#10 
all poffible enquiries on this head ; he ex- 
amined firit, agreeably to the opinion of 
Tofcanelli, all the ifles of the Archipela- 
go of the Indies, but without faccefs. 
Confidering afterwards, that the ifle of 
Anntilia was known to the Portuguefe, ac- 
cording to’ Tofcanelli, which couid not be 
faid of the ifles of India at that period ; 
confidering further, that the King of Por- 
tugal had paid no attention to the docu- 
ments of Tofcanel!i, nor to the propofition 
which had been made to him by Chriito- 
pher Columbus, and that many authors 
make only one and the fame ifland of An- 
tilia, and of the famous San Borondon or 
Brandon, which was fuppoted to be near 
the Canaries, Citizen Buache has directed 
his attention to the weftern coalts of Afri- 
ca, which the Portuguele were then occu- 
pied in the difcovery of? Agreeably to dif- 
ferent documents, which the Itjzera Mun- 
di of Periftol, a manufcript chart in the 
National Library of the year 1346, and 
another in the library of the Duke ot Par- 
ma of 1367, furnifh, he thinks, he can 
trace an ideay that the names of Aatilia 
and De Ja Man Satanoxia are the refult of 
the firft knowledge that the Europeans had- 
of the rich countries in the interior of A fri- 
ca, or ef that country of the Blacks 
which the Arabs callSudan. This name 
Sudan appears to him to have fome relation 
to that of Satanoxia. Thename of Sette- 
Cita, which the Portuguefe gave to Anti- 
lia, according to Tofcanelli, and which 
has been tranflated by Septem Civitates, 
the Seven Cities, appears to him to be the 
Regio Septem Montium, which the. chart of 
Sanut, in the Ge/fa Dei per Francos, places 
on the weftern coat of Africa, behind an 
ifland, and near the country of Gaulolia. 
in refpect to the name Antilia, he thinks 
it has fome analogy to the name of Can- 
tin, which Peristo! places between Cape 
Bojador and Cape Bianc, where there is a 
coaft named the Seven Mountains ; to the 
name of Anfil, or of Angel, otherwife 
mamed the Seven Mounts, on the coaft of 
Senegal ; and to the name of Andi, a port 
adjoining the Mountains of Angel, which 
bas been corrupted tg Portandie. . It 
fhould be obierved, that it is on the coaft 
fituated between the Canaries and Senegal, 
that a trade in gold-duft was commenced 
before the difcovery of the coait of Gui- 
Heder of : 
if thefe documents are not conclufive 
proofs, they are, at leaft, fatisfactory evi- 
dences in favour of the opinion which Ci- 
tizen Buache has adopted, namely, that the 
ifle Antilia was not America. ‘* A 
thick veil (he obfezyes) ftill covers the ge- 
Infeription on Pompey’s Pillar. 
{April ty 
ography ofall Africa. ‘The names of the 
different points of the coalt, which alone 
is known, are, for the moft part, new 
names impofed upon them by the Portu- 
guefe; and it is difficult to trace in them: 
the ubjeéts which are indicated by the na-- 
tives of the country. 
\ 
= 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; 
F ail the remains of antiquity in 
Egypt, none has more ftrengly ex- 
cited the attention.and inveftigation of the? 
learned, than the magnificent column near 
Alexandria, commonly called Pompey’s 
Pillar. As no mention is made of it 
in hiftory, and no writer prefented us 
with the {malleft traces of an infeription- 
(Pococke alone excepted); we have no data- 
by which to difcover the time of its erec-: 
tion, nor the perfon to whofe honour it 
was raifed. With regard to thefe points 
every thing is dark and uncertain; and 
thofe facts, which hiftory fails to furnifh. 
us with, the learned have endeavoured to. 
fupply with. vague theory and fanciful 
conjecture. With fuch feeble and wan- 
dering guides to direct them, it is by na 
means extraordinary, that thofe who have 
written on this fubjeét have differed fo 
widely in qpinion 5. nor are we furprifed to 
find that one author calls this fuperb mo- 
nument the Pillar of Severus, and that 
another imagines it to have been erected in. 
honour ,of Vefpafian, while a late writer. 
contends that it conftituted a part of the 
Serapeum. 
I am, happy to apaounce to your read= 
ers a dilcovery, which, if it does not re- 
move all doubt and difficulty, affords fuf- 
ficient indications of the fallacy of fome. 
of the above-mentioned. opinions. A Me- 
moir, prefented to the Society of Antiqua- 
ries by theRev.Dr.Raine,contains a copy of 
the infcription, as'decyphered by Captain. 
Leake of the artillery, Captain Squire of 
the engineers, and Mr. Hamilton, private 
fecretary to his Excellency the Earl of El- 
gin :—It runs thus: 
TONKWPlwTATONAOTOKPATOPA 
TONTIOAIOUXON AAG ZSANAPEIAC: 
AION AH TIANONTON( € CAC TON 
HOMUHIOC €MAPXOC AITOMTOU 
KAI OAHMOE € O€ PrGTHN > 
The characters fupplied by conjecture 
are diftinguifhed by lines drawn under-_ 
neath them. It feems that the epithets 
KUPIwTATON and C@ BAC TON are ge= 
nerally applied on fuch oscafions, and the 
conclufion: | 
