Spread the earth with darknefs, the fea 1 its friendly light. While the prow of ou fel plouhged the foaming furges, it feen fet them all on fire. Thus we failed in minous inclofure, which furrounded us. large circle of rays, from whence darted i wake of the fhip a long ftream of light. to Senegal. p. 176.

NOTE III. p. 14.

66

Long after the navigation of the Pheni and of Eudoxus round Africa, Polybius, moft intelligent and beft informed hiftoria antiquity, affirms, that it was not known his time, whether Africa was a continued tinent ftretching to the fouth, or wheth was encompaffed by the fea. Polybii Hift. iii. Pliny the naturalift afferts, that there be no communication between the fouthern

northern temperate zones, Plinii Hift. Na Edit. in ufum Delph. 4to, lib. ii. c. 68. they had given full credit to the accounts thofe voyages, the former could not have ent tained fuch a doubt, the latter could not h delivered fuch an opinion. Strabo menti the voyage of Eudoxus, but treats it as fabulous tale; lib. ii. p. 155. and, accordi to his account of it, no other judgment can formed with respect to it. Strabo feems not have known any thing with certainty concer

ing the form and ftate of the fouthern parts of Africa. Geogr. lib. xvii. p. 1180. Ptolemy, the most inquifitive and learned of all the ancient geographers, was equally unacquainted with any part of Africa fituated a few degrees beyond the equinoctial line; for he fuppofes that this great continent was not furrounded by the fea, but that it ftretched, without interruption, towards the fouth pole: and he fo far mistakes its true figure, that he defcribes the continent as becoming broader and broader as it advances towards the fouth. Ptolemaei Geogr. lib. iv. c. 9. Brietii Parallela Geogr. veteris et novae, p. 86.

NOTE IV. p. 21.

A fact, recorded by Strabo, affords a very strong and fingular proof of the ignorance of the ancients with respect to the fituation of the various parts of the earth. When Alexander marched along the banks of the Hydafpes and Acefine, two of the rivers which fall into the Indus, he obferved that there were many crocodiles in those rivers, and that the country produced beans of the fame fpecies with those which were common in Egypt. From thefe circumftances, he concluded that he had difcovered the fource of the Nile, and prepared a fleet to fail down the Hydafpes to Egypt. Strab. Geogr. lib. xv. p.、

1020. This amazing error did not arife from any ignorance of geography peculiar to that monarch; for we are informed by Strabo, that Alexander applied with particular attention in order to acquire the knowledge of this science, and had accurate maps or descriptions of the countries through which he marched. Lib. ii. p. 120. But, in his age, the knowledge of the Greeks did not extend beyond the limits of the Mediterranean.

NOTE V. p. 22.

As the flux and reflux of the fea is remarkbly great at the mouth of the river Indus, this would render the phenomenon more formidable to the Greeks. Varen. Geogr. vol.

i. p. 251.

NOTE VI. p. 25.

It is probable that the ancients were feldom induced to advance fo far, either by motives of curiofity, or views of commercial advantage. In confequence of this, their idea concerning the pofition of that great river was very erroneous. Ptolemy places that branch of the Ganges which he distinguishes by the name of the Great Mouth, in the hundred and forty-fixth degree of longitude from his firft meridian in the Fortunate Iflands. But its

true longitude, computed from that meridian, is now determined by aftronomical obfervations to be only a hundred and five degrees. A geographer fo eminent must have been betrayed into an error of this magnitude by the imperfection of the information which he had received concerning thofe diftant regions; and this affords a ftriking proof of the intercourfe with them being extremely rare. With respect to the countries of India beyond the Ganges, his intelligence was ftill more defective, and his errors more enormous. I fhall have occafion to obferve in another place, that he has placed the country of the Seres, or China, no lefs than fixty degrees farther east than its true pofition. M. d'Anville, one of the most learned and intelligent of the modern geographers, has fet this matter in clear light, in two differtations publifhed in Mem. de l'Academ. des Infcript. &c. tom. xxxii. p. 573. 604.

NOTE VII. p. 27.

It is remarkable, that the difcoveries of the ancients were made chiefly by land; thofe of the moderns are carried on chiefly by fea. The progrefs of conqueft led to the former, that of commerce to the latter. It is a judicious obfervation of Strabo, that the conquefts of Alexander the Great made known the Eaft, thofe of the Romans opened the Weft, and

thofe of Mithridates king of Pontus the North. Lib. i. p. 26. When discovery is carried on by land alone, its progrefs must be flow, and its operations confined. When it is carried on only by fea, its sphere may be more extensive, and its advances more rapid; but it labours under peculiar defects. Though it may make known the position of different countries, and afcertain their boundaries as far as thefe are determined by the ocean, it leaves us in ignorance with refpect to their interior ftate. Above two centuries and a half have elapsed fince the Europeans failed round the fouthern promontory of Africa, and have traded in moft of its ports; but, in a confiderable part of that great continent, they have done little more than furvey its coafts, and mark its capes and harbours; its interior regions are in a great measure unknown. The ancients, who had a very imperfect knowledge of its coafts, except where they are washed by the Mediterranean or Red Sea, were accuftomed to penetrate into its inland provinces, and, if we may rely on the teftimony of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, had explored many parts of it now altogether unknown. Unlefs both modes of discovery be united, the geographical knowledge of the earth muft remain incomplete and inaccurate.

NOTE