The views of His Majesty’s Government were at this period favorable to the cause of research; and the labours of many skilful and enterprising men had been, since the peace, advantageously directed to various points of interest, from the sultry plains of Fezzan to the borders of the Frozen Ocean. It was therefore not long after the plan in question had been submitted to the Admiralty and the Colonial Department, that it was acceded to by Earl Bathurst and Lord Melville; and the means of carrying it into effect were referred to the consideration of one of the heads of the Admiralty, whose well-directed ability had often been manifested in the promotion and arrangement of similar undertakings, and whose exertions in the cause of science and discovery are well known and highly appreciated[3].
Accordingly, when the necessary dispositions had been made, Lieutenant Beechey was appointed on the part of the Admiralty to undertake the coast line from Tripoly to Derna,—if practicable, as far as Alexandria; and Mr. Tyndall, a young gentleman on board the Adventure, was directed to assist him in the survey. Earl Bathurst appointed Mr. Beechey to examine and report on the antiquities of the country, and Mr. Campbell of the Navy was soon after nominated to accompany the expedition as surgeon. The party was embarked on board His Majesty’s Ship Adventure, and sailed from England early in July with Captain Smyth, proceeding directly to Malta: there they were joined by Lieutenant Coffin of the Navy, who had come out in the Adventure, and who handsomely volunteered his services on shore, which were accepted without hesitation. A short time was sufficient to complete the few remaining preparations, and the expedition left Malta for Tripoly.
We have already said that it had been in contemplation to extend our journey farther to the eastward, and to examine the country between that place and Alexandria, in which it seemed probable that interesting remains might be found. We had in that event proposed to return by Siwah, and along the track of Horneman to Augila; from which place we should have re-entered the Greater Syrtis, and explored some of the more inland parts of it in the course of our journey back to Tripoly. Circumstances, however, which it will not here be necessary to explain, prevented our going farther eastward than Derna, and limited the period of our stay in the Pentapolis to a much shorter period than we had originally calculated upon. Our work has in consequence assumed the form of a Journal, and has become more contracted on points of unquestionable interest, and more diffuse in matters which would otherwise have been omitted, than it would have been in the character which we wished it to have taken. We do not, however, mean to apologize for having done less than we might have done under the circumstances in which we were placed; or to underrate the value of the matter which we have been able to lay before the Public: the materials which we had to work upon are in themselves sufficiently interesting to call for the attention of those who read for information, and the labour which has been employed in collecting them (during the whole course of a long and fatiguing journey) has not been thrown away upon trifles.
We have given to the world (we may say with the greatest accuracy) an extensive tract of coast which has been hitherto unsurveyed, and of which our best charts afforded a very imperfect outline, as will appear by a reference to the maps at the head of the work.
We have obtained the plans of towns and places, (rendered interesting by antiquity, and by the rank which they hold in the pages of history,) of which we have hitherto had no details; and have described, or made drawings of every object of note which has presented itself on the field of our operations. In fact, whatever may be the merit of our work in other respects, or the value attached to our exertions, we are satisfied ourselves with the matter acquired and with the labour and diligence which has been employed in collecting it; and it is because our materials are worthy of more attention than we had time and opportunities to bestow upon them, that we regret we are not able to offer them to the Public in a more complete form than we have been able to give them. Had it been in our power to employ excavation, on a more extensive scale than we did, and to bestow as much time upon every object worth attention as its importance appeared to demand, our work could have been a more perfect one; that is to say, it would have treated of art, and its details more exclusively (we mean the details of sculpture, architecture, and painting,) than it does in the shape which it at present assumes. We might also have given additional interest to our narrative by introducing more plates than we have been able to insert; but our number has been (we believe necessarily) limited, and we may add that the selection of those which appear might have been better if we had known, before the drawings went to the engraver, that we should have been obliged to leave out so many of them.
Something should be said to account for the delay which has taken place in publication since the work was first announced. We may state that, so far as we are ourselves concerned, more than three parts of the MS. was finished at least two years ago; and that the remainder was only kept back because it could not be completed till the first portion was printed.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]The plan here alluded to of the City of Lebida was obligingly placed at our disposal by the author, and we wished to have had it engraved for the work; but, in consequence of being obliged to limit our number of plates to much fewer than we had originally anticipated, this plan, with some others of our own, have been omitted.
[2]The poetical account of this tract of country by Lucan is well known to the readers of ancient literature, and we shall have occasion hereafter to advert to it in speaking of the actual appearance of the Syrtis.
[3]A little before this period, an expedition undertaken by the Bashaw of Tripoly against his eldest son Mahommed, now Bey of Derna, afforded to Signor Della Cella, an Italian gentleman residing in Tripoly, the opportunity of visiting the Syrtis and Cyrenaica in the capacity of physician to the Bashaw’s second son, who at that time commanded the expedition against his brother.
The account of this journey was published at Genoa soon after the return of Dr. Della Cella; and the interest which uncertainty had given to the country through which he passed was increased by his animated description of its remains. But the opportunities which were afforded to the Doctor were not sufficient for the accomplishment of his object; and although his pen described the extensive ruins which he witnessed, the reader had to regret that the shortness of his stay prevented him from examining them with attention.
We subjoin the errata which we have been able to detect in a hasty perusal of the Narrative after the whole was printed off. There may possibly, however, be others which have escaped us. The few errors which occur in some of the passages quoted from foreign languages, we have not thought it necessary to include in this list, since the proper readings will be obvious to all who understand them, and it will be unnecessary to point them out to those who do not.
| Page | |
| 52, | for who has obligingly, read and who has, &c. (Note.) |
| 65, | for this range, read the range. |
| 292, | for ti stan bono, read ti sta bono. |
| 293, | for a te. read été. |
| 397, | for its site should be fixed, read looked for. |
| 397, | for of the accounts of the city of Barca, read if the accounts, &c. |
| 471, | for at the roadstead, read in the roadstead. |
Coast line of the Gulf OF THE Greater Sertis,
BY Capt. F. W. Beechey, R.N.
| J. & C. Walker Sculpt. | Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London. |
![[(Large-size)]](#1649629358567350039_map01_large.jpg.id-5678020583441594821.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
NARRATIVE
CHAPTER I.
Arrival of the Expedition at Tripoly; pleasing appearance of the Town from the Sea — Friendly Reception of the Party by the Consul — Interview with the Bashaw, who promises his protection and assistance — Appointment of the Escort — Visits to some of the Mahometan Residents in Tripoly — Sidi Mahommed d’Ghies — Preparations for the journey — Adoption of the Costume of the Country — This precaution recommended on the experience of the party — Visit from the Arab Escort — Description of their principal, Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah — Sketch of the Shekh’s former Life — Friendly attentions of the European Residents of Tripoly — Arrival of Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton.
In the beginning of September the Adventure sailed from Malta, and in a few days we made the African shore, at about the situation assigned to Tripoli Vecchio. Running down to the eastward, we soon discovered the place of our destination, and on the morning of the 11th, cast anchor in the harbour of Tripoly. The town makes a respectable appearance from the sea; it is surrounded by a high wall, strengthened with bastions, above which are distinguished the mosques and the baths, whose white minarets and cupolas form no unpleasing contrast with the dark tints presented by thick groves of palm-trees, rising in varied groups, from the gardens at the back of the town. The different coloured flags which were hoisted to salute us on the castle of the Bashaw, and the houses of the several consuls, floated gaily in the clear atmosphere and bright sunshine of a Mediterranean climate; and the whole together, viewed under favourable impressions, gave to Tripoly an appearance of much more interest and importance than it was afterwards found to have deserved.
The reception which we experienced from Mr. Warrington, the British Consul-General at Tripoly, was friendly and attentive in the extreme; and, on our landing, the consulate was assigned to us as a residence, which he obligingly left at our disposal. The arrival of our party was now signified officially to the Bashaw, who appointed a day to receive us; being at the time indisposed, on account of the operation of burning, which he had undergone as a cure for the rheumatism[1]. His Highness was provided with a skilful European physician, who had been for some time attached to his person and to the court; but the prejudices of his country were too strong to be overcome by reason, and the remedies of Dr. Dicheson gave way to the popular superstition.
On the day appointed for the interview, we proceeded to the palace of His Highness, accompanied by the Consul and Captain Smyth. The streets through which we had to pass, on our way to the Castle, were by no means fit approaches to a regal abode; they were encumbered with the rubbish of houses fallen into ruin, and with the superfluous produce of those which were yet standing; while swarms of little naked and dirty children, and numerous groups of hungry, half-starved dogs, almost blocked up the little space which was left for our passage. The dust which was unavoidably raised in our progress, together with the heat of the sun, and the myriads of gnats and flies which assailed us in every direction, were no grateful additions to these inconveniences; and we were heartily glad to find ourselves before the gates of the Castle, where a part of the Bashaw’s guard was drawn out in due form to receive us. After paying our respects to the Kechia[2], (who was seated at the end of the skeefa, or entrance hall,) we were ushered along a dark and narrow passage, so irregular and uneven under foot, that we were in danger of falling at almost every step[3], and having passed at intervals several Tchaouses and soldiers, who were barely discernible through the gloom, we found ourselves at length in a spacious apartment, where a motley crowd of Christians, Turks, Arabs, and Jews, were assembled to wait His Highness’s leisure.
We had not been long here before it was announced to us that the Bashaw was prepared to receive us; and, on approaching the presence, we found His Highness seated, with all due solemnity, at the farther end of the apartment, attended by his third son, Sidy Ali, by Reis Moràt[4], who acted as interpreter, and by other principal officers of the Court. A formidable line of well-armed black soldiers were ranged along the walls of the room, who stood exactly like so many statues, each with a loaded blunderbuss, held with the muzzle pointed downwards; and close to the Bashaw’s person was a trusty black slave, who held in readiness His Highness’s pistols. The introduction of armed soldiers into the presence-chamber of a Sovereign was rather a novel sight to Europeans, and may be taken as an example of the extremely barbarous state in which the Regency of Tripoly, with all its recent improvements, must still be admitted to remain.
The High Admiral, Reis Moràt, in the name of our party, made known to the Bashaw the friendly disposition of the King of England towards His Highness; in testimony of which he was requested to accept the present of four brass field-pieces, with their accoutrements, which we had brought with us on board the Adventure; and he was then requested to extend his protection to our party in their passage through his extensive dominions. Every assistance was freely offered on the part of the Bashaw, who expressed himself, in return, highly satisfied with the friendly assurances of His Majesty; and the necessary preliminaries being satisfactorily arranged, tea[5] and lemonade were served with all due decorum, and our party took leave of His Highness. The guns were brought up the same afternoon, close under the balcony of the palace, and the Bashaw appeared at the window to inspect them, with some of the officers of his court; various manœuvres were gone through to the admiration and astonishment of the spectators, under the direction of the gunner of the Adventure, and the cannoniers acquitted themselves so highly to the satisfaction of His Highness, that he sent a sword to the gunner, in token of his approbation, and a bag of dollars to be divided among the crew.
In our interview with the Bashaw it had been finally arranged that our party should be escorted as far as Bengazi, by an Arab Shekh who presided over the district of Syrt, and was called Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah; at Bengazi we were to be consigned to Hadood, Shekh of Barka, who was to conduct us as far as Bomba, beyond which his authority ceased. As Bomba, or its immediate vicinity, may be considered as the eastern limit of the Regency, we were informed that, in our progress from that place to Alexandria, we must depend upon the protection of the Bashaw of Egypt. We had foreseen this circumstance before our arrival in Tripoly, and a letter had been written from Malta to Mr. Salt, His Majesty’s Consul-General in Egypt, requesting him, in the name of the British Government, to make the necessary arrangements with His Highness the Viceroy for our passing from Derna to Alexandria; and we afterwards received a firman from Mahommed Ali, which he considered would be sufficient to ensure our advance.
These preliminaries settled we began to make preparations for our journey, and consulted with the most intelligent natives in Tripoly on the best means of forwarding the objects of the Expedition.
We found them on all occasions particularly obliging, and always ready to afford us every information in their power. From Sidi Mahommed D’Ghies, in particular, the same well-informed native who had been of great service to Mr. Ritchie and Captain Lyon, as well as from his son[6], a most excellent young man, we received at various times much useful advice, and always the most friendly and cordial reception.
At the house of Sidi Mahommed, we were one day introduced to one of the most respectable Mahometan traders to Timbuctoo; who offered to ensure our arrival at that place, and our return in perfect safety to Tripoly, provided we would place ourselves entirely under his directions; allowing, of course, for ill health, as well as for such accidents as could not be foreseen, and may happen to any one in travelling across the desert. As Timbuctoo, however, formed no part of the object of our mission, this offer was naturally declined; and we merely mention it here as one which may be worth consideration, should any future traveller decide upon attempting this journey by way of Tripoly.
Our next care was to provide ourselves with the dress of the country, which was strongly recommended to us by our Mahometan friends, and which, indeed, on the former experience of one of our party, we had before proposed to adopt. The opinion of Colonel Warrington was in favour of the European costume; but as we supposed it to have been founded on the experience of journeys in the neighbourhood of Tripoly only, within the immediate range of the Bashaw’s authority, and in places where the natives are more accustomed to the dress; we thought it most advisable to adopt the advice of our Turkish friends, which we knew to be formed on an extensive acquaintance with the prejudices, manners, and customs of the Arabs: this opinion, besides, had the additional recommendation of being quite in unison with our own; and it is probably not unknown to some of our readers that a similar coincidence has usually its weight in decisions of much more importance. The experience of our journey through the Syrtis and Cyrenaica confirmed us still more decidedly in our former opinion; and as the propriety of adopting the Turkish costume has occasionally been questioned and denied, we will venture to add our testimony in its favour to that of all the most experienced travellers in Mahometan countries with whom we have ever been acquainted; so far, at least, as the adoption of it is in question, in places where the principal persons in power, and the bulk of the population are Mussulmen. If it were only on the score of convenience, we should in most cases recommend it; and it is certainly the best calculated to prevent interruption, and all the numerous annoyances arising from idle curiosity and the prejudices of an ignorant people.
