historyofmaritim01cooliala

8/13/2019 historyofmaritim01cooliala

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Ex LibrisC. K. OGDEN

THE LIBRARYOFTHE UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIALOS ANGELES


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THECABINET CYCLOPEDIA.


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London :Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoodc,New. Street-Square.


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USTOKYOF MARIXIMIv.

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CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA.CONDUCTED BY THE

REV. DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL.D. F.R.S. L.&E.M.R.I.A. F.L.S. F.Z.S. Hon. F.C.P.S. M.Ast.S. &c. &c.

ASSISTED BYEMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

CDcograpl)p

THE HISTORYOF

MARITIME AND INLAND DISCOVERY.VOL. I.

LONDON:PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,P.\ TI'.RMisTKR-ROW ;AND JOHN TAYLOR,

I PPER l.m\ III STREET.1830.


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THE

CABINET OF GEOGRAPHY.CONDUCTED BY THE

REV. DIONYSIUS LARDNER, LL.D. F.R.S. L. & E.M.K.I. A. F.LS. F.Z.S. Hon. F.C.P.S. M.Ast.S. &c. inc.ASSISTED BY

EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

THEHISTORY

OF

MARITIME AND INLAND DISCOVERY.VOL. I.

LONDON:PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,PATERNOSTER-ROW ;

AND JOHN TAYLOR,f PPE t COWER STREET

1830.


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London :Printed by A. & It. Spottiswoocie,New-Street-Square


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6WcCONTENTS.

BOOK I.GEOGRAPHY OF THE AVCIEKTS.CHAP. I.

Introduction. Wandering Propensity of primitive Man. Slow Growthof Geography. The Hebrews. The Mosaic Genesis. Simple Cosmo-logy. The Phoenicians. Antiquity of their Navigations. TheirObscurity. - - .... Page 1CHAP. II.

THE CHEEKS. HOMERIC AGE.The first Navigators Pirates. Slave Trade in Antiquity. HomersKnowledge of Greece. Of the Scythians. Of Egypt and the Ethi-opians. The Ships of the Homeric Age. The Mythic Regions of theWest. Voyage of Uljeses. The Cyclops. Isles of Circe and of.Solus. Ends of the Ocean and Land of Darkness The wanderingIsles. Scylla, Charybdis, and the Sirens. Sieuli and Sicani. Tri-nacria. Homer actually ignorant of the West. Hesiod. KingLutinus. The Eridanus. Argonautic Expedition. Its Authenticity. The Euxine known early to the Pelasgians. The Golden Fleece. Return of Jason variously related. The Orphic Account. Iernismentioned. The Cimmerians of the West. Explanation of the My-thology. Elysium and Happy Islands of the West. Summary. - Id

CHAP. III.(JRF.EKS CONTINUED. HISTORIC AGE.

Systems of early Greek Philosophers. Herodotus. His literary Ardourand Success. His Travels. Describes the Scythians. Received In-telligence respecting the Arimasps and Griffons. In vain sought theHyperboreans. Effect of Climate on the Growth of Horns. Extent othe Knowledge he acquired from the Scythians. The Cimmerians of theBosphorus. Their Origin conjectured. The Caspian Sea. Herodotusacquainted with the Ractrians, and with India Eastern .Ethiopians. The great Ants of India which guard the Gold. Egypt. The Auto,moles or Exiles. Route up the Nile, and to Bornou. Tourney of theNasamones to the Niger. Alleged Circumnavigation of Africa underKing Nechos. Voyage of Sataspes. Herodotus ignorant of the West.


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1 CONTENTS. The River Eridanus and the Riphsean Mountains. Commercial En-terprise of the Greeks. Summary. - . Page 26

THE GREEKS CONTINUED.Scaicity of Books in Antiquity. Herodotus ignorant of the Carthaginian

Discoveries. Voyage of Hanno to the Negro Country. Sees Croco-diles and Hippotami.Nocturnal Fires. Gorillx, or Ourang Outangs.Ilimilco explores the Northern Seas. Finds the Tin Country. Albionand Ierne. Scylax of Caryanda the first Greek who mentions Rome. Pytheas of Marseilles. Visits Britain. Discovers Thule. Describesthe Amber Coast in the Baltic. Was an acute Observer. Xenophondescribes the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. The Curds. The Arme-nian Mountaineers. Ctesias. Resides in Persia. Mixes OrientalFables with his Relations. Men with the Heads and Tails of Dogs. The magic Pool of Silas Speaks of the Kermes Insect. Greek Phi-losophers. Aristotle. Mentions the Hercynian Mountains or theHartz. The Britannic Islands and Taprobane. Thought that Indiamight be reached by the West. - - 45

CHAP. V.CREEKS CONTINUED.

Expedition of Alexander. Policy of that Conquercr. Enters India. Resolves to explore the Persian Gulf. The March down the Indus. Ncearchus embarks. Suffers great Hardships. Imagines himself atthe Equator. The Greeks dismayed at the Appearance of a Whale. Famished in the midst of Turtle. Successful Termination of theVoyage. Preparations made to explore the Coasts of Arabia. Arrestedby the Death of Alexander. Grand Views of that Prince. Remarksof the Macedonians in India. Division of the People into Castes. Honey made without Bees. Elephants. Use of Umbrellas. TheBanyan Trees. The Faquirs. Self-devotion to the Flames. City ofPalibothra. Its Situation. Indian Fables. Respect paid to Mon-keys. The Greeks distorted foreign Names. Voyage of Jambolo toCeylon. His Remarks on the People. Taprobane or Ceylon variouslydescribed. Accounts ofthe Ancients reconciled. The Names of thatIsland. Commerce between Egypt and the East. Geography flou-rished in the commercial City of Alexandria. Eratosthenes mentionsThinae. Agatharchidcs. Describes Abyssinia. Wealth of the Sa-bsans. Eudoxus of Cyzicus. Sails to India. Driven to the Coast ofAfrica. Finds the supposed Wreck of a Ship from Gades. Banishedfrom Egypt. Resolves to reach India by the Ocean. Sails from Gades. His Misfortunes. Repeats the Attempt. His Fate and Cha-racter. - - - - '>

CHAP. VI.THE GREEKS CONTINUED.

The Roman Conquests. Strabo. His Knowledge of the West. TheTurdctani in Spain. Anthropophagi in Ireland The Sarmatians.


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CONTENTS. VUThe Sinds or Indians on the Bosphorus. The Sigyni. The Gipsies. Indians in Lycia. Nations of the Caucasus. The Caspian Sea supposedto join the Ocean. Expeditions of ..Elius Gallus into Arabia and /Ethi-opia. Habitable and uninhabitable Zones. Obstinate Incredulity ofStrabo. Britain visited by Caesar. Its Population. The Romansreach the Baltic. The Cimbri. Scandinavia and Norway mentionedby Pliny. Tacitus names the Swedes. The Arimpha?i. Grand Cha-racteristics of the Northern Nations. March of Cornelius Balbus intothe Interior of Africa. And of Suetonius Paulinus across Mount Atlas. King Juba's Account of the Nile and Niger. The Fortunate Isles.Various Statements reconciled. .... Page 78

CHAP. VII.DISCOVERY OF THE MONSOONS.

Hippalus. Increased Trade with India. Course pursued. Periplus ofArrian. His accurate Account ofthe Indian Peninsula. - - 100

CHAP. VIII.PTOLEMY.

