ANCIENT VOYAGES. HIMILCO. 65 



being in many cases either mythical, or at least exaggerated, 

 but he does not make sufficient allowance for the fact that our 

 knowledge of them is often derived from unfriendly critics or 

 political allusions ; nor need we go further than Sir Cornewall 

 Lewis's own work to show how authors may suffer by this 

 mode of treatment.* 



Take, for instance, the case of Himilco, who was sent during 

 the prosperous times of Carthage to examine the north-western 

 coasts of Europe. His writings have unfortunately perished, 

 and our knowledge of them derived from the " Ora maritima," 

 a geographical poem by Avienus, is thus summed up by Sir 

 Cornewall Lewis : " The report of Himilco, that the voyage 

 from Gades to the Tin Islands (i.e. to Cornwall) occupied at 

 least four months ; and that navigation in these remote waters 

 was impeded by the motionless air, by the abundance of sea- 

 weed, and by the monsters of the deep fables which the 

 ancient mariners recounted of unexplored seas would not be 

 very attractive for the traders of the Carthaginian colonies." 

 This argument is surely very weak, because, if Himilco really 

 did make this voyage, then such voyages were possible ; and, 

 on the other hand, if he did not do so, and if his statements 

 were such mere fables, we may safely assume that the shrewd 

 merchants of Carthage would detect the imposition, and would 

 extract the truth, if not from Himilco himself, at any rate 

 from some of those by whom he was accompanied. 



But let that pass: we will examine the four "fables" 

 specially referred to by Sir G. C. Lewis. It is unnecessary 

 to say anything about the "motionless air;" it would be 

 doing an injustice to Sir Cornewall Lewis to suppose that 

 he regarded this as a serious objection. It may be an 

 invention, but it is not an improbability. Neither is the 

 time occupied by an exploring expedition any test of that 



* In the long chapter which he logy and Hieroglyphics, the name 

 devoted to the Egyptian Chrono- of Dr. Young is not once mentioned. 



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