Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/36

xx me to come on shore, that he might have an opportunity of shewing me still more attention and politeness.

mind being now full of more agreeable ideas than what had for some time past occupied it, I sailed in a small vessel from Port Mahon, and, having a fair wind, in a short time made the coast of Africa, at a cape, or headland, called Ras el Hamra, and landed at Bona, a considerable town, the ancient Aphrodisium , built from the ruins of Hippo Regius , from which it is only two miles distant. It stands on a large plain, part of which seems to have been once overflowed by the sea. Its trade consists now in the exportation of wheat, when, in plentiful years, that trade is permitted by the government of Algiers. I had a delightful voyage close down the coast, and passed the small island Tabarca, lately a fortification of the Genoese, now in the hands of the regency of Tunis, who took it by surprise, and made all the inhabitants slaves. The island is famous for a coral fishery, and along the coast are immense forests of large beautiful oaks, more than sufficient to supply the necessities of all the maritime powers in the Levant, if the quality of the wood be but equal to the size and beauty of the tree.

Tabarca I sailed and anchored at Biserta, the Hippozaritus of antiquity, and thence went to pay a visit to Utica, out of respect to the memory of Cato, without having sanguine expectations of meeting any thing remarkable