The capital point in surrounding Africa was, to discover and double the Cape of Good Hope. Those who set out from the Red Sea, found this cape nearer by half, than it would have been in setting out from the Mediterranean. The shore from the Red Sea is not so shallow, as that from the cape to Hercules's Pillars.* The discovery of the cape by Hercules's Pillars was owing to the invention of the compass, which permitted them to leave the coast of Africa, and to launch out into the vast ocean, in order to sail towards the island of St. Helena, or towards the coast of Brazil.+ It was, therefore, very posssible for them to sail from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, but not to set out from the Mediterranean to return by the Red Sea.

Thus, without making this grand circuit, after which they could hardly ever hope to return, it was most natural to trade to the east of Africa by the Red Sea, and to the western coast by Hercules's Pillars.

The Grecian kings of Egypt, discovered at first, in the Red Sea, that part of the coast of Africa, which extends from the bottom of the gulf, where stands the town of Heroum, as far as Dira, that is, to the streight, now known by the name of Babelmandel. From thence to the promontory of Aromatia, situate at the entrance of the Red Sea, the coast had never been surveyed by navigators: and this is evident from what Artemidorus tells us, that they were acquainted with the places on that coast, but knew not their distances: the reason of which is, they successively gained a knowledge of those ports by land, without sailing from one to the other.

Beyond this promontory, at which the coast along the ocean commenced, they knew nothing, as we learn from Eratosthenes and Artemidorus.||

Such was the knowledge they had of the coasts of Africa in Strabo's time, that is, in the reign of Augustus. But after

* Add to this what I shall say in chap. 11, of this book, on the navigation of Hanno.

In the months of October, November, December, and January, the wind in the Atlantic ocean is found to blow north-east; our ships therefore either cross the line, and to avoid the wind which is there generally at east, they direct their course to the south: or else they enter into the torrid zone, in those places where the wind is at west.

The sea to which we give this name was called by the ancients the gulf of Arabia; the name of Red Sea they gave to that part of the ocean, which borders on this Gulf.

§ Strabo, lib. 16.

Ibid. Artemidorus settled the borders of the known coast at the place called Austricornu; and Eratosthenes, Cinnamomiferam.

that prince's decease, the Romans found out the two capes Raptum and Prassum, of which Strabo makes no mention, because they had not been as yet discovered. It is plain, that both those names are of Roman original.

Ptolemy the geographer flourished under Adrian and Antoninus Pius; and the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, whoever he was, lived a little after. Yet the former limits known Africa to cape Prassum, which is in about the 14th degree of south latitude; while the author of the Periplus+ confines it to cape Raptum, which is nearly in the tenth degree of the same latitude. In all likelihood the latter took his limit from a place then frequented, and Ptolemy his from a place with which there was no longer any communication. What confirms me in this notion is, that the people about cape Prassum were Anthropophagi. Ptolemy takes notice § of a great number of places between the port or emporium Aromatum and cape Raptum, but leaves an entire blank between capes Raptum and Prassum. The great profits of the East India trade must have occasioned a neglect of that of Africa. In fine, the Romans never had any settled navigation; they had discovered these several ports by land expeditions, and by means of ships driven on that coast; and, as at present, we are well acquainted with the maritime parts of Africa, but know very little of the inland country; the ancients, on the contrary, had a very good knowledge of the inland parts, but were almost strangers to the coasts.

I said, that the Phoenicians sent by Necho and Eudoxus under Ptolemy Lathryus, had made the circuit of Africa; but at the time of Ptolemy the geographer, those two voyages must have been looked upon as fabulous, since he places, T after the Sinus Magnus, which I apprehend to be the gulf of Siam, an unknown country, extending from Asia to Africa, and terminating at cape Prassum, so that the Indian ocean would have been no more than a lake. The ancients who discovered the Indies towards the north, advancing eastward, placed this unknown country to the south.

* Lib. 1. cap. 7. lib. 4. cap. 9. table 4. of Africa. + This Periplus is attributed to Arrian.

Ptol. lib. 4. c. 9.

§ Lib. 4. cap. 7, and 8.

See what exact descriptions Strabo and Ptolemy have given us of the different parts of Africa. Their knowledge was owing to the several wars, which the two most powerful nations in the world had waged with the people of Africa, to the alliances they had contracted, and to the trade they had carried on with those countries.

Lib. 7. cap. 3.

CHAP. XI.

Of Carthage, and Marseilles.

THE law of nations which obtained at Carthage, was very extraordinary all strangers, who traded to Sardinia and towards Hercules's Pillars, this haughty republic sentenced to be drowned. Her civil polity was equally surprizing; she forbid the Sardinians to cultivate their lands, upon pain of death. She increased her power by her riches, and afterwards her riches by her power. Being mistress of the coasts of Africa, which are washed by the Mediterranean, she extended herself along the ocean. Hanno, by order of the senate of Carthage, distributed thirty thousand Carthaginians from Hercules's Pillars as far as Černe. This place, he says, is as distant from Hercules's pillars, as the latter from Carthage. This situation is extremely remarkable. It lets us see that Hanno limited his settlements to the 25th degree of north latitude; that is, to two or three degrees south of the Canaries.

