6 
DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
those coming respectively from Europe and from 
Asia, appears to have been on the banks of the 
Phasis ; which river, in the age of Herodotus, was 
supposed to divide these two quarters of the globe. 
In Africa, the desert which separated Egypt from 
Libya, formed a bar against discovery ; while the 
fine regions of Syria and Egypt were rapidly tra- 
versed. Egypt, therefore, being discovered by A- 
siatic adventurers, was, in defiance of the clearest 
natural indications, long considered as part of Asia. 
Even in the time of Strabo, the Nile was generally 
viewed as the boundary of the two continents ; nor 
is it till Ptolemy, that we find the natural limits 
fully assigned, of the Red Sea, and the Isthmus of 
Suez. 
Meantime, discovery proceeded with greater ac- 
tivity along the western regions of Africa. Ob- 
jects here presented themselves, which acted pow- 
erfully on the exalted and poetical imagination of 
the ancients. They were particularly struck by 
those oases, or verdant islands, which reared their 
heads amid the sandy desert. Hence, doubtless, 
were drawn those brilliant pictures of the Hespe- 
rian gardens, the Fortunate Islands, the Islands of 
the Blest, which are painted in such glowing co- 
lours, and form the gayest part of ancient mytho- 
logy. The precise position of these celebrated 
spots has been a subject of eager and doubtful in- 
quiry. The chief difficulty is, that there are seve- 
