82 : The Atlantic 



lation of his own account of the trip says that it involved the use 

 of sixty vessels, each of them driven by fifty oars. Thirty thousand 

 men and women are said to have made up the expedition as a 

 whole. This seems an incredible number. However, even if we make 

 a liberal discount in the numbers as being due either to error or inten- 

 tional exaggeration, we still have left the framework of a large under- 

 taking that moved over a very extensive territory. In this connection 

 it is worth noting that Hamilcar, who was the father of Himilco, 

 invaded Sicily with an expedition involving 3,000 ships and 300,000 

 men. 



Hanno is credited with having established a colony near the site 

 of the present city of Mehedia and having established a temple and 

 colony near Cape Cantin. Beyond the cape he reported a river and 

 swamp frequented by elephants and it is assumed that this was the 

 Tensift River and it is thought that the island which he called Cerne 

 was Heme Island. His trip is assumed to have carried him to Sherbro 

 Sound with a terminal landing on Macauley Island. Here he reports 

 capturing strange beings called "gorillas." From this point they be- 

 gan their homeward voyage. 



Somewhere between 800 and 700 b.c. the Phoenicians had estab- 

 lished a colony on the Atlantic coast in what is now Spanish territory. 

 The city was Gades, where the city of Cadiz is now located, and the 

 general region in which it was located was referred to as Tarshish 

 or Tartessus. Departing from Carthage, also about the year 500, 

 Himilco, the brother of Hannu, was to carry a large expedition north- 

 ward beyond Tartessus. We have no clear record of Himilco's under- 

 taking; what we know about it is derived from the writings of Avi- 

 enus and on examination proves to be a strange mixture of fact and 

 of romantic embroidery. Avienus was writing in 300 a.d. Fortunately, 

 about 400 years before that Pliny provided a briefer but much more 

 reasonable reference to Himilco's undertaking. Himilco certainly ex- 

 plored the coasts of Spain and Portugal and possibly went farther 

 than this. He reports that the natives of those parts were accustomed 

 to come and go to a region to which the name Oestrimnis was as- 

 signed. Islands in the bay of this region were called the Oestrimni- 

 des. In these islands men mined and smelted tin and lead. They were 

 said to be visited from all directions by people sailing the ocean in 

 small boats constructed of hides sewn together and stretched over a 

 wooden frame. This filled Avienus with unbelief. It is probable how- 

 ever that this is our first literary description of the large ancient ves- 