Hanno being at Cerne, undertook another voyage, with a view of making farther discoveries towards the south. He took but little notice of the continent. He followed the coast for twenty-six days, when he was obliged to return for want of provisions. The Carthaginians, it seems, made no use of this second enterprize. Scylax says,* that the sea is not navigable beyond Cerne, because it is shallow, full of mud and seaweeds:† and in fact, there are many of these in those latitudes.‡ The Carthaginian merchants, mentioned by Scylax might find obstacles, which Hanno, who had sixty vessels of fifty oars each, had surmounted. Difficulties are at most but relative; besides, we ought not to confound an enterprize, in which bravery and resolution must be exerted, with things that require no extraordinary conduct.

The relation of Hanno's voyage is a fine fragment of antiquity. It was written by the very man that performed it.

See his Periplus, under the article of Carthage.

+ See Herodotus, in Melpomene, on the obstacles which Sataspe encountered.

See the charts and relations in the first volume of Voyages that contributed to the establishment of an East India company, part 1. p. 201. This weed covers the surface of the water in such a manner, as to be scarcely perceived, and ships can only pass through it with a stiff gale.

His recital is not mingled with ostentation. Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.

The style is agreeable to the subject; he deals not in the marvellous. All he says of the climate, of the soil, the behaviour, the manners of the inhabitants, correspond with what is every day seen on this coast of Africa; one would imagine it the journal of a modern sailor.

He observed from his fleet, that in the day time there was a prodigious silence on the continent, that in the night he heard the sound of various musical instruments, and that fires might then be every where seen, some larger than others.* Our relations are conformable to this; it has been discovered that in the day the savages retire into the forests to avoid the heat of the sun, that they light up great fires in the night to disperse the beasts of prey, and that they are passionately fond of music and dancing.

The same writer describes a volcano with all the phænomena of Vesuvius; and relates, that he took two hairy women, who chose to die rather than follow the Carthaginians, and whose skins he carried to Carthage. This has been found not void of probability.

This narration is so much the more valuable, as it is a monument of Punic antiquity; and from hence alone it has been regarded as fabulous. For the Romans retained their hatred to the Carthaginians, even after they had destroyed them. But it was victory alone that decided whether we ought to say, The Punic or the Roman faith.

Some moderns † have imbibed these prejudices. What is become, say they, of the cities described by Hanno, of which even in Pliny's time there remained no vestiges! But it would have been a wonder indeed, if any such vestiges had remained. Was it a Corinth, or Athens, that Hanno built on those coasts? He left Carthaginian families in such places as were most commodious for trade, and secured them as well as his hurry would permit against savages and wild beasts. The calamities of the Carthaginians put a period to the navi gation of Africa; these families must necessarily then either perish or become savages. Besides, were the ruins of these cities even still in being, who is it that would venture into the woods and marshes to make the discovery? We find, how ever, in Scylax and Polybius, that the Carthaginians had con

Pliny tells us the same thing, speaking of mount Atlas; Noctibus micare crebris ignibus, tibiarum cantu timpanorumque sonitu strepere, neminem interdiu cerni.

† Mr. Dodwell. See his Dissertation on Hanno's Periplus.

siderable settlements on those coasts. These are the vestiges of the cities of Hanno; there are no other, from the same reason that there are no other of Carthage itself.

The Carthaginians were in the high road to wealth; and had they gone so far as four degrees of north latitude, and fifteen of longitude, they would have discovered the Gold coast. They would then have had a trade of much greater importance than that which is carried on at present on that coast, at a time when America seems to have degraded the riches of all other countries. They would there have found treasures, of which they could never have been deprived by the Romans.

Very surprising things have been said of the riches of Spain. If we may believe Aristotle,* the Phoenicians, who arrived at Tartessus, found so much silver there, that their ships could not hold it all; and they made of this metal their meanest utensils. The Carthaginians, according to Diodorus, found so much gold and silver in the Pyrenean mountains, that they adorned the anchors of their ships with it. But no foundation can be built on such popular reports. Let us therefore examine into the facts themselves.

We find in a fragment of Polybius, cited by Strabo, that the silver mines at the source of the river Bætis, in which forty thousand men were employed, produced to the Romans twenty-five thousand drachmas a day, that is, about five millions of livres a year, at fifty livres to the mark. The mountains that contained these mines were called the Silver Mountains :§ which shows they were the Potosi of those times. At present, the mines of Hanover do not employ a fourth part of the workmen, and yet they yield more. But as the Romans had not many copper-mines, and but few of silver; and as the Greeks knew none but the Attic mines, which were of little value, they might well be astonished at their abundance.

In the war that broke out for the succession of Spain, a man called the marquis of Rhodes, of whom it was said that he was ruined in golden mines, and enriched in hospitals,§ proposed to the court of France to open the Pyrenean mines. He alleged the example of the Tyrians, the Carthaginians, and the Romans. He was permitted to search, but sought in vain he still alleged, and found nothing.

The Carthaginians being masters of the gold and silver trade, were willing to be so of the lead and pewter. These

Of Wonderful Things.

↑ Lib. 6.

+ Lib. 3.
§ Mons Argentarius.

He had some share in their management.