TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
75 
On my return thither in January, 1817, I was surprised, on riding 
over the ruins, to find that many of the most valuable columns, 
which were standing in the preceding May, had either been removed, 
or were lying broken on the spot, and even most of those stiU remain- 
ing had had their astragal and torus chipped off. I discovered, on in- 
quiry, that a report had been circulated by the Tschaouses on my 
former visit, of an intention to embark them for England; and as it 
had long been a quarry whence the Arabs supplied themselves with 
mill-stones, they had in the interval been busily employed in breaking 
up the columns for that purpose, providing not only for the present, 
but also for future supply. This extensive destruction was prompted 
by the peculiar construction of the Moorish oil-mills, they being built 
with a circular surface, having a gentle inclination towards the 
centre, round which a long stone traverses, formed by about one- 
third of a shaft. 
On the 25th, however, having arranged my tents and instru- 
ments, I commenced an excavation near the centre of the city Avith 
a party of eight Arabs, whom I increased the following day to a hun- 
dred; and as they quickly gained the use of the Enghsh spade and 
mattock, the work proceeded with celerity. But I soon had the mor- 
tification of perceiving, from numerous local evidences, that Leptis had 
been completely ravaged in former times, and its public edifices demo- 
lished with diligent labour, owing perhaps to the furious bigotry 
of the Carthaginian bishops, who zealously destroyed the Pagan 
monuments in every place under their control. Or it might have 
been partly effected by the vengeance of the Barbarians for the 
