832 



SAHARA, OR GREAT DESERT. 



24. Jlnliquilies. Carthage is an indistinct ruin ; though, in rowing along shore, Shaw could 

 see the outlet of the sewers. The cisterns, also, may still be seen. The aqueduct may be 

 traced 50 miles. Some of the arches are 70 feet high, and a man may walk upright in the 

 conduits. There are remains of other ancient cities in the eastern parts of Barbary, with pil- 

 lars, arches, gates, tombs, and sculptures. 



25. History. Barbary occupied a more conspicuous place in the ancient, than in the mod- 

 ern world. Cyrenaica, its most easterly portion, was the seat of several flourishing Greek 

 colonies. Carthage, further west, was, at one time, the mistress of Spain, Sicily, and the 

 whole of the western Mediterranean ; but she fell in the struggle with Rome. The southern 



part of Tunis, with Con- 

 stantina, formed the power- 

 ful kingdom of Numidia, il- 

 lustrious both as an ally and 

 an enemy of Rome. Mau- 

 ritania and Getulia, to the 

 southwest, were distinguish- 

 ed for the fierce valor of 

 their inhabitants. The Ro- 

 man arms reduced nearly all 

 of these regions, which were 

 afterwards wrested from 

 Rome, by Genseric, the 

 Vandal. At a still later 

 period, tiie Saracen invad- 

 ed them, and established 

 their religion permanently in 

 Northern Africa. At first, 

 Barbary was governed by 

 the viceroys of the Caliph 

 of Bagdad ; but when the 

 empire of the Saracens began to crumble, it formed several separate kingdoms, which, for 

 : more than 3 centuries, have been sinking deeper and deeper into ignorance and barbarism. In 

 the 15th century, the celebrated Turkish pirates, Barbarossa and Hayraddin, seized upon Al- 

 giers, Tunis, and Tripoli, and made them dependencies of the Turkish empire, and from that 

 time they devoted themselves to general piracy. In the beginning of the present century, 

 Tunis and Tripoli freed themselves from the Turkish yoke ; but the flagrant piracies of Algiers, 

 drew upon her the vengeance first of the United States, and afterward of England and France. 



CHAPTER CXXIX. SAHARA, OR GREAT DESERT. 



This great waste extends from the Atlantic to the Nile-valley, and from the Barbary States 

 to Senegambia and Nigritia. It stretches from latitude 16° to 30° North, and from longitude 

 29° East to 17° West, having a length of about 3,000 miles, a breadth of 800, and an area of 

 about 1,600,000 square miles. The eastern part is often called the Desert of Libya, and it 

 may be considered as forming a part of a great desert zone of sand and naked rocks, which, 

 with few and slight interruptions, reaches from the Atlantic Ocean, over Central Asia, to the 

 borders of China, through 130 degrees of longitude. Sahara consists of a table-land, raised a 

 little above the level of the sea, covered with moving sand, and here and there containing some 

 rocky heights and valleys, where the water collects and nourishes some thorny shrubs, ferns, 

 and grass. Along the shore of the Atlantic, are some mountains in detached peaks ; towards 

 the interior, the heights lose themselves in a plain, covered with white and sharp pebbles. For 

 a great part of the year, the dry, heated air, has an appearance of a reddish vapor, and the 



night afterwards to some other place, and never returns ; " The butcher, who acted on the present occasion, was 



his wife, if he has one, can be divorced from him, by a voluntary executioner for 48 ducats, and he decamped 



applying to the cadi, or judge, and pwearing, that as her the next night, leaving, as I was informed, a wife and 7 



husband has served as an executioner, she is afraid to live children, to shift for themselves; he was poor, and car- 



with him, lest he should be tempted to commit some vio- ried away his wages of death with him." — Riley's A'ar- 



lence on her, in a similar way. rative. 



Destruction of Carthage. 



