From this account, contrasted with the actual appearance of the place in question, we must either suppose that the level of the lands here alluded to, which are those in the _immediate_ neighbourhood of Tripoly, is higher, at the present time, than it was in the age of Leo, or that the sea has retired since that period. For although the soil of Tripoly still continues to be sandy, there is now no part of it, as we have stated above, overflowed to the southward of the town[9]. As we cannot suppose that the sea has retired since the time of the author in question—(for we shall hereafter point out several instances on the coast, between this part of Northern Africa and Alexandria, in which it rather appears to have gained)—we must conclude that, since the age of Leo Africanus, the land alluded to has been rising in a greater proportion than the sea. This elevation of soil is, at the same time, by no means inconsistent with the rise of the waters already mentioned; for, as the coast is here sandy, we may venture to conclude, that the sea, notwithstanding it continued to rise, threw up, from time to time, a sufficient quantity of sand to raise the level of the country above it; and we shall thus have an additional confirmation of what appears to be actually the case on the coasts of the Greater Syrtis, and Cyrenaica, as well as of the ingenious conjectures of Major Rennell with regard to the Lake Tritonis and the Lesser Syrtis. It is well known that Tripoly, after the destruction of Carthage, became a Roman province; and that on the conquest of a great part of Northern Africa by the Vandals, it passed into the hands of those barbarians, from which it was rescued, in the reign of Justinian, by the valour and abilities of Belisarius. The rapid and extraordinary progress of Mahometanism, soon after the death of its founder, involved Tripoly, together with the whole of Northern Africa, in the general wreck of civilization and Christianity: since that period it has remained, with few exceptions, in the hands of its Moslem conquerors, passing successively from the government of the Caliphs to the tyranny of Morocco, Fez, Tunis, and the Porte. After the erection of the walls of the town, already mentioned as the work of Dragut, Tripoly became the secure resort of most of the Corsairs who roved under Turkish colours; and from that port they continually make attacks and descents on the opposite shores of the Mediterranean.