216 TRAVELS IN NORTHERN AFRICA. CHAP. v. 
feet of plaster, and some long letters are sunk in it, apparently 
Arabic, and much broken. The Shreefs said that these were the 
only ones they recollected, and that they were written by the 
Christians soon after the time of our Lord Noah. Having fancied 
I could distinguish Arabic characters, I made my friends sit on the 
sand, whilst with my finger I traced them one by one. They im- 
mediately saw the resemblance, but said, that having fancied them 
to be of Christian origin, they had taken it for granted, and never 
troubled their heads about decyphering them. 
The letters I drew were these, 
wliich I conceive clearly prove the Arabic origin of these buildings. 
Under these characters is a small piece of very neat cornice, of the 
size of a cocoa-nut, having little flourishes on it. 
One of the people told me that papers and parchments had 
been discovered amongst the ruined houses in the neighbourhood 
of the town ; but no one could inform me who had found them, or 
where they were deposited. 
On my return I went to see the Castle, or rather the ruins of 
one, which occupies a large space in the centre of the town. Its 
walls must once have been of great strength, as in some places I 
observed them to be above thirty feet in thickness, and built in the 
