Note 76 — Chapter IV
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Many persons have expected to find in the interior of Africa, the remains of the Carthaginian nation, expelled by the Romans. Considering, however, the vast interval of time that has elapsed, we can hardly expect to find the remnant of a nation, continuing so far unmixed with the surrounding nations, as to preserve their distinction of character and language. Besides, it would really seem as if the Carthaginians themselves, (meaning the descendants of the Phœnicians,) were not to be regarded as a nation, so much as bodies of citizens, inhabiting commercial towns: so that their language may never have prevailed generally over Barbary.