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 
Asiatic adventurers, was, in defiance of the clear- 
est 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 con- 
tinents ; 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 
activity along the western regions of Africa. 
Objects here presented themselves, which acted 
powerfully on the exalted and poetical imagina- 
tion 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 Hesperian gardens, the Fortunate Islands, the 
Islands of the Blest, which are painted in such 
glowing colours, and form the gayest part of an- 
cient mythology. The precise position of these 
celebrated spots has been a subject of eager and 
doubtful inquiry. The chief difficulty is, that 
