10 DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
guarded by the most awful barriers of nature, in- 
closed, as with a wall, the fine and fertile shores of 
northern Africa. 
At an era anterior to the earliest records of his- 
tory, extraordinary efforts appear to have been 
made to effect the circumnavigation of Africa. The 
first attempt is that recorded by Herodotus, as hav- 
ing been undertaken by order of Necho king of 
Egypt. The narrative relates, * that certain Phe- 
nician navigators, employed by that enterprising 
monarch, set sail from the Red Sea into the south- 
ern ocean. They continued to navigate along the 
exterior coast of Africa, till their provisions were 
exhausted. They then landed, sowed a crop, wait- 
ed till the harvest was gathered in, and, with this 
new supply, continued their voyage. In this man- 
ner, they spent two years, and part of a third ; 
at the end of which time, they arrived at the Pil- 
lars of Hercules, and sailed up the Mediterranean 
to Egypt. They related, that, in passing round 
Africa, they had the sun to the right, that is, to 
the north of their course ; a report which Hero- 
dotus refuses to believe, but which, to us, who know 
that such must have been its position, affords the 
Strongest presumption in their favour. This nar- 
rative has been the subject of much learned and 
* Herodotus, IV. 42, 
