And, in examining their ruins, I have often wondered that there should remain so many altars and tokens of Pagan idolatry and superstition, and so very few crosses or other monuments of Christianity. Yet even this may perhaps be well enough accounted for, from that great hatred and contempt which the Saracens have always had for the Christian name, and of their taking all imaginable opportunities to obliterate and destroy it; wherein they are further encouraged, by finding not only a number of coins, but large pieces of lead and iron also, wherewith the stones which they are thus industrious to pull down, are bound together. But of these coins, I rarely met with any that were either valuable or curious. Such of them as are purely African, or Carthaginian, or carry along with them at least the insignia and characteristics of being struck there or in Sicily, and other of their colonies, may be well accounted the rarest, and of these I have given the reader several drawings and descriptions; not taking the least notice of the Missilia, as they are called, of the lower empire, nor of the coins, which are equally common, of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Alexander, Gordianus, and Philippus; in whose times these parts of Africa appear to have been adorned with the most sumptuous edifices. I have some pieces likewise of glass money, found in the ruins of such of their buildings, as were erected by their sultans, viz. Occ'ba and Ben Egib. For these, no less than those that were erected by their predecessors, the Carthaginians and and Romans, have been equally subject to their changes and revolutions. These coins, of which I have two sorts, the one of the bigness of a farthing, the other of a silver twopence, are flat and plain on the one side, and impressed on the other with the Mahometan creed, viz. There is no 'God but God; Mohammed is the apostle of 'God.' But, to return to what was the more immediate design of this preface: Our stages or days journies were not always the same. For when any danger was apprehended, we then travelled through as many by-paths as our conductors were acquainted with; riding in this manner, without halting, sometimes twelve, sometimes fifteen hours. Nay, in returning from Jerusalem, so vigilant were the Arabs in distressing the pilgrims, and particularly myself, that notwithstanding we had the sheck, or saint, of Mount Carmel, with twenty of his armed servants to protect us, we rested only one hour in two and twenty; for so long a time we were in travelling, and that very briskly, betwixt Sichem and Mount Carmel. But in the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, an ordinary day's journey, exclusive of the time taken up in making observations, rarely exceeded eight or nine hours. Our constant practice was, to rise at break of day, set forward with the sun, and travel till the middle of the afternoon; at which time we began to look out for the encampments of the Arabs, who, to prevent such parties as ours from living at free charges upon them, take care to to pitch in woods, vallies, or places the least conspicuous. And indeed, unless we discovered their flocks, the smoke of their tents, or heard the barking of their dogs, it was sometimes with dif ficulty if at all that we found them. Here, as was before observed, we were accommodated with the mounah; and if, in the course of our travelling the next day, We chanc'd to find A new repast, or an untasted spring, We bless'd our stars, and thought it luxury. This is the method of travelling in these countries, and these are its pleasures and amusements; few indeed in comparison with the many toils and fatigues; fewer still with regard to the greater perils and dangers that either continually alarm, or actually beset us. And besides, as the reader will have too frequent occasion to remark, the discoveries we are thus eager to pursue, and which are the occasion of all this anxiety and labour, how seldom is it that they answer our expectations? Even these larger scenes of ruin and desolation at Jol Cæsarea, Cirta, Carthage, and other of the more celebrated cities in Africa, where we flattered ourselves to be entertained with such diffusive scenes of antiquity and instruction, yet, when we come more nearly to view and examine them, how infinitely do they fall short of what before hand we had conceived in our minds of their beauty and munificence. Instead of really diverting or instructing us in the manner manner we apprehended, they have sometimes produced quite contrary effects, by engaging us at once in a very serious turn of thought and meditation. For here we are immediately struck with the very solitude of these few domes, arches, and porticos that are left standing, which history informs us, were once crowded with inhabitants; where Scyphax and Massinissa, Scipio and Cesar, the orthodox Christians and the Arians, the Saracens and the Turks, have given laws in their turn. Every heap of ruins points out to us the weakness and instability of all human art and contrivance, reminding us further of the many thousands that lie buried below them, which are now lost in oblivion, and forgotten to the world. Whilst we are full of these thoughts and meditations, Christianity steps in to our relief, acquainting us that we are only strangers and pilgrims upon earth; seeking a city, not like these, subject to the strokes of time and fortune, but which hath everlasting foundations, whose builder and maker is God, Heb. xi. 9. &c. CON |