f the
successors of Mahomet. Under the standard of their queen Cahina, the
independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline; and as
the Moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess,
they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar to their own. The
veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the defence of Africa: the
conquests of an age were lost in a single day; and the Arabian chief,
overwhelmed by the torrent, retired to the confines of Egypt, and
expected, five years, the promised succors of the caliph. After the
retreat of the Saracens, the victorious prophetess assembled the Moorish
chiefs, and recommended a measure of strange and savage policy.
"Our cities," said she, "and the gold and silver which they contain,
perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs. These vile metals are not
the objects of our ambition; we content ourselves with the simple
productions of the earth. Let us destroy these cities; let us bury in
their ruins those pernicious treasures; and when the avarice of our foes
shall be destitute of temptation, perhaps they will cease to disturb
the tranquillity of a warlike people." The proposal was accepted with
unanimous applause. From Tangier to Tripoli, the buildings, or at least
the fortifications, were demolished, the fruit-trees were cut down, the
means of subsistence were extirpated, a fertile and populous garden was
changed into a desert, and the historians of a more recent period could
discern the frequent traces of the prosperity and devastation of their
ancestors. Such is the tale of the modern Arabians. Yet I strongly
suspect that their ignorance of antiquity, the love of the marvellous,
and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of Barbarians, has induced
them to describe, as one voluntary act, the calamities of three hundred
years since the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals. In the progress
of the revolt, Cahina had most probably contributed her share of
destruction; and the alarm of universal ruin might terrify and alienate
the cities that had reluctantly yielded to her unworthy yoke. They
no longer hoped, perhaps they no longer wished, the return of their
Byzantine sovereigns: their present servitude was not alleviated by the
benefits of order and justice; and the most zealous Catholic must prefer
the imperfect truths of the Koran to the blind and rude idolatry of the
Moors. The general of the Saracens was again received as the savior of
the pro