CHAP. X.: Of the Circuit of Africa.

WE find from history, that before the discovery of the mariner’s compass, four attempts were made to sail round the coast of Africa. The Phœnicians sent by He was desirous of conquering it. Herodotus, lib. iv. ^†89 Necho, and Eudoxus Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 67. Pomponius Mela, lib. iii. cap. 9. ^†90 flying from the wrath of Ptolomy Lathyrus, set out from the Red sea, and succeeded. Sataspes Herodotus in Melpomene. ^†91 sent by Xerxes, and Hanno by the Carthaginians, set out from the Pillars of Hercules, and failed in the attempt.

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 Add to this what I shall say in chap xi. of this book, on the navigation of Hanno. ^†92 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 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. ^†93 out into the vast ocean, in order to sail towards the island of St. Helena, or towards the coast of Brasil. It was therefore very possible 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 gulph 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 sea to which we give this name was called by the ancients the gulph of Arabia; the name of Red sea they gave to that part of the ocean which borders on this gulph. ^†94 the coast had never been surveyed by navigators: and this is evident from what Artemidorus tells us, Strabo, lib. xvi. ^†95 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 Ibid. Artemidorus settled the borders of the known coast at the place called Austricornu; and Eratosthenes, Cinnamomiferam. ^†96 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 that prince’s decease, the Romans found out the two capes Raptum and Passum, 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 Strabo, lib. i. cap. 7. lib. iv. cap. 9. table 4. of Africa. ^†97 to cape Prassum, which is in about the 14th degree of south latitude; while the author of the Periplus This Periplus is attributed to Arrian. ^†98 confines it to cape Raptum, which is nearly in the 10th 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. Ptol. lib. iv. cap. 9. ^†99 Ptolemy takes notice Lib. iv. cap. 7 and 8. ^†100 of a great number of places between the port or emporium Aromatum and cape Raptum, but leaves an entire blank between the 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; 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. ^†101 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 Phœnicians 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, Lib. vii. cap. 3. ^†102 after the Sinus Magnus, which I apprehend to be the gulph 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.