On our return, one morning, from a visit to the Bazar, where we had been making some purchases necessary for our journey, we found our apartment occupied by the Bedouin Arabs who had been appointed by the Bashaw to attend us to Bengazi. They had been ranged by our servant on chairs round the room, on which they did not appear to sit much at their ease; and some of them had relinquished their exalted situation for the more convenient level which the chairs themselves occupied, that safe and comfortable position, the ground: here they squatted themselves down with true Arab dignity, and soon found themselves much more at home. There was little in the dress of these swarthy personages by which one might be distinguished from the rest. An ample baracàn, fastened in the usual Arab manner, partially displayed the large, loose sleeves of a cotton shirt, more remarkable than usual for its whiteness; a piece of distinction which is, by Arabs, considered necessary only in towns, and on visits of more than ordinary ceremony: from a leathern belt was suspended a case of the same material, containing a brace of long pistols, near which hung a leathern pouch for powder and ball, and a smaller one which served as a pocket or purse. A red, or white cap, (for some had one, some the other,) and sandals of camel’s hide, fastened with thongs of leather, completed the whole costume. One only wore a turban; and, on closer investigation, the pistol-cases and pistols of the person so distinguished appeared to be in better order than those of his companions. But no difference of attire was necessary to mark out Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah from those who accompanied him. A venerable length of beard, in which white was partially blended with gray, gave an air of patriarchal respectability to his appearance; and a singular mixture of energy and complacency displayed the wild and daring spirit which animated him half subdued by the composure of age, and the decorum which it was necessary to observe on the occasion: a well-acted smile was playing on his lips, with which his voice and his manner, when he addressed us, corresponded; but his large full eye, though its lustre was dimmed by age, was never for a moment at rest; and wandered unceasingly from object to object, with a wildness and rapidity very different from the vacant stare of curiosity so conspicuous in the faces of most of his party.
Shekh Mahommed was at this time nearly sixty years of age, and had early been very formidable as a robber in the district of Syrt. The circumstance of his being the head of a Maràbut tribe, joined to the natural intrepidity of his character, had given him great influence over the Arabs of his neighbourhood; and the daring character of his exploits soon obtained for him the appellation of El Dúbbah, or the Hyæna.
At a more advanced period, when the rigorous measures of the Bashaw seemed likely to reduce the Arab tribes to subjection, Mahommed, finding it probably more to his interest, went over to His Highness’s party; and from his knowledge of the country, and the interest which he possessed, was enabled to render him very essential service: he was in consequence established as Shekh of Syrt, a district of more than two hundred miles in extent. We were glad to find that Shekh Mahommed was as eager as ourselves for an early departure from Tripoly; he soon began to enumerate all the various disadvantages which were to be expected from travelling in the rainy season over the low and swampy regions of the Syrtis; and drew such pictures of them as would have determined us to set out immediately had our movements depended upon ourselves. But the delays of the tradesmen, who furnished our supplies, and many others, which could neither be foreseen nor prevented, retarded the movements of the Expedition; and it was not till the morning of the 5th of November that we were able to set out on our journey. It may well be imagined that the attractions of Tripoly are neither very great nor very numerous; and our stay there had been attended with a good deal of trouble and vexation in making the necessary arrangements for our departure: but the friendly attentions which we had invariably received from many of its principal European inhabitants, as well as from several of its Mahometan residents, greatly contributed to enliven the monotony of a Moorish town; and it was not without feelings of sincere regret that we took leave of our little circle of acquaintance. This had latterly been increased by the arrival of Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton, of the navy, who were commissioned by Government to make researches in the interior of Africa; and who were to proceed to Bornou, by way of Morzouk, as soon as the preparations could be completed which were necessary for so tedious a journey.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]The practice of cautery is well known to be generally adopted, and confidently depended upon, by the Arabs and Moors, as an effectual remedy for almost every disorder. The custom may be traced to a very remote period, and is alluded to by Herodotus, (Melpomene, 187,) as peculiar to the Libyan Nomades, the early inhabitants of a considerable part of the coast of Northern Africa. The remedy is indeed too indiscriminately applied, but is not, however, unfrequently productive of good effects. We were assured by a man at Bengazi, that he had been cured three times of the plague by the mere application of a hot iron to the tumours which attend the disease; and if we might judge from the dreadful scars which remained, his attacks were by no means slight ones.
[2]This officer holds the second place in the Regency, and is invested with the supreme power whenever His Highness is absent.
[3]Tully observes, “We entered these gloomy passages, which always seem as if they led to some dreadful abode for the purpose of entombing the living.”
[4]Reis Moràt, we believe, is a Scotchman, and was formerly mate of a merchant vessel; but having embraced the Mahometan faith, and entered the service of the Bashaw, has now, through his naval skill and abilities, arrived at the head of his profession, and is much considered by His Highness.
[5]Tea is very generally used by the higher classes throughout the Regency of Tripoly, and coffee but rarely.
[6]This young man, who is the second son of Sidi Mahommed d’Ghies, and is also named Mahommed, is an admirable example of true devotion to the religion of his country, united with the more extended and liberal feelings of Europeans. He daily visits the public school where young boys are taught to read the Koran; and superintends the charitable distribution of food which the bounty of Sidi Mahommed provides for the poor who daily present themselves at his gate. Besides his acquaintance with the English and French languages, he is able to converse with the slaves of the family in several languages of the interior of Africa; and when it is considered that Mahometans in general seldom trouble themselves to speak any language but their own, this proficiency is greatly to his credit; we should rather, perhaps, say, to the credit of his father, under whose eye he has been hitherto brought up, and who is himself well acquainted with the French, and we believe with several other languages. The elder son of Sidi Mohammed was in England while we were at Tripoly, and must be remembered by many of the first circles in London.
CHAPTER II.
General description of Tripoly; its Castle and Port — The Buildings of Tripoly commended by Leo Africanus — Present condition of the City — Its existing ancient remains — Burial-ground of the ancient City — Sepulchral urns of glass discovered there by Mr. Consul Warrington — Remarks of Leo Africanus on the soil and level of Tripoly, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — Accumulation of soil since that period — Advance of the sea, mentioned by Leo Africanus, still observable on the coast of Northern Africa — These appearances adduced in confirmation of Major Rennell’s remarks on the Lake Tritonis and the Lesser Syrtis — Historical sketch of Tripoly — Its actual state and improved condition under the present Bashaw — Abolition of Piracy, and partial discontinuance of the Slave Trade.
The town of Tripoly has been built on a foundation of rock, and is washed, to the northward, on two sides, by the sea; while the remaining parts, those to the southward and westward, are bounded by a large sandy plain, which is notwithstanding partially cultivated[1].
The form of the town is very irregular, but it is completely surrounded by high and thick walls, which appear to have been once very strong. They are now falling fast into ruin; yet wherever any part of the old work is seen, through the mud and irregular fragments of stone, with which the ravages of time have been partially concealed, it appears to be solid and good[2]. The walls are besides provided with ramparts, on which are planted a number of guns quite sufficient to make themselves tolerably respected, were it not that the impertinent interference of rust, and the occasional want of carriages for the guns, might contribute to prevent their effect. The castle is built at the south-eastern angle of the city, close to the water’s edge; and may be said to connect the line of ramparts along the beach with that which encloses the town to the southward. The walls of the castle are unusually high, and have been fortunately made to incline a good deal inwards: we say fortunately, for so bad is the state of repair, in which the exterior is kept, that without this convenient inclination to the centre, they would not probably be standing at all. Yet they are certainly of considerable thickness; and it is owing to the very unworkmanlike manner in which the building has been from time to time augmented, for we ought not to call it repaired, that its strength has been materially diminished[3].
Appearances, however, are by no means disregarded; and the surface of His Highness’s castle and residence (for the building is both one and the other) displays a bright coating of plaster and whitewash over the unseemly patchwork beneath it.
The city walls and ramparts are for the most part disguised under a cloak of the same gay material; and the whole together, viewed under an African sun, and contrasted with the deep blue of an African sky, assumes a decent, we may even say, a brilliant appearance. It must, however, be confessed that this is much improved by distance; for a too close inspection will occasionally discover through their veil the defects which we have alluded to above; and large flakes of treacherous plaster will occasionally be found by near observers to have dropt off and left them quite exposed.
Leo Africanus has informed us that the houses and bazars of Tripoly were handsome compared with those of Tunis. How far this epithet might have been applicable at the period here alluded to, we are not ourselves able to judge; but we must confess that the beauty of the existing houses and bazars of Tripoly did not appear to us particularly striking: and if the comparison drawn by Leo may be still supposed to hold, we do not envy the architects of Tunis whatever fame they may have acquired by the erection of the most admired buildings of that city. The mosques and colleges, as well as hospitals, enumerated by our author, must have been very different from those now existing to entitle them to any commendation; and the rude and dilapidated masses of mud and stone, or more frequently, perhaps, of mud only, here dignified by the appellation of houses, do not certainly present very brilliant examples either of taste, execution, or convenience. Indeed, if we consider the actual state of Tripoly, we might be authorized, perhaps, in disputing its claims to be ranked as a city at all; and they who are unaccustomed to Mahometan negligence might imagine that they had wandered to some deserted and ruinous part of the town, when in reality they were traversing the most admired streets of a populous and fashionable quarter. This want of discernment, however, is chiefly confined to Europeans; for the greater part of the Mahometan inhabitants of Tripoly are strongly convinced of its beauty and importance; while the wandering Arab who enters its gates, and looks up to the high and whitewashed walls of the Bashaw’s castle, expresses strongly in his countenance the astonishment which he feels how human hands and ingenuity could have accomplished such a structure.
Of the ancient remains now existing in Tripoly, the Roman arch we have already alluded to, with a few scattered fragments of tesselated pavement, and some partial ruins of columns and entablatures, here and there built into the walls of modern structures, are all that we were able to discover[4].
The harbour is formed by a long reef of rocks running out into the sea in a north-easterly direction, and by other reefs at some distance to the eastward of these, all of which make together a very good shelter. In the deepest part, however, there is very little more than five and six fathoms water.
At the extremity of a rocky projection to the northward, forming part of the first-mentioned reef, are two batteries, called the New, and Spanish, forts; and to the westward of these, on an insulated rock, is a circular one called the French fort. Besides these, there are two others on the beach to the eastward, which, with the New and Spanish forts, would prove of considerable annoyance to hostile vessels entering the harbour. The forts are in better condition than the walls and ramparts, which we have already stated to be very much dilapidated, and the guns very little attended to.
The mosques and baths of Tripoly, with its coffee-houses, bazars, &c., as well as the manners and customs, dresses, prejudices, and other peculiarities, of the people who are in the habit of frequenting them, have been so amply, and so well described in other publications, that we need not here attempt any account of them[5].
We may, however, be allowed a few words on the peculiarities of soil, at present observable in the neighbourhood of Tripoly, as contrasted with those which appear to have existed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
It has been observed by Leo Africanus, (who flourished during the pontificate and under the protection of Leo the Tenth,) that there was at all times a scarcity of grain in Tripoly, and that the country about it was incapable of cultivation; but it will appear from the passages which we have quoted below, as well as from the actual state of the place, that it is merely the want of rain (which is occasionally experienced) that now prevents the soil in question from producing good crops very regularly[6].
When we inquire into the cause of this difference, a more interesting result will be afforded by the inquiry than any which relates to the quantity of corn produced at Tripoly. We find, for instance, that the lands to the southward of Tripoly (we mean those in the immediate neighbourhood of the town) were subject, in the time of the African Geographer, to be overflowed for some extent by the sea; while the same parts are now above the level of the water, which never reaches high enough to cover them[7]. “All the country about Tripoly” (says Leo Africanus) “is sandy like that of Numidia; and the reason of this is, that the sea enters freely towards the southward, (entra assai verso mezzogiorno,) so that the lands which ought to be cultivated are all covered with water. The opinion of the inhabitants,” he continues, “with respect to this riviera, is, that there was formerly a considerable tract of land extending to the northward; but that for many thousand years the sea has been advancing and covering it; which is observable,” he adds, “and known to be the case, on the coast of Monasteer, as well as at Mahdia, Sfax, Gabes, and the island of Girbe; with other cities to the eastward, whose shores have but little depth of water; so that one may walk a mile or two into the sea without being up to the waist. Wherever this occurs,” (continues Leo) “such places are said to be considered as parts of the soil overflowed by the sea;” (that is, not within the original bounds of the latter,) “and the inhabitants of Tripoly,” he tells us, “are of opinion, that their city stood formerly more to the northward; but that owing to the continual advance of the sea it has been gradually extended in a southerly direction; they also declare,” says our Author, “that remains of houses and other buildings may still be observed under water[8].”
From this account, contrasted with the actual appearance of the place in question, we must either suppose that the level of the lands here alluded to, which are those in the immediate neighbourhood of Tripoly, is higher, at the present time, than it was in the age of Leo, or that the sea has retired since that period. For although the soil of Tripoly still continues to be sandy, there is now no part of it, as we have stated above, overflowed to the southward of the town[9]. As we cannot suppose that the sea has retired since the time of the author in question—(for we shall hereafter point out several instances on the coast, between this part of Northern Africa and Alexandria, in which it rather appears to have gained)—we must conclude that, since the age of Leo Africanus, the land alluded to has been rising in a greater proportion than the sea.
This elevation of soil is, at the same time, by no means inconsistent with the rise of the waters already mentioned; for, as the coast is here sandy, we may venture to conclude, that the sea, notwithstanding it continued to rise, threw up, from time to time, a sufficient quantity of sand to raise the level of the country above it; and we shall thus have an additional confirmation of what appears to be actually the case on the coasts of the Greater Syrtis, and Cyrenaica, as well as of the ingenious conjectures of Major Rennell with regard to the Lake Tritonis and the Lesser Syrtis.
It is well known that Tripoly, after the destruction of Carthage, became a Roman province; and that on the conquest of a great part of Northern Africa by the Vandals, it passed into the hands of those barbarians, from which it was rescued, in the reign of Justinian, by the valour and abilities of Belisarius. The rapid and extraordinary progress of Mahometanism, soon after the death of its founder, involved Tripoly, together with the whole of Northern Africa, in the general wreck of civilization and Christianity: since that period it has remained, with few exceptions, in the hands of its Moslem conquerors, passing successively from the government of the Caliphs to the tyranny of Morocco, Fez, Tunis, and the Porte. After the erection of the walls of the town, already mentioned as the work of Dragut, Tripoly became the secure resort of most of the Corsairs who roved under Turkish colours; and from that port they continually make attacks and descents on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean.
After the death of Dragut, the Porte continued to send Governors to Tripoly under the titles of Sangiac and Bashaw; and the castle was garrisoned by Turkish troops while the Moors inhabited the city. At length, in the year 1714, it was finally rescued from the oppression of the Turks by the great-grandfather of the reigning Bashaw; who, having contrived to assassinate the whole of the garrison, took the reins of government into his own hands, and obtained the title of Hamet the Great. From that time to the present it has remained under the government of the Moors, although the supremacy of the Grand Signor is still acknowledged, and tribute is paid to the Porte.
