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Nor was the progrefs of the Phenicians and Carthaginians in their knowledge of the globe, owing entirely to the defire of extending their trade from one country to another. Commerce was followed by its ufual effects among both thefe people. It awakened curiofity, enlarged the ideas and defires of men, and incited them to bold enterprises. Voyages were undertaken, the fole object of which was to difcover new countries, and to explore unknown feas. Such, during the profperous age of the Carthaginian republic, were the famous navigations of Hanno and Himilco. Both their fleets were equipped by authority of the fenate, and at public expence. Hanno was directed to fteer towards the fouth, along the coast of Africa, and he feems to have advanced much nearer the equinoctial line than any former navigator f). Himilco had it in charge to proceed towards the north, and to examine the western coafts of the European continent g). Of the fame nature was the extraordinary navigation of the Phenicians round Africa. A Phenicians fleet, we are told, fitted out by Necho king of Egypt, took its departure about fix hundred and four years before the Chriftian ære, from a port in the Red Sea, doubled the fouthern promontory of Africa, and

Plinii Na. Hift. lib. vi. c. 1. Hannonis Periplus, ap. Geograph. minores, edit. Hudfoni, vol. I. p. 1. g) Plinii Nat. Hift. lib. ii. c. 67. Feftus Avienus apud Bochart. Geogr. Sacr. lib. i. c. 60. p. 652. Oper. vol. iii. L.

Bat. 1707.

after a voyage of three years, retourned by the ftreights of Gades, to the mouth of the Nile h). Eudoxus of Cyzicus is faid to have held the fame courfe, and to have accomplifhed the fame arduous undertaking i).

These voyages, if performed in the manner which I have related, may juftly be reckoned the greatest effort of navigation in the ancient world; and if we attend to the imperfect state of the art at that time, it is difficult to determine whether we fhould most admire the courage and fagacity with which the defign was formed, or the conduct and good fortune with which it was executed. But unfortunately, all the original and authentic accounts of the Phenician and Carthaginian voyages, whether undertaken by public authority, or in profecution of their private trade, have perifhed. The information which we receive concerning them from the Greek and Roman authors, is not only obfcure and inaccurate, but, if we except a fhort narrative of Hanno's expedition, is of fufpicious authority k). Whatever acquaintance with the remote regions of the earth the Phenicians or Carthaginians may have acquired was concealed from the reft of mankind with a mercantile jealoufy. Every thing relative to the courfe of their navigation was not

h) Heredot. lib. iv. c. 42.

i) Plinii Nat. Hift. lib, ii, 5, 67.
*) See NOTE II.

tes.

only a mystery of trade, but a fecret of state. Extraordinary facts are recorded concerning their folicitude to prevent other nations from penetrating into what they wifhed fhould remain undivulged 1). Many of their discoveries feem, accordingly, to have been fcarcely known beyond the precincts of their own faThe navigation round Africa, in particular, is recorded by the Greek and Roman writers, rather as a ftrange amufing tale, which they either did not comprehend, or did not believe, than as a real tranfaction, which enlarged their knowledge and influenced their opinion m). As neither the progrefs of the Phenician and Carthaginian discoveries, nor the extent of their navigation, were communicated to the reft of mankind, all memorials of their extraordinary fkill in naval affairs feem, in a great measure, to have perifhed, when the maritime power of the former was annihilated by Alexander's conqueft of Tyre, and the empire of the latter was overturned by the Roman arms.

Of the Greeks.

Leaving, then, the obfcure and pompous accounts of the Phenician and Carthaginian voyages to the curiofity and conjectures of antiquaries, hiftory muft reft fatisfied with relating

1) Strab. Geogr. lib. iii. p. 265. lib, xviii. p. 1154. m) See NOTE III.

the progress of navigation and difcovery among the Greeks and Romans, which, though lefs fplendid, is better afcertained. It is evident that the Phenicians, who inftructed the Greeks in other ufeful fciences and arts, did not communicate to them that extenfive knowledge of navigation which they themselves poffeffed; nor did the Romans imbibe that commercial spirit and ardour for discovery, which diftinguished the Carthaginians. Though Greece be almost encompaffed by the fea, which formed many fpacious bays and commodious harbours, though it be furrounded by a vaft number of fertile islands, yet, notwithstanding fuch a favourable fituation, which feemed to invite that ingenious people to apply themfelves to navigation, it was long before this art attained any degree of perfection among them. Their early voyages, the object of which was piracy rather than commerce, were fo inconfiderable, that the expedition of the Argonauts from the coaft of Theffaly to the Euxine Sea, appeared fuch an amazing effort of skill and courage, as entitled the conductors of it to be ranked among the demigods, and exalted the vessel in which they failed to a place among the heavenly conftellations. Even at a later period, when the Greeks engaged in their famous enterprise against Troy, their knowledge in naval affairs feems not to have been much improved. According to the account of Homer, the only poet to whom history ventures to appeal, and who, by his fcrupulous accuracy in defcribing the manners and

Their

arts of early ages, merits this distinction, the fcience of navigation, at that time, had hardly advanced beyond its rudeft ftate. The Greeks in the heroic age were unacquainted with the ufe of iron, the moft ferviceable of all the metals, without which no confiderable progres was ever made in the mechanical arts. veffels were of inconfiderable burthen, and moftly without decks. These hat only one maft, which they erected or took down at pleasure. They were ftrangers to the ufe of anchors. All their operations in failing were clumfy and unfkilful. They turned their obfervation towards ftars, which were improper for regulating their course, and their mode of obferving them was inaccurate and fallacious. When they had fi nifhed a voyage they drew their paltry barks afhore, as favages to their canoes, and thefe remained on dry land until the feafon of returning to fea approached. It is not then in the early or heroic ages of Greece, that we can expect to obferve the science of navigation, and the spirit of discovery, making any confiderable progrefs. During that period of disorder and ignorance, a thousand caufes concurred in reftraining curiofity and enterprize within very narrow bounds.

But the Greeks advanced with rapidity to a state of greater civilization and refinement. Government, in its moft liberal and perfect form, began to be established in the communities of Greece; equal laws

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