Increased Intercourse of Nations under the Romans. Advantages enjoyedby Ptolemy. Applies the Measures of Longitude and Latitude. HisErrors. Displays an Acquaintance with the Caspian Steppes. Pro-gress Westward of the Scythian Nations. Their Origin. Towns on theRiver Niger. Ptolemy's Acquaintance with the East. His frequentRepetitions.Supposed the Continents of Asia and Africa to unite in theSouthern Ocean. The Sina; and the Seres must have been the Chinese. The Silk Trade. Allusion to the Tatars. The Stone Tower in thelielurtag. Testimonies of the. Chinese Writers. Roman Embassy toC hina. The Name of Silk. Of China. Antiquity of the Trade withChina. Merits of Ptolemy. Conclusion. - - 105

CHAP. IX.ON THE COMMERCE OF THE ANCIENTS.

Connection between Commerce and Geography. Trade with India in theHands of the Arabians. Their Wealth and Luxury. Cinnamon.Ignorance as to the Country which produced it. Known to Moses. Supposed to grow in Arabia and in Africa. Pliny's Account. Anti-quity of Trade in the Eastern Seas. Pirate Nations of the East. Pro-ductions of the Moluccas mentioned by Plautus. Early Commerce ofthe Phoenicians examined. Tin brought to Egypt from India. TheCassiterides Never known. Direct Trade between Phoenicia and theWest improbable. Carthage Never aimed at a distant carrying Trade. Amber. Brought to f> recce from the Adriatic. Mythical Connec-tion of the Eridanus and Amber. Trade in Europe. Conclusion. 123

(HAP. X.MYTHIC GEOGRAPHY OF Till. HINDOOS, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH

GRK( IAN MYTHS.Mount Meru. The Seven Dwipas or Islands. The Quarters of theHeavens, how named. The White Island of the West: its triple


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Ill CONTENTS.Nature. Gold, Silver, and Iron Mountains. The Country of the Sunand Moon. Auspicious Epithets. Wide Diffusion of this Belief. Numerous White Seas. White Islands of the Greeks. Trinacrias andIslands of the Happy. Hecate and triple Divinities of the West. Hes-peria. The Hyperboreans.Known generally among the Indo-TeutonicNations. Tradition of an Atlantis or Western Island. Hindoo Geo-graphy of the East. Lands of Gold, Silver, and Brass : misled Ptolemy. Panchsea. These Legends still preserved in India and in the West. Their Influence. ... - - - Page 138

BOOK II.GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES.CHAP. I.

THE ARABIANS.Itineraries of the Romans. Peutingerian Table. Cosmas Indicopleustes. The WTords Sint and Hindoo. The Tsinitzae. The Arabians. TheirConquests and Commerce. Early Travellers into China. Educationof the Chinese. Regulations of their Ports. First Mention made ofTea. Chinese eat human Flesh. Strangers in China. Canfu. Usesof the Cocoa-nut Tree. Kings of India. The Unicorn. Sogdiana. The Alans. Khazars. The Fossil Ivory ofBulgar. Commerce of theArabians with the North of Europe. The Interior of Africa colonisedby Arabians. Kingdoms ofGhana and Tocrur. Lamlam. The Zingesand Wacwac. The Perpetual Islands. Other Islands in the Sea ofDarkness. Voyage of the Almegrurim. . - 154

CHAP. II.TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA.

Ibn Batuta sets out on the Pilgrimage. Ascends the Nile. Returns toGaza. The Baths of Tiberias. The Mosque of the Foot. Miraclesat Meshid Ali. Shiraz. Bagdad. Mecca. Visits Yemen andAbyssinia. The Berbers. The Zunuj. Zafar. The FrankincenseTree. Ormuz. Fars. Second Pilgrimage. Goes through UpperEgypt to Cairo Jerusalem Anatolia. The Turkomans. Societycalled the Brotherhood. Erzerum. Fall of Aerolites. Showers ofFishes. The Ottoman Princes. Ibn Batuta goes to Crim. Desert ofKipjak. Tatar Camp. City ofBulgar. Shortness of the Nights. Siberian Travelling. Singular Mode of Traffic. The Russians. IbnBatuta accompanies a Greek Princess to Constantinople. The Proces-sion. His Reception. Account of that City. Historical Difficulties..Greek Customs imitated by the Turks. Pious WTish of El Harawi. 17+

CHAP III.TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA CONTINUED.

Ibn Batuta returns to Tatary. Proceeds to Chorasm. Singular Custom. Bokhara. Its Mosque. Balkh. Hindoo Cush. The Father of


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X CONTENTS.CHAP. III.

JOURXET OF CARPINI INTO TATARY.Rise of the Mongol Empire. Zingis Khan. Mongols invade Europe. Over-run Hungary. Thought to be Demons. Their Threats. At-tack the Saracens. Mission of Ascelin. Its ill Success. Letter tothe Pope. Mission of Carpini. The Camp of Baatu. Journey to theResidence of the Grand Khan. Great Hungary. The Country of theAlans. The Kangitta?. Bisermini. Election of a Grand Khan.The Ceremonies. The golden Tent. Appearance of the Emperor.Reception of the Friars. The Hardships they endured. Descriptionof the Mongols. Their Character. Superstitions. Worship theMoon. Tribes of the Mongols. Climate of Mongolia. ProdigiousShowers of Hail. Christianity among the Chinese. Prester John.Combustibles used in War. .... . Page 241

CHAP. IV.TRAVELS OF RLBRIQUIS.

Rumoured Conversion of the Mongol Princes. Letter from Erkaltay toSt. Louis. The King of France sends holy Relics to the Mongols.Despatches Rubruquis to Sartach. Germans dwelling on the Black Sea.

Tatar Encampments. Journey to the Volga. Desert of Kipjak. The Alans.Court of Sartach.Houses on Carts. Sartach not a Chris-tian. Friars sent forward to Baatu Khan. Obliged to proceed to Cara-corum. The Land of Organum. Description of the Yak. Canni-balism in Thibet. The Court of Man;:u Khan. Europeans in Caraco-rum. The Fountain made by William Bouchier. Christianity amongthe Uigurs. Christian Ceremonies imitate 1 in the East. ChineseWriting. Islands in the Eastern Sea. Prester John. Knowledge ofTatary. Brigands in the Caucasus. Journey Home. Haitho theArmenian. TheTarsae. Tribes of the Mongols. - . 259

CHAP. V.TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO.

'the two Poli visit Bolgar. Go to Bokhara. Proceed to tile Court of theGrand Khan. Return Home. Marco Polo travels to China. HisSuccess. Favour at Court. Embassage from Persia. The Poli per-mitted to leave China. Navigate the Indian Seas. Pass through Ar-menia. Their Arrival at Venice. Expedient to display their Wealth. War with Genoa. Marco Polo taken Prisoner. Writes his Narra-tive. Released from Captivity. Returns Home. His Account ofAsia. Balkh. Balaxia. Cashmeer. Sartam. Desert of Lop.Haunted by evil Spirits. Their malicious Arts. Tangut. Mannersof the Tatars. Interment of the Khans. The Yak. Pavilion of theKhan. His white Horses. Splendour of his Court. City of Cam.balu. Its Form and Size. Palace of the Khan. Its Parks andGardens. . ..... 276


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CONTENTS. XICHAP. VI.

TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO CONTINVKD.Manji or Southern China. King Fanfur. His Overthrow. Predictionfulfilled.Marco Polo made Governor of a City. Siege of Sa-yan-fu.Services of the Poli. Great Trade of Sin-gui. The River Kiang. City of Kin-sai. Its Size. Markets, Canals, and Bridges. Popula-tion. Police. Sale of Children. Port of Zaitun. Manufacture ofPorcelain. Cannibals in China. Thibet. Method of frighteningwild Beasts. Sorcerers. Salt used as Money. Musk Gazelles.Description of Crocodiles. Superstition in Carazan. Custom of gildingthe Teeth. Japan famous for its Wealth. The Tatars fail to conquerit The Generals punished. Country of Ciampa. Greater Java. Lesser Java. The Rhinoceros. Sago. Ceylon. The King's Ruby. Manners of the Hindoos. St. Thomas. Arabian Ports. Madagas.car, The Rokh. Abyssinia. The North of Europe. Merits ofMarco Polo. The Missionaries. John de Montecorvino visits Persiaand India. Proceeds to China. Thwarted by the Nestorians. HisSuccess. Converts a Mongol Prince. His great Labours. CreatedArchbishop of Cambalu. - - - Page 93

CHAP. VII.ODERIC OF PORTENAU.