We may say, in allusion to the actual state of Tripoly, that it appears to be making some advances towards civilization, and is beginning to feel the good effects which result from a state of security and tranquillity. Indeed, when we reflect upon its deplorable condition at the time of the accession of Sidi Yusuf, and look back upon the horrors of civil discord and contention to which it had been for more than eight years exposed—impoverished at the same time by indiscriminate extortion and plunder, and subjected during the period of these heavy calamities to the dreadful effects of famine and plague—we may venture to assert that the present state of Tripoly is far better than might have been expected. It is now secure under the protection of an established government, property is respected, and commerce is improving; its markets are well supplied, its manufactures are encouraged, and its population appears to be increasing[10].
A considerable portion of the revenue of Tripoly was formerly drawn from the plunder obtained by her corsairs; and a very lucrative branch of her commerce consisted in the traffic of slaves. The humane interference, and the decisive measures, of England, have contributed to check, if not quite to abolish, these execrable sources of profit. Piracy, so far at least as we were able to learn, has been wholly superseded by commerce; and when the Tripolines find that it is more to their interest to give up their traffic in human kind than to continue it, we may hope to see this also relinquished.
It may, however, be added (we fear) that till then such a consummation must not be expected, however devoutly it may be wished. Indeed, we cannot reasonably expect that it should; for the feelings which result from a high state of civilization will never be found to precede civilization itself: and humanity, however strongly we may believe, or may wish to believe, it is implanted in the breasts of all mankind, has not often been found to weigh very heavy against the scale in which interest, or inclination, has been opposed to it.
Geographical Remarks on the Towns and District of Tripoly.
The town of Tripoly has been usually considered to occupy the site of the ancient Oea; one of the cities which, with Sabrata and Leptis Magna, the Tripoli Vecchia and Lebida of modern times, composed the three principal towns of a district which took from them the appellation of Tripolis.
At what precise period this tract of country assumed the title of Tripolis does not appear to be clearly ascertained; but we may probably conclude that it acquired it in the reign, either of Titus, or of his successor Domitian; soon after the building of Sabrata and Oea, which may be supposed to have taken place before the middle of the first century[11].
It seems to be still more uncertain when the name of the district was bestowed upon the cities of Tripoly; for although Tripoli Vecchia (which we have already called Sabrata) has been said to be the first which assumed it, there does not appear to be any other proof in favour of this supposition, (at least we are not ourselves acquainted with it,) than that which may be inferred from the epithet vecchia, by which this town has been for centuries distinguished. Both cities appear to have flourished together under the Romans; and were in all probability destroyed at the same time, in the Saracen invasion of the country. As Sabrata, however, continued to remain in ruins, while a new town sprung up on the site of the ancient Oea, the name of Tripoly may have, perhaps, been first assumed by the latter; while Sabrata, from the circumstance of its being in ruins, was distinguished by the epithet which it retains.
We are not aware of any proof that either Sabrata or Oea had changed their names before their destruction by the Saracens; and as no town appears to have been erected on the ruins of the former, there was no necessity for distinguishing it by another. When a new town arose on the ruins of Oea, it is probable that the appellation by which it is at present known to the Moors, and which is merely a corruption of the Roman term for the district[12], was the first name which either town assumed after the loss of those which formerly distinguished them. Tráblis would have been known to the nations of Europe as the same name with that of Tripolis; and they would naturally have written the term like that of the district, whenever there might have been occasion to mention it. Supposing this to be the case, we may fairly assume, that the name of Tripolis was never given by the ancients at all to either of the cities in question; and that it is only, in fact, since the Mahometan conquest that the name of the district has been applied to them.
This appears to be more probable when we consider that the title of—The district of the three cities—as Tripolis must be translated, would be a very unappropriate term for a single town, although it might be well applied to a department. Such an objection, however, would by no means appear to the Mahometan invaders of the country, who may certainly be imagined to have been ignorant of the language from which the word in question is compounded; and they would discover no reason why the former name of the district might not be a proper one for their new town.
We have not been at the pains to search minutely into this question, which would probably receive light from the writers of the Lower Empire; and we offer the conjectures which we have hazarded above, in the absence of more decided information. At the same time, however, it may here be remarked, that the propriety of adopting the word Tripolis, which appears in the printed copies of Ptolemy, is questioned on very good authority. In support of this assertion we need only refer our readers to the Fourth Book of Cellarius, (chap. 3,) where the question is amply discussed; and as the adoption of this reading, instead of that of Leptis Magna, which appears to be decidedly the proper one, would create an endless and unnecessary confusion in the geography of that part of the country which lies between Tripoli Vecchia and Lebida, we have thought it not irrelevant to allude to it[13].
It is perhaps the more necessary that we should do so, as Signor Della Cella has availed himself of the reading above mentioned, and of a passage which he has quoted from Pliny, to identify the modern town of Tripoly with Neapolis; which is too evidently the same town with Leptis Magna (or Lebida), to admit of any similar arrangement[14].
We have by no means any wish to detract from the merits of this gentleman, who deserves every credit for the spirit of inquiry which has led him to encounter the fatigues and privations of a journey like that which he has accomplished. He is the first European who has crossed the Greater Syrtis since the occupation of Northern Africa by the Romans; at least he is the only one that we know of, since that period, who has published any account of such a journey; and he is therefore entitled to the merit of having afforded us the only information which has been given for many centuries of an interesting and extensive tract of country. But as we shall frequently have occasion to refer to his work in the course of the present narrative, we trust that we shall not be suspected of undervaluing its merits, because we may sometimes find it necessary to point out what we conceive to be its errors.
In considering the modern town of Tripoly as Oea, one difficulty will however present itself: Oea is no where mentioned as a port, that we have been able to discover; whereas Tripoly must always have been one. But as many cities are mentioned as ports by one writer, while they are merely styled cities by another, this objection may readily be waived. Garapha is by Ptolemy styled λιμην, by Scylax πολις, by Pliny, Oppidum; Abrotonum is by Strabo called πολις, by Scylax πολις και λιμην, by Pliny, Oppidum: Leptis Magna is rarely mentioned as a port, although it is well known to have been one; and many more examples might be adduced by those who would take the trouble to collect them.
What is now called modern Tripoly has been said by some writers to have been built by the early inhabitants of Northern Africa, under the name of Tarabilis or Trebiles; and the same authors have stated that the Roman term of Tripolis is derived from the name which they bestowed upon it. We have already noticed the improbability of this latter supposition; and we may now venture to add, that there appears to be no proof of any town having been built upon the site of modern Tripoly before the erection of the city of Oea. Leptis Magna is known to have been built by the Phœnicians, on the authority of several writers of antiquity; but the other two cities composing the Tripolis have always been considered of Roman origin, and no mention is made of any other having ever been assigned to them in works not comparatively modern.
Leo Africanus, who may be supposed to have compiled his account of Africa from the authority chiefly of Mahometan historians, has given his testimony in favour of the native origin of Tripoly, while he states that Tripoli Vecchia was built by the Romans. “Questa,” (Tripoli Vecchia) says the African geographer, “è una città antica edificata pur da’ Romani;” but of the other town he states, “Tripoli fu edificata da gli Africani, dopo la rovina della Vecchia Tripoli”—without any allusion whatever to the circumstance of its having been originally a Roman city.
Whatever may be the earliest authority for this supposition, it appears to be evidently founded on an imperfect knowledge of the place; for if there were even no reason for supposing Tripoly to be Oea, we must still have allowed it Roman origin; or at least we must have admitted it to have been in existence at the time when the Romans held the country. The Roman arch, which has been given in the work of Captain Lyon, is sufficient to establish this circumstance; and the inscription which it bears, also given in the same publication, and mentioned in the Memoirs of Consul Tully[15], refers this edifice to the time of Marcus Aurelius. In stating that Tripoly was built by the Africans, after the ruin of Tripoli Vecchia, we might have imagined that Leo only meant to allude to its re-construction under the Mahometans; but from the circumstance of his having just before mentioned Tripoli Vecchia, as a city which was built by the Romans, it seems to be probable that, had he been aware of them, he would equally have noticed the pretensions of modern Tripoly to a higher antiquity than he has assigned to it.
Tripoli Vecchia was destroyed, under the caliphate of Omar, by the Saracen invaders of the country. The city was pillaged, after a siege of six months, and its inhabitants either slain or carried prisoners to Egypt and Arabia. This is stated by Leo; and here we have a date for the destruction of the city of Sabrata, which appears to have never been rebuilt: but how long after the occurrence of this event Modern Tripoly first appeared on the ruins of Oea we have not been informed by our author. And it seems to be evident that he considered the African town as the first which had been raised upon the spot.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]Three sides of the town of Tripoly are said, in Tully’s Memoirs, to be washed by the sea, which is certainly not now the case.
[2]The noted corsair Dragūt is said to have been the author of this defence, and two forts which were situated near the sea are also attributed to this person.
But Leo Africanus, who flourished at the same period with Dragūt, at the beginning of the 16th century, has mentioned the walls of Tripoly as being high and handsome, though not very strong; and as the existing walls of the town, if they be really those of Dragūt, bear all the appearance of having once been very solid, we may perhaps suppose that those mentioned by Leo were standing before the present ones were constructed.
The greatest length of the city, including the walls, may be said to be about 1360 yards, and its extreme breadth about a thousand yards.
[3]The happy confusion of buildings which surmount the walls of the castle, raised at various times for the convenience and accommodation of the royal family, together with the little world which is contained within its limits, have been well, and correctly described in Tully’s Memoirs.
[4]To the eastward of the town, however, on a tract of rocky and elevated ground, is the burial-place of the ancient city; where the researches of Mr. Consul Warrington have brought to light some very interesting objects; particularly several large sepulchral urns of glass, the most perfect we have ever seen.
[5]We allude principally to the works of Consul Tully and Captain Lyon, and to Blaquiere’s Letters from the Mediterranean.
[6]“In our way home” (says the artless and amiable writer of Tully’s Memoirs) “we passed through a street noted for its corn-wells, or rather caverns, dug very deep into the earth. They are situated on each side of the street, at about thirty yards’ distance. They were designed for magazines to lay up corn in, where they say it will keep perfectly good for an hundred years. Happy were it for the inhabitants of this country if these caverns were filled now as they were formerly when the country was so rich in the produce of corn, that it was from hence exported to many parts of the world, and prized almost above any other. The barley when sown here yields twice as much as it does in Europe. When it grows properly, they reckon thirty and thirty-five ears for one an ordinary produce; while in Europe fourteen or fifteen is considered as a good return.” In dry seasons, however, which frequently occur, the case appears to be far otherwise. “The times are so much altered now,” (continues the authoress above mentioned,) “that corn is imported at an immense expense. This melancholy change is attributed to the want of rains, which have failed for several years past. There have not been more than one or two good harvests for thirty years. If cargoes of wheat do not soon arrive from Tunis, the state of this place will be dreadful beyond description.”—Tully’s Narrative, p. 49.—Again, the same writer says, p. 67, “It has been ascertained by the Bashaw to-day, that there is only barley for sale at two bazars, or market-places, left in the place. A few years since the barley here grew so favourably, that it produced in return three times as much as in any part of Europe. Such quantities of it were exported, that Tripoly was enriched by its sale; but the failure of rain has left the country for several years without one good harvest.”
This account is consistent with the above, and we have here some idea of what may be meant by the word formerly, in the passage first quoted, which is certainly somewhat indefinite.
[7]Part of the sandy plain to the south-eastward is, however, occasionally flooded during the prevalence of strong northerly gales, and there is a tract of marshy ground, to the westward of the town, between the cultivated parts and the sea.
[8](Leo Africanus in Ramusio, p. 72.)—With respect to the former extension of Tripoly to the northward, here mentioned by the African geographer, the observation is certainly in some degree correct, and consistent with the present appearance of other parts of the coast of Northern Africa; but we must at the same time observe that the town could scarcely have projected any farther to the northward than the sites of the French and Spanish forts; for beyond these we get into five and eight fathoms water.
[9]We must, however, confess, that we cannot altogether understand, why the loss of the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of Tripoly, said by Leo Africanus to have been flooded in his days, should have necessarily occasioned to the inhabitants of the town so great a scarcity of grain as that mentioned by this geographer. For the high grounds immediately beyond the parts which were overflowed, must at all times, we should conceive, from their rocky foundation, have been placed above the level of the sea at its greatest height, and might therefore have been cultivated as we find them to be at present; and the Gharian mountains, as well as the country of Tagiura, both of which are still very productive, are mentioned by Leo as places highly cultivated at the period of the overflow alluded to.
We may remark on this subject—that the coincidence of the former with the present state of the last-mentioned places, appears to be the more worthy of notice, from the circumstance of our finding the actual produce of other districts, both in Tunis and Tripoly, very different from what it appears to have been in earlier periods. Among other examples, in proof of this assertion, we may notice the great difference which has taken place in the produce and soil of Byzacium. This district was formerly much renowned for its fertility; and we are informed by Pliny that one grain of corn from the Byzacium was sent to the Emperor Augustus, which yielded four hundred shoots; and that three hundred and forty stems had been afterwards sent to Nero, produced equally from a single grain of corn[a]. But whatever be the cause of the change which has taken place, we find the soil of the Byzacium to have greatly fallen off from its former extraordinary fertility; in proof of which we need only extract the following observations from Shaw’s Travels in Barbary.
“The many parts which I have seen of the ancient Byzacium, or winter circuit, fall vastly short in fertility of the character which has been attributed to them by the ancients. For such as are adjacent to the sea coast are generally of a dry, sandy nature, with no great depth of soil in the very best portion of them. This is called the Sahul, and is planted for the most part with olive-trees, which flourish here in the greatest perfection. Neither is the inland country in a much better condition.”
[a]Misit ex eo loco Divo Augusto procurator ejus, ex uno grano, (vix credibile dictu) quadringenta paucis minus germina, extantque de ea re epistolæ. Misit et Neroni similiter CCCXL stipulas ex uno grano.—Nat. Hist. l. xviii. c. 10.
Again (lib. v. c. 4.) Ita (Byzacium) appellatur regio CCL. M. P. circuitu, fertilitatis eximiæ, cum centesima fruge agricolis fœnus reddente terra.
