108 History of Nature. [BooK II. 



like as also Himilco, at the same Time, was sent out to dis- 

 cover the remote Coasts of Europe. Moreover, Cornelius 

 Nepos writeth, that in his Time a certain Eudoxus 1 , when he 

 fled from King Lathyrus, departed out of the Arabian Gulf, 



8vo. Leipsic ; and has been investigated by three competent geographers. 

 First, by Bougainville, who conceives Hanno to have reached the Gulf of 

 Benin ; next, by Major Rennell, who carries his course only to a little 

 beyond Sierra Leone ; and lastly, by M. Gosselin, who insists upon termi- 

 nating it about the river Nun. According to these authorities, Pliny has 

 greatly extended the voyage of Hanno, when he says he reached the utmost 

 bounds of Arabia. Herodotus does not seem to have been informed of this 

 voyage of Hanno, he merely says (" Melpomene," xliii.) : " The Cartha- 

 ginians affirm, that they ascertained that Libya is surrounded by the sea." 

 Wern. Club. 



1 Strabo has thrown some discredit on the voyage of Eudoxus to make 

 the circuit of Africa : but he does not seem to adduce any argument strong 

 enough to controvert the general belief of antiquity, that repeated at- 

 tempts were made by Eudoxus to explore the unknown coasts of the 

 African continent. He was a native of Cyzicus, and employed first by 

 Ptolemy Euergetes, and afterwards at his own instigation, in several 

 maritime expeditions. A digest of the narratives of Strabo respecting 

 these voyages of Eudoxus, may be seen in Murray's " Encyclopedia of 

 Geography," p. 14. 



That the circumnavigation of Africa was really accomplished, even 

 prior to the time of Herodotus, we learn from " Melpomene," xlii. " For 

 Libya is clearly surrounded by the sea, except so much of it as borders on 

 Asia ; this, Neco, king of the Egyptians, was the first we know of to 

 demonstrate. That prince, having ceased his excavations for the canal 

 leading out of the Nile into the Arabian Gulf, despatched certain natives 

 of Phoenicia on shipboard, with orders to sail back through the Pillars 

 of Hercules, even into the North Sea, and so make good their return into 

 Egypt. The Phosnicians of consequence having departed out of the Ery- 

 threan Sea, proceeded on their voyage in the Southern Sea : when it was 

 autumn, they would push ashore, and sowing the land, whatever might 

 be the part of Libya they had reached, await the harvest time : having 

 reaped their corn, they used to continue their voyage : thus, after the 

 lapse of two years, having in the third doubled the Pillars of Hercules, 

 they came back into Egypt ; and stated what is not credible to me, but 

 may be so, perhaps, to some, that in their circumnavigation of Libya they 

 had the sun on the right. Thus was Libya first known to be surrounded 

 by the sea." LAURENT'S Herodotus. 



" Herodotus," says Murray, " seems inclined to credit this information, 

 unless on the ground of one general statement, -<- that they had the sun 



