lected by the barbarian inhabitants. Walls, arches, doorways, and pieces of broken columns, attest the industry and skill of former ages, in places where rank grass and neglected shrubs now harbour numerous serpents. At Birsis and Mably-under the latter of which denominations the term Neapolis is supposed to be concealed-there are various remains of buildings which establish the probability that flourishing towns once existed there, and enjoyed the benefits of an enlightened government. The country around, too, is described as at once fertile and lovely, consisting of a plain expanding between the mountains and the shore, covered with flowers, and presenting every symptom of an inexhaustible soil.

As Bengazi itself stretches still further towards the north, the extent of the level ground between the sea and the hills is much increased, constituting an uncommonly fine district, capable of supporting a large population. But, though the situation be excellent, the town itself is equally destitute of elegance and comfort. The houses are built after the manner usually followed by the Arabs, with rough stones and mud; and in the wet season, accordingly, nothing is more common than to see them melt down into a heap of moist earth. When a cabin falls, it is generally left in a state of ruin, and the family remove to some other spot, without troubling themselves farther about it; the consequence is, we are told, that the streets are often nearly blocked up by mounds of this nature, which form in winter accumulations of mire, and in the dry weather scatter clouds of dust in the eyes of the passengers. There is, however, nothing peculiar to Bengazi in the scene now described, for every Arab town and village presents, more or less, a similar spectacle.

With so many objects to attract them, it cannot be surprising that such a place should be proverbial for flies; and, in fact, we find travellers asserting that among the various annoyances with which the place abounds, these are, perhaps, the most serious of any, or, at all events, those from which it is least possible to escape. They follow you everywhere, settle on any part of the arms, legs, and body, which the heat of the weather obliges you to leave uncovered; creep obstinately into the corners of the eyes and up the nostrils, into the hollows of the ears, and often fly down the throat, nearly choking you, should the mouth happen to be open. At

meals, every part of the dishes and their contents are cov ered with them as soon as they are produced; and every fluid becomes a trap for as many of these creatures as can crowd upon its surface. In short, says Captain Beechey, there is literally no riding or walking, no reading or writing, no eating or resting one's self in any part of Bengazi in comfort for them; and if at night they take up their accustomed position on the ceiling, and give place to the fleas and moschetoes, the first dawn of morning finds them on the wing, and all alive to recommence their operations.*

The harbour, which was at one time safe and capacious, cannot now admit vessels drawing more than seven or eight feet of water; while the fortifications, originally constructed to defend it, are so miserably decayed, that when a British ship lately approached it, the Bey requested that the usual salutation might be dispensed with, lest the concussion should bring down the walls. Its chief protection, therefore, is supplied by a reef of rocks, which narrows the passage so much that no stranger can enter it without the aid of a pilot.

There is not a single place of amusement or public resort in any part of this gloomy town; its inhabitants idling or sleeping away the greater portion of their time, without appearing to entertain the slightest desire of improving their condition or of enlivening the monotony of their pursuits. As the religion and laziness of a Turk equally prompt him to depend more upon the interposition of Providence than upon his own exertions, he uses no means, and rarely has recourse to any precautions; and hence, centuries after centuries may pass away without witnessing any advancement in knowledge, any redress of grievances, or any progress in the arts which bless and adorn human life. Bengazi is said to contain about 2,000 inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are Jews and negro slaves; but the number of persons actually residing in the place is continually varying, owing to the circumstance that many remove to the country whenever the weather permits, to establish themselves in tents made of palm-trees. The Hebrews are a persecuted race, but uniformly steady in the pursuit of riches. As usually happens in Mohammedan states, they are the principal merchants and tradesmen; and their unremitted industry alone enables them

* Proceedings, &c., p. 285-287.

to meet the heavy exactions which are made upon their property by the adherents of the prophet.

The site now occupied by this dirty town was, as we have already said, formerly covered by Berenice, and in still more ancient times by Hesperis; but of these famed cities very few remains now appear above ground, to interest the sculptor, the architect, or the antiquary. This total absence of columns and statues is ascribed to a common practice of the Arabs, who, in building their huts, break into small pieces such of the stones belonging to the old edifices as are too large to suit their purpose. Many a noble frieze and cornice, and many a well-proportioned capital, has been crushed under the hammers of these barbarians. Extensive ruins are still found about Bengazi, a little under the surface of the ground; and, accordingly, whenever a house is to be erected, the proprietor, in order to obtain materials, has nothing more to do than to send a few men to excavate in the neighbourhood, where they are sure to find a various and abundant quarry. On the beach, to the northeastward of the village, where a mound twenty or thirty feet in height is formed of the debris of the original town, coins and gems are frequently washed down in rainy weather; and, after storms especially, the inhabitants repair to the shore, and sift the earth which falls from this bank, in search of a treasure on which Europeans have taught them to place a high, and in some instances an imaginary value.*

