1838.] 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys. 



429 



western coasts of Africa, the eastern shores of Europe, and by no very 

 hazardous route with the shores of Americaj were equally easy, while 

 the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Persian Gulf, presented facilities 

 in other quarters which no other country could have boasted of. That 

 the ancients had a knowledge of those countries, and that they had 

 actually circumnavigated Africa, is as probable an inference, from the 

 testimony of Herodotus, as that the intercourse with the East was 

 familiar to the Jews so early as in the reign of Solomon, when they 

 trafficked for ivory, apes and peacocks, since the latter are peculiar to 

 the countries east of the Indus. The testimony of Herodotus to the 

 circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians is remarkable, and to 

 many may appear as conclusive as curious. The authenticity of the 

 passage indeed has, like many others of a similar description, been dis" 

 puted by critics on account of the remark that " when autumn arrived 

 they drew to shore on that part of Libya opposite to which they might 

 be, sowed the grain, and awaited the harvest, which, when they had 

 reaped, they again set sail ; a conclusion, however, which, as well as 

 that of the sun's rising on the right hand as they rounded the extreme 

 promontory, and the resistance opposed to their further progress by the 

 contrary currents and accumulation of sea-weed in 14*^ S., mentioned at 

 the termination of the narrative, all bespeak alike the fidelity of the 

 historian and the veracity of his informants,* 



* " I wonder at those who divide and lay down th.e boundaries of Libya, Asia, and 

 Europe, as if tlie difference between them were not very great ; for, Avliile in length, 

 Europe extends along both, no comparison can he formed by which to estimate their re- 

 lative width. Libya declares itself to be circumnavigable, except where it is bounded by 

 Asia. The first person known to have proved this was Necho. King of Egypt. When he 

 ceased to carry on the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent out some 

 Phosnicians, instructing them to sail round by the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) 

 to the Northern Sea (the Mediterranean), and so return to Egypt. These Phoenicians, 

 therefore, parting from the Erythrsean Sea, navigated the Southern Sea. When autuma 

 arrived they drew to shore on that part of Lybia opposite to which they might be ; there 

 they sowed the ground, and awaited the harvest, which, when they had reaped, they again 

 set sail. Thus they continued their progress during two years ; in the third, doubling the 

 Pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt. These persons affirmed, what to me seems in- 

 credible, though it may not to another, that, as they sailed round Libya, they had the sua 

 (liiing) on the right hand. In this way was Libya first made known. 



" Long after the Phoenician voyage, as the Carthaginians relate, Satapses, son of Teap" 

 ses, of the Achsemenidian family, was sent to circumnavigate Libya, though he failed to 

 accomplish his task ; for, appalled by the length and desolation of the voyage, he turned 

 back without having achieved the toil imposed upon him by his mother. This Satapses 

 had violently insulted a daughter of Zopyrus, son of Megabysus ; for which olfence he 

 was about to be impaled by the order of King Xerxes, Avhen his mother, who v/as the sister 

 of Darius, inter ceded. for him, saying that she ^vovild inflict upon her son a still greater 