Itinerary of Pegoletti. Caravan Journeys. Gintarchan. Sara. Sara-canco. Organci. Oltrarra. Armalecco. Camexu.Gamalecco.Oderic of Portenau. Trebizond. Mount Ararat. Tower of Babel. Chaldeans. Martyrdom of four Friars. Oderic collects their Bones.Works Miracles. Forest of Pepper. Fair of Ja^'gemaut. VoluntaryTortures. Cannibals in Lamouri. Wealth of Java. Sago Trees.Amulets found in Canes. Shoals of Fish. Characteristics of the Chi-nese. Mode of fishing in China. Feasts of the Idols. Valley of theDead. The Grand Lama. Sir John Mandeville. His Travels fabu-lous. Rivers of Rocks. Islands of Giants. Lambs of Tatary. Growth of Diamonds. Palace of Prester John. - - 314

CHAP. VIII.EMBASSY OF CLAVIJO.

Clavijo appointed Ambassador to the Court of Timur. Journey throughArmenia. Calmarin. Tebriz. Destruction of the Palace. Privi-leges of the Genoese. Sultania. Commercial Route. Domghaun. Towers built of human Skulls. Tatar Mode of posting. Ambassa-dors introduced. The Festivals at Court. Samarcand. How peopled. Its Trade. Departure of the Embassy. Death of Timur. Schildt-berger taken Prisoner by the Turks, and subsequently by the Tatars. His Wanderings. Expedition to Issibur. Shah Rokh sends Ambas-sadors to China. Journey through the Desert. Civilisation of theChinese. Telegraphs in China. Turning Towers. The ImperialCourt. Musical Skill. Dismissal of the Embassy. - - SSI


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CONTENTS.

EARLY DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE.The Italian Republics. Their naval Superiority in the Middle Ages. Improvements in nautical Affairs. Mariner's Compass discovered. The Chinese supposed to have been acquainted with it And the Ara.bians. First Mention of it by a European. The Spaniards imbibe aTaste for the Luxuries of the East Their Wars with the Moors.Motives to seek a Passage by Sea to India. The Portuguese commencethe Attempt. Don Henry. Discovery of Puerto Santo and Madeira. Story of Macham. The Canary Islands colonised. Cape Bojadordoubled. Captives ransomed for Gold Dust Voyages of Cada Mosto.The native Canarians. The Moors of the Desert. The Ships be-lieved to be Spirits. The Salt Trade of the Negroes. The Senegal. King Budomel. His religious Opinions. Description of the Countrynear Cape Verd. Death of Don Henry. His great Merits. Page 345

CHAP. X.THE PASSAGE BY THE CAPE DISCOVERED.

The Portuguese erect a Fort on the Gold Coast. Their Interview with thenative Prince. The Pope's Grant Voyage of Diego Cam. VisitsCongo. Brings home Natives. King of Congo favours the ChristianFaith. The King of Benin desires Missionaries. Prince Ogane. Prester John in Africa. Origin of this Beliefexplained. New Expedi-tions. Bartholomew Diaz discovers the Cape of Good Hope. Covil-ham and Payva despatched to India. Covilham visits Sofala. Ascer-tains the Practicability of the Passage. Detained in Abyssinia. Vasco de Gama. Arrival at Mozambique. Quiloa. Melinda. In-dian Pilot. Reaches Calicut The Zamorin. Arts of the Moors.Danger of Gama. Escapes. Arrives at Lisbon. His Reception. 363

CHAP. XI.COLUMBUS.

Parentage of Columbus. His Education. Early Voyages. Settles inLisbon. Marries the Daughter of Perestrello. Considers the Practica-bility of sailing to India by the West. Opinions of his Age. His Rea-sonings. Becomes convinced. Proposes his Plans to Genoa. Seeksthe Patronage of the King of 1'ortugal. Flies to Spain. Ajiplies to theSpanish Court. Sends his Brother to the Court of England. His Dis-appointments. Despairs of Success. Is favoured by Isabella. TheExpedition resolved on. Sails from Palos. Particulars of the Voyage. Land discovered. Fleet visits Cuba. St. Domingo. The Shipof Columbus wrecked. Kindness of the Cacique. A Fort erected. The Fleet returns homewards. Dreadful Storm. Means taken byColumbus to preserve the Memory of his Discovery. Arrives in Safetyat the Azores. Reaches Palos. Received with Enthusiasm. Proceeds to Court. Honours conferred on him by Ferdinand. - 381


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2 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.Those who have once tasted the pleasure of roving atlarge through woods and mountains, can never after-wards feel happy under the restraints of society. Curi-osity and the love of action, no less than their wants,must have continually urged the earliest inhabitants ofthe globe to explore all the varieties of its surface. Pas-toral tribes feel an interest in learning the nature of thecountry in the vicinity of their encampments, the extentof its pastures, and the rivers which flow through andrefresh it. But the observations of a rude age are seldomaccumulated beyond the wants of the present moment.The movements by which those nomades acquire theknowledge along with the possession of new regions,generally lead to a total forgetfulness of their old habita-tions ; little correspondence is maintained by those whomigrate with those who remain behind : so that in ashort time the geographical knowledge of migratorynations is reduced to obscure and fading traditions.When men in the progress of their migrations reachthe sea coast, the love of gain as well as of adventuresoon impel them to launch upon the waves, and directtheir course to distant countries. But the complicatedart of navigation requires many ages to bring it to per-fection. Science alone can give certainty to the observ-ations of the mariner ; and the discoveries of the earlynavigators were as perishable as they were vaguely de-scribed. Besides, in proportion as the spirit of adven-ture prevailed among the motives of the earliest expedi-tions, a corresponding desire to indulge in exaggerationand romantic fiction disfigured all the relations whichremain of them, Wonder and credulity, however, arethe natural characteristics of an early age, and we mustnot regard as wholly fabulous those accounts of anti-quity, in which we find a few threads of consistent fact,interwoven with much that is absolutely incredible.

Geography of the Hebrews.The earliest geographical records which remain to us

are those of the sacred scriptures. The Hebrews them-


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CHAP. I. THE HEBREWS. Jselves, an inland and pastoral nation, had probably butlittle direct acquaintance with distant countries. Fortheir knowledge of commerce, and of the nations withwhich it opened a correspondence, they were perhapschiefly indebted to the Egyptians and Phoenicians : butthe account which Moses gives of the first progenitorsof mankind, and of the nations which sprung from them,is unquestionably derived from peculiar sources.

