The Phocians had carried off the body of their comrade who had been killed by the Siculians and had conveyed it on board. I promised to try and procure them a piece of ground where they might bury him according to their own rites; and so gratified were they by my endeavour to meet their wishes in this respect, that they declared they would encounter any perils by sea now that they found it did not deprive them of their rites of sepulture. Another circumstance which had some little effect of reconciling them to their position was that Himilco, although he had great difficulty in bringing them to believe what he said, explained to them that the Siculians, with whom they had just had an engagement, were really the Lœstrigonians that they had so much dreaded.
CHAPTER XI.
OUR HEADS ARE IN PERIL.
When I returned to the deck, the promontory of Utica (or, as the point on the Libyan coast facing Sicily is sometimes called, the Cape of Hermes) was clearly visible.
In honour of our arrival at so important a city we all took extra pains in dressing ourselves. I put on my best kitonet and my embroidered cap; and Hannibal donned his plumed helmet, and wore a handsome tunic under his cuirass.
We could ere long see not only the cape but the city of Utica itself; and further south, at the other extremity of the bay, a confused white mass, which unquestionably was Carthage. Leaving this on our left, we steered due west right into the bay, and having rounded the headland, coasted for some miles along the low-lying shore that continued all the way to the city, which seemed to rise in gentle gradations from the deep blue waters to where the "bozrah" formed its lofty crown. The red and brown domes of the buildings and the battlements of the citadel stood out in sharp relief against the azure sky; and the masses of verdure all around the city formed a fitting background for the dazzling whiteness of its lime-washed walls.
Having passed a number of imposing edifices on the island, which is separated from the mainland by a canal that forms the trade-harbour, we entered the war-port, in the centre of which, high above the crowds of shipping, rose the massive walls and towers of the Admiralty palace. I found that there was room for my ships on the left-hand quay, where I had them laid to, and then in company with Hanno I got into a small boat and rowed across the harbour to a jetty, wide and paved, that led from the Admiralty to the mainland, and which, being in connection with all the surrounding quays, is always thronged with passengers going to and fro upon business at the Admiralty offices.
From the jetty we passed through a high vaulted gateway, flanked on either side by a tower, into an outer court-yard. Here the sentinels asked our names, and sent us on through another lofty gateway, across a hall hung with red and yellow tapestry into a long dark lobby, at the end of which was a half-open gate leading into the large inner court. We crossed this court, and entered another lobby exactly like the one we had just quitted; and leaving this, we found ourselves in a low square room with a vaulted roof, whence we passed, by a side door, into a gloomy room with a circular dome. We had, however, still farther to go: after ascending three long and very narrow staircases we entered an apartment with a lofty dome on the second floor of one of the towers; but even yet we had not reached our destination. We had now to descend a few steps and pass along a corridor, from which we ascended another staircase, and finally reached a spacious apartment, circular in shape, well lighted by loop-holes in the wall, and having a handsome vaulted ceiling.
I could observe that we had thus made our way to the left-hand tower of the four which are ranged along the north front of the palace, one at each end of the building, and one at each side of the gateway, this one commanding a view of the Admiral's private basin, beyond which I could see my own vessels lying in the Cothôn.