[10]Before we take leave of Tripoly it may be proper to recommend, for the information of those who may hereafter visit that country, the useful precaution of not subjecting themselves to the fluctuation which is usual in the exchange of the place. Money, in Tripoly, is in the hands of a few; and its possessors, who are by no means unacquainted with the most profitable methods of laying it out, are not at all times particularly remarkable for a liberal treatment of strangers. We found the exchange get more unfavourable as our demand for money increased; and having been obliged to make some comparatively heavy payments in Spanish dollars, the value of them rose in proportion as it was known we had occasion for them[a]. In order to remedy, or rather to prevent impositions of a similar nature, it would be advisable for travellers to take with them, in Spanish dollars, the amount of the sums they may have occasion for in Tripoly; for even if the exchange should be good on their arrival there, it would most probably lower as they were known to have occasion for money. Should this be inconvenient, bills might be drawn on Malta, and the money in Spanish dollars[] forwarded by the first secure vessel which might be sailing from that port to Tripoly.
[a]It must, however, be observed, in justice to the house of Messrs. Beaussier and Co., that we experienced a more liberal treatment from them than from any other house in Tripoly.
[]The Spanish dollar is the coin in most general request in the northern and inland parts of Africa.
[11]We find both these cities mentioned by Pliny; and one of them (Oea) by Pomponius Mela, while nothing is said by Strabo either of the cities or the district. Pliny died A.D. 79; Mela is supposed to have flourished about the middle of the first century, and Strabo in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. We may infer, from the silence of Strabo on the subject, that neither Sabrata nor Oea existed in his time; and as Pliny, though he mentions both cities, appears to have been unacquainted with the name of the district in question, we may also perhaps infer that it was bestowed upon it after his time. What is stated by Cellarius on the subject of Tripolis, appears to confirm this opinion: for he tells us that he knew of no one before the time of Solinus, who made any mention in Africa of the name[a]; and that he only applied the term to the district, and not to any particular city.
Solinus is known to have written after Pliny, towards the close of the first century; and we may therefore, perhaps, conclude, that the district called Tripolis, received that appellation between the times of Pliny and Solinus.
[a]Nec qui ante Solinum, non antiquissimum scriptorem, mentionem vocis Tripolis in Africa fecerit succurrit nobis; qui vero, non urbem, sed trium oppidorum regionem intellexit.—(Lib. iv. cap. 3. § 18.)
[12]Tráblis, the Moorish name of the town, is not, however, properly a corruption of Tripolis; it is merely the same word articulated through the medium of Arab pronunciation.
Some authors have imagined an early African name Tarabilis, or Trebilis, from which the Roman name Tripolis was derived; but this is merely imaginary, since the meaning of Tripolis clearly points out its origin to be Greek.
[13]In hoc tractu autem, post Cinyphum fluvium, prima Ptolemæo est Νεαπολις (Neapolis) de qua, in editis, exstat, ἡ καὶ Τριπολις (quæ etiam Tripolis vocatur): in Palatino autem codice nihil de Tripoli legitur, sed ἡ καὶ Λεπτις μεγαλη (quæ, Neapolis, etiam Leptis Magna dicitur.)—Geog. Antiq. lib. iv. cap. 3.
It may be added, in support of the reading in the Palatine manuscript, that Neapolis is mentioned by Ptolemy immediately after the Cinyphus, which lies to the eastward of Leptis Magna; so that the geographer, in passing, as he does, from east to west, must be supposed to have omitted Leptis Magna altogether, if Neapolis be not intended to denote it.
[14]This reading of Ptolemy, as will appear from the passage which we have quoted above from Cellarius, is contradicted by the Palatine manuscript; and must be rejected on the authority of Scylax and Strabo, and even of Ptolemy himself.—(See the Fourth Book of Cellarius). The passage of Pliny is not so easily disposed of. After mentioning the city of Sabrata, this author observes, in speaking of the country which lies between the Great and Lesser Syrtis, “Ibi civitas Oensis, Cynips fluvius ac regio, oppida, Neapolis, Taphra, Abrotonum, Leptis altera, quæ cognominatur magna.”—(Hist. Nat. lib. v. cap. 5.) Here we find Neapolis mentioned immediately after Oea, and distinguished from Leptis Magna. “Io crederei,” says Signor della Cella, “che sia piu conforme al vero, l’ammettere che Tripoli degli antichi geografi debba riconoscersi nelle rovine che trovansi a ponente de Tripoli tuttora chiamato Tripoli Vecchio. Pare che l’abbandono, qualunque ne fosse la cagione, di questa città, desse luogo alla formazione di quella che attualmente ne porta il nome, e che in quell’ epoca fu chiamata Tripoli il nuovo, o la nuova città, e da’ Greci Νεαπολις. In questa opinione consente la vera lezione di Tolommeo, ove leggesi Νεαπολις ἡ καὶ Τριπολις. (Neapoli che dicesi anche Tripoli.) Ho detto la vera lezione di Tolommeo, perchè io ho per apocrifa quella adottata dal Cellario, dove in vece di Τριπολις, avendo sostituito Λεπτις, tutto rimane alterato e confuso. Con Tolommeo concorda Plinio che ha per due città diverse Neapoli e Leptis Magna, e tra queste due tramette Gaffara e Abrotano; e Plinio, per le cognizione che poteva attinger nella città, e ne’ tempi ne’ quali scriveva, merita sopra ogni altro credenza intorna alla geografia di questa parte dell’ Africa.”—(Viaggio da Tripoli, &c. p. 41.)
It will not here be very evident how the modern town of Tripoly can, on the authority of Pliny, be supposed to be the same with Neapolis. For Tripoly is identified by the best authorities with Oea; and Neapolis is mentioned, in the passage alluded to, as situated between Oea and Taphra, (the Graphara and Garapha of Scylax and Ptolemy.) But supposing it to be, as Signor della Cella has stated, that the decay of the “Tripoli degli antichi geografi” had really given occasion to the building of the present one, under the title he has conferred upon it of Neapolis; it follows that the former city must have borne the name of Tripolis in the time of Pliny, who, so far from knowing any town of that name, does not even recognise the district under the title.
It must, however, be confessed, that the introduction of Neapolis, in the situation which Pliny has assigned to it, is by no means very easily accounted for. At the same time it is certain, that the position in question is directly in opposition to the authority of Strabo, as well as to that of Scylax and of Ptolemy; who, all of them, identify Neapolis with Leptis Magna, as will be seen by a reference to Cellarius. This author, who insists very properly upon the authority of Strabo, &c., that Neapolis is Leptis Magna, supposes, with Hardouin, that Pliny has adopted the passage above quoted from Mela, whom he censures for having brought together places so distant from each other. But Mela is evidently speaking of the country to the westward of the Lesser Syrtis; of Leptis Parva, and the Neapolis Colonia of Ptolemy, situated near the extremity of the Mercurii Promontorium, in the vicinity of Clypea; so that, although the towns and cities which he enumerates do not come in the proper succession, they all of them belong to the part of the country which he is describing; and not, as Cellarius imagines, to both sides of the river Triton, which would have made a much more serious confusion. It is therefore less easy to imagine whence Pliny has derived his Neapolis, or what is his authority for the order in which he places the other cities of the district; if indeed he intended them to be in order at all, which from his mention of Oea (the civitas Oeensis) conjointly with the river Cinyphus[a], we might probably be authorized in denying. We find Abrotonum also introduced by Cellarius, instead of Acholla, in the passage which he has quoted from Mela: the proper reading is—Hadrumetum, Leptis, Clypea, Acholla, Taphrure[], Neapolis, hinc ad Syrtim adjacent, ut inter ignobilia celeberrimæ.
[a]The Taphrure of Mela must not be confounded with Pliny’s Taphra, which is the same with Graphara or Garapha.
[]Mela has however done the same (ultra est Oea oppidum, et Cinypus fluvius, per uberrima arva decidens . . .) and the difficulty is increased by what follows—tum Leptis altera, &c.; both accounts are very confused, and open to much discussion, but this is not the place for it, and we have already perhaps said too much upon the subject.
[15]Or rather of a female relation of Consul Tully, to whom the work in question is attributed.
It is observed in the same work, “When this arch was built, there were few habitations nearer this place than Lebida, the Leptis Magna of the ancients;” and farther on, “the Romans strayed to the spot where Tripoly now stands, to hunt wild beasts; and under this arch they found a welcome retreat from the burning rays of the sun.” But the arch was erected after the middle of the second century; and both Sabrata and Oea were extant in the time of Pliny, who flourished in the middle of the first,—the conclusion is obvious.
CHAPTER III.
Departure of the Expedition from Tripoly — Passage through Tagiura — Fertile appearance of the latter — Its Mosque, and actual remains — Tagiura considered as the site of Abrotonum — Existence of a salt-water lake at Tagiura, consistent with Strabo’s account of Abrotonum — Present tranquil condition of the country in this neighbourhood contrasted with its dangerous state in the time of Consul Tully — Sand-heaps to the eastward of Tagiura — Remarks on their formation, and on the accumulation of sand in other places — Dangers of the sand-storm considered — Passage over the sandy tract to the eastward of Tagiura — Arrive at Wady Ramleh — Stormy weather at that place — Take leave of our European friends who had accompanied us from Tripoly — Continuance of the gale — Arrive at Wady’m’Seyd — Attempt to pass, without success, across the sand-hills to the coast. — Arrive at Guadigmata — Position of Graphara, as laid down by Scylax, considered. — Ancient remains discovered by Captain Smyth in the neighbourhood of Wady’m’Seyd and Abdellata. — Remarks on these, considered as the remains of Graphara — Scuffle with the Arabs at Sidy Abdellati — Remains at that place indicative of an ancient military station — Cross the range of Sélem — Extensive view from its summit over the fertile plains of Lebida and Jumarr — Rains still continue — Distress of the camels — Meet with the English Consul on his return from an excursion to Lebida — Report of a troop of marauding Arabs lying in wait for our party.
On the 4th of November our arrangements were completed, and we were able to send the greater part of our baggage to the tents which had been pitched in a garden without the town; on the following morning we took a final leave of Tripoly, and set out on our journey to Tagiura.
Our party consisted of three Europeans, who acted equally as interpreters and servants, a Tchaous, or janissary, belonging to the Bashaw, Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah, with five other Bedouin Arabs, and three Arabs of Tripoly to look after the horses, making altogether (ourselves included) eighteen.
After passing through the Messeah, or cultivated district in the neighbourhood of Tripoly, and along the large Salt Marsh, mentioned in Tully’s Memoirs, which was now completely covered with water, we entered the scattered villages of Tagiura. They are surrounded by gardens, yielding abundant crops of corn, fruit and vegetables, and shaded by thickly-planted date and olive-trees, which are equally valuable to the inhabitants. We find Tagiura described by Leo Africanus as a country containing a good many villages, or hamlets, and many gardens of date and other fruit trees; and its present general appearance is probably little different from that which it presented in the time of this geographer.
In consequence of a considerable emigration from Tripoly, this country (he adds) became “assai nobile e civile;” but we must confess that there are at present very little remains of its importance, or extraordinary civilization; unless a large mosque, of some apparent antiquity (highly reverenced by its Mahometan population) and the good-humoured hospitality with which we were received by the natives, may be considered as examples of both.
The people, however, appeared to be contented and happy, and greeted us with many friendly salutations as we passed through their highly-cultivated country. Some Roman columns, which are said to be in the interior of the mosque, would seem to point out its vicinity to an ancient site[1]; and if we must necessarily consider Tagiura to occupy the position of any ancient town, we should suppose it to stand on that of Abrotonum.
But it will be found, upon inquiry, that there are considerable difficulties attendant on such a conclusion. For Abrotonum is stated by Scylax to have been two days’ sail from Leptis Magna[2]; and the distance between Tagiura and Lebida (already identified with Leptis Magna) is no more than 59 miles.
The mean rate allowed by Major Rennell, for the sailing of the vessels of the ancients, is 35 miles per day; so that the distance between Leptis Magna and Abrotonum should, at this rate, be 70 miles. It is true that the rate of Nearchus, in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf, as estimated by the same author, is no more than 22½ and 30 miles; but this was occasioned by circumstances not attendant on voyages in general, and must be considered (says the Major) as an unusually low rate.
Another difficulty arises from the mention of Abrotonum as a port, as well as a city, in the passage we have quoted from Scylax; for Tagiura cannot be said to possess one.
It will here immediately occur to the reader, that Tripoly has a very good port; and that the distance of that town from Lebida will answer remarkably well with the distance of Scylax in question: for Tripoly may be estimated at 67 miles from Lebida, which will be within three of the 70 miles mentioned as the distance between Leptis Magna and Abrotonum. Both these circumstances together will therefore appear very strongly to favour the supposition that Tripoly is Abrotonum; while a third, which we have already mentioned, viz., that Oea is not stated to be a port by ancient writers, (at least, not that we have been able to learn,) will contribute to strengthen the idea.
These facts would undoubtedly make it seem very probable that Modern Tripoly is the Abrotonum of Scylax; but then the authorities of D’Anville and Cellarius, and these are no slender authorities, concur in placing that town on the site of Oea, as which we have accordingly considered it[3].
We will not pursue the question further; but will leave our readers to judge how far Abrotonum may be placed at Tagiura under the circumstances which we have already stated; merely adding, that the fertile plains of Tagiura are admirably calculated for the position of a town, and that many a pleasant day has been spent among their villages and gardens by the European inhabitants of Tripoly, who often make parties to visit them.
We may at the same time contrast the present quiet state of Tagiura with that in which it was found by Consul Tully a short time before the accession of Sidi Yusuf. It was then considered necessary, in visiting this place, although during what were called tranquil times, that the party of the Consul, amounting to upwards of forty, should be increased by the addition of several of the Bashaw’s Chaouses; and it was afterwards reported to His Highness, that he had had, notwithstanding this prudent precaution, a very narrow and fortunate escape.
We found the roads to, and through, Tagiura in most places inundated by the heavy rains which had fallen before the commencement of our journey; a circumstance which, if it did not expedite our travelling, had certainly the good effect of rendering it more pleasant, by cooling the atmosphere and preventing the sand from flying. This was the more fortunate, as the gardens to the eastward of the town are bounded by a dreary tract of sandy desert, which we were obliged to cross. The approach to it was indicated by numerous hillocks of sand accumulated about the date-trees on the outskirts of the villages, leaving their heads exposed, at various heights above the sand, while some of them scarcely appeared above the summit. Judging from the present appearance of Tagiura, we should imagine that many gardens, situated on its eastern limits, have been completely overwhelmed by these heaps.