All the nations of the old world distinctly known tothe sacred historian, are reduced by him to the familiesof Shem, Ham, and Japhet. The children of these pa-triarchs are also enumerated by him, and each of themappears as the founder of a nation ; but in those earlyages it is impossible to affix with certainty to any regiona name which properly belongs to a wandering horde.The Mosaic account (Genesis x. ), however, is a preciousrecord of the manner in which the knowledge of theearth was enlarged by the dispersion of the humanspecies.The family of Shem comprised the pastoral nationswhich were spread over the plains between the Euphratesand the shores of the Mediterranean, from Ararat toArabia. The Hebrews themselves were of this stock,and the resemblance of their language with the Arameanor ancient Syriac, and with Arabic, sufficiently provesthe identity in race of what are called the Semitic na-tions. There is no difficulty in assigning to each of thesons of Shem his proper situation. Elam founded thekingdom of Elymeis, Assur that of Assyria, and Aramthe kingdom of Syria or Arama?a, a name still clearlypreserved in that of Armenia. From Arphacsad weredescended the Hebrews themselves, and the varioustribes of Arabia; and this close affinity of origin wasalways manifest in the language and in the intimatecorrespondence of these two nations. Some of the namesgiven by Moses to the children of Shem are still usedin Arabia as local designations : thus there is still adistrict in that country called Havilah; and Uzal, theb 2


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4 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.name given to Sana by the sacred historian, is not yetquite obsolete.The descendants of Ham constituted the most civil-ized and industrious nations of the Mosaic age. Thesons of that patriarch were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, andCanaan. The name of Ham is identical with that ofCham or Chamia, by which Egypt has in all ages beencalled by its native inhabitants, and Mizr or Mizraimisthe name by which the same country, or more properlythe Delta, is known to Turks and Arabians. The landof Phut appears to signify Libya in general; and thename Cush, though sometimes used vaguely, is ob-viously applied to the southern and eastern parts ofArabia. The names of Saba, Sabtah, Raamah, andSheba, children of Cush, long survived in the geogra-phy of Arabia.The posterity of Canaan rivalled the children of Miz-raim in the early splendour of arts and cultivation.Though the Canaanites, properly speaking, and the Phoe-nicians were separated from each other by Mount Carmel,yet as the same spirit of industry animated both, theymay here, in a general sense, be considered as onepeople. The Phoenicians possessed the knowledge ofthe Egyptians, free from the superstitious reluctance ofthe latter to venture upon the sea. Their local positionnaturally engaged them in commercial enterprise: and the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, asthou gocst to Gerar unto Gaza. Their chief cities,Tyre and Sidon, had reached the highest degree of com-mercial opulence when the first dawn of social politywas only commencing in Greece. Damascus, one of theoldest cities in the world, remains as a monument of thefirst inhabitants. The great superiority of the people onthat coast above the Hebrews in the time of Moses, isclearly shown in the language of holy writ. WhenJoshua and the other chiefs, who were sent by tbe pro-phet to observe and report on the land of Canaan, re-turned, they said, We came unto the land whitherthou scntest us, and surely it floweth with milk and


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CHAP. I. THE HEBREWS. Ohoney. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell inthe land, and the cities are walled and very great. Infine, they conclude,

We be not able to go up againstthis people, for they are very great. While the Ca-naanites inhabited walled and populous cities, the Hebrewsdwelt in tents like the brethren of Joseph, who declaredto Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we andalso our fathers.

The warlike children of Japhet, the Japetus of theGreeks, have far surpassed the other posterity of Noahin the extent of their possessions. All the Indo-teutonicnations, stretching without interruption from the extre-mity of western Europe through the peninsula of Indiato the island of Ceylon, may be considered as derivedfrom this common ancestor. The Turkish nation also,occupying the elevated countries of central Asia, boastthe same descent. Their own traditions accord in thisrespect with the Mosaic history ; and indeed the affini-ties of language, which are still evident among all thenations of the Japetian family, fully confirm the relationof the sacred writer. The meaning of Japhet's namein the Sanscrit language, Yapdti, or lord of the earth,bears a sense which is well adapted to the numbers andthe eminence of his descendants.The eldest of Japhet's sons was Gomer, who, Jose-phus tells us, was the father of the Celts. Magog, wemust be contented to suppose, was the founder of someScythian nation. In Madai we may recognize the an-cestor of the Medes. The posterity of Javan and Tubaland Meshech and Tiras may be traced from Ararat,always called Musis by its inhabitants, through Phrygiainto Europe. Tubal and Meshech left their names tothe Tibareni and Moschi, Armenian tribes, whose earlymigrations appear to have extended into Mcesia. In likemanner the Thracians may have owed their origin toTiras.

Ashkenaz, the son of Gomer, is thought to be thatAscanius whose name so frequently occurs in the ancienttopography of Phrygia, and from whom, probably, thea 3


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O GEOGRAPHY OP THE ANCIENTS. BOOK T.Euxine, at first the Axine sea, derived its appellation.In Togarmah we see the proper ancestor of the Arme-nian nations, and it is even asserted of the Turks.Javan was the Ion of the Greeks, the father of theIonians. In the names of his sons we find fresh proofsof the consistency of the Mosaic history. In Elishahwe see the origin of Elis or Hellas. The name of Tar-shish is supposed, with little foundation, to refer toTarsus in Cilicia. Kittim means Cyprus, and Dodanimor Rodanim is understood to apply to the island Rhodes. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided intheir lands. It is impossible to read this ethnographi-cal sketch of the sacred historian, who ascends to the firstorigin of mankind, without admiring its comprehensive-ness and consistency.

It is impossible to fix with precision the eastern limitof Moses's geographical knowledge. The dwellings ofthe sons of Joctan, he says, were from Mesha, asthou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the East. ThisSephar may possibly be the first range of the snowymountains of Paropamisus, called also Sepyrrus by theancients. But that the accurate knowledge of Mosesdid not extend to the confines of India is evident fromthe gloss which he adds, a. mountain of the East, whichis, in fact, the signification of the word. Sephar is ap-plied in general to the East, while Ophir, on the otherhand, means the West, of Africa.The institutions of the Hebrews were calculated todiscourage an intercourse with strangers. The brilliantcommercial enterprises in which Solomon engaged werediscontinued by his successors, and even the fleets ofthat prince were navigated by the servants of the kingof Tyre. This restricted communication with foreignnations rendered it, of course, impossible to acquire anyenlarged or correct knowledge of the earth ; and we donot find in the prophetic writings any trace of geo-graphical information much exceeding that which waspossessed by Moses. Some, indeed, have imagined theOphir of scripture to mean Peru; and the Tarshish from


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CHAP. I. THE HEBREWS. iwhich the fleets of Solomon returned every three years, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks,has given rise to innumerable learned disquisitions.Tarsus in Cilicia (which, by the way, was not a sea-port), as well as Tartessus in Spain, are out of thequestion ; for the ships of Solomon were launched fromEziongeber in the Red Sea, and ivory, apes, and peacocksare obviously Indian produce. Many eminent scholarshave supposed the word Tarshish to be a Phoenicianepithet of the sea in general ; but though this interpreta-tion serves very well to explain the expression shipsof Tarshish, it only increases the difficulty of a threeyears' voyage to Tarshish. Others have imagined twoplaces of the same name, one in the East and the otherin the West. But the most ingenious of the conjecturesoffered to clear up these difficulties is that which ex-plains the name Tarshish as an epithet derived from theSanscrit language, in which Tar-desa signifies the silvercountry. The languages of India, owing to the greattrade and civilization of the people who spoke them, areknown to have contributed many terms to the Arabic andHebrew tongues ; and as the Indian legends make fre-quent mention of a silver country beyond the sea, it isnot very improbable that the Arabians adopted from themthis vague and wandering appellation. Tarshish, then,to the Phoenicians (who received the language as well asmerchandize of the East through the Arabians) was anexpression of extreme latitude, and applicable with equaljustice to opposite quarters of the globe.Towards the north the geographical knowledge of theHebrews never extended beyond the Caucasus ; and inthe north-east it was confined within equally narrowlimits. The Chaldaeans, who appear to have descendedfrom the further shores of the Caspian Sea, are describedby the prophet Jeremiah as coming from the ends of thenorth and the sides of the earth. With Egypt andArabia the early Hebrews were well acquainted ; buttowards the West their knowledge hardly reached as faras the shores of Greece.

b 4


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O GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.The cosmological ideas scattered through the scrip-

tures are few in number, and of extreme simplicity. Inthe prophetic writings many traces may be found of anopinion that heaven, or the mount of the Lord, wasin the North.* The earth was evidently considered tobe a plain, surrounded, perhaps, by the ocean, which wasagain enclosed by the clouds of heaven. Such are theopinions expressed by Job, the sublimest of all poets. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until (inthe places where) the day and night come to an end : and again he says, Whereupon are the foundationsof the earth fastened ? or, who laid the corner-stonethereof? or, who shut up the sea with doors (bound-aries); when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of thewomb ; when I made the cloud the garment thereof ? tThe general allusions which occur in scripture to theearth and its creation, are not more remarkable for thesublime language in which they are conveyed, than fortheir perfect freedom from fanciful and subtle spe-culations.

