Sataspes, a Persian, whose punishment was commuted from crucifixion to sailing round Lybia; which voyage he began, but returned by the same route, not having completed it. The reason which he gave for returning was, that "his ship was stopped and could sail no farther," which his sovereign did not believe, and therefore put him to death, to which he had before been condemned.

The only evidence which this story can af ford is, that the circumnavigation of the African Continent was at that time thought practicable. The mother of Sataspes thought so, or she would not have proposed it; and Xerxes thought so, or he would not have disbelieved the story of the ship being stopped; by which expression was meant that the sea was no farther navigable by reason of land.

The exact date of this voyage is not ascertained; but, as Xerxes reigned twelve years, and died in the year 473 before Christ, it could not have been much more than thirty years preceding the time when Herodotus published his history.

The voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian, is thus briefly mentioned by Pliny: "In the flourishing state of Carthage, Hanno, having

sailed round from Gades, [Cadiz] to the border of Arabia, committed to writing an account of his voyage; as did Himilco, who was, at the same time, sent to discover the extreme parts of Europe."* The character of Pliny as a historian is, that "he collected from all authors, good and bad, who had written before him; and that his work is a mixture of truth and error, which it is difficult to separate." An instance in confirmation of this remark occurs in this very chapter, where he speaks of some merchants sailing from India, and thrown by a tempest, on the coast of Germany. He also mentions a voyage made by Eudoxus from the Arabian Gulf to Gades, and another of Cœlius Antipater from Spain to Ethiopia.

Of these voyages, that of Hanno is best authenticated. He sailed from Carthage with sixty galleys, each carrying fifty oars, having on board thirty thousand men and women, with provisions and articles of traffic. The design of this equipment was to plant colonies along the western shore of Africa, which the Carthaginians, from priority of discovery, and from its contiguity to their territory, considered as their own dominion. Hanno was

* Pliny's Natural History, lib. ii., cap. 67.

absent five years on this colonizing expedition; but there is no certainty of his having proceeded any farther southward than the Bay of Benin, in the eighth degree of north latitude. A fragment of his journal, which, at his return, he deposited in the temple of Saturn at Carthage, is now extant; and though it has been treated as fabulous by several authors, ancient and modern, yet its authenticity has been vindicated by M. Bougainville, in the 26th volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, where a French translation of it is given from the Greek, into which language it was rendered from the original Punic.

Concerning the voyage of Eudoxus, the following account is given by Bruce.* He was sent by Ptolemy Euergetes as an ambassador to India, to remove the bad effects of the king's conduct in the beginning of his reign, who had extorted contributions from merchants of that and other trading countries. Eudoxus returned after the king's death, and was wrecked on the coast of Ethiopia, where

* Travels, book ii., chap. 5. The voyage of Eudoxus was originally written by Posidonius, but I have not met with that author.

he discovered the prow of a ship which had suffered the same fate. It was the figure of a horse; and a sailor, who had been employed in European voyages, knew this to have been part of one of those vessels which tra. ded on the Atlantic Ocean, of which trade Gades was the principal port. This circumstance amounted to a proof that there was a passage round Africa from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery was of no greater importance to any person than to Eudoxus himself; for, some time afterward, falling under the displeasure of Ptolemy Lathyrus, and being in danger of his life, he fled, and, embarking on the Red Sea, sailed round Africa and came to Gades.

This voyage of Eudoxus was treated as a fable by Strabo, the Roman geographer, who wrote about a century and a half after the time when it is said to have been performed. The true cause of the incredulity of him and of other Roman authors in respect to these voyages and discoveries was the doctrine of the zones, to which they inflexibly adhered, and which entirely precluded all conviction.

These are all the evidences which I have had opportunity to examine respecting the

question of the circumnavigation of Africa,* and, upon the whole, there appears to be this peculiarity attending the subject, that it was believed by those who lived nearest to the time when the voyage of Necho is said to have been made; and that, in proportion to the distance of time afterward, it was doubted, disbelieved, and denied, till its credibility was established beyond all doubt by the. Portuguese adventurers in the fifteenth, century.

The credibility of the Egyptian or Phœnician voyages round the Continent of Africa being admitted, and the certainty of the Carthaginian voyages and colonies on the western shore of Africa being established, we may extend our inquiry to the probability of what has been advanced by some writers, and doubted or denied by others, the population of some parts of America from beyond the Atlantic.

The discovery of the Canary Islands by the Carthaginians is a fact well attested. Pliny

* Dr. Forster, in his history of voyages and discoveries (chap. i.), refers to three German authors, Gesner, Schlozer, and Michaelis, who have written on this subject, and observes, that "the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians and Egyptians is proved almost to a demonstration."