[The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon]@TWC D-Link bookThe History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire CHAPTER LII: More Conquests By The Arabs 2/24
From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, the islands and sea-coasts both of the Greeks and Moslems were exposed to their depredations; they saw, they envied, they tasted the fertility of Crete, and soon returned with forty galleys to a more serious attack. The Andalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmolested; but when they descended with their plunder to the sea-shore, their vessels were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed himself the author of the mischief.
Their clamors accused his madness or treachery.
"Of what do you complain ?" replied the crafty emir.
"I have brought you to a land flowing with milk and honey.
Here is your true country; repose from your toils, and forget the barren place of your nativity." "And our wives and children ?" "Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your wives, and in their embraces you will soon become the fathers of a new progeny." The first habitation was their camp, with a ditch and rampart, in the Bay of Suda; but an apostate monk led them to a more desirable position in the eastern parts; and the name of Candax, their fortress and colony, has been extended to the whole island, under the corrupt and modern appellation of _Candia_.
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