DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
31 
Cyrene, and forming part of the modern Tripoli. 
Five young men, sons of the principal citizens, 
were seized with an ardent desire to explore Afri- 
ca, beyond the farthest limit to which discovery 
had hitherto reached. They traversed first, with- 
out difficulty, the cultivated tracts of Libya ; 
then passed safely also through the region in- 
habited by wild beasts, and came to the great- 
desert of sand. Being well stored with provi- 
sions and water, they also entered this tract, 
and traversed it for many days in a westerly direc- 
tion ; after which they came to a plain, diversified 
with a few trees. These being a novel object, they 
began to pluck and eat the fruit with peculiar relish, 
when they were surprised by a body of men, black, 
and of small stature, who immediately made them 
prisoners. These men carried them through very 
extensive marshes or lakes, to a city inhabited by a 
people similar to themselves. This city was tra- 
versed by a great river flowing from west to east, 
and in which crocodiles were found. From all 
these circumstances, Major Rennel infers, that the 
city must have been one situated in central Africa, 
and the river which traversed it the Niger. The 
only character given of the inhabitants is, that they 
were impostors or sorcerers, a description agreeing 
sufficiently with the superstitious habits to which 
the Negroes are generally addicted. 
The next attempts of which we find any record, 
