text:  He when commenting upon the steady resistance offered to the Saracens by the African Christians of the seventh and eighth centuries--a resistance which terminated disastrously for both sides--the poor Christians being exterminated and the Moslem invaders being robbed of an indigenous working population naturally enquires what it was that led to so tragical a result? The Christian natives of those provinces were in a political condition little favourable to belligerent efforts; and there cannot be much doubt that with any wisdom or any forbearance on the part of the intruders both parties might soon have settled down into a pacific compromise of their feuds