The night of the 10th arrived at El Hamma of Gabbs, the Aquæ Tacapitanæ of antiquity, consisting of three small mud-walled villages, Sambat, Menzil, and . . .[266] The first we stopped at, and were miserably lodged. It belongs to the Beni Zeed, a set of banditti of the neighbouring mountains, whose douars we passed at the foot of a mountain called Sidi Ben Owne, to the southwards.
There are about fifty hot springs at El-Hamma, all sufficient to form a considerable rivulet, were they not drunk up. They are of different degrees of heat, from bloodwarm to boiling hot, as intense as those at the baths near Baiæ. There are, in many of the miserable hovels built over the bagnios, remains of their ancient magnificence, such as bases of columns and pilasters, and large blocks of white Grecian marble.
One of these springs arises in the castle, a weak ruinous building, with a garrison of 50 Zowawa or Moorish foot. The Palus Tritonidis arrives at El-Hamma, the brook of which falls into it to the north-east [at a distance of] two miles.
The moisture which it furnishes most agreeably and suddenly changes the desert scene, and covers the adjacent fields with all kinds of flowers and verdure.
The 11th, changed to the neighbouring town, Menzil, where we were better lodged.
The 12th, set out from El-Hamma, arrived in three hours and three quarters at Gabbs; it is about 12 miles, though Dr. Shaw and the Itinerary made it XVII, through a large plain full of the seedra or lotus, a shrub not unlike blackthorn.[267]
Gabbs consists of three villages, as is the custom of the Jereed, in groves of palms, Menzil, Jaara, and Shineny,[268] the two former constantly at war with each other.
The river of Gabbs, which runs along the north side of the south division of Jaara, separates it from a grove of palm trees where is a house of the Bey, and behind it the town. Menzil is a short mile to the south-west; in the same direction is the old Gabbs, the Tacape of the ancients, formerly a very considerable place on the Lesser Syrtis. Its ruins at present consist of three broken frusts of granite columns of an oval form, and one square one, which last is still standing, and seems to have had a statue upon it. The buildings here seem to be so small in circumference that I rather imagine this was some considerable temple than the city itself, which I imagine did extend a mile further to the east, to that chain of eminences which run north and south, upon which, and between which, there are traces of ancient buildings. Between these and the river was probably the port, now choked up by the east and north-east winds, the violent ones on these coasts.
Digging for building materials four years ago, the inhabitants of Menzil found a statue as big as life, which, contrary to their usual practice, they did not break immediately to pieces; but after it had been an object of contention between them and Jaara, the latter obtained it and buried it under ground.
Here it continued till some months before I came to Tunis, when, hearing of it, I did ask it of the Bey, who readily granted it, and by a special order desired it might be delivered into my hands; but upon my arrival I found it had been broken to pieces, to repair a miserable bridge, and only some of the pieces could be gathered, which were brought on producing the king’s order.