CHAPTER II. 
EARLY GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY AND DISCOYERY OP SOUTHERN 
APRICA. 
The Geography , and the History of " South 
Africa " may be said to commence at the period 
when it first became known to Europeans, while 
the little to be gathered from ancient sources, 
relating to it, is as follows : — 
Some Phoenicians who, in the reign of Pharoah 
IsTecho, King of Egypt, about the year 610 a.c. 
and at his command, set sail from the Eed Sea, 
(which lay to the East of his dominions,) for 
the purpose of exploring this region, spent, we 
are told, three years in the voyage. Disem- 
barking on the coast, in the autumn, they sowed 
their grain, waited for the return of harvest, 
and then progressed. This they did for two 
successive years, and in the third, to their great 
joy and astonishment, they arrived at the Straits 
of Gibraltar, and so, passing between the " Pil- 
lars of Hercules," they reached in safety the 
shores of Egypt. 
But when, in describing their voyage, these 
Phoenicians recounted to the ancients that, while 