Any object which is stationary would arrest the progress of sand borne towards it by the violence of the wind; and the low enclosures of Arab gardens in exposed situations might in a few years disappear altogether.
We are not, however, inclined to attribute quite so much to the overwhelming properties of sand, as many other travellers have done; and we do not think that the danger of being actually buried will appear, on consideration, to be altogether so great, to those who are crossing sandy deserts, as writers of high respectability have asserted. The sand which encounters a body in motion, would pass it, we should imagine, without accumulation; and the quantity which might even be heaped upon sleepers could scarcely be more than they might easily shake off in waking. We shudder at the dreadful accounts which have been recorded of whole caravans, and whole armies, destroyed by these formidable waves of the desert; and when our pity is strongly excited by such relations, we are seldom inclined to analyze them very deeply. But a little reflection would probably convince us that many of these are greatly exaggerated: some, because the writers believed what they related; and some, because they wished their readers to believe what they might not be quite convinced of themselves.
In fact, we think it probable that they who have perished in deserts, from the time of the Psylli and Cambyses to the present, have died, as is usual, before they were buried, either from violence, thirst, or exhaustion[4].
The idea in question has, however, become very general; and we can neither attribute much blame to the reader who believes what is related on respectable authority, or to the writer who simply informs us of what he himself considers to be true. To him whose only view is to excite interest by exaggeration, we may, at least, say it seems to be superfluous: for the hardships and dangers of a journey over the sandy desert may be fully sufficient to satisfy the most adventurous, and to exhaust the most robust, without calling up the airy forms of imaginary horrors, to lengthen out the line of those which really present themselves[5].
But if the desert have terrors peculiar to itself, it has also its peculiar pleasures. There is something imposing, we may say sublime, in the idea of unbounded space which it occasionally presents; and every trifling object which appears above its untenanted surface, assumes an interest which we should not on other occasions attribute to objects of much greater importance.
The little romance which its stillness and solitude encourage, is at the same time grateful to the feelings; and one may here dream delightfully of undisturbed tranquillity and independence, and of freedom from all the cares, the follies, and the vices of the world. Whenever the wind is cool, without being too strong, the purity of the air is at once refreshing and exhilarating; and, if his stock of water be not very low, the traveller feels disposed to be well pleased with every thing[6].
Such was precisely the feeling with which our party entered upon the tract of sandy desert before them. We were glad to escape from the continual din and bustle which had attended our preparations at Tripoly; and the very absence of harassing workmen and tradesmen was alone a source of real satisfaction: the coolness of the sea-breeze was unusually refreshing, at least, we persuaded ourselves that it was so; and the anticipation of an interesting journey was acting very strongly upon our minds.
After quitting the cultivated grounds of Tagiura, the traveller is left to pursue his course (in going eastward) as his experience or his compass may direct—there being no indication whatever of any track in the sands of the wide plain before him. As our principal object, in this part of our journey, was to obtain a correct delineation of the coast, we pursued our route along the margin of the sea; which from Tagiura to Cape Sciarra takes the form of a bay, at the head of which lies Wady Ramleh. It was late in the afternoon of the sixth when we reached the Wady, and came up with the party who had preceded us in advance with the camels and heavy baggage.
Wady Ramleh, or Rummel (as it is sometimes pronounced, which signifies, in Arabic, sandy river, or sandy valley), is a small, but constant stream of pure water, which finds its way across the desert from the mountains to the southward. The bed of the stream is much below the surface of the soil; and judging from its width, and the steep banks which confine it, we should conclude that at the periods when the freshes come down from the mountains, Wady Ramleh may be swelled into a considerable body of water. Here our day’s journey finished, and we pitched our tents near the stream, making them as comfortable as a stormy night would allow of for the friends who had accompanied us from Tripoly[7]. On the following morning the rain fell in torrents; and as the prospect afforded by the weather was not very inviting, we would not allow our companions to stray farther with us from home; but took our leave of them, as we flattered ourselves, with mutual regret, and they retraced their steps towards Tripoly, while we continued our journey to the eastward.
The wind had by this time increased to a violent gale, and we were very soon wet to the skin: but although such a state may not appear to be at all times an enviable one, it was in fact very much so on this occasion; for the clouds of sand which would have been hurled in our faces by the wind, had the surface of the desert been less wet, would have proved a much greater annoyance. With this reflection we pursued our journey very contentedly, and our Arab friends, composing Shekh Mahommed’s escort, appeared to be equally well satisfied; for they soon began to open the several budgets of songs with which an Arab is never unprovided, roaring them out to the full extent of their well-practised and powerful lungs, till they fairly drowned the noise of the gale.
At 10 A.M. we passed through Wady’m’Seyd, a small stream somewhat inferior to Wady Ramleh, and soon entered upon the extensive plain of Jumarr. Wady’m’Seyd may be termed the eastern limit of the long sandy tract which stretches from thence far to the westward, and passing to the southward of Tripoly, is bounded, in that direction, by the Gharian mountains.
The sandy nature of the ground to the westward of Wady’m’Seyd had latterly led us away from that part of the coast, and we now endeavoured to regain the beach; but the sands were so soft that our horses sank up to their saddle-girths, and our utmost efforts to reach it were unavailing: we were in consequence obliged to give up the attempt, and leave this portion of the coast line incomplete. Among the sand-hills we found several patches of rocky ground strewed with fragments of pottery, but no vestiges of building were discernible. The plain of Jumarr, from the excellence of its soil, would no doubt be extremely productive; but notwithstanding this advantage, and its vicinity to the metropolis, a small part of it only is cultivated, and but few Arab tents were to be seen. The Gharian range may here be considered to be about seven miles from the coast; and the heavy rains and torrents from the mountains have made several large ravines in this neighbourhood, which crossed our path in their passage to the sea: the most considerable of these are Wady Terragadt and Wady Booforris. Soon after four o’clock we reached Guadigmata, where we found a small Arab encampment, and pitched our tents for the night.
It is in the neighbourhood of Guadigmata, between that place and Wady’m’Seyd, that we must look for the Graphara of Scylax. For as that city is described by the geographer as being midway between Abrotonum and Leptis Magna, that is, a day’s sail from each—Guadigmata being 26 miles from Lebida, and the whole distance from Lebida to Tagiura 58½—it follows that the site of Graphara might be fixed three miles to the westward of Guadigmata; which would place it at 29 miles’ distance from each of the cities in question, or half way between Lebida and Tagiura [8].
There are, however, no remains to the westward of Guadigmata (between that place and Wady’m’Seid) that we could perceive in our route; but two miles beyond Guadigmata there are some remains of building on a rising ground to the eastward of it, which are too much buried under the soil to allow us to give any satisfactory description of them. Two large upright stones, which seem to have been the jambs of a gateway, are all that are now standing; and not even the ground plans of other parts of these remains could be obtained without excavation. We learnt, however, from Captain Smyth that, in the neighbourhood of Wady’m’Seyd, there is a small boat-cove resembling an ancient cothon; and near it the ruins of several baths with tesselated pavements; which must have been situated on that part of the coast which we were not able to visit, for the reasons mentioned above. To the eastward of these, another small port was also discovered by Captain Smyth (formed by a point of land between the Wadies of Ben-z-barra and Abdellata), at which the produce of the country is shipped off in the summer. The mouth of the Abdellata is described by this officer as forming a picturesque cove, and he observed on its left bank (a little way inland) a village consisting of troglodytic caverns, excavated in the sand-stone rock; many of which being furnished with doors, are used by the natives instead of the usual matamores, or subterranean storehouses, as granaries.
The former of the ports here described may possibly have been that of Graphara required; but as there are more extensive remains in the neighbourhood of that at Abdellata (or Abdellati), which we shall presently have occasion to mention, we will not venture to fix it as such decidedly.
On the day after our arrival at Guadigmata, the weather proving still very bad, we did not proceed on our route; but spent the day in examining and securing our baskets of provisions many of which we found to have been wet through, and in making those other little arrangements which, notwithstanding all precautions, are usually found to be necessary a day or two after the commencement of a long journey.
We continued our route on the following morning, and found the country beyond become gradually hilly, and the road to be again intersected by Wadys, or ravines, extending themselves from the mountains to the sea[9]. By four we had arrived at Sidy Abdellàti: so called from a celebrated Marábut, whose tomb, surrounded by gardens and date-trees, stands conspicuous on the banks of one of the Wadys. The country about it is everywhere well cultivated, the wells are numerous, and the hills were covered with sheep and goats; but notwithstanding the numerous flocks in our neighbourhood, we found considerable difficulty in procuring a single lamb for our party.
While we were here a disturbance took place which had, at one time, assumed rather an alarming appearance. Our camel-drivers had allowed their beasts to stray over the cultivated grounds of the neighbouring Arabs, who came to demand remuneration, or to revenge themselves, in the event of not obtaining it, upon the owners of the camels[10]: the latter, together with our Arab escort, formed a tolerably strong party, and thinking themselves in a condition to do so, did not hesitate to resist the demand; a scuffle accordingly took place, in which many blows were exchanged, baracans torn, and knives and pistols brought into action. The arrival of Shekh Mahommed put an end to the fray before any serious consequences had ensued, and he satisfied the assailants by reprimanding the camel-drivers, and promising to make them keep their animals within bounds. We were ignorant ourselves of the cause of the disturbance, and seeing our party suddenly attacked, we naturally ran to their assistance, which certainly would not have been the case had we known they had been the aggressors. This made us more cautious afterwards, as we found that our drivers took advantage of the strength of the party to improve the condition of their camels.
The most conspicuous character in this disturbance was a trusty black slave of our conductor the Dúbbah, who appeared to have inherited from his master the art of raising his voice above that of every other person. Having had his pistols wrested from him, he was so hurried away by the violence of his passion as to seem quite unable to give it sufficient vent; and had just raised his knife to plunge it into an Arab, when he was prevented by one of our party, who presented a musket at him and deprived him of his weapon; for although he was fighting on our side, we were not of course desirous that he should proceed to such unjustifiable extremes.
The remains of some strongly-built forts, of quadrangular forms, occupying the heights which command the road, sufficiently point out Sidy Abdellàti as an ancient military station; and indeed, had we found there no vestiges of antiquity, we should have been induced from the nature of the ground to look for some indications of fortification; since the advantages of position, of soil, and of water, which it possesses, are too great to have been overlooked by the ancients.
About the tomb of the Marábut which we have mentioned above, there are frequent traces of building; and the tomb itself is constructed with the fragments of more ancient structures; while the beach and its neighbourhood are strewed with a quantity of pottery and glass. These ruins, although they now, with the exception of the Marábut and the forts, consist only of loose stones and imperfect ground-plans, appear to be more indicative of the site of an ancient town than those which we have mentioned at Guadigmata; and, if Graphara could be placed so near as twenty miles to Leptis Magna, they might probably be considered as its remains. The quadrangular forts which we have just mentioned as occupying the heights of Sidy Abdellàti, might in that case have belonged to a station attached to the town; and the port discovered by Captain Smyth at Abdellata (mentioned above) may then be taken as the one intended by Scylax.
Without carrying the subject further, we may say, in conclusion, that Sidy Abdellàti has undoubtedly been a strong military station, whatever pretensions it may have to be considered as the site of Graphara.
After leaving this place, the road led us, through the valley of Selîn, to a tolerably wide stream called Neggázi, which, winding between the hills, gave an unusual interest to the view. We continued our route for a short time along its banks, and then ascended the range of hills called Sélem, which branches off from the Terhoona[11] range and extends to the sea. From the top of Sélem there is an extensive view westward, over the plain of Jumarr, as far as the sandy desert; and on the eastern side of the ridge there is another view, equally imposing, over the plain of Lebida; so that in spite of the torrents of rain which still continued to deluge us, we could not help stopping occasionally to admire them.
From the summit of this range we noticed several remains of what appeared to be towers, conspicuously situated on the peaks of the hills to the northward; and which, from the strength of their position, might have bid defiance to any attack that could be made upon them: their situations appear to have been chosen with the intention of their being easily distinguished one from another, so as to answer the purpose of communication. The valleys of this range are capable of the highest degree of cultivation, but their fertility has only been partially taken advantage of by the Arabs of the neighbourhood. In some of them we noticed vines and olive-trees flourishing most luxuriantly between patches of ground producing corn and vegetables. Descending on the eastern side of the range, the road lies along the side of the mountain, and several ruins of forts and tombs are conspicuous on either side of it: here also are several remains of ancient wells, and we noticed one, in particular, which had fragments of marble columns lying near it. During the whole of this day the road was so slippery, in consequence of the heavy rains, that our camels could with difficulty proceed: they were continually falling under their burthens, and the alarm which their unsteady footing occasioned them added greatly to the distress of their situation. In the evening we pitched our tents in a valley about a mile from Mergip tower, where we met the English Consul on his return from an excursion to Lebida: he informed us of a report which was in circulation at that place, of a troop of marauding Arabs being in wait for our party two days south of Mesurata. This report was corroborated by Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah, who seemed inclined to make it of some importance.
We suspected, from the Shekh’s manner, that he had himself circulated this story to enhance the value of his protection; and we were determined in consequence not to appear to believe it. As we did not however think it right to omit some precautions, in the event of the report proving after all to be true, we requested the Consul to mention it when he returned to the Bashaw; who might then take whatever measures he should judge to be necessary on the occasion.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]This circumstance is however by no means conclusive, even supposing the columns to be as stated; for Leo Africanus informs us that modern Tripoly was built from the ruins of Leptis Magna, after the final destruction of that city: and the columns in question might as easily have been brought from Lebida, as the materials employed in building the town of Tripoly.
[2]Απο Νεαπολεως, της Καρχηδονιων χωρας, Γραφαρα πολις. Ταυτη παραπλους ἡμερας μιας. απο δε Γραφαρων, Αβροτονον πολις καὶ λιμην. Ταυτη ὁ παραπλους ἠμερας μιας.
[3]Supposing Tripoly to be Oea, we must look for Abrotonum in some place as near to that city as possible; for the distance given by Scylax from Abrotonum to Leptis Magna will become more and more perplexing as we continue to place it farther to the eastward of Oea. Tagiura, under this supposition, is the site we should allow to Abrotonum; but the difficulties which we have stated are against such a conclusion, and we confess that we are unable to reconcile the contending authorities[a].
