+ 
4800.) 
and.in it there were likewife crocodiles.’ 
Thus far I give the narrative of Etearchos 
the Ammonian : I fhall only add, that he 
mnoreover faid, as the Cyreneans told me, 
that the Matergance had returned ; and 
that the men, into whole country they had 
come, were all magicians. “With regard 
to the river, Etearchos conjectured that it 
was the Nile; and this is the mak proba- 
ble opinion concerning it.’ 
Thus far Herodotus. According to his 
own account, he had his information from 
the third hand,viz. fronmCyrenean Greeks, 
who had heard it in Ammonium from Ete- 
archos, the king of the Amimonians, to 
whom it was related by fome Nafamones, 
countrymen of the adventurers. To give 
‘to thefe authorities their due value, it is 
neceflary to be prev iouply acquainted with 
the following particulars. ‘he oracle of 
Jupiter Ammon was not merely the tem- 
ple: there was likewife a {mall pe 
whofe coni{titution was biereucratical, 
ter the form of the ancient Egyptian eae 
and at the head of the government. was a 
king. The fame place was likewije the 
centreof inland commerce, becaufethrough 
it the caravan road pafled fram Egypt.to 
Carthage and Cyrene, and likewile from 
Egypt toWigritia,bothwhich have been de- 
fcribed by Heredotus, Pemples and fanctu- 
aries have jpthe fouthern part of the warld, 
been jn all ages the cenire of commerce, 
as the Kaaba of the prophet at Mecca ftill 
is; for where could this friendly conflux 
of different nations take place with greater 
fecurity, than under immediate protestion 
of the gods, and near their fanctuaries ? 
The Grecian commercial republic,Cyrene, 
on the northern coalt of Africa, was cer- 
tainly fo intimately conne&ted, and carried 
on fo great a commercial intercourfe with 
the Ammopians, that the head of Jupiter 
Ammon was the common impre({s on their 
coin. Hence it is cvident, that the tem- 
ple of Jupiter Ammon was the place where 
there was the greatett, probability of ac- 
quiring information Conceining .the tnte- 
_rvor of Africa ; and certainly Herodotus 
could not apply,to fitter perfons for intel- 
ligence, than to. the Cyreneans, who camet 
from that place; probably merchants, with 
whom he corverfed in Egypt. 
But tae atithority of thefe accounts ac- 
quires additional firength, when we _be- 
come acquainted with the people, io whom 
the travellers belonged, who had met with 
the above adventures, and from whom the 
accounts originated. ‘The Nalamones 
were, as Herodotus informs us in another 
-place*, .a numerous nomadical nation, 
* Herod iv. 372. 
MONTHLY MAG. NO. LIII. 
Herodotus and the River Feliba in Africa? 
_tries In the interior of Africa. 
with wild beafis, 
978 
who derive their fubfiftence from their 
flocks of theep. They dwelt on the ccaft 
of the Mediterranean, in the eaflern part 
of the Regio Syrtica, or the prefent ki g- 
dom of ‘Tripoli, about what was called 
the great Syrtis, orthe prefent bay of Sydra, 
nearly then in 30° north latitude, and 35° 
longitude ea% from Ferro. The whole cd 
this Syrtic land, from 28° to 35° easter 
lonestude is a deve land, which was {pee 
fore e alway s inhabited bynomadical tribes, 
who were tributary to the Carthaginians. 
Aad of them principally were the caravans 
com pofed, which traverfed the deferts, and 
were the means of keeping up the inter. 
courfe ofthe Carthaginians with the coun- 
: For this 
reafon the expedition of the Nafamones is 
not defcribed as a journey into a country 
altogether unknown: They had, fays He- 
rodotus, before undertaken many other 
bold enterprifes; the object of their jour- 
ney was only to try whether they might 
not penetrate farther than had hitherto 
Pp 
been done by preceding iravellers. And,al- 
though the real adventurers amounted to 
no more than five, yet itis very probable 
that their retinue was more numerous, fo 
that they formed a final] caravan ; for they 
were fons of the chief men of ‘Re nation, 
and they carried along with them a great 
quantity of water Bah provifions, 
They traveried, fays Herodotus, fir 
the inhabited part of Africa, anc then the 
regicn abounding with wild beafts: after 
which, they came into ‘the fandy defert. 
For Herodotus divides North Africa into 
three regions ; the moft northern, on the 
Mediterranean, which we now call the 
Coaft of Barbary; the region abounding 
or the middle region, by 
the Arabs called Biledulgerid, or the land 
of dates; and the fouthern region, or tne 
defert. To arrive at the Jaft, they were 
obliged to crofs the two former obliquely 
from north to fouth. ~ 
On reaching the defert, they procsed- 
ed in a foutb- weft dire&tion ; for fo I 
tranfite the wos CePucor of Herodotus.— 
Among ‘later writers, indeed, who ex- 
prefs themicives with’ (cienpiae precifion, 
the zephyr is properly the weit wind ; but 
Herodoius, who knows only the Fsake prins 
cipal winds, denotes by it a weftern di- 
rection in ae That be could not 
here mean the te properly fo called, is 
evident from the flighteft in{pection of the 
map of the country ; becaufe they mutt 
otherwife haye rena on the northern 
border of the defert, and never could have 
traverfed it. The great caravan-road 
from the country of the Nafamones, as 
61 Herodotus 

