^4 Before Chrift 524. 



Kerne Hanno proceeded fouthward along the coaft inhabited by the Ne- 

 groes for twenty-lix days, during which, according to the computation 

 of a day's courfe by Herodotus, he may have run i ,820 miles, or i ,300, 

 as Skylax calculates the courfe. In his way he difcovered lome iflands, 

 two days' courfe from the continent, called Gorillas by Hanno's inter- 

 preters, and by later writers Gorgades, and apparently the fame which 

 have been alfo called the Hefperides, the Fortunate iflands, and Cana- 

 ries *, being the only iflands of any confequence vifible from the main 

 land of Africa f . 



an ifland of fomc extent and too far from the coaft 

 to be reached by the anticnt navigators, or even 

 the vaft ifland of Madagafcar on the cajl fide of 

 Africa, for Kerne, a fmall ifland of a few furlongs 

 in circumference on the wejl lide of that continent. 

 But, unfortunately men of great learning are fonie- 

 times very bad geographers. — In the year 1765 

 the emperor of Morocco appointed Mogadore to 

 be the port for the foreign trade of his dominions. 



* Some modern authors fnppole the Biffago, or 

 Biflao, iflands near the Rio Grande, and others, 

 the ifland of St. Thomas, to be the Gorillas. 



f Several attempts have been made to fix the 

 ira of the voyages of Himilco and Hanno, which, 

 proceeding upon erroneous principles, muft have 

 erroneous conclufions. Becaufe Hanno and Hi- 

 milco are mentioned together as Carthaginian ge- 

 nerals in the time of Agathocles, a Sicilian king 

 about 32G years beforeClirift, thcfe naval command- 

 ers muft be the lame. Becaufe Pliny has faid, that 

 thefc voyages were performed, when the Cartha- 

 ginians were in great profpcrity, and the Cartha- 

 ginians had fomc fuccefs in a war againil Agatho- 

 cles, that muft furely be the time. Tlie obvious 

 objcftion to the firft argument is, that Hanno and 

 Himilco were names as common in Carthage as 

 John and Tiiomas arc in this country ; and to the 

 fccond, that the Carthaginians enjoyed great prof- 

 pcrity for feveral centuries, before they were known 

 to the writers of Home, in wliofe ideas profptrity 

 confilled in working the milery of millions. 



The account of Hanno's voyage is quoted in the 

 work upon mari'el/ous things, afcribcd to Ariftotle, 

 but with more probability believed to be the com- 

 poGtion of his pupil Theophralhis, who flouriflicd 

 about 300 years before the Chriftian irra. — From 

 Herodotus we learn, that the Carthaginians car- 

 ried on a trade with the natives of the weft coaft of 

 Africa (which will be noticed prefently) apparent- 

 ly founded upon the difcoveries of Hanno, wiiich 

 mnrt: liave thus been before the age of Herodotus. 

 — Si-veral of ihe towns built by Hanno, and fomc 

 particulars of the trade carried on with the Negroes, 

 apparently at thofc towns, arc mentioned in the 

 geographical work, which we have under the name 

 of Skylax. If it v ere certain tliat thofc parts of 

 the work were the ijcnuinc compofition of that 

 bkylax, who wa's in tlie fcrvice of Dariu? Hyft.if- 



pes, the voyages of Hanno and Himilco muft have 

 been performed at lealt 500 years before Chrift. — 

 It is very probable, that the name of lerne, men- 

 tioned by Onomacritus about 550 years before 

 Chrift, (fee above, p. 42) was derived from an ac- 

 count of Himilco's voyage ; as we may believe, 

 that the Carthaginians were more frequently in the 

 harbours of Greece and the Grecian part of Sicily 

 than any other Phoenician navigators, to whom the 

 Britifli iflands were known. A pafTage of Strabo 

 [X.i,/i.83] feems to carry Hanno's difcovtry feveral 

 centuries higher, for, fays he, • People talk of 

 ' Minos's command of the fea, and the navigation 

 ' of the Phoenicians, whoyoo« after the Trojan war 

 ' proceeded even beyond the Pillars of Hercules, 

 • and built towns there and on the middle of the 

 ' coaft of Africa.' As he clafles thefe voyages 

 with thofe of Bacchus, Hercules, Jafon, &c. for an- 

 tiquity and dillance, the towns muft apparently be 

 uuderftood to have been on the exterior (or 

 oceanic) coaft of Africa, whereof Hanno was cer- 

 tainly thefirjl difcoverer h\ navigation from the Me- 

 diterranean ; and thence it follows, that he mult 

 have flourifhcd at Icaft i,cco years before the 

 Chriftian xra. And, if there be any truth in the 

 ftory of the Atlantic ifland having been heard of 

 in Egypt feveral centuries before the age of Solon, 

 the difcovcry of it, or the idea of its exiftence, real 

 or fabulous, muft apparently have been poftcrlor to 

 Hanno's voyage, which is thus carried up to an 

 antiquity fully equal to that inferred from Strabo. 

 Notwithftanding all the abfuidities in the llory of 

 that ifland, it may have been one of the iflands on 

 the Weft coaft of Africa, perhaps one of the Cana- 

 ries, or Madeira. Neither is it Impollible, that a 

 ftorm nu'ght have carried a veflel far out of fight 

 of land, and thrown her upon an unknown part of 

 fome of our Britifli iflands, from winch flie could 

 return home by coafting along the fliores of Gaifl, 

 Spain, &c. . The ftory of its immcnfc extent, 

 greater than Afia and Africa together, is not to be 

 minded ; for the magnitude of a country cannot 

 i)e known from a tranlient viflt. Tiity, who fup- 

 pofc it to have been fome part of America, are not 

 aware of the iinpoflibility of returning acrofs the 

 great ocean without a conipafs, and failing in dl- 

 left oppofition to the perpetual trade winds. 

 Vclalqucz, a Sp.ir.ifli author, fixes the voyage o£ 



