NEIGHBOURHOOD OF GIBRALTAR. 197 



surveyed Carteia about 400 years ago, and that the 

 mole was then entire, and " that it had illustrious 

 ruins of superb edifices standing." At present there 

 are but few vestiges of this great city ; some eight or 

 ten pillars of its theatre still remain on the side of a 

 hill now overgrown with species of Daucus and Cen- 

 taurea. Coins and fragments of temples, &c. are 

 occasionally brought up by the plough ; most of the 

 stones obtained here have been used in the buildings 

 of St. Roque and Algesiras, and lately the stones 

 found in the ruin described in an early part of this 

 book have been used for the same purpose, chiefly by 

 Mr. Francia, in erecting his villa on the Spanish race- 

 course. We shall not stop here to inquire whether 

 Carteia, Tartessus, and Heraclea were one and the 

 same city; but few can go over the ground where once 

 stood a rich and flourishing city, without exclaiming 

 with Carter, when he saw these ruins, " O, Carteia ! 

 thou once famous and renowned city, whose beauty 

 and loveliness captivated the merchants, drawing all 

 nations of the earth to thy port, can I contemplate 

 without compassion thy present desolate state ? Be- 

 hold, thy noble theatre is destroyed, thy populous 

 streets are ploughed up and sown, thy walls are taken 

 away, thy sacred temples are beat down, and thy 

 beauteous head, once crowned with turrets, is now 

 levelled with the dust ! Where are thy senators, thy 

 purpled quatuor-viri, thy aediles, thy streets swarm- 

 ing with people ? Thy port is destroyed, no fleets 

 are to be seen in it, nor the shout of mariners any 

 more heard ; thy fields for want of culture are turned 