Perhaps the most interesting objects in this romantic vicinity are the celebrated Gardens of the Hesperides, so long famed in song, and so often described as the only earthly paradise left to the possession of the human race. Along the shore there are some natural chasms or ravines, covered with beautiful shrubs and trees, and having at the bottom a level surface of excellent soil, several hundred feet in extent; so that a person walking over the country comes suddenly upon a delightful orchard, blooming in secret, and in the greatest luxuriance. The effect of these secluded spots, protected, as it were, from the intrusion of mankind by the steepness and depth of the barriers which enclose them, is singular and pleasing in the extreme.

This situation corresponds perfectly with the description

* Beechey, p. 316

of the Hesperides given by Scylax, who represents them as a sequestered spot of about two stadia, or the fifth part of a mile, across, filled with fruit-trees of various kinds, and inaccessible on all sides. He farther relates, that their distance from the port of Barca was 620 stadia, or rather more than sixty of our miles-a space which agrees very well with the journey from Ptolemeta, the harbour to which he alluded. But all doubt as to the locality ought to be removed by the fact that Bengazi was once called Hesperides, or Hesperis-a circumstance which is attested by the high authority of Ptolemy, the geographer, Pliny, and Stephanus. Not far from Berenice, writes the Roman naturalist, is the river Lethon, and the sacred grove where the Gardens of the Hesperides are said to be placed.*

As

The first position of these happy retreats was supposed to be at the western extremity of Libya, being then the farthest boundary of human knowledge in the direction of the setting sun, The ideas with which they were always associated a circuit of blooming verdure amid the Desert-were calcu lated to make a deep impression on the lively fancy of the Greeks. There was suggested also the image of islands, which ever after adhered to these visionary creations. the first spot became frequented, it was soon stripped of its fabled beauty; but as so pleasing a notion was not to be easily relinquished, another was quickly found for it; and every traveller, as he discovered a new portion of that fertile and beautiful coast, fondly imagined that he had at length arrived at the long-sought-for Islands of the Blest. In the end, when the continent had been examined in vain, they were transferred to the ocean which washes its western shores. The Canaries, accordingly, having never been passed nor even fully explored, continued to be the Fortunate Islands, not from any peculiar felicity of soil or climate, but merely because distance and imperfect knowledge left full scope to poetical fancy. We find Horace painting their delights and the happiness of their possessors in the most glowing language; describing them as a refuge still left for mortals from that troubled and imperfect enjoyment which they were doomed to experience in every other quarter of this terrestrial globe.†

* Ptol. Africæ, tab. iii. Hist. Nat., lib. v., c. 5.

+ Murray's Account of Discoveries and Travels in Africa, vol. i., p. 8. Horat., lib. i., ode 10; lib. iv., ode 8. Epod. 17.

As Captain Beechey is entitled to the honour of having discovered or identified the pleasant hermitage mentioned by ancient authors, we give the concluding part of the narrative in his own words :-"We have shown," says he, "that the nature of the ground in the neighbourhood of Berenice (or, Bengazi) is consistent with the account of Scylax; and that places like those which he has so minutely described, are actually to be found in the territory where he has laid down the gardens. This singular formation, so far as we have seen, is also peculiar to the country in question; and we know of no other part of the coast of Northern Africa where the same peculiarities of soil are observable. We do not mean to point out any one of these subterranean gardens as that which is described in the passage quoted from Scylax; for we know of no one which will correspond, in point of extent, to the garden which this writer has mentioned; all of those which we saw were considerably less than a fifth of a mile in diameter; and the places of this nature which would best agree with the dimensions in question, are now filled with water sufficiently fresh to be drinkable, and take the form of romantic little lakes. Scarcely any two of the gardens we met with, however, were of the same depth and extent; and we have no reason to conclude, that because we saw none that were large enough to be fixed upon for the Garden of the Hesperides, as it is described in the statement of Scylax, there is therefore no place of the dimensions required among those which escaped our notice; particularly as the singular formation we allude to continues to the foot of the Cyrenaic range, which is fourteen miles distant in the nearest part from Bengazi. At any rate, under the circumstances which are already before the reader, it will not be considered a visionary or a hastily-formed assumption, if we say that the position of these celebrated spots, long the subject of eager and doubtful inquiry, may be laid down with soine probability in this neighbourhood. The remarkable peculiarities of this part of Northern Africa correspond (in our opinion) sufficiently well with the authorities already quoted to justify the conclusion we have drawn from an inspection of the ground, and to induce us to place the Gardens of the Hesperides in some one or other of the recesses described, rather than in

* Proceedings, &c., p. 325.