Neither Sabrata nor Oea (as we shall hereafter mention) appear to have existed in the time of Strabo: the first town which is mentioned by that geographer to the eastward of the Lesser Syrtis, after the lake Zuchis, and the town of the same name (famous for its purple dye and its salted provisions), is that of Abrotonum in question[].
No distance is given by Strabo from Zuchis to Abrotonum; but the mention of a lake much smaller than that of Zuchis, immediately before Abrotonum, (as will be seen in the quotation below,) is consistent with the idea that Tagiura might be the place of the city intended; for we have stated that there is a lake a little to the westward of Tagiura; and although it is of tolerable size, it is nevertheless much smaller than that of Zuchis, which is estimated by Strabo at 400 stadia.
[a]In Ptolemy we find Abrotonum placed to the westward of Oea; and in Pliny to the eastward of Taphra (or Graphara) neither of which positions tend to simplify the matter in question.
[]Μετα δε την Συρτιν Ζουχις εστι λιμνη . . . καὶ παρ᾽ αυτην πολις ομωνυμος . . . ειτ᾽ αλλη λιμνη πολυ ελαττων· καὶ μετα ταυτην Αβροτονον πολις, καὶ αλλαι τινες. (Lib. 17. κεφ. Γ. § 18.) It must be recollected that Strabo is passing from west to east, and that this is also the course of the Expedition.
[4]The Psylli inhabited the southern parts of the Greater Syrtis, and are said to have been altogether destroyed by clouds of sand which overwhelmed them in their passage to the interior. The Nubian army of Cambyses is thought to have experienced a similar fate.—Vide Herodotus, lib. iv.
[5]We would not here be thought to allude to any particular writer; but merely to the general practice, which has obtained in all ages, of exaggerating the effects of the sand-storm in desert travelling; which, without amplification, is sufficiently obnoxious in its genuine native dangers and inconveniences.
[6]These solitary enjoyments are by no means overdrawn; every traveller accustomed to desert journeys must have experienced them: and the late lamented Burckhardt has frequently been heard to declare, that his most pleasant hours in travelling have been passed in the desert.
[7]Lieut. Clapperton, Mr. Carstenson, and some other friends from Tripoly, had rode with us thus far on our journey.
[8]That is, if we suppose Tagiura to be the site of Abrotonum, as we have ourselves already admitted, under the difficulties stated above, and in the absence of more decided information than we have been able to obtain on the subject.
[9]From Guadigmata, two ruins (Selma and Ipsilàta) appear conspicuous on high and pointed hills at the distance of about seven miles; they seem to have been watch-towers commanding the plain; but our guides could only tell us they were Gussers, a name which they applied indiscriminately to ruins of every description.
[10]These were the camel-drivers themselves.
[11]The Terhoona range is a branch of the Gharian.
CHAPTER IV.
Arrival at Lebida — Remarks on its position and resources as compared with those of Tripoly — Short account of the city and its remains — Allusion to the African tribe Levatæ (or Levata) by Procopius — The same tribe mentioned by Leo Africanus — Suggestions of Major Rennell on the resemblance between the terms Levata and Lybia — Former position of this tribe near the coast confirmed by Procopius — Remarks on the term Libya — Visit from the Shekh of Lebida — Violent storm at that place retards the advance of the party — Intrusion upon the premises of a celebrated Marábūt — Dangerous consequences of this intrusion predicted by our escort — Departure from Lebida — Remains of the aqueduct, and of the causeway mentioned by Strabo — Arrive at the River Cinyphus, now Wad’ el Kháhan — Remarks on the river and the morass in its immediate neighbourhood — Observations on the faulty position of the Cinyphus in the maps of Cellarius — This position probably suggested by some remarks of Pliny, Ptolemy, and Mela — Extreme fertility of the region of the Cinyphus — Remarks on this district, and that of Byzacium — Suggestions of Signor Della Cella with respect to them — Present appearance of the region of the Cinyphus consistent with the description of Herodotus — Neglected condition of the district under the Arabs — Account of Lebida and its remains by Captain Smyth.
On the following morning we continued our journey to Lebida, the weather being still very bad. The road from Sélem to Lebida leads close along the foot of Mergip-hill, on the summit of which are the ruins of a tower of considerable height, which may be seen from a great distance: at the foot of the hill are the remains of several tombs, but none of those which we saw appeared to be in good style.
On emerging from the valley of Sélem a fertile tract of high ground presents itself, which lies between the valley and Lebida; clusters of olive-trees are scattered over its surface, and contribute with the green turf on which they are planted to give it a very pleasing appearance. From the summit of this appears the whole plain of Lebida, stretching down, in a gentle slope, from the high ground to the sea; and a more beautiful scene can scarcely be witnessed than that which is presented by this fine tract of country. Thick groves of olive and date-trees are seen rising above the villages which are scattered over its surface; and the intermediate spaces are either covered with the most luxuriant turf, or rich with abundant crops of grain.
It must always afford matter for surprise to those who are acquainted with this beautiful and highly-productive country, how Tripoly could ever have been selected, in preference to Lebida, as the metropolis of the regency. Placed in the midst of sand, on the borders of an extensive desert, and situated almost at the extremity of the country in which it stands, Tripoly appears to enjoy scarcely any particular local advantage beyond the possession of its port; while Lebida seems to unite in one beautiful spot all the advantages of plenty, convenience, and security. It is probable that the harbour and strong walls of Tripoly were the principal causes of its adoption as the capital; and the sums of money which would be necessary to rebuild and fortify Lebida, might have been considered as more than equivalent to its local recommendations, by a people who seldom look beyond the present.
But Lebida, once occupied, would be a much stronger post than Tripoly could ever be made; and the good sense of the ancients was conspicuously manifested in its selection as a principal town.
The city of Leptis Magna appears to have been comprehended within little more than a square half mile of ground. It was situated close to the sea, on the banks of a ravine now called Wady Lebda, which might probably in the rainy season have assumed the appearance of a river. When we passed through the place it was, however, nothing more than a small stream, although too deep in some parts to be easily forded; and it is probably dry, or nearly so, in the summer. The inadequacy of this supply to the consumption of the city may be inferred from the remains of an aqueduct communicating with the Cinyphus, still existing, in unconnected portions, in the space between the town and that river. At the back of the town are several large mounds of earth, thrown up in the form of banks; which are supposed to have been raised for the purpose of turning off the water which might occasionally have threatened it from the hills, and which the slope of the ground from the hills to the sea may possibly have rendered very necessary[1]. The quantity of alluvial soil brought down the Wady above mentioned by the winter torrents, have, together with the accumulation of sand from the beach, nearly effaced all traces of the port and cothon of Leptis Magna, which does not indeed appear to have been at any time very capacious. The actual remains of the city are still sufficient to be somewhat imposing; but they are for the most part so deeply buried under the sand which ten centuries of neglect have allowed to accumulate about them, that plans of them could not be obtained without very extensive excavations. The style of the buildings is universally Roman; and they are more remarkable for the regularity and solidity of their construction, than for any great appearance of good taste employed in their embellishment.
A great part of the city has been constructed with brick; and the material which has been used in the instances here alluded to maintains remarkably well the high character which Roman brick has so deservedly acquired. The remains of the stadium are perhaps the most interesting, in speaking of the buildings which have been constructed with stone; they have been partially excavated by Captain Smyth, (to whose account we refer the reader) together with some other buildings; but the task of clearing them entirely would be too Herculean for limited means, and the same may be observed with respect to other parts of Leptis Magna in general.
For our own part, however much we might have been inclined to remain some time at Lebida, the necessity of our immediate advance precluded the possibility of doing so; for the approach of the rainy season made it absolutely necessary that we should cross the low grounds of the Syrtis without delay: and it must be remembered that the coast-line of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica was the principal object of the Expedition.
Leptis Magna was built at an early period by the Phœnicians, and was ranked, after Carthage and Utica, as the first of their maritime cities. After the destruction of Carthage it flourished under the government of the Romans, and was remarkable, as we are informed by Sallust, for its fidelity and obedience[2].
After the occupation of Northern Africa by the Vandals, the walls and fortifications of Leptis appear to have been dismantled or destroyed[3]: they were probably afterwards restored under Justinian, when the city became the residence of the Prefect Sergius; and we find them, on the authority of Leo Africanus, to have been finally demolished by the Saracens[4].
From that time the city appears to have been wholly abandoned; and its remains were employed in the construction of Modern Tripoly, as Leo has also informed us.
During the Prefecture of Sergius, who presided over the district of Tripolis[5], Leptis Magna was attacked by a neighbouring African tribe; and Sergius himself, after some previous successes, was reduced to seek shelter within the walls of the city, to which alone he appears to have been indebted for safety. A party of Moors, of the tribe called Levatæ, had encamped under the walls of Leptis, to receive from the governor the reward of past fidelity, and the bribe for their future good conduct. Eighty of their deputies were accordingly introduced into the town, and admitted to a conference with the Prefect. On the statement of certain grievances of which they complained Sergius rose to leave the tribunal; but one of the suppliants detained him by the robe, while the rest of the deputies pressed nearer to his person and urged their demands in louder terms. Provoked at this insolence, an officer of the Prefect drew his sword and plunged it into the Moor, and the death of this imprudent offender became the signal for a general massacre. One only of the Levatæ escaped from the city to bear the melancholy news of the slaughter of his companions to the rest of the tribe without the walls. They instantly took up arms and invested the city; and though at first repulsed with great loss by a sally of the Romans, they shortly after succeeded in defeating the Prefect; and his general Pudentius, having incautiously exposed himself, was cut off and slain in the field. Sergius retired with the remainder of his army upon the city, and shut himself up within its walls; but as he was incapable of continuing the contest with advantage, he finally withdrew to Carthage, in order to claim the assistance of his uncle, and induce him to march his army against the Moors[6]. The result of the engagement which afterwards took place was fatal to the cause of the Romans; for Solomon, who had so ably filled the place of Belisarius, was slain in the field of Tebeste[7], and the Prefect was once more compelled to seek safety in flight[8].
The tribe Levatæ, mentioned in the Narrative of Procopius, of which we have just given the substance, has in later times been noticed by Leo Africanus, and said to have inhabited that part of the desert of Libya which lies between Augela and the Nile[9]. The same author adds that they are of an African race; and we may further remark, with respect to this tribe, that the appellation of Levatæ, by which it was distinguished, has been supposed by Major Rennell (in his illustrations of Herodotus) to have given birth to the Grecian term Libya[10].
It will be observed that the suggestion of the ingenious author quoted below, with respect to the retreat of the Levatæ into the interior, is confirmed by the account of Procopius; who tells us that “the Moors, called Levatæ, dwelt in the neighbourhood of Leptis Magna[11];” and we have seen that they were found in the time of Leo Africanus to have inhabited the parts between Augela and the Nile.
With regard to the derivation of the term Libya, suggested by Major Rennell, we may remark that Herodotus has himself derived it from the name of a female native of Africa bearing the same appellation[12]; and it is probable that had there been any other tradition existing in his time on the subject, it would have been mentioned with that which he has recorded. The several tribes which in his æra inhabited the northern coast of Africa have also been enumerated by Herodotus; and no mention is made among these of any race of people called Levatæ. It is evident also that his knowledge of Africa was not confined to recent occurrences or to the actual state of the country in his own time; for he has given us very clear and minute details of events which took place several centuries before that period, among which may be instanced the account which he has transmitted of the first occupation of the country by the Greeks, described in the Fourth Book of his Geography, and alluded to in the passage above quoted from Major Rennell.
We may observe, on the ground of these objections, that, if the derivation suggested be actually correct, it must, in all probability, have taken place long before the period of Herodotus; but there is at the same time no positive proof on their authority that it may not have been possibly the true one.
On the morning after our arrival at Lebida the Shekh of the place came to pay us a visit, and to offer his assistance in procuring us coins and gems, which are constantly found among the ruins by the Jews, who pay a consideration to the Bashaw for the exclusive enjoyment of this privilege. The offer of our new friend was readily accepted, and he himself very cordially entertained by his brother Shekh, Mahommed el Dúbbah; but, his supper being eaten, we never heard more of him or of the antiquities which he professed to procure for us.
The effects of a heavy storm, which had occurred on the preceding night, obliged us to remain at Lebida the whole of this day, in order to dry our provisions and clothes; for we had no sooner pitched the tents, on the evening of our arrival, than we were overtaken by a violent storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied by continued gusts of wind, which kept us employed during the greater part of the night in attending to the tent-pegs.
In the mean time, the rain never ceased to fall in torrents, and soon made its way, impelled by the force of the wind, through every part of a good substantial canvass; one of our tents was completely upset, and the whole of our party, with the better half of the baggage, were wet through long before the dawn of day. Towards morning, however, the storm died away, and the first appearance of the sun, in a tolerably clear sky, was in truth a most comfortable prospect. As it promised to be fine for the rest of the day, we soon spread out our baggage to dry, and gladly availed ourselves of the delay this operation occasioned to walk over the ruins of the town.
Our camel-drivers, however, who had been hired by the journey, were not so well satisfied with this detention, and were urgent in persuading us to advance: but a trifling bakshees[13] soon quieted their remonstrances, and they made up their minds very contentedly to the arrangement. We now began to measure a short base by latitudes, in order to fix a few points with more accuracy; and it was necessary to make use of the summit of a neighbouring hill for one extremity of the base. This spot was the place of residence of a most devout and highly-reverenced Marábūt, the admiration and the terror of the people of Lebida; and as we were proceeding to ascend the hill, our steps were arrested by the voice of the Tchaous whom the Bashaw had commissioned to attend us. As soon as he came up, he began very gravely to assure us, that the holy enthusiast would by no means allow us to encroach upon his domains with impunity; and proceeded to state that he would most certainly kill every person of our party who should dare to ascend, and afterwards sacrifice him (the Tchaous) himself, for having allowed us to intrude upon his retirement. It may be imagined that none of us had any particular wish to offend the holy personage in question; but the hill which he occupied was unluckily the most convenient which could be selected for our purpose; and we did not think it quite necessary to give up our base on the grounds of so ridiculous an objection. The attempt was accordingly made, and the base properly measured, without either of the dreadful results which had been anticipated; and the parties, on descending, received the serious congratulations of the Arabs on having had, what they called, so unexpected and providential an escape.
This formidable personage is the Marábūt mentioned by Della Cella as having threatened to eat him alive; and the Doctor was assured, by a black slave who stood near him, that he was perfectly capable of fulfilling his extraordinary threat[14].
