4 
DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
ancient writers, and many more were probably 
undertaken, of which no records are now in exist- 
ence. Yet the steps of their progress can by no 
means be traced with the same precision as those 
by which the modern world has been explored. 
Regular narratives, such as have now become so 
frequent, were either never produced, or have all 
perished in the wreck of antiquity. The events 
connected with this progress, are found only in de- 
tached notices scattered through the writings of 
geographers, historians, and even of poets. These 
have, however, been collected with very great di- 
ligence by a series of learned men in modern 
times, from whose inquiries, compared with the 
original materials, it may be possible to exhibit 
such a sketch of the progress of ancient discovery 
in Africa, as will be gratifying to the curiosity of • 
the general reader. 
The first steps of that process by which the old 
world was divided into continents, are involved in 
some obscurity. Some curious notices, however, 
are recorded by Eratosthenes. * The distinction 
* Strabo (Xylandri), II. 45. It is true, Strabo himself en- 
deavours to controvert these observations, but, so far as I 
can discover, on no solid ground, and solely from his general 
wish to contradict his predecessor. The application to Afri- 
ca is of my own making ; but I think it arises clearly from 
the precedent of Asia, and from the particular and general 
uses of the names of Africa and Libya, as noticed in the text. 
DSI 
