16 DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
proceed farther. On his return, he applied to 
Bocchus, king of Mauritania, and endeavoured to 
inspire that barbarian with his own zeal for mari- 
time discovery. He appeared to have succeeded, 
and orders were given to equip an expedition ; 
but Eudoxus was privately assured, that the mind 
of the king had been poisoned against him, and 
that the mariners were privately instructed to 
abandon him on an uninhabited island. This re- 
port, true or false, induced him to make his escape 
from Mauritania. His next recourse was to Iberia, 
where he actually succeeded in equipping an ex- 
' pedition as considerable as his first one, and better 
calculated for the voyage. It consisted of one 
vessel, adapted for navigating in the open sea ; 
and another for reconnoitring the coast. They 
were provided also with seed and labouring uten- 
sils, in the view of raising a harvest on the voy- 
age, in the manner reported to have been done 
by the Phenicians. At this point, unfortunately, 
the narrative of Strabo stops short, and leaves us 
totally in the dark as to the result of this new ex- 
pedition. It is true, Cornelius Nepos is said to 
have asserted,* that Eudoxus actually did make 
the circuit of Africa ; but that writer, having 
stated his departure as taking place from the Red 
Sea, could not have had in view the voyage in 
* Mela, III. 9. 
