ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* 

 David Howard, Esq., D.L., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 

 The following paper was then read by the author :— 



'^PROCOPIUS'S AFRICAN MONUMENT OF 

 JOSHUA'S CONQUEST OF CANAAN"; Narra- 

 tive of a visit to the Site. By MARTIN L. RouSE, Esq. 

 (Barrister-at-Law). 



TO most of my hearers, I think, as to the vast majority of 

 thoughtful Britons, the existence at any time of the 

 monument with which this paper deals is quite unknown. 

 I myself, I will confess, had never heard of it until about 

 three years ago, Avlien I read in the religious newspaper 

 called the Morninrj Star these words: " Somewhere or other 

 Procopius has recorded that in his time there stood in North 

 Africa a stone thus inscribed — ' We are they who escaped 

 from Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.' " 



The words lay dormant in my mind for a long time ; if I 

 thought of them, it was only to say to myself, " The informa- 

 tion is too vague ; and anyhow, such a stone must long have 

 been buried in the sand or broken up for building material, 

 its inscription worn away amid the vicissitudes of settlement, 

 conquest, and reconquest by tribes who could not read its 

 characters, and who had no reverence for antiquities other 

 than the relics of Mahomet." But at the beginning of last 



* Monday, May 5th, 1902. 