The Phoenicians, the greatest maritime people of an-tiquity, have, unfortunately, not transmitted to us anywritings whatever. We know of their enterprises onlyfrom scripture, and from the scattered notices of Greekand Latin authors. We have seen that they were thepilots of Solomon's fleet ; and, as often as Egyptian shipsare mentioned by ancient authors, we are sure to findthem manned and guided by Phoenicians. This peoplewere, in fact, the merchants of the Egyptians, whoselaws and religion were at all times unfavourable to ma-ritime adventure : they were, in fact, the foreign mer-chants of Egypt in the flourishing days of the hundred-gated Thebes ; and the astonishing monuments whichremain to prove the ancient wealth and grandeur of thatkingdom may render us less incredulous with respect tothe naval proficiency of a kindred people. The surveyof Egypt made by Joseph, the storing of corn in theseveral districts, to meet the exigencies of impending

* Isaiah, xiv. f Job, xxvi. xxxviii.


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CHAP. I. THE PHOENICIANS. Qfamine, and the general use of money in that country,all bespeak a degree of social order and economy, and afamiliarity with the routine of commercial dealing, whichis truly astonishing at so early an age. Seven hundredyears later, at the siege of Troy, the Greeks were unac-quainted with the use of money.The Phoenicians participated in the civilization of theEgyptians: they profited by supplying that luxurious andwealthy nation with foreign commodities ; and, unitingto the knowledge which flourished in Thebes and Mem-phis a disposition to naval enterprise, we may easilyconceive that they soon attained a considerable profi-ciency in all the arts of navigation. The numerouscolonies which they planted on the shores of the Euxine,the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic, beyond the Straitsof Gibraltar, attest the extent of their early voyages.This enterprising nation may in like manner have oc-casionally reached India from the Red Sea. Phoenicianspiloted the ships of Solomon in their three years' voyagesto Tarshish. The great length of time required forthese voyages betrays the timid progress of early navi-gation, and may, perhaps, have prevented their frequentrepetition ; but the regular communication with Indiawas certainly maintained through the Arabs, Avho, whenthey saw strange nations circumnavigating their penin-sula, were not slow to learn the advantages of their inter-mediate position.The Phoenician colonies, Utica, Carthage, and Gatles,or Cadiz, were founded between the twelfth and eighthcenturies before the Christian era ; but the seas of theWest were probably explored for ages before settlementswere formed at such a distance from the parent state.Thus we find that the Phoenicians had, at least a thou-sand years before the birth of Christ, explored the westernocean, and at the same time navigated the Euxine Seaand the Arabian Gulf. Their geographical knowledgemust, therefore, have been extensive ; yet the illiberaljealousy which induced them to conceal their discoverieshas thrown a deep shade upon their fame. The arts,


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10 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. EOOK I.refinement, and commercial wealth of the Phoenicians inremote ages can be now but imperfectly estimated by therecords which remain of them. The pyramids andcolossal ruins of Egypt visibly demonstrate the greatnessof that kingdom to remote posterity : the commercialenterprise and maritime skill of the Phoenicians haveleft behind no such adequate or durable memorials.Vicissitudes in the arts and in the enlightenment ofmankind often occurred in the ancient world, from thedifficulty and expense of multiplying books ; and it isinteresting to observe in the present instance that thegeographical knowledge of the Phoenicians in the fabu-lous times of Greece may probably have embraced aslarge a portion of the earth as that of the Romans inthe flourishing age of Augustus.

CHAP. II.THE GREEKS. HOMERIC AGE.

THE FIRST NAVIGATORS PIRATES. SLAVE TRADE IN ANTI-QUITY. IIOMER's KNOWLEDGE OF GREECE. OF THE SCY-THIANS OF EGYPT AND THE ./ETHIOPIANS. THE SHIPS OFTHE HOMERIC AGE. THE MYTHIC REGIONS OF THE WEST.VOYAGE OF ULYSSES. THE CYCLOPS. ISLES OF CIRCE ANDOF JEOLUS. ENDS OF THE OCEAN AND LAND OF DARKNESS.THE WANDERING ISLES SCYLLA, CHARYBDIS, AND THESIRENS. SICULI AND SICANI. TRINACRIA. HOMER AC-TUALLY IGNORANT OF THE WEST. HESIOD. KING LATI-NL'S. THE ERIDANUS. ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION. ITSAUTHENTICITY. THE EUXINE KNOWN EARLY TO THE PE-LASGIANS. THE GOLDEN7 FLEECE. RETURN7 OF JASONVARIOUSLY RELATED. THE ORPHIC ACCOUNT. IERNISMENTIONED. THE CIMMERIANS OF THE WEST. EXPLANATION OF THE MYTHOLOGY. ELYSIUM AND HAPPY ISLANDSOF THE WEST. SUMMARY.

The trade of the Phoenicians necessarily brought themsoon into correspondence with the Greeks who werescattered over the islands and the shores of the TEgean.


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CHAP. I. THE GREEKS. 1 1Their manufactured merchandize, which awakened theadmiration of a rude people, was bartered for the na-tural productions of the land, and, perhaps, more fre-quently for slaves. Thus the prophet Ezekiel mentionsthe blue and purple from the isles of Elisha ; and at thesame time he says, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech werethy merchants : they traded the persons of men and ves-sels of brass in thy market. The nature of the motiveswhich actuated the Greeks in their earliest naval enter-prises is sufficiently manifest from the first paragraph ofHerodotus, who ascribes the origin of the wars betweenthe Greeks and barbarians to a series of piratical abduc-tions. Io, daughter of the king of Argus, was carriedaway by the Phoenicians. Europa was then taken offfrom Tyre by the Cretans : Jason eloped with Medea ;and when her father, the king of Colchis, demandedcompensation, it was refused, says the historian, becausethe complaints of Inachus, the father of Io, had beenneglected by her ravishers. Then followed reprisalsand the rape of Helen.War is the only art exercised by fierce and uncivilizednations, and captives are their only merchandize. ThePhoenicians, no doubt, fomented the feuds by whichtheir markets were supplied : the morality of their deal-ings sunk to the level of their iniquitous traffic. Thelove of gain has never been very scrupulous ; and wemay safely conclude, that the merchants of Sidon im-posed upon the Greeks by the same fraudulent artswhich Christian nations practised so many centurieslater upon the simple inhabitants of the new world.Hence it is that Homer, who so often celebrates the ex-cellence of Sidonian artists, reproaches the nation in astrain approaching to acrimony, with insatiable covetous-nc-ss and base dishonesty : he paints them, indeed, as theenemies of the human race, doing all manner of ini-quity to men.The knowledge of letters, however, which the Greeksreceived from the Phoenicians, will probably compensate,in the opinion of posterity, for all the injuries which


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1 2 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.may have been committed in the incipient correspond-ence of the two nations. The Greeks possessed a livelycuriosity, a boldness and force of intellect, well fitted toopen all the recesses of unexplored nature. They wereequal to other nations of antiquity in the vividness oftheir imaginations, and were much superior to them inthe spirit of philosophical observation. Unlike thePhoenicians, who grudged the world the participation oftheir knowledge, the Greeks were as communicative asthey were curious, and preferred fame to the profits of asordid policy.There was a splendour in the first dawn of Grecianliterature which announced the glory of its meridianbeams. Homer united all the learning of his time to allthe vigour of poetic genius. There is little connectedwith the manners or enlightenment of his age which maynot be learned from his writings ; and he was the first,to use the weighty testimony of Strabo, who was wellversed in geography. The task will be as agreeable asit is essential to our purpose, to collect from the pages ofthe venerable poet the extent of his acquaintance withthe surface of the earth.

