THE PREFACE. 



of fuch correfpondent Letters, generally m'lf call the Arabic 

 appellations, and thereby render them ujelejs to Travellers. 

 Neither, will any of thefe appellations, when thus wrote and 

 pronounced, appear, I prejume, moredijjbnant to the Ear, 

 than the greateti Tart of Thofe we meet with in theantient 

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

 and Greek Ter ruinations, which have been familiar to us 

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

 the Ear with no more Harjhnefs than the antient Name 

 Zucchabbari; fz^r Beni-Zeneffel, ^/j^^ Herpiditani. 



The "Daggers (t) that are placed before fever al Cities of 



Barbary, denote thofeT laces to have been Epif copal Sees, 



when this Country prof ejfed the Chriftian Faith. We learn 



from the Notitia, {Exc.^. ^ o.J that they were, at one Time or 



other, more than Six Hundred in Number ; which, confider- 



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



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



fame Ecclefiajhcal Privilege, lamperfwaded, does not ex- 



ceed the Truth. But for want of Geographical Circum- 



fiances, I have not been able to adjuB the Situation of above 



one hundred of them; all or moft of which, {notwith- 



ftanding they might have been afterwards enlarged and 



adorned,) were built long before the Chriftian-iEra, or even 



the firfi Conquefis of this Country by the Romans. 



In examining thefe Ruins, I have often wondred, that 

 there flmild remain fo many Altars and other Tokens of the 

 Pagan Idolatry and Superfiition \ and fo very few Crojfes 

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

 how zealous foever the African Church might have been 

 in putting them up, the Saracens have been induftrious 

 enough in pulling them down. The Arabs certainly, when- 

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

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

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

 are not a little encouraged by the Lead and Iron, which the 

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

 and efpecially by a great Variety of Coins which they more 

 frequently meet with. c 2 Of 



XI 



