Page:Ballantyne--The Pirate City.djvu/293

Rh Nomads. They were pastoral in their habits and thievish in their propensities, without laws or government worthy of the name. The Mauri, or Moors, devoted themselves to more settled pursuits, became traders and inhabitants of towns, and were a mixed race, although originally springing from the same stock as the Nomads, or Arabs. These were the early inhabitants, who lived during the foggy period.

"The Medes, Armenians, and Persians afterwards founded a colony, and traded with the natives of the interior. Then the Phœnicians landed, and began to build towns, of which Carthage, founded B.C. 853, was the chief. The Punic wars followed; Carthage, the city of Dido, fell, and Mauritania was annexed to Rome. For hundreds of years after this the country was a scene of frequent and bloody warfare, in which many great historical names figured, and many great armies were swept away to gratify human pride, ambition, and cupidity on the one hand, and to defend hearth and home on the other, until the Roman power extended far and wide, from the Libyan desert to the Atlantic, and from the Mediterranean to the Zahara. Near the time of our Saviour ( 46), Sallust was established by Julius Cæsar as governor of Numidia, where he collected materials for his history of the Jugurthine wars, and at the same time enriched himself by the plunder of the now highly civilized and prosperous country."