The ocean was regarded by Homer as a great riverwhich visited in its course every portion of the earth.In the centre of the shield made by Vulcan for Achilleswas described the habitable earth, and beyond that, alongthe margin of the disc, ran the strength of the floodsof ocean. Whether Homer believed that Greece wasin the centre of the earth, is a particular of his cosmo-graphy which he has not disclosed to us; but it certainlywas not in the centre of the portion which was knownto him.

In the enumeration of the allied forces assembled be-fore Troy, the poet names all the states of Greece withinteresting minuteness. Thebes, Athens, Corinth, andLacedcemon were already distinguished. He displays apartial knowledge of Macedonia, and a perfect acquaint-ance with the Cyclades and larger islands. The auxi-liaries of the Trojans were the Tribes of the I3ela*yia)is ;


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 13the Mteoniana ; the Carians, speaking a strange lan-guage ; the Lycians and Solymi, to the soutli of these ;then the Arimi or Aramsei, stretching from Cilicia intoSyria ; the Phrygians came from Ascania, an inlanddistrict. From the shores of the Black Sea there cameto the aid of Priam the Paphlagonians who dwelt onthe banks of the Parthenius, and the Halizonians fromAlyba, afar, where the earth produces silver. Theselast were the Chalybes inhabiting the mountains roundTrebizond, the mineral riches of which are not yet ex-hausted. The Sesamus, Cromna, and Cytorus of Homerwere afterwards included in the territory of Amastris,the modern Amasia ; and the hills of Cytoro, crownedwith superb forests, supplied with naval timber the dock-yards of Sinope.On the western side of the Black Sea Homer wasacquainted with the Titrations, the Maesians, and the Hippomolgi, living on mares' milk, the justest of men,long-lived, and exempt from care. These were the in-habitants of the country afterwards possessed by theSarmatians. They were evidently nomadic; and it isremarkable, that the reputation of virtue and justicewhich later writers generally gave the Scythians (as thewandering nations on the shores of the Euxine were longvaguely designated) were already ascribed to them bythe oldest of the Greek poets. It might be supposed,indeed, from the hint of spotless innocence, that Homerhere touched the verge of his knowledge; but as he is,perhaps, the most carefully minute of all poets, and hasusually a reason for every thing he says, it is much morelikely that there was something in the religious habitsand doctrines of those Asiatic tribes which compelled theveneration of the Greeks.

The fame of Egypt offered the poet a fertile theme.He celebrates the wealth of Thebes and its hundred gates,from each of which it could send forth 200 armed men.In a spirit of simplicity he mentions the rankness andaromatic character of Egyptian vegetation ; the skill ofthe people in the use of drugs ; and the nepenthes, pro-


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14 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.bably opium, by which they cured even the pains ofgrief. With the mention of Egypt he couples that ofLibya and of the Erembi, the name of the Arabs in theEast. In Libya, says the poet, no man feels want,neither the king nor the shepherd ; sheep yean three timesin the year, and the lambs have horns at their birth.These latter facts are correct, as well as the custom ofthe Africans, from which tne Lotophagi or lotus-eatersobtained their designation. Though Homer did not knowIndia, locally or by name, yet he seems to have beenaware that there were black men to the east of that partof the earth with which he was acquainted. Thus,he says, Neptune visited the ^Ethiopians, the farthestof men, who are divided in two, some under the risingand some under the setting sun. When Homer makesMenelaus visit, in the course of his voyage, the Sidonians,Libyans and Erembi, he appears to be ignorant that theMediterranean and Red Seas are separated from eachother by the Isthmus of Suez ; neither was he acquaintedwith the seven mouths of the Nile. His ignorance onthese points was admitted by his warmest admirers inancient times.

' Menelaus, while relating in the Odyssey the historyof his voyages, boasts on several occasions of the wealthhe accumulated by piratical depredations. Indeed, it ismanifest that piracy was a common, perhaps an honour-able, profession in those days. Naval warfare was by nomeans unknown to the Greeks, as appears by Homer'smaking mention of boarding pikes. Yet their vessels,such at least as were built by Ulysses at the island ofCirce, were nothing more than large boats with one mastand sail, and with a small fore deck on which the cablewas coiled : on or below this deck the chief of the crewtook his rest when circumstances prevented his landing.These slight vessels of the Homeric age were painted redwith minium, procured, most probably, from Sinope.Homer seems to have thought a voyage across the seafrom Crete to Egypt a singularly bold adventure.

Though the gods of Homer and other early Grecian


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 1 6poets frequently resorted to iEthiopia to celebrate theirfestivities, yet neither the South nor the East can be lookedupon as the region of fable in the primitive geographyof the Greeks. When we turn to the West and North,we find a much larger shareof mythic story mingling itselfwith the slender materials of certain information. Thestraits which separate Italy and Sicily are the portalswhich conduct Homer to the regions of fable ; all beyondthem is marvellous, and it is in this quarter alone thatthe pictures of the poet lose the colour of reality. OfSicily he had some faint knowledge ; the names of theSicani and Siculi had reached him, and the account ofthe Cyclops .is too true a picture of savage life to allowus to suppose it a mere sketch of fancy. The pictureof men who, relying on the gods for subsistence,neither sow nor reap ; who live in caves on the tops ofmountains, without laws or a chief, and not caring forone another ; and who are ignorant of the use of ships,by which the luxuries of life are diffused ; such a pic-ture, it is evident, is drawn with fidelity from the rudestcondition of savage life.From Sicily Ulysses is conducted by the poet to theisles of iEolus, from whom the hero obtains a bag con-taining the winds : with this present he sets sail, and iswafted gently homewards. On the tenth day Ithaca isalready in sight, when, overcome with fatigue, he un-luckily falls asleep, and his companions cut the bag, sup-posing it to be filled with treasures. Instantly the windsrush forth, and a hurricane arises, which drives the shipback to the isle of iEolus. The next place which Ulyssesreaches is the country of the Lcestrygons, a race of can-nibals ; and it is historically important to observe, thatHomer places these fairly in the region of the miraculous.He next arrives at JEcea, the island of Circe, from whichhe appears to lose sight altogether of the land of cer-tainty.

The hero, receiving the instructions of Circe,crosses the ocean to the shores of Proserpine, to the placewhere the Acheron, Periphlegcthon, and other tributaryrivers flow into the Styx. Sailing the whole day, he


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J G GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.comes at last to the ends of the ocean, where the Cim-mersians dwell, wrapped in profound gloom ; for theysee neither the rising nor the setting sun, but the veil ofnight is constantly spread above them. Having herevisited the infernal regions, he re-embarks, quits theocean, and reaches the isle of Circe in the smooth sea atthe first appearance of Aurora. On his voyage home-ward afterwards he passes the Planctce, or wanderingrocks, escapes the Sirens, with the dangers of Scylla andCharybdis, and thus returns once more within the circleof probability.

