INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS.

Division of the Ancient World into Continents.—Mediterranean Coast.-Influence of poetical ideas.—Curiosity of the Ancients respecting the interior.-Attempts to circumnavigate Africa; Phenicians under Necho; Sataspes; Eudoxus.- Voyages along the Western Coast; Hanno; Scylax; Polybius.— Eastern Coast; Evemerus; Arrian's Periplus.-Attempts to · penetrate into the interior; the Nasamones; Cambyses; Alexander; Roman Expeditions.

IN every age, which has been animated with any liberal spirit of inquiry, the discovery of regions before unknown has afforded a favourite gratification to human curiosity. The contemplation of nature under a new aspect,-the view of beings who, generally resembling ourselves, display yet some features that are strikingly dissimilar, even the perils and adventures through which the discovery is made, kindle always an extraordinary interest. Several expeditions of discovery

are mentioned by ancient writers, and many more were probably undertaken, of which no records are now in existence. Yet the steps of their progress can by no means be traced with the same precision as those by which the modern world has been explored. Regular narratives, such as have now become so frequent, were either never produced, or have all perished in the wreck of antiquity. The events connected with this progress, are found only in detached notices scattered through the writings of geographers, historians, and even of poets. These have, however, been collected with very great diligence by a series of learned men in modern times, from whose inquiries, compared with the original materials, it may be possible to exhibit such a sketch of the progress of ancient discovery in Africa, as will be gratifying to the curiosity of the general reader.

The first steps of that process by which the old world was divided into continents, are involved in some obscurity. Several curious notices, however, are recorded by Eratosthenes.* The distinction

* Strabo (Xylandri), II. 45. It is true, Strabo himself endeavours to controvert these observations, but, so far as I can discover, on no solid ground, and solely from his general wish to contradict his predecessor. The application to Africa is of my own making; but I think it arises clearly from the precedent of Asia, and from the particular and general uses of the names of Africa and Libya, as noticed in the text.

began in the islands called Cyclades, the earliest seat of Grecian science. There it was adopted, in order to discriminate between the opposite shores of Greece and of Caria. It appears from Homer, that the latter actually contained a small district called Asia, which, from this singular accident of its position, has given its name to a third part of the habitable globe. As knowledge extended, the name of Asia soon spread over the whole peninsula, of which Caria formed the western extremity. It gradually took a far wider range; yet this peninsula continued to be called Asia Proper, or Asia Minor, which last name it retains to this day. In the same manner, the coast of Libya naturally formed a third continent, which was called Africa, or Southland, expressive of its relative position to Greece. Accordingly, we find here a district, which, down to the twelfth century, was called Africa Proper, and sometimes Africa Minor; to which we may add, that Libya, the native name of this region, is, by the most ancient writers, generally extended to the whole continent. From these three positions, the progress of discovery spread in every direction; and each newly explored region was added to the quarter from which the discoverer had taken his departure. At length the adventurers from different sides met; and at that point, the boundary line of two continents was fixed. The meeting of

those coming respectively from Europe and from Asia, appears to have been on the banks of the Phasis; which river, in the age of Herodotus, was supposed to divide these two quarters of the globe. In Africa, the desert which separated Egypt from Libya, formed a bar against discovery; while the fine regions of Syria and Egypt were rapidly traversed. Egypt, therefore, being discovered by Asiatic adventurers, was, in defiance of the clearest natural indications, long considered as part of Asia. Even in the time of Strabo, the Nile was generally viewed as the boundary of the two continents; nor is it till Ptolemy, that we find the natural limits fully assigned, of the Red Sea, and the Isthmus of Suez.

Meantime, discovery proceeded with greater activity along the western regions of Africa. Objects here presented themselves, which acted powerfully on the exalted and poetical imagination of the ancients. They were particularly struck by those oases, or verdant islands, which reared their heads amid the sandy desert. Hence, doubtless, were drawn those brilliant pictures of the Hesperian gardens, the Fortunate Islands, the Islands of the Blest, which are painted in such glowing colours, and form the gayest part of ancient mythology. The precise position of these celebrated spots has been a subject of eager and doubtful inquiry. The chief difficulty is, that

there are different points of the continent to which they seem to be fixed, with almost equal precision. In fact, it seems clearly shewn, by some learned writers,* that this variety of position is referable, not to any precise geographical data, but to the operation of certain secret propensities, that are deeply lodged in the human breast. There arises involuntarily in the heart of man, a longing after forms of being, fairer and happier than any presented by the world before him-bright scenes, which he seeks and never finds, in the circuit of real existence. But imagination easily creates them in that dim boundary, which separates the known from the unknown world. In the first discoverers of any such region, novelty usually produces an exalted state of the imagination and passions; under the influence of which, every object is painted in higher colours than those of nature. Nor does the illusion cease, when a fuller examination proves that, in the place thus assigned, no such beings or objects exist. The human heart, while it remains possible, still clings to its fond chimeras. It quickly transfers them to the yet unknown region beyond; and, when driven from thence, discovers still another more remote, in which they can take refuge. Thus, we find

* See Gosselin Geographie Ancienne. Malte Brun Histoire de la Geographie.