THE PREFACE. 



of fuel• correfpondent Letters, generally mif call the Arabic 

 Appellations, and thereby render themujelejs toTravellers. 

 Neither, isjill any of thefe Appellations, when thus wrote and 

 pronounced, appear^ I prejume, morediffbnant to the Ear, 

 than the greatefl Ψ art of Thofe njoe meet with in the antient 

 Geography. For, (if we are not prejudiced by the Latin 

 and Greek Terminations, which have been familiar to us 



from our Touth,) El Khadara, {to mention no more) will aff eel 

 the Ear with no more Harfhnefs than the antient Name 

 Zucchabbari; ;ii?r Beni-ZeneiTel, //?/i'^ Herpiditani. 



The 'Daggers (t) that are placed before fever al Cities of 

 Bar bar y, denote thofe Ψ laces to have been Epij copal Sees, 

 when this Country prof effed the Chriftian FaitL• We learn 



from the Notitia, (E^c-y.-^o.) that they were, at one Time or 

 other, w.ore than Six Hundred in Number ; which, confider- 

 ing the Smallnefs of the African Cities, how nearly they were 



fituatedto one another, and that each of them might enjoy the 



fame Ecclefiafitcal Privilege, lamperfwaded, does not ex- 

 ceed the Truth. But for want of Geographical Circum- 



fiances, 1 have not been able to adjust the Situation of above 

 one hundred of them; all or mofi of which, (notwith- 



fanding they might have been afterwards enlarged and 

 adorned^ were built long before the Chriftian-^ra, or evert 

 the firfi Conquefls of this Country by the Romans. 



In examining thefe Ruins, I have often wondred, that 

 there fhould remain f ο many altars and other Tokens of the 

 Pagan Idolatry and Superflition\ and fo very few Croffes 

 or other Monuments of Chriftianity. c^j to the latter, 

 how zealous foever the African Church might have been 

 in putting them up, the Saracens have been induflrious 

 enough in pulling them down. The Ax^hs certainly, when- 

 ever they attend their Flocks , near any of thefe Ruins , 

 make it a Piece of Devotion as well as Amufement, to deftroy 

 and obliterate as much of them as they can. Wherein they 

 are not a little encouraged by the Lead andiron, which the 

 Antient s fometimes made ufe of in cramping of the Stones '^ 

 and efpeciaUy by a great Variety of Coins which they more 

 frequently meet with. c 2 Of 



XI 