It is in vain that commentators and scholiasts haveendeavoured to give precision to Homer's geography ofthe West. In vain they exhaust their learning to provethat Ulysses did not really sail into the Atlantic ; yetthe poet expressly says that he reached even the utter-most bounds of the ocean. But what business havechart and compass in the ocean of the early Grecian poets?It is true that Ulysses made but one day's sail fromthe isle of Circe ; but then it must be observed, that inthat island were the choirs of Aurora and the rising ofthe sun, so that the ends of the ocean could not be faroff; besides, it is unreasonable to limit the speed of themariner who profited from the counsels of a goddess,and who could occasionally freight his ship with thewinds of iEolus. Some learned scholars have fixed onthe promontory of Circsei, once nearly insulated by thePontine marshes, as the island of the nymph ; and at asuitable distance they have found the Styx and descentof Avernus. They thus inadvertently bring Cimmeriaand its perpetual darkness into the smiling clime of Italy.The same system finds in Strongyle the once wanderingrocks, and in Lipari the domain of Eolus. But in factthe old bard's geographical information beyond thenearest shores of Italy is purely Hesperian ; that is tosay, it is wholly derived from myths and traditions,without the slightest reference to distance or local details.Homer had heard of the ocean and Cimmeria in thewest, but he knew not how far off they were. He


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 1 7never purposely alloys the truth, or postpones it to fiction;but, on the other hand, he relates mythical traditions asreadily as facts ; and we shall find, as we proceed, thatthe bulk of these traditions always pointed to the West-ern Ocean.When the stream of mankind was flowing constantlytowards the West, it is no wonder that the weak refluxof positive information from that quarter should exhibitonly the impulses of hope and superstition. Greece wasnearly on the western verge of the world, as it was knownto Homer, and it was natural for him to give wing tohis imagination as he turned towards the dim prospectswhich spread beyond ; but that his fables, far frombeing arbitrary, were founded on very ancient andwidely-diffused myths, will clearly appear when wecome to treat of the geography of the Hindoos.Among the strange nations with which Ulysses be-came acquainted in his wanderings, the Pkaacians de-serve a moment's attention. It appears that they weremuch more refined and industrious than the Greeks ;that they were better informed in the arts, more skilfulnavigators, and more addicted to commerce. Theyinhabited the island of Scheria, supposed to be the sameas Corcyra, having been forced to leave their formerabode in Hypereia, from the troublesome neighbourhoodof the Cyclops. This mention of a retrograde movementfrom west to east, and of a people more cultivated thanthe Greeks, is extremely remarkable at so early an age.Homer names likewise the Siculi and Sicani, historicnames ; but yet his island Trinacria is rather mythicthan real ; he places in it, with mythical propriety, theflocks and herds of the sun. It is remarkable, too, thathe calls it Thrinakia, from which it is manifest that theword was strange to him, and not of Greek derivation.Indeed, it is more probable that Sicily had its name ofTrinacria, or three-peaked, from superstition, than fromany acquaintance with its figure, which could hardly beknown in the infancy of navigation.

voi . r. c


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18 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.Homer s knowledge, it is evident, hardly extendedwestward beyond Greece ; but Hesiod, who lived per-

haps a century later (750 B. C), surprises us by hismention of King Latinus, who ruled over all theTyrseni. His acquaintance with the west, indeed,appears to have reached beyond Italy ; for, in con-junction with the Scythians and JEthiopians, he men-tions the Lygurians, who at that time probably occupiedthe whole length of coast from Spain to the Alps.Hesiod also names the Ister, or Danube, the Phasis,and the Eridanus, a name, however, which was sovaguely employed by the early Greek writers, that itwould be hazardous to suppose it in this instance appliedto the river Po. The Nile, known to Homer as theJEgyptus, received from Hesiod its proper designation,along with its seven mouths.Ulysses never boasts of being the first who navigatedthe Western Ocean ; but he was the first who escapedthe dangers of the Planctce, with the exception of Jason,to whom propitious Juno kindly lent her assistance toguide the Argo through the rocks. This mention ofthe chief Argonaut by the father of Grecian poetry iscalculated to awaken regret at the imperfect accountswhich remain of an expedition so important in the his-tory of primitive geography. Many able scholars, in-deed, have assented to the opinion of Gesner, that thepoem of the Argonauts which bears the name of Orpheusis at least as ancient as the time of Homer; but a pre-ponderating weight of internal evidence and of authorityassigns it to a much later age. It appears, however, tohave been really compiled from old current traditions,and may, on that account, be employed to illustrate theprimitive geography of the Greeks.

Jason and the Argonautic Expedition.As to the reality of the Argonautic expedition therecannot be any reasonable doubt. Like all other events


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 19of remote antiquity, it comes to us mixed with muchthat is fabulous ; but yet the enterprise which formsthe basis of the story has nothing in it of an improba-ble character. Ancient writers unanimously state, thatJason built a ship of unusual size ; manned a fleet withthe bravest warriors of Greece ; and directed his courseto Colchis in the Euxine Sea. The date usually as-signed to this expedition is the year 1263 before theChristian era. Traditions remain which prove thatJason was not the first Greek who attempted this navi-gation. Sinope is supposed to have been founded bysome of the followers of that Apis or Epaphus who mi-grated from Argos into Egypt in the year 1866 B. C.Phryxus and Helle, whose story is almost lost in fable,preceded Jason by perhaps a century. Cytorns, men-tioned by Homer, was founded by the son of Phryxus ;and a temple built by him at Athence, to the east ofTrebizond, is said by Pausanias to have served as amodel to the Dioscuri, for that which they founded ontheir return home. The tradition of Jason's expedi-tion was preserved in Colchis and Armenia, where hewas said to have founded cities ; nay, he was eventhought to have penetrated into Media. The river Par-thenia flowing into the Euxine, and the Halizones whoinhabited the shores of that sea, suggest, at once, Bceotiaand Samos, where the same names occur. As a generalproof, however, of the early acquaintance of the Greekswith the Euxine, it may be sufficient to observe thatthe Grecian colonies in that sea, which acquired histo-rical importance, preceded, by more than two centuries,those of Sicily and the West.The local traditions regarding Jason, and the monu-ments of his progress along the shores of the Euxine,were too numerous and positive in antiquity to allow ofany doubts as to the existence of that hero. All au-thors conduct him to the

cityof iEc-tcs. That he

should carry off the king's daughter is consistent withthe manners of the age ; that the proposed object ofthe enterprise should, at this distance of time, be, or


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20 , GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.appear to be, a fable, is not less to be expected. A duemixture of fable, in a case like this, is a proof of ge-nuine antiquity ; yet, as many fables in antiquity un-questionably arose from the ambiguities of language,some attention is due to the ingenious conjecture whichsupposes that the story of the golden fleece had itsorigin in a miscomprehension or a play of words : theword which signifies wealth or a treasure in the Phoeni-cian language (malon), resembling that which, inGreek, means a fleece (inallon). Phoenicians probablyhad a share in the expedition ; and the pilot Ancreusis. said to have been of that nation.Of the return of Jason there existed no local tra-ditions or monuments of a permanent nature, and allthe accounts remaining to us of his expedition werewritten many centuries later than the achievements towhich they refer. Hence it is that the hero of theArgonauts, like the Ulysses of Homer, is made to ex-plore all the wonders of the poetic world ; and the storyof his wanderings becomes the vehicle by which the re-later pours abroad the full measure of his geographicknowledge.

