DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
25 
lieral voice of antiquity is against Evemerus, as it 
is also against Pytheas and Eudoxus. But I be- 
lieve the scepticism which has attached to the first 
explorers of any region, has usually proved to be 
excessive and illiberal, and to have arisen chiefly 
from the limited views of those to whom the re- 
port was addressed. The position opposite to 
Southern Arabia, and the profusion of myrrh 
and incense, strongly suggest the coast of Africa, 
west of Cape Guardafui. To one who sailed 
across from Arabia, this coast might very readily 
appear to be that of an island. The distinction, 
indeed, between continents and islands, presented 
always one of the tasks most difficult to be perform- 
ed by infant geography. 
From the notice which we have already given of 
the voyages of Eudoxus, it appears that he sailed 
along some part of the eastern coast, bordering on 
the Indian ocean. From that time a progressive 
series of discovery was doubtless carried on from 
Alexandria ; but no record of it is preserved, unless 
in a work, entitled the Periplus of the Erythrean 
Sea, published probably somewhat posterior to 
the age of Pliny. It appears to be less the narra- 
tive of an actual voyage, than a descriptive guide 
for the use of the merchants who traded along 
the coasts of Africa and India. They set sail 
from Myos Hormos (near Cosseir), and after pass- 
ing Berenice (Belled-el Habbesh), came to Ptole- 
