His Highness the Prince made his entry in grand style into Cafsa,—the Mamlooks on their choice horses, and in their best uniforms—a native band playing their national tunes—a host of unfurled banners—and at the wings several companies of cavalry. In all, including the various tribes that had joined, the camp now amounted to no less than 30,000 men, about 50,000 camels, and 2000 horses and mules! “A just estimate of the size of the expedition,” says our author, “can only be formed by viewing it from some eminence as it is moving along, either in some large plain, or over the seas of sand which now and then it is traversing. Often have I taken my position on a little hillock, and could see nothing for miles before me or behind but the living masses which composed the inhabitants of our canvass city. How similar to this must have been the marching of the Children of Israel in the wilderness, on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land!” The morning was lovely as they approached Cafsa. Not a speck could be discovered in the sky, and everything around seemed to have an aspect of contentment and cheerfulness. The city is surrounded by gardens, gay with clusters of date, olive, lemon, orange, pomegranate, pistacchio, and other fruit trees. “In walking among these gardens, richly watered by a delicious brook, which has its supply from two fountains, one within the citadel, and the other in the centre of the city, a stranger can imagine himself in some more temperate region, and among a people more advanced in civilisation.” But on entering the city, the charm (as usual) vanishes. Cafsa is the ancient Capsa, (built three hundred years before Carthage), the stronghold of Jugurtha; of the inhabitants of which place Florus says, “They are in the midst of their sands and serpents, which defend them better from those that would attack them than armies and ramparts would.” Marius, however, after some adroit manœuvring, pounced upon and took the city;—and as the inhabitants were strongly attached to the Numidian prince, the Roman general, after giving the place up to be plundered by his soldiers, levelled it with the ground, and put the inhabitants to the sword, or sold them as slaves. The modern city, built on the ruins of the ancient one, is situated upon a rising ground, and has a population of about three or four thousand inhabitants. Within it there is a spring, the waters of which, at their source, are tepid, but are considerably cooled in the large basin into which they discharge themselves. This is in all probability the _Tarmid_ of Edrisi and the _Jugis aqua_ of Sallust. A small kind of fish, about two or three inches in length, is to be found in this slightly tepid basin.