The following day two envoys arrived from the hostile tribe offering
the submission of their chief.

As pursuit in the hills would be useless Hamilcar offered them
comparatively easy terms. A heavy fine in horses and cattle was
to be paid to the republic, and ten of the principal members of the
tribe were to be delivered up as hostages for their future good
behaviour. The next day the hostages were brought into the camp
with a portion of the ransom; and Hamilcar, having thus accomplished
the mission he had been charged to perform, marched away with his
troops to Carthage.

As they approached the coast the whole character of the scenery
changed. The desert had been left behind them, and they entered
a fertile tract of country which had been literally turned into a
garden by the skill and industry of the Carthaginian cultivators,
at that time celebrated throughout the world for their knowledge
of the science of agriculture. The rougher and more sterile ground
was covered with groves of olive trees, while rich vineyards and
orchards of fig and other fruit trees occupied the better soil.
Wherever it was possible little canals leading water from reservoirs
and dammed up streams crossed the plains, and every foot of the
irrigated ground was covered with a luxuriant crop.

The villages were scattered thickly, and when the troops arrived
within a day's march of Carthage they came upon the country villas
and mansions of the wealthy inhabitants. These in the richness of
their architecture, the perfection and order of their gardens, and
the beauty and taste of the orchards and grounds which surrounded