thirty thousand. At the distance of two days' sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the adventurers founded the city of Thymiaterium, and afterwards, on the wooded promontory of Soloeis, erected a stately temple to Neptune. They then built successively five 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 numerous beasts of prey, and inhabited only by savage Ethiopians, living in caves, and repelling every friendly advance. 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 a certain 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 their manners presented some remarkable peculiarities. 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 they 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 Gorillæ, and who seem evidently to have been orang-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 quite desolate, and no longer affording either provisions or water, it was found necessary to return.

How far this expedition extended, and what proportion of the African coast was surveyed, has been the subject of long and learned controversy. The two most recent and elaborate disputants are Major Rennell and M. Gosselin : the former of whom believes that Hanno passed Sierra Leone, and that the island and bay of the Gorilla 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 course along the western shore of nearly 2500 miles, the other one of about 700; and yet each hypothesis is supported by profound and able arguments.* In such a case who shall decide? We ourselves have made some attempts to do so, without being able to come to a conclusion so clear as to justify us in interposing between two such champions. But whoever undertakes 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 princes the most zealous patrons of all useful undertakings. The young Greek 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 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

* M. Heeren has lately attempted to prove that Hanno's voyage reached to the mouth of the Gambia, which is less by nearly a fifth than the course assigned by Major Rennell.

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 Hindostan, 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, having performed the voyage to India prosperously, returned laden with wealth; and though not quite satisfied with the manner in which he was treated by Ptolemy, 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; and to be the circumnavigator of Africa became from that moment the object to which his life was devoted. On his return to Alexandria, he found that Euergetes was dead, and the new sovereign gave him still greater cause of complaint; for which reason 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 those 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. With 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 beat the waves of the mighty Atlantic,

they were seized with panic. In vain did he 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 a zeal that nothing could damp, contrived to construct another though 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 expectations, 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 brilliant hopes would be realized. Disgusted, however, with his band of timid volunteers, he overcame his reluctance to royal patronage. He sought the precarious aid of Bocchus, king of Mauritania, who received him well, and ordered an expedition to be prepared; but meanwhile he was privately warned that this treacherous prince, instead of forwarding him on his voyage, intended that his people should land and leave him to perish on an uninhabited island. It does not appear what motive had given birth to so base a design; the Greek, however, with better means of judging than we have, believed it and fled. He made his next attempt in Spain, where he found no difficulty in equipping two other vessels, on board of which he placed seed-corn and materials for building, that, in case of necessity, he might land and raise a crop on a fertile little island observed at an advanced point of his former voyage. Here, very unluckily, Posidonius, Strabo's informant, stops short, and refers to the Spaniards and Gaditanians for farther information; but profound silence reigns on their part, and the world probably must remain for ever in darkness

as to the issue of this last expedition. It must not be concealed that authors of great name, not excepting Strabo himself, have branded Eudoxus as a decided impostor, a reproach which many of the most eminent discoverers have been destined to bear. This geographer is a most merciless critic; but the authorities for the narrative are admitted to be good, and his several objections drawn from the internal evidence do not appear at all conclusive. Antiquity has put sundry fables into the mouth of the navigator, by which his reputation has severely suffered. According to certain accounts, he pretended to have really made the circuit of Africa; to have visited some nations that were dumb; others without tongues; and one people who had no mouths, but received all their food by the nose. These are the wild exaggerations which, in a credulous age, a story undergoes in passing from one person to another. The de

scriptions of Strabo, collected from the best sources with a sceptical and even malignant scrutiny, contain none of those suspicious wonders, nor any event which at all exceeds the common course of nature.

A line of navigation along the eastern coast of Africa is described in a work of later date, written apparently after the establishment of the Roman power in Egypt. It is termed the Periplus of the Erythræan (or Indian) Sea, by an author whose name was Arrian; but it comprises not so much the result of any individual adventure as a general view of the commercial voyages regularly made thither from Alexandria. After passing Abyssinia, the pilots shaped their course along a shore (that of the modern Berbera) abounding in a remarkable degree with myrrh, frankincense, and other odoriferous plants. They then reached Cape Aromata (Guardafui), which forms the termination of the Red Sea and the entrance into the Indian Ocean. The coast of Africa, in this latitude, afforded ivory in abundance, rhinoceros' horns, and tortoise-shell, the last of which was extremely fine; and, in return for these, arms, wine, and corn were the most acceptable commodities. The voyage termi