The Euxine Sea, as it appears from Mimnermus, wasanciently thought to be the ocean ; its eastern andnorthern shores were evidently unknown to Homer.Those who first celebrated the adventures of Jason,therefore, naturally extended his wanderings into aquarter where the ignorance of the age opposed no ob-stacles to fiction, and succeeding ages were taught tobelieve that the Argonauts returned to Greece, not bythe Hellespont, but through the ocean. As the increaseof geographical knowledge, however, gradually disclosedthe impossibility of such a voyage, various fictions wereadded in detail to support the grand outlines of hisstory. The incongruities which, in the course of cen-turies, were thus heaped together by poetic ingenuitydo not in the least affect the authenticity of the Argo-nautic expedition.The author of the Orphic Argonautics appears to have


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 21had much vague information respecting the nationsround the Euxine Sea. In conducting his hero north-wards from Colchis, he mentions the Tauri, Lcelii.Nomads, and the Caspian nation ; in the Palus Maeotishe finds, besides the bowed Scythians, the Mceotians,Sauromatians, Getes, Gymni, and the Arimaspes, apeople with the deformity of Cyclops, but rich in flocks.The fabulous navigation commences with propriety at theremotest extremity of this inland sea, and at the termof the writer's positive knowledge. The Argonauts,having crossed the Palus Maeotis, enter a great gulfleading into the Cronian Ocean. They row unceas-ingly for nine days and nights, and reach on the tenththe Cronian Sea beyond the Riphcean mountains. Beinghere in danger, they disembark, by the advice of Ancseus,and haul the ship along the shore with a rope. Continu-ing the voyage for six days, they reach the Macrobians(so named from their longevity), the People of Dreams,and afterwards the Cimmerians. Our adventurers nextapproach the Aeherontian shores, Hermione, and thedwellings of the justest men, near which is the approachto the infernal regions. Leaving these, they embark onthe Western Ocean with the breeze of Zephyr ; but beforethey proceed far, the ship Argo utters a warning speech,and foretels the punishment of their crimes. With diffi-culty they pass the Iernis or the Iernidcs (for the poetat one time employs the singular and at another the pluralnumber), and a storm arises which drives them foreleven days through the wide ocean quite ignorant oftheir course. At length Ancseus descries the Isle of Ceres,which is known by its tall fir trees; but as it proves in-accessible, he is obliged to steer for the Isle of Circe,which is reached in three days. Thence the Argonautsarrive at the shores of Tartessus and the pillars of Her-cules, cross the Sardonian and Tuscan Seas, and are op-portunely

rescued from the flames of Mtna. by the aid ofThetis.The mention which occurs in this poem of the Cas-

pian nation, of the Getes and of Iernis (Hibernia),c S


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12 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.uliows a considerable store of vague information; and eventhe idea, of sailing round Europe from the Euxine, bythe Cronian Sea and the land of the Cimmerians, is ofgreat importance in a historic survey of the progress ofgeographical discovery. But the Orphscan Argonautics,as they are called, are as little distinguished by accuracyas by poetic beauties. The geographical errors of theancient poets, however, who gleaned their knowledgechiefly from oral traditions, cause us no surprise ; butit is truly astonishing to see how modern critics over-look the rights of ignorance and of the poetic character,and in vain attempt to force their authors into literalprecision. The same desire to fill up the vacancies ofknowledge, and to exhibit every thing complete, whichconstantly led astray the writers of antiquity, still actu-ates the scholars who interpret them, to reject every ex-pression as spurious which cannot be forced into acorrespondence with the knowledge of the present day-The author of the Argonautics makes the Tanais andthe Phasis branches of the Araxes ; an error of suchmagnitude as to show that he had no actual knowledgeof the regions he describes. Yet these names are, origi-nally, all general terms meaning a river, and may haveoften changed their application. Homer places theCimmerians at the end of the ocean ; in the Argonauticsthey are situated between the Western Ocean and theCronian Sea. The old bard mentions in general termsthe gloom of the Cimmerian land, which never enjoysthe beams of day ; the poet of the Argonauts venturesto explain the cause of this privation, and thus gives anopportunity to learned scholars to examine where theCimmeria of antiquity was actually situated ; but howis it possible to determine the position of a countrywhich was shaded from the sun by Calpe and theRiphaean Mountains on the east, by Fhlegra on thesouth, and by the Alps on the west ? Such gross errorswith regard to distances and positions serve only toshow how little the knowledge of the author extendedbeyond an acquaintance with names alone.


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CHAP. II. - THE GREEKS. 23But perhaps it may be asked, who were the Cim-merians ? to this the answer must be, that they were the

inhabitants of Cimmeria ; for in truth they make nofigure in the poets ; they are merely the implied possessorsof Cimmeria, the land of darkness, which is the proper sub-ject of the myth. But the early disappearance of this fabu-lous land and of its melancholy occupants from Grecianpoetry, immediately suggests that its existence was notvouched by the national mythology. And indeed thePhoenician language explains at once the origin of thelegend. The word cimrire, (nnns) signifying deep dark-ness, occurs in Job, iii. 5. Let darkness and the shadowof death stain it ; let a cloud dwell upon it ; let the black-ness of the day terrify it. But why, it may again beasked, did the Phoenicians suppose a land of darknessin the west ? This is a question which admits only ofa conjectural solution. They may have confoundedlegends by the ambiguity of language ; they may havelearned from the Indians with whom they traded thatthe Goddess Caumdri presides over the west; or theymay have been informed from the same source;, that thewest is the country of the moon, in Arabic Camar. Butperhaps the mythical Cimmeria had an origin nearerhome; in Job, xxxviii. ). we find that a thick darknesswas the swaddling band of the ocean. Whatever was theorigin of this belief, it is certain, that the Arabs retained itin the middle ages; and the navigators of that nation,who ventured far into the Atlantic, were generallyforced back again, as they reported, by the deep dark-ness which lowered over the AVest.*Some writers of eminence, finding the western Cim-merians fabulous, have ventured to consider their name-sakes on the Euxine as members of the same spuriousfamily ; but these last belong to authentic history]: theyleft monuments behind them, and are doubly precious inthe eyes of the enquirer, from the combined circum-stances of their antiquity and their local situation.t* Ibn el Vardi, Koticeset Extraitsdes MSS. dc la Bibliotheque du Roi, II.f Tile Acheron, or river that bounds the infernal region*, and the Ely.lium, or abode of gladness, both connected in mythology with the Cimme-

C I


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24' GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.It was not without reason that the author of the

Orphic Argonautics placed a city called Hermione nearthe Acherontian shores. The obscurity of this passageis cleared up on reflecting that at Hermione in Argoliswas a temple dedicated to the triple Hecate, or, as itwas vulgarly understood, to Juno, Proserpine, and Ceres.Near this temple there was also a fabled descent to Hades.As the voyage of Jason from Colchis to the oceanwas always handed down as an essential part of his his-tory, it is no wonder that many should have supposedhim to have ascended the Tanais, the sources of whichwere still unknown. Pindar dares even to transport theArgonauts to the Erythraean or Southern Ocean ; and ashe had no knowledge, probably, of the Arabian Gulf,he lets them reach the Mediterranean by dragging theirvessel for twelve

days over the Libyan continent. He-cataaus thought to improve on this idea, when he sup-posed that Jason sailed through the Phasis into theocean, and from the ocean into the Nile, thus betrayingwithin what narrow limits his knowledge was boundedon the east. The idea, too, which was entertained of aconnection existing between the sources of rivers andthe ocean shows how little the first principles of physicalgeography had hitherto engaged the attention of phi-losophers. In a later age, when the Athenian and Mi-lesian colonies in the Euxine had completely exploredits shores, and found no egress to the ocean, the poetswho sung the adventures of Jason were obliged to con-duct their hero up the Danube and Save, and overlandinto the Adriatic ; and industriously laboured to embel-lish and confound the traditions of antiquity.The voyage of a single day, in which Ulysses reachedthe ends of the ocean ; the intricate circumnavigation ofEurope performed by