82 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



lashed coast might well appall an amateur navigator accustomed 

 to the luxurious indolence of a Persian court. He seems to 

 have preferred crucifixion to circumnavigation, for he at once 

 measured back his course to the Straits. He gave an incoherent 

 account of his adventures to Xerxes, attributing his failure to 

 the interference of an insurmountable obstacle, the nature of 

 which he was unable to explain. Xerxes would listen to no 

 excuse, and ordered the original sentence to be executed forth- 

 with. Authorities differ as to the fate of Sataspes, — one assert- 

 ing that he suffered the ignominious death to which he was con- 

 demned, and another alleging that he made his escape to the 

 island of Samos. 



THE SACRED PROMONTORY. 



A colony which had been established at Massilia — now Mar- 

 seilles—about six hundred years before Christ, by the Phocians, 

 was, in the year 340 B.C., at the height of its commercial pros- 

 perity. The citizens, being desirous of extending their maritime 

 relations, sent, at this period, upon an expedition to the North of 



