THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 55 



been determined from whence the name originated, though hun- 

 dreds of philologists have attempted to explain its origin. The 

 earliest mention we have of any attempt to explore the country 

 is the following, from a book published by John Ogilby, "Master 

 of His Majesties Revels in the Kingdom of Ireland," in 1G70, 

 the full title of which would occupy nearly one page of this 

 work, but which is descriptive of Africa. In the quaint stylo 

 then used, it says : 



" Amongst the Ancients, Hanno, a Carthaginian, sent forth by 

 that State, discovered long since much of the Coasts of Africa, 

 but pierced not far the Inland Country, nor did his Voyage give 

 great light that they might after steer by, though translated from 

 the Punick Language into Greek, and published by Sigismund 

 Gelenius at Brazill in 1533. And in the reign of Necho, King 

 of Egypt, some Pheuicians from the Red-sea sayl'd by the Coast 

 of Africa to Gibralter, from thence returning the same way they 

 came. Of which Herodotus (Herodotus wrote nine Books of 

 History, according to the number of the Muses, entituling them 

 in order by one of their names) in his Melpomene (Fourth Book) 

 says : The Phenicians sayling from the Red-sea, came into the 

 Southern Ocean, and after three years reaching Hercules Pillars, 

 returned through the Mediterranean, reporting wonders ! how 

 that they had the Sun at Noon on their Starboard, or North-side, 

 to which I give little credit, and others may believe as they 

 please. Nor did Sataspes' Voyage in the Reign of Xerxes, King 

 of Persia, in the year of the world 3435, give us any better 

 Hints ; of which thus Herodotus in the same book : 



" ' Sataspes, Teaspes' son, ravishing a virgin, and condemned 

 to be crucified, by the mediation of his Mother, Darius' sister, 

 was to suffer no more than to undertake a voyage round Africa, 

 which he but slightly performed ; for passing Gibralter, he sayl'd 

 to the utmost point called Siloe (Cape de Verd), from thence 

 sayling on southward ; but being weary, returning the same way 

 he came, made a strange relation to Xerxes, how he had seen 

 remote countreys, where he found few people in Tynan Purple, 

 but such as when they drew near the Land, forsook their abodes, 



