Chap. 1.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTEIES, &C. 153 



also believe that they Avere dug througli by him ; upon whicli 

 the sea, which was before excluded, gained adjuissiou, and 

 so changed the face of nature. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) THE BOUISTDAEIES AND GULFS OF EUEOPE 



FIRST SET FORTH IN A GENERAL WAY. 



1 shall first then speak of Europe, the foster-mother of that 

 people which has conquered all other nations, and itself by 

 far the most beauteous portion of the earth. Indeed, many 

 persons have, not without reason \ considered it, not as a 

 third part only of the earth, but as equal to all the rest, 

 looking upon the whole of oui- globe as divided into two 

 parts only, by a line cba^^-n from the river Tanais to the 

 Straits of Grades. The ocean, after pouring the waters of the 

 Atlantic through the inlet which I have here described, and, 

 in its eager progress, overwhelming all the lands which have 

 had to dread its approach, skirts with its winding course the 

 shores of those parts which oiFer a more efiectual resistance, 

 hollowing out the coast of Eiurope especially into numerous 

 bays, among wliich there are four Grulfs that are more parti- 

 cularly remarkable. The first of these begins at Calpe, which 

 I have previously mentioned, the most distant mountain of 

 Spain ; and bends, describing an immense ciu-ve, as far as 

 Locri and the Promontory of Bruttium-. 



CHAP. 2. OF SPAIN GENERALLY. 



The first land situate upon this Grulf is that which is called 

 the Farther Spain or Bjetica^ ; next to which, beginning at 

 the frontier to^n of TJrgi'*, is the Nearer, or TarraconCnsian^ 



' This was the opinion of Herodotus, but it had been so strenuously 

 combated by Polybius and other m-iters before the time of Phny, that it 

 is difficidt to imagine how he should countenance it. 



2 He probably alludes to Leucojietra, now caUed Capo dell' Anni. 

 Locri Epizephyrh was a tomi of Bruttiiun, situate north of the promon- 

 tory of Zephyrium, now called Capo cU Bruzztmo. 



3 So called from the Baetis, now the Guadakiuivir or Great River, 



* The situation of this tovni is not known, but it is supposed to hare 

 been about five leagues from the itresent city of Mujacar, or Moxacar. 

 It was situate on tlie Sinus Urgitanus. 



» So caUed from the city of Tarraco, on the site of the pi*esent Tar- 

 ragona. 



