10 
DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
to penetrate into the depth of that mysterious 
world in the interior, which, guarded by the most 
awful barriers of nature, enclosed, 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 having been undertaken by order of Necho king 
of Egypt. The narrative relates,* that certain 
Phenician navigators, employed by that enterpris- 
ing monarch, set sail from the Red Sea into the 
northern ocean. They continued to navigate along 
the exterior coast of Africa, till their provisions 
were exhausted. They then landed, sowed a crop, 
waited till the harvest was gathered in, and, with 
this new supply, continued their voyage. In this 
manner, they spent two years, and part of a third 5 
at the end of which time, they arrived at the Pil- 
lars of Hercules, and sailed up the Mediterranean 
to Eygpt. 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 Herodo- 
tus 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. 
