ferable to the one which here menaced him. He returned and presented himself before Xerxes, giving a doleful description of the hardships which he had encountered, declaring that the ship at last stood still of itself, and could by no exertion be made to proceed. That proud monarch, refusing to listen to such an explanation, ordered the original sentence to be immediately executed. Such appears to have been the only African voyage undertaken by the Persians, to whom the sea was an object of aversion and even of superstitious dread.

Carthage, the greatest maritime and commercial state of antiquity, and which considered Africa and the Atlantic coast as her peculiar domain, must have made several exploratory voyages before she could establish those extensive connexions upon which her trade was founded. Of all such attempts, however, the record of one only remains. It consisted of an expedition on a very large scale, sent out, about 570 years before the Christian era, for the joint purposes of colonization and discovery, under an admiral named Hanno. He carried with him, in sixty large vessels, emigrants of both sexes to the number of thirty thousand. At the distance of two days' sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the Carthaginians founded the city of Thymioterium, and afterwards, on the wooded promontory of Soloeis, erected a stately temple to Neptune. They then built successively four other cities; after which they came to the great river Lixus, flowing from Libya and the high boundary of the Atlas. Its banks were infested by numbers of wild beasts, and inhabited only by savage Ethiopians, living in caves,

and repelling every friendly overture. Proceeding three days along a desert coast, the navigators reached an island, which they named Cerne, situated in a recess of the sea, where they established their last colony. Sailing onward still for a number of days, they saw a large river full of crocodiles and hippopotami, and containing various islands. The inhabitants were timid and fled at their approach; but the coast presented some remarkable phenomena. During the day deep silence reigned; but as soon as the sun set, fires blazed on the shore, and the shouts of men were mingled with the varied sounds of cymbals, trumpets, and other musical instruments. This scene, being new to the Carthaginians, struck them with a sort of terror; but, in fact, it must have arisen from the custom prevalent over native Africa, where the inhabitants rest during the oppressive heat of the day, and spend great part of the night in dancing and festivity. On another shore the navigators were astonished to see the land all on fire, and torrents of flame rushing into the sea,—an appearance doubtless owing to one of those conflagrations frequently occasioned in such countries by the practice of setting fire to the grass at the end of autumn. Next appeared an island in a bay, where they found a most singular race, bearing the human form indeed, but covered with shaggy hair, resembling those satyrs and sylvan deities with which pagan mythology peopled the woods. These monsters, whom they call Gorillae, and who seem evidently to have been ouran-outangs, ran off on their approach, climbed rocks, and threw down stones on their pursuers; yet three females were caught, and their skins

carried to Carthage. At length, the coast becoming desolate, and no longer affording either provisions or water, it was found necessary to return.

How far this voyage extended, and what proportion of the African coast it surveyed, has been the subject of long and learned controversy. The only two disputants who now appear on the field are Major Rennel and M. Gosselin; the former of whom believes that Hanno passed Sierra Leone, and that the bay and island of the Gorillae were Sherbro' Island and Sound; while the other terminates the voyage on the frontier of Morocco, at the entrance of the river Nun. The one supposes a run of about 600 miles, the other one of nearly 3000; and yet each theory is supported by profound and able arguments. In such a case who shall decide? I really have made some attempts to do so, without being able to come to so clear a decision as would justify me in interposing between two such mighty champions. But he who will undertake the study of the original works, will be gratified by finding all the resources of learning, ingenuity, and acuteness, exhausted by these two great writers on this curious subject.

The individual who in that early age made the most resolute and persevering efforts to explore Africa, was Eudoxus, a native of the city of Cyzicus, who lived about 130 years before Christ. Alexandria was then the centre of naval enterprise, and her Greek princes the most zealous patrons of all useful undertakings. Eudoxus, happening to visit that city, was introduced to Ptolemy Euergetes, whom he ably assisted in prosecuting those schemes of discovery on which this monarch's mind appears

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to have been deeply intent. Where so much was unknown on every side, it was a subject of grave deliberation in what direction he should first proceed; and an expedition to trace the upper course and fountain of the Nile was at one time contemplated. But the spirit of adventure was soon turned towards another object by the arrival of a native of India, whom one of the king's vessels had saved from shipwreck, and who offered to act as pilot in leading Eudoxus to that opulent and celebrated region. The latter performed the voyage to India prosperously, and returned laden with wealth. Though not quite satisfied with the manner in which he was treated by the king, he yet undertook another expedition to the same quarter. On emerging from the Red Sea, he was driven by a storm upon the eastern coast of Africa, where he observed the land taking such a direction as inspired the idea that it might, by no vast circuit, lead round to the Straits of Gibraltar. To be the circumnavigator of Africa became from that moment the object to which the life of Eudoxus was devoted. On his return to Alexandria, Euergetes was dead, and the succeeding sovereign gave him still greater cause of complaint; so that he determined to trust no more to the precarious patronage of princes, but to make a general appeal to the commercial public. The merchants of Cadiz were thought most likely to embrace his views ; and on his way thither he passed through Rhodes, Marseilles, and other great maritime states, calling upon all who were animated with the generous spirit of enterprise to accompany or to aid him in his undertaking. An extraordinary sensation seems to have been created in these commercial cities. Eudoxus

easily assembled round him a considerable band of volunteers, and was enabled to equip amply and even splendidly two vessels, furnished with medical men and artisans of various descriptions, and even enlivened by a band of youthful musicians. In this array he passed the Straits, and turned his prow, as he imagined, towards India. But his gay crew, inspired by himself probably with too flattering hopes, seem to have anticipated only a smooth and holiday excursion. When, therefore, they saw themselves ranging along an unknown and dreary shore, against which the waves of the mighty Atlantic were beating, they were seized with panic. In vain did Eudoxus urge the necessity of standing out to sea, as the only mode of successfully navigating his large and heavily-loaded ships; they obstinately insisted on his keeping close to land. The consequence was, as he had distinctly foretold, that the principal vessel was stranded upon one of those dangerous sand-banks which abound on the coast. The crew were so fortunate, however, as to convey ashore not only the cargo but the timbers, out of which Eudoxus, with zeal that nothing could damp, contrived to put together another and smaller bark, in which he pursued the voyage. He came then to nations speaking a language which his fancy flattered him was the same that he had heard on the eastern coast of Africa. But at this moment, when he seemed on the eve of accomplishing his most sanguine hopes, the shattered state of his armament obliged him to return; retaining still the fullest confidence that, if the means could be found of equipping another, all his most brilliant hopes would be realized. Disgusted, how