It is not only in the works of early writers that we find the nature of the Syrtis misunderstood; for the whole of the space between Mesurata and Alexandria is described by Leo Africanus (under the title of Barca), as “a wild and desert country, where there is neither water nor land capable of cultivation[11].” He allows, however, that the country was inhabited, _after_ the occupation of Africa by the Arabs, though not before that period; and tells us, that the most powerful among the Mahometan invaders possessed themselves of the fertile parts of the coast, leaving the others only the desert for their abode, exposed to all the miseries and privations attendant on it: for this desert, he continues, is far removed from any habitation, and nothing is produced there whatever. So that if these poor people would have a supply of grain, or of any other articles necessary to their existence, they are obliged to pledge their children to the Sicilians who visit the coast; who on providing them with these things, which they bring with them from Sicily, carry off the children they have received. Here we have the whole of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica described as a desert tract of country; and although the same author states, that “Sert was an ancient city, built, as some think, by the Egyptians, and, as others believe, by the Romans,” he informs us that the country in which it was situated was uninhabited, from Mesurata to Alexandria, before the arrival of the Mahometans in Africa[12]. It must, however, be confessed, that the half-starved Musselmen with whom he has peopled it were scarcely more deserving of our commisseration than the “vastæ Nasamon populator Syrtis,” or any other of the very respectable personages of antiquity who are said to have inhabited this coast. The Sicilians were most probably aware of the character of their customers before they exacted from them the hostages above described; for Leo goes on to say, that these Arabs were the greatest thieves and the most treacherous people to be found in the whole world. They ranged the country round, as far as Numidia, attacking and plundering the poor pilgrims who were unfortunate enough to meet them; and not contented with taking from them everything that was to be found upon their persons, they made them swallow a quantity of hot milk, and then shook them about till it acted as an emetic, so violently as to leave nothing whatever on the stomach. This was done lest the poor unhappy patients, to whom the medicine was administered, should have taken the precaution of swallowing their money to prevent its being taken from them by their assailants. “Perciocché dubitano queste bestie (says our indignant author) che i viandanti, come s’appressano a quel diserto, inghiottino i danari perchè non gli siano trovati adosso.”