44 ANNUAL RE 
infummer, he muft himfelfhave feen 
the phznomenon he) profeffes ‘to 
doubt, or at leaft the fin vertical ; 
and if his vifit was at any other fea- 
fon, is it not remarkable that he 
fhould not have heard of this cir- 
eumftance ? Elephantine is an 
ifland, or a city on an ifland, in the 
Nile, oppofite to Syene; and yet 
terodotus does not quite fay he 
was. actually at Syene. From his 
mention that the cataracts are four 
days fail from the Elephantiné he 
vifited, may we not fifpec that it 
was fome ifland lower down (for 
there are many) or that the ifland 
called Elephantine by Pocock is not 
the Elephantince ct Herodotus? and 
that the hiftorian was net nearer 
Syene than within three days fail? 
for it is in reality lefs than one day’s 
fail or journey by land from Syene 
to the cataracts.. I mention thefe 
particulars, in order to fhew the 
great obfcurity which attends all 
the difcoveries, whether real or 
pretended, in ages antecedent to 
hiftory; and notwithitanding all 
that Mr. Goflelin has produced, to 
prove an early ftate of navigation 
and. geography, previous to the 
knowledge of the Greeks, and 
founded upon better principles ; 
notwithftanding the erudition dif- 
played by Gefner in his Treatife 
en the Navigation of the Phoeni- 
sians in the Atlantic, there is no- 
thing appears fufficiently tatisfacto- 
ry to eftablith the authenticity of 
any one prior vcyage, of equal im- 
portance, upon a footing with this 
o: Nearchus; or any ‘certainty to 
be obtained where the evidence is 
alicircumftantial, and none pofitive. _ 
From a fournal lil. the Periplus of 
Hanno, a knowledge of the coaft of 
Africa will enable us to form a jude- 
meat of his progrefs; but a bare 
GUSTER, 1797 
affertion of the performance of afhy 
voyage, without confequences at- 
tendant or conneé&ed, without col- 
lateral or contemporary teftimony, 
is too flight a foundation to fupport 
any fuperftructure of importance. 
I fhould think it time well employ- 
ed to vindicate the honour of Co- 
lumbus»againft the ufurpation of 
Vefpucius; but I would not beftow 
a moment in annulling the claim of 
Madock and his Cambro-Britains 
to the diftovery of America. The 
reader may conceive that this vin- 
dication of Nearchus partakes more 
of the partiality of an editor than 
the inveftigation of the truth: but 
I appeal to the ancient geegraphi- 
cal fragments ftill extant; the Pe- 
riplus of Hanno, the furvey of the 
Euxine Sea by the real Arrian, and. 
that of the Ervthrean Sea, or In- 
dian Ocean, by the fictitious one; 
and { fay that all thefe, as well as 
the journal of Nearchus, though 
they have their errors, difficulties, 
or even abfurdities, ftill contain in- 
ternal evidence of veracity, and are 
well worthy of examination ; while 
the expedition of the Argonauts, 
of Pytheas, or Scylax, is merely a 
{peculation of amufement. 
There is, however, another way 
of enquiry into the difcoveries at- 
tributed to the earlieft times; which 
is, by examining the commodities 
fuch difcoveries would produce. 
Tin, the ftaple of Britain, is men-) 
tioned in the moft ancient authors 
neither as a rare nor a very. precious 
metal; this muft have been intro-’ 
duced to the nations on the Medi- 
terranean, either by a tranfport 
over land (fuch as is mentioned by 
Diodorus) or through the medium 
of a Pheenician navigation: the 
exiftence of the metal, therefore, 
in Greece and Afia isa proof that, 
. the 
*. 