So much has been written on the subject of these knavish fanatics, that we shall not here attempt any description of them: every book of travels in Mahometan countries contains more or less notice of the wondrous feats which are attributed to them, and of the no less remarkable credulity of those whom they impose upon[15]. We may, however, observe that the country between Lebida and Mesurata, and more especially the neighbourhood of the last-mentioned place, is much infested by these artful and unblushing pretenders to piety and supernatural powers.
On the morning of the 15th we left the ruins of Lebida, and passing between the gardens which are scattered over its plain, proceeded on our road to Zeliten. About nine miles to the eastward of Lebida is the stream called Wad’ el Kháhan, which we found to possess more pretensions to the title of river than any which we had hitherto seen. It appears to have its rise in the mountains to the southward; and after spreading itself in shallows over a rocky bed, it falls about twenty feet, and continues its course, though very slowly, to the sea. The banks of Wad’ el Kháhan are in some places high, sloping down to the water’s edge, and are covered with underwood, among which a few trees may occasionally be observed to rise. The verdure of its banks give it an agreeable appearance, and some remains of building, which are seen here and there through the soil, contribute to increase the interest of the stream.
By the side of the road, at about a mile and a half from where the river empties into the sea, are the remains of the aqueduct mentioned above, which supplied the city of Lebida; and other traces of building are occasionally observable in its neighbourhood. Here also may still be observed the same morasses which formerly characterized this spot, and gave occasion for the construction of the causeway, still existing, which is mentioned by Strabo as having been built by the Carthaginians[16]. All these circumstances contribute to point out Wad’ el Kháhan as the Cinyphus, and as such we may reasonably consider it.
The morass is extremely dangerous to cross without a guide, and two of our party, who were unprovided with one, experienced much difficulty in crossing a small quicksand situated between the marsh and the sea. There is another part of this quicksand, more to the eastward, which it was wholly impossible to cross; our horses, in attempting it, sank up to the saddle-girths, and the severity of the Arab spur alone prevented them from sinking much deeper. We may add that the exhalations which rise from the marsh appear to be very unwholesome, for one of our Arab escort, who slept a short time by the side of it, while we were making some observations, was shortly afterwards seized with violent cold shiverings, and every symptom of fever.
At the north-eastern extremity of the morass is the promontory called Tabia Point, on which we found the ruins of what appears to have been a tomb, and at the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the shore may be observed a reef of rocks, which will occasionally afford shelter for boats; the part thus protected is called by the Arabs Marsa Ugrah, from its vicinity to the village of that name. These rocks were above water when visited by Captain Smyth in 1817; but, in consequence, probably, of the prevalence of northerly gales, they were covered when we passed along the coast, and cannot therefore at all times be depended upon for protection.
In considering Wad’ el Kháhan as the Cinyphus, which its position with regard to Lebida, and the appearances already pointed out, will very decidedly authorize us to do, one difficulty will be found to arise. It is the impossibility of reconciling the distance from the sea, of the nearest range of hills to the southward, with that assigned by Herodotus to the Hill of the Graces, in which he affirms the Cinyphus to have its source.
The Hill of the Graces is laid down by this geographer at 200 stadia from the sea[17]; whereas the distance of the nearest range of hills, to the southward of Wad’ el Kháhan, is little more than four English miles from the coast; and we could perceive in this range no aperture or break through which we might imagine that a stream could have passed in its course from the southward to the sea. We should certainly infer, from the appearance of this chain, that the river must have had its source in it; and one of the hills of which it is composed does certainly present an appearance of three peaks, as we may imagine the Hill of the Graces did; but then we must suppose that some mistake has been made, either by Herodotus himself, or by his editors, in the number of stades above mentioned; and, although it is possible that such an error might have occurred, we have no greater right to dispute the passage in question, than we have to challenge the accuracy of any other statement which is received on the authority of the geographer. We mean, with reference to the text itself, exclusive of local information; for the passage is simply and clearly stated, without the least appearance of ambiguity; and the habit of doubting every statement of an author which does not coincide with our own ideas and observations, is scarcely to be indulged without danger to the cause of truth.
We had determined on our return (among other things which we had no time to examine minutely in advancing) to trace the river Kháhan to its source, and thus decide the point beyond dispute; but unforeseen circumstances prevented our returning by way of Tripoly, and the promised examination never took place. We will not therefore venture decidedly to assert that this stream does not rise to the southward of the chain of hills above mentioned; but we should certainly be surprised (from the view which we had of the range in passing) to learn hereafter that it had been proved, by local observation, to have its source in the mountains farther inland. We may observe, at the same time, that the distance of the Terhoona[18] range from the coast, as it is laid down by Captain Lyon, will answer tolerably well to that of the 200 stadia at which Herodotus has placed his Hill of the Graces from the sea; taking the stade of this geographer at 732 to a degree, or 10¼ to a common English mile, which is the mean allowed by Major Rennell to the stade of Herodotus. There are, however, several other inferior chains of hills (besides the one nearest to the coast) between the Terhoona range and the sea; and we scarcely think it possible that the Cinyphus (or Kháhan) could have found its way through these impediments[19].
In the chart of Cellarius, as Dr. Della Cella has truly observed, we find the Cinyphus placed to the eastward of the Cephalas Promontorium, in opposition to the testimonies of Strabo and Ptolemy, and of most other writers of respectability. But it is merely with a view to reconcile contending authorities that this position has been assigned to the river; for it will be evident, by a reference to the text of Cellarius, that it is not the one adopted by himself[20]. It may be possible, also, (in addition to the authorities of the Itinerary and the Augustan table which he mentions) that Cellarius has been induced to place his Cinyphus thus far to the eastward, in consequence of a passage in Pliny, and of a remark which he has also quoted from Ptolemy. Pliny fixes the country of the Lotophagi in the most southern recess of the Greater Syrtis, and Ptolemy observes of these people, that they inhabited the neighbourhood of the Cinyphus[21]. It becomes necessary, therefore, in order to reconcile these statements, either to place the Cinyphus nearer to the centre of the Gulf, or to move the Lotophagi nearer to the Cinyphus.
Mela places the Lotophagi still further to the eastward than Pliny, for he tells us that they are said to inhabit the country between the Promontories of Borion and Phycus, which are both of them in the Cyrenaica[22]; and this statement may be considered as an additional reason for moving the Cinyphus to the eastward of its actual position, if the observation of Ptolemy in question be attended to. It is certain, however, that the position of the Cinyphus, on the authorities of Strabo, Ptolemy, and Scylax, is to the westward of the Cephalas Promontorium; Pliny places it in the country between the two Syrtes, and Mela to the westward of Leptis Magna[23]: there is therefore no sufficient authority for moving the river to the eastward of the Cephalas; although it must be confessed that the position of the Lotophagi, in the neighbourhood of the river Cinyphus, is certainly very clear and decided.
We may observe, with regard to these eaters of the lotus, that they have been so very differently placed by different authorities, that it is scarcely possible to say in what part of the map they may, or may not, be laid down; and this circumstance will serve to prove how widely the lotus-tree must have been spread, at various times, over the coast and country of Northern Africa.
The region of the Cinyphus has been celebrated for its extraordinary fertility; Herodotus asserts that it yielded three hundred for one, and other writers have concurred in extolling the richness of its soil[24]. It is remarkable, however, that some authors who have highly commended the soil of the Byzacium, have, at the same time, omitted to notice the fertility of the region of the Cinyphus; while others, on the contrary, who have recorded the extraordinary produce of the district last mentioned, have failed to make any allusion to the productive qualities of the Byzacium. This circumstance has induced Dr. Della Cella to imagine that some of the writers in question intended to include both these districts in one; and in support of this idea he cites passages from Pliny and Strabo, which appear to him decisive in its favour. Pliny says (it is Dr. Della Cella who speaks) that “the people who inhabit the Byzacium are called Libyphœnices[25];” it is therefore only necessary to ascertain in what country the Libyphœnices dwelt, to determine the position of the Byzacium[26]. And here, continues the Doctor, is a very clear reply of Strabo to this desideratum of ancient geography—“Upon the sea-coast, extending from Carthage to the Cephalas Promontorium, and to the Masselibii[27], is the territory of the Libyphœnices.”
But it will scarcely, we imagine, be thought absolutely necessary to conclude, that, because Byzacium may have formed a part of the territory of the Libyphœnices, the whole of the country inhabited by these people must therefore be called Byzacium; for Strabo himself has informed us that the Byzacians extended only to the eastern limits of Carthage (that is, of Carthage Proper, or Zeugitana); whereas the tract which he has assigned to the Libyphœnices generally, comprehended the whole of the Carthagenian territory, from the Cephalas Promontorium to the country of the Massæsyli. The Massæsyli were a people of Numidia, and their district formed the western boundary of that country and Mauretania; so that between them and the Byzacians (whom we may, surely, conclude to be the inhabitants of the country from which their name is derived) the whole of Numidia and Carthage Proper intervenes. The Libyphœnices appear to have been the descendants of the Phœnicians (or Carthaginians) and of the several native African, or Libyan, tribes in their neighbourhood; so that Byzacium would naturally be peopled by them to a considerable extent, without its being necessary to infer from that circumstance that all Libyphœnices were Byzacians.
We may add that Strabo does not seem to be aware of any fertility in the soil of the Byzacium; for he continues to state (after the passage above quoted from the Second Book of his Geography) that all the country between Carthage and the columns of Hercules is fertile—not including, of course, either the Byzacium, or the region of the Cinyphus[28].
The extent of the territory which is supposed by Signor Della Cella to have been included in the province of Byzacium, that is, (as we have stated above) from the country of the Massæsyli, on the western side, to the Cephalas Promontorium on the east, would occupy a coast-line of no less than 700 miles, exclusive of its limits in a southerly direction; and it will more readily be seen how much this extent differs, from that of the actual Byzacium, by comparing it with the dimensions which Pliny has given of the country, in the passage which Signor Della Cella has partially quoted above[29]. We shall there find that the district of Byzacium was comprehended within a circuit of no more than 250 Roman miles; so that it is difficult to imagine how Pliny could have intended to extend its limits, either eastward or westward, to the points which the Doctor has claimed for it: since the historian’s intentions must have been sadly at variance with his assertions, had he really meant to bestow upon Byzacium so much more than he has stated it to contain[30].
The region of the Cinyphus has still the same peculiarities which it has been stated to possess by Herodotus; there we still find the rich and dark-coloured soil, and the abundance of water which he mentions: but every thing degenerates in the hand of the Arab, and the produce of the present day bears no proportion to that which the historian has recorded. The average rate of produce of this fine tract of country (so far, at least, as we could learn from the Arabs who inhabit it) is now scarcely more than ten for one; and the lands in the neighbourhood of Zeliten and Mesurata are the only places cultivated to the eastward of the Cinyphus. The produce, in grain, is principally barley, with a moderate proportion only of wheat; but the date-tree and the olive are very generally distributed, and their crops are extremely abundant. We were informed that there was usually a considerable overplus of dates, olive-oil, and barley, both at Mesurata and Zeliten; and that the Arabs of the western parts of the Syrtis draw their principal supplies from the former of these places.
The country to the west of the Cinyphus is, to all appearance, equally productive (we should rather say equally capable of being made so) with that which we have mentioned to the eastward. A small part of this only, however, is cultivated, and we may observe generally, of the region of the Cinyphus, that by far the greater portion of that beautiful tract of country, from the eastern limit of the Syrtis at Mesurata, to the edge of the sandy desert at Wad’m’Seid, is now left in its natural state.
The following short account of the objects most worthy of notice which presented themselves to Captain Smyth in the course of his journey to Lebida in the year 1816, and the succeeding one, have been extracted from his private journal, and obligingly placed at our disposal by the author; and as we think they will not be unacceptable to our readers, we submit them, without further comment, to their notice.
The first principal point to the eastward of Tripoly is Ras al Amra, a projecting low sand, with rocks close in, but possessing a small boat-cove on its east side, resembling an ancient cothon: near it are the ruins of several baths with tesselated pavements.
Beyond Ras al Amra there is another small port, formed by a point of land between the wadies of Ben z barra and Abdellata, whence the produce of the country is shipped off in summer. The mouth of the Abdellata forms a picturesque cove, and on its left bank, a little inland, is a village consisting of troglodytic caverns, excavated in the sandstone rock, and many of which being furnished with doors, are used, instead of the usual matamores, as granaries.
Here begins the tract generally called Zibbi, and the land, rising gradually, exhibits a better, though still neglected, appearance, being thinly planted with olive-trees, and here and there a vineyard.
In the vicinity of the Ganema river frequent vestiges of antiquity announce the approach to a place once more prosperous; and in the valley of Seyd-n-alli are the remains of some Roman fortifications, called by the Moors, the Seven Towers, which from several local indications I think must stand on the site of Quintiliana.
Leptis Magna is situated on a fine level district, of a light and loamy soil, bounded by gentle hills. A great part of this plain is laid out in fields of corn, pulse, carrots, &c., interspersed with groves of olive, pomegranate, and date-trees, among which are a few vineyards; but it is by no means cultivated with the attention due to its susceptibility of improvement; and a great portion of the produce is annually destroyed by the gundy rat, and a species of jerboa, (probably the μυς διπους represented on the Cyrenian coins) which greatly infest all the grounds, yet no means are used to destroy them. The want of enclosures is also greatly felt, the young shoots of the seed being protected from the wind only by thinly-planted rows of the Scilla Maritima: however, notwithstanding every disadvantage, the harvests are generally satisfactory to the moderate expectations of these rude peasants.
Towards the higher grounds there is a good deal of pasturage, where camels, horses, oxen, sheep, and goats are reared; but the destructive method of the Arabs in impoverishing the land around their dowars, till it becomes exhausted, without any attempt to nourish or assist the soil, is everywhere visible, by the many bare spots whence the tents have been shifted to more fertile situations, which for the same reason soon become, in their turn, deserted also.
I first visited Leptis in May, 1816, to examine into the possibility of embarking the numerous columns lying on its sands, which the Bashaw of Tripoly had offered to His Majesty. The ruins had a very interesting appearance, from the contrast of their fallen grandeur with the mud-built villages of Lebidah and Legatah, and the Nomadic tribes scattered around. The city, with its immediate suburb, occupies a space of about ten thousand yards, the principal part of which is covered by a fine white sand, that, drifting with the wind along the beach, has been arrested in its progress by the ruins, and struck me at the moment as having probably been the means of preserving many specimens of art, which, from the numerous pillars, capitals, cornices, and sculptured fragments strewed around, I could not but suppose to have been extremely valuable, more especially, since having been the birthplace of the Emperor Severus, he might have enriched it with presents; besides which it had been highly favoured for its adherence to the Roman interest during the Jugurthine war. In addition to these circumstances, the fact of Leptis once being sufficiently opulent to render in tribute a talent a day, prompted me, on my arrival at Malta, to recommend it as an eligible field for an extensive excavation.
