Geography 



489 



of eastern Asia and northwestern Eu- 

 rope are somewhat grotesque, though 

 quite recognizable in the main. 



Of Africa south of the equator he 

 knows nothing, and his map of it termi- 

 nates with the border. 



AFRICA PROBABLY CIRCUMNAVI- 

 GATED 600 B. C 



This is somewhat remarkable, as I 

 am one of those who firmly believe in 

 the circumnavigation of Africa by the 

 Phoenicians sent by Necho, King of 

 Egypt, in 600 B. C. from the head of 

 the Red Sea. As described by Herod- 

 otus, the voyage has all the impress of 

 veracity. My personal faith in Herod- 

 otus was much strengthened by find- 

 ing when I surveyed the Dardanelles in 

 1872 that his dimensions of that strait 

 were nearer the truth than those of other 

 and later authorities, even down to the 

 time at which I was at work, as well as 

 by other geographical tests I was able 

 to apply. When, therefore, he records 

 that the Phoenicians declared that in 

 their voyage they had the sun on their 

 right hand, and says he does not believe 

 it, he registers an item of information 

 which goes far to prove the story cor- 

 rect. Influenced by Hecatseus, who 

 though surrounding Africa by the sea 

 cut it far short of the equator, Herod- 

 otus could not conceive that the trav- 

 elers had passed to the south of the sun 

 when it was in the southern tropic. 



No historical incident has been more 

 discussed than this voyage, commen- 

 tators varying much in their opinions 

 of its truth. But we have today some 

 new facts. No one who has followed 

 the exploration of the ancient buildings 

 in Rhodesia, and considered the infor- 

 mation we possess on the early inhabit- 

 ants of southern Arabia, whether we 

 call them Sabaeans or Himyarites, can 

 doubt that the former were mainly the 

 work of men coming from Arabia at a 

 very early date, while the period of time 

 necessary to carry out gold-mining op- 



erations over the large areas now found 

 to have been exploited must have been 

 very great. 



It seems strange that no record of the 

 constant voyages to this El Dorado 

 should remain, but the very natural 

 desire to keep lucrative information to 

 themselves is not an unknown thing 

 among traders of the present day, 

 while the conditions of society and the 

 absence of written records of south 

 Arabia would make concealment easy. 



The Phoenicians, an allied race and 

 the great seafaring trading nation of the 

 Mediterranean, succeeded in keeping the 

 majority of their marts secret, and we 

 have incidents recorded showing their 

 determination not to allow others to fol- 

 low their steps, while to this day we 

 are very doubtful of the limits of their 

 voyages. 



It may be considered certain that 

 while we naturally quote Greek histo- 

 rians and geographers as the early au- 

 thorities for the growth of geographical 

 knowledge, and that the scientific basis 

 for proper maps of large areas was really 

 provided by them, the seafaring na- 

 tions — Arabians, Phoenicians, and Chi- 

 nese — knew a very great deal practically 

 of the coasts of various parts of the Old 

 World that were absolutely unknown 

 to the Greeks. 



THE PERIODIC WINDS ALONG THE 

 COAST FAVORABIvE 



The favorable conditions afforded by 

 those remarkable periodic winds, the 

 monsoons, would in the China Sea, Bay 

 of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea natu- 

 rally facilitate any attempts at extensive 

 sea voyages, and would lead to such 

 attempts under conditions that in the 

 regions of variable winds would be con- 

 sidered too dangerous and uncertain. 

 The fact that the monsoons in nearly 

 every case blow practically parallel to 

 the coasts in opposite directions is a 

 most important factor in considering 

 early navigation. The direction of the 



