On the 25th, however, having arranged my tents and instruments, I commenced an excavation near the centre of the city with a party of eight Arabs, whom I increased the following day to a hundred; and as they quickly gained the use of the English spade and mattock, the work proceeded with celerity. But I soon had the mortification of perceiving, from numerous local evidences, that Leptis had been completely ravaged in former times, and its public edifices demolished with diligent labour, owing perhaps to the furious bigotry of the Carthaginian bishops, who zealously destroyed the Pagan monuments in every place under their control. Or it might have been partly effected by the vengeance of the Barbarians for the memorable treachery of the Leptitani. From whatever cause it proceeded, the destruction is complete; most of the statues are either broken to pieces, or chipped into shapeless masses, the arabesque ornaments defaced, the acanthus leaves and volutes knocked off the fallen capitals, and even part of the pavements torn up; the massy shafts of the columns alone remaining entire. With a view of gaining further information, I opened an extensive Necropolis, but with little success. There were neither vases nor lachrymatories, but only a coarse species of amphoræ and some pateræ, with a few coins, neither rare nor handsome, mostly brass, and principally of Severus, Pupienus, Alexander, Julia Mammea, Balbus, and Gordianus Pius. A number of intaglios of poor execution were picked up in different parts, as also some very common Carthaginian medals, but nothing indicating high antiquity or tasteful skill. Willing, however, to make as fair a trial as possible, I continued excavating until the 12th of February, when, having explored the principal Basilica, a triumphal arch, a circus, a peristyleum, and several minor structures, with only a strengthened conviction of the precarious chance of recovering any specimens of art worth the labour and expense of enlarged operations, I determined to desist. In the course of the excavation I had an opportunity of observing, that the period of the principal grandeur of the city must have been posterior to the Augustan age, and when taste was on the decline; for notwithstanding the valuable materials with which it was constructed, it appears to have been overloaded with indifferent ornament, and several of the mutilated colossal statues I found, were in the very worst style of the Lower Empire. There are also many evidences of the city having been occupied after its first and violent destruction, from several of the walls and towers being built of various architectural fragments confusedly heaped together.