On my return thither in January, 1817, I was surprised, on riding over the ruins, to find that many of the most valuable columns, which were standing in the preceding May, had either been removed, or were lying broken on the spot, and even most of those still remaining had had their astragal and torus chipped off. I discovered, on inquiry, that a report had been circulated by the Tschaouses on my former visit, of an intention to embark them for England; and as it had long been a quarry whence the Arabs supplied themselves with mill-stones, they had in the interval been busily employed in breaking up the columns for that purpose, providing not only for the present, but also for future supply. This extensive destruction was prompted by the peculiar construction of the Moorish oil-mills, they being built with a circular surface, having a gentle inclination towards the centre, round which a long stone traverses, formed by about one-third of a shaft.
On the 25th, however, having arranged my tents and instruments, I commenced an excavation near the centre of the city with a party of eight Arabs, whom I increased the following day to a hundred; and as they quickly gained the use of the English spade and mattock, the work proceeded with celerity. But I soon had the mortification of perceiving, from numerous local evidences, that Leptis had been completely ravaged in former times, and its public edifices demolished with diligent labour, owing perhaps to the furious bigotry of the Carthaginian bishops, who zealously destroyed the Pagan monuments in every place under their control. Or it might have been partly effected by the vengeance of the Barbarians for the memorable treachery of the Leptitani. From whatever cause it proceeded, the destruction is complete; most of the statues are either broken to pieces, or chipped into shapeless masses, the arabesque ornaments defaced, the acanthus leaves and volutes knocked off the fallen capitals, and even part of the pavements torn up; the massy shafts of the columns alone remaining entire.
With a view of gaining further information, I opened an extensive Necropolis, but with little success. There were neither vases nor lachrymatories, but only a coarse species of amphoræ and some pateræ, with a few coins, neither rare nor handsome, mostly brass, and principally of Severus, Pupienus, Alexander, Julia Mammea, Balbus, and Gordianus Pius. A number of intaglios of poor execution were picked up in different parts, as also some very common Carthaginian medals, but nothing indicating high antiquity or tasteful skill. Willing, however, to make as fair a trial as possible, I continued excavating until the 12th of February, when, having explored the principal Basilica, a triumphal arch, a circus, a peristyleum, and several minor structures, with only a strengthened conviction of the precarious chance of recovering any specimens of art worth the labour and expense of enlarged operations, I determined to desist.
In the course of the excavation I had an opportunity of observing, that the period of the principal grandeur of the city must have been posterior to the Augustan age, and when taste was on the decline; for notwithstanding the valuable materials with which it was constructed, it appears to have been overloaded with indifferent ornament, and several of the mutilated colossal statues I found, were in the very worst style of the Lower Empire. There are also many evidences of the city having been occupied after its first and violent destruction, from several of the walls and towers being built of various architectural fragments confusedly heaped together.
Although there are several exceedingly fine brick and cementitious edifices, most of the walls, arcades, and public buildings, are composed of massy blocks of freestone, and conglomerate, in layers, without cement, or at most with very little. The temples were constructed in a style of the utmost grandeur, adorned with immense columns of the most valuable granites and marbles, the shafts of which consisted of a single piece. Most of these noble ornaments were of the Corinthian order; but I also saw several enormous masses of architecture, ornamented with triglyphs, and two or three cyathiform capitals, which led me to suppose that a Doric temple, of anterior date, had existed there. On a triple plinth near them I observed a species of socte, used in some of these structures as the base of a column, with part of the walls of the Cella, surrounded by a columnar peristyle.
The city was encompassed by strong walls of solid masonry, pierced with magnificent gates, and was ornamented with spacious porticoes, sufficient portions of which still remain to prove their former splendour. It was divided from its principal suburb to the east by a river, the mouth of which forming a spacious basin, was the Cothon, defended at its narrow entrance by two stout fortifications; and branching out from them, may be observed, under water, the remains of two large moles. On the banks of this river, the bed of which is still occupied by a rivulet, are various ruins of aqueducts, and some large reservoirs in excellent preservation. Between the principal cisterns and the torrent to the westward of Leptis, some artificial mounds are constructed across the plain, by which the winter rains were conducted to the reservoirs, and carried clear of the city. On the east bank of the river are remains of a galley-port, and numerous baths, adjacent to a circus, formerly ornamented with obelisks and columns, and above which are vestiges of a theatre. Indeed the whole plain from the Mergip hills to the Cinyphus (now the river Kháhan) exhibits unequivocal proofs of its former population and opulence.
Thus ended my unsuccessful research; but though no works of art were recovered, many of the architectural fragments were moved during the summer down to the beach, by Colonel Warrington, where I called for and embarked them on board a store-ship for England, together with thirty-seven shafts, which formed the principal scope of the expedition, and they are now in the court of the British Museum. Still we were sorry to find that neither the raft-ports nor the hatchways of the Weymouth were capable of admitting three fine Cipolline columns of great magnitude, that, from their extreme beauty and perfection, we had been particularly anxious about.
On his return from a journey into the interior, in search of the ruins of Ghirza, (to which we shall hereafter allude) Captain Smyth observed three hills of moderate size in one of the branches of the Messellata range; which, from their number, appear to answer to the Hills of the Graces, considered by Herodotus as the source of the river Cinyphus. The distance of this range from the sea will not at all correspond (as we have already observed) with the 200 stadia mentioned by Herodotus as the distance of the Hills of the Graces from the coast; but, without relying too much upon their triple form, which might be equally peculiar to other hills, the circumstance of finding in these tumuli the source of the only stream which will answer to the position of the Cinyphus, should, we think, be esteemed as conclusive; and we may hereafter consider the measurements of Herodotus, as given in the passage which we have quoted above, to be decidedly (from whatever cause) erroneous. We may however observe, that we have had, at various times, so many opportunities of admiring the general accuracy of the father of history, that we should rather consider this error to have resulted from some mistake of the numbers, which may have occurred in transcribing the manuscript, than from any incorrectness on the part of Herodotus. We give the remarks of Captain Smyth on this subject in his own words.
From Benioleet I went to the north-eastward, in hopes of finding some remains of Talata, Tenadassa, and Syddemis, which were in the chain of communication with the stations of the Syrtis, Cydamus, and the Tritonis; but I met with only a few dilapidated towers, and some uninteresting ruins, which from the situation were probably those of Mespe. Thence we crossed the Messellata hills, and near the centre of one of the ramifications observed three slight eminences, which I am inclined to think must have been the Tumuli of the Graces of ancient geographers, though, but for the coincidence of the number, I should scarcely have remarked them. They are about 340 feet in height, and nearly five miles from the coast, thus differing in distance from the ancient account of 200 stadia; but as the Cinyphus actually rises here, the early manuscripts may have suffered from bad copyists.
The Cinyphus is now called the Wadie Khàhan, or weak river, in allusion to its sluggish course in summer, though it is still, to a little distance inland, a considerable stream, for this part of the world. Its shrubby banks render the lower part of it extremely picturesque, while both they and the sedgy marshes it has formed towards Tabia point abound with game of all descriptions. Near the high road from Sahal to Zeliten, the river contracts at once: here stood an ancient bridge, of which vestiges remain; and adjacent is a tolerable subterraneous aqueduct, running in the direction of Leptis, with a ventilating aperture, at intervals of about forty yards.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]This is the opinion of Captain Smyth, who examined the remains of Leptis Magna with attention (in the year 1817); and who has obligingly favoured us with the plans and account of it which are given at the end of the chapter.
[2]Nam Leptitani jam inde a principio belli Jugurthini ad Bestiam Consulem et postea Romam miserant, amicitiam, societatemque rogatum. Dein, ubi ea impetrata fuere semper boni, fidelesque mansere; et cuncta a Bestia, Albino, Metelloque imperata gnavitur fecerant.—(Bell. Jugurth. § 77.)
[3]At Gizerichus alia moliri non desiit. Nam, præter Carthaginem, Africæ urbes nudavit omnes . . .—(Procop. Hist. Vandal. à Grotio, Lib. 1. p. 17.)
[4]Questa città (Leptis M.) fu edificata da Romani con mura alte di pietre grosse: la quale fu due volte rovinata da Macomettani, e delle sue pietre e colonne fu edificata Tripoli.—(5ta. parte, p. 72.)
Leo here alludes to the restoration of the city, and not to its first erection by the Phœnicians.
[5]Bacchi (Solomonis frater erat) filios duos regendis Africæ partibus misit Imperator; Pentapoli Cyrum, natu majorem, Tripoli Sergium.—(Procopius, Hist. Vandal, Lib. 2. p. 119.)
[6]Solomon, the uncle of Sergius, was intrusted with the command of the army by Belisarius, when that general left the African coast, and governed with the title of Exarch. After his death at Tebeste, Sergius was appointed by the Emperor Justinian to succeed him, and rendered himself odious by his profligacy and cruelties.—(See Procopius, Hist. Vandal., Lib. 2.)
[7]Now Tibesh, in the kingdom of Algiers.
[8]Such is the substance of this affair as related by Procopius; and we may add, in the words of the eloquent Gibbon, “The arrival of fresh troops, and more skilful commanders, soon checked the insolence of the Moors: seventeen of their princes were slain in the same battle; and the doubtful and transient submission of their tribes was celebrated with lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive inroads had reduced the province of Africa to one-third of the measure of Italy; yet the Roman emperors continued to reign above a century over Carthage, and the fruitful coast of the Mediterranean.” The state of Northern Africa, at this period of the empire, is strongly painted in the observations which follow.
“But the victories and the losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; and such was the desolation of Africa, that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals had disappeared; they once amounted to an hundred and sixty thousand warriors, without including the children, the women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war; and the same destruction was retaliated on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the barbarians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the populousness of the cities and country, strenuously exercised in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude; the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed, that five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government of the Emperor Justinian[a].”
[a]Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. vii. p. 353.
[9]Il resto de’ diserti di Libia, cio è di Augela fino al Nilo, è habitato d’Arabi et da un popolo detto Levata, che è pure Africano, . . .—(5ta parte, p. 72.)
[10]“The desert which separates Egypt from Lybia” (it is Major Rennell who speaks) “is to be regarded as the proper desert of Lybia: and it may be a question whether the tribe of Levata, although now found in the interior of the country, may not have originally inhabited the sea-coast; and that the Greeks denominated Africa (Libya) from them. This was the part of Africa the nearest to Greece, and the first colonised by the Greeks; and it is a known fact, that the Adyrmachidæ and Nasamones, who in the days of Herodotus, inhabited the coast, were at a succeeding period, found in the inland parts about Ammon and Augela. Mr. Park saw a wandering tribe named Lubey, whom he compares, in respect to their habits and mode of life, to gipsies[a].”
[a]Illustrations of Herodotus, (p. 409.)
[11]Tunc Mauri, Levatæ appellati, Leptim Magnam (neque enim longe absunt) cum exercitu venere, &c.—(Hist. Vandal. ut supra.)
[12]Ηδη γαρ Λιβυη μεν επι Λιβυης λεγεται υπο των πολλων Ελληνων εχειν τουνομα γυναικος αυτοχθονος. (Melp. § μεʹ.) It may be at the same time remarked, that some writers have derived the term Libya from the Arabic word لوب (Lūb) which signifies thirst, and might therefore be without impropriety applied to a dry and sultry region. We may add that לביא (Libȳa) is the Phœnician, or Hebrew term for a lioness; and Libya is emphatically the country of lions—the “leonum arida nutrix.” לובימ (Lubīm) is the term used for Libyans in holy writ, and the common burthen of Nubian songs at the present day is—o-sī, o-ēh, to Lūbătŏ—of which we could never gain any other translation from the natives, than that it applied to their own country. Lūbătŏ was occasionally pronounced clearly Nūbătŏ, and it was sometimes impossible to tell which of the two pronunciations was intended.
[13]Bakshees, or Baksheesh, is the Arab term for a gratuity or pecuniary consideration.
[14]Il mio abito Europeo attirò subito lo sguardo del Marabotto, il quale fattosi inanzi, con aria truce, accompagnò il suo gesto minaccioso con parole ch’ io non intesi: ma un Nero che aveva accanto, avendole fedelmente tradutte, portavano ch’ egli voleva mangiarmi vivo. Il traduttore aggiungeva che il Marabotto ne era capace, perchè questo complimento era stato talvolta fatto da questa gente a qualche Ebreo!—(Viaggio da Tripoli, &c., p. 45).
[15]In the work of Capt. Lyon, in particular, a good deal of curious matter connected with Marábūts will be found.
[16]Εξης δ᾽ εστι ποταμος Κινυφος· και μετα ταυτα διατειχισμα τι ὁ εποιησαν Καρχηδονιοι, γεφυρουντες βαραθρα τινα εις την χωραν ανεχοντα.—(Lib. 17. § 18.)
It must not be forgotten that the geographer is passing from west to east; and we find the remains of the building alluded to above, occurring immediately after the river, in travelling in this direction; which answers exactly to the position of Strabo’s causeway.
[17]Δια δε αυτων (Macarum) Κινυψ ποταμος, ρεων εκ λοφου καλευμενου Χαριτων, ες θαλασσαν εκδιδοι. ὁ δε λοφος ουτος ὁ Χαριτων δασυς ιδησι εστι, εουσης της αλλης της προκαταλεχθεισης Λιβυης ψιλης· απο θαλασσης δε ες αυτον στάδιοι διηκοσιοι εισι. (Melp. ροεʹ.)
[18]The Terhoona range is a branch of the Gharian, and may be reckoned, in the part opposite Lebida, to be about eighteen geographical miles from the sea, on the authority of Capt. Lyon’s chart.
[19]It will be seen from the account of Lebida annexed, with which we have lately been favoured by Capt. Smyth, that the river actually takes its rise in the low range of hills above mentioned, situated between four and five miles from the coast; so that the distance of Herodotus is much too great.
[20]See Lib. 4. Cap. 3.
[21]In intimo sinu fuit ora Lotophagôn, quos quidam Alachroos dixere, ad Philænorum aras.—(Hist. Nat. Lib. v. c. 4.)
The words of Ptolemy are—Περι αυτον τον ποταμον (Κινυφον) Λοτοφαγοι.