From Tabarca I sailed and anchored at Biserta, the Hippozaritus[10] 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 there, and accordingly I found nothing memorable but the name. It may be said nothing remains of Utica but a heap of rubbish and of small stones; without the city the trenches and approaches of the ancient besiegers are still very perfect.
After doubling Cape Carthage I anchored before the fortress of the Goletta, a place now of no strength, notwithstanding the figure it made at the time of the expedition of Charles V. Rowing along the bay, between the Cape and this anchorage, I saw several buildings and columns still standing under water, by which it appeared that old Carthage had owed part of its destruction to the sea, and hence likewise may be inferred the absurdity of any attempt to represent the site of ancient Carthage upon paper. It has been, besides, at least ten times destroyed, so that the stations, where its first citizens fell fighting for their liberty, are covered deep in rubbish, far from being trodden upon by those unworthy slaves who now are its masters.
Tunis[11] is twelve miles distant from this: It is a large and flourishing city. The people are more civilized than in Algiers, and the government milder, but the climate is very far from being so good. Tunis is low, hot, and damp, and destitute of good water, with which Algiers is supplied from a thousand springs.
I delivered my letters from the Bey, and obtained permission to visit the country in whatever direction I should please. I took with me a French renegado, of the name of Osman, recommended to me by Monsieur Bartheleny de Saizieux, consul of France to that state; a gentleman whose conversation and friendship furnish me still with some of the most agreeable reflections that result from my travels. With Osman I took ten spahi, or horse-soldiers, well armed with firelocks, and pistols, excellent horsemen, and, as far as I could ever discern upon the few occasions that presented, as eminent for cowardice, at least, as they were for horsemanship. This was not the case with Osman, who was very brave, but he needed a sharp look-out, that he did not often embroil us where there was access to women or to wine.