triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that
the African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the
great princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their
armaments against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest
and long servitude of Spain.

[Footnote 103: See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. i. p.
369-373 and Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique, &c., sous la Domination
des Arabes tom. ii. p. 70-144. Their common original appears to be
Novairi.]

[Footnote 104: Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more properly
the Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata, sita prope littus
maris Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus captivis ductis, viros
pere mit.]

[Footnote 105: See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio tom. i.
fol. 74 verso. fol. 75, recto,) and Shaw's Travels, (p. 110,) the viith
book of Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de Vertot. The possession and
defence of the place was offered by Charles V. and wisely declined by
the knights of Malta.]

[Footnote 106: Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests of Roger
and his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de Longuerue with
some Arabic memorials, (A.D. 1147, No. 26, 27, A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D.
1153, No. 16.)]

[Footnote 107: Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. A
proud inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors were still
discriminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects.]

[Footnote 108: Hugo Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script. tom.
vii. p. 270, 271) ascribes these losses to the neglect or treachery of
the admiral Majo.]

Since the decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished,
above sixty years, their hostile designs against the empire of the East.
The policy of Roger solicited a public and private union with the Greek
princes, whose alliance would dignify his regal character: he demanded
in marriage a daughter of the Comnenian family, and the first steps of
the treaty seemed to promise a favorable event. But the contemptuous
treatment of his ambassadors exasperated the vanity of the new monarch;
and the insolence of the Byzantine court was expiated, according to the
laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless people. [109] With the
fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily, appeared before
Corfu; and both the island and city were delivered into his hands by the
disaffected inhabitants, who had yet