Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/46

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INTRODUCTION.

never was so far south as Jibbel Aurez, so could only say this from report.

From Jibbel Aurez nothing occurred in the style of architecture that was material. Hydra remained on the left hand. I came to Cassareen, the ancient Colonia Scillitana[1], where I suffered something both from hunger and from fear. The country was more rugged and broken than any we had yet seen, and withal less fruitful and inhabited. The Moors of these parts are a rebellious tribe, called Nememshah, who had fled from their ordinary obligation of attending the Bey, and had declared themselves on the part of the rebel-moors, the Henneishah.

My intentions now were to reach Feriana, the Thala[2] of the ancients, where I expected considerable subjects for study; but in this I was disappointed, and being on the frontier, and in dangerous times, when several armies were in the field, I thought it better to steer my course eastward, and avoid the theatre of war.

Journeying east, I came to Spaitla[3], and again got into the kingdom of Tunis. Spaitla is a corruption of Suffetula[4], which was probably its ancient name before it became a Roman colony; so called from Suffetes, a magistrature in all the countries dependent upon Carthage. Spaitla has many inscriptions, and very extensive and elegant remains. There are three temples, two of them Corinthian, and one ofthe


  1. Shaw's Travels, cap. v. p. 119.
  2. Sal. Bel. Jug. § 94. L. Flor. lib. iii. cap. 1.
  3. Shaw's Travels, chap. v. p. 118.
  4. Itin. Anton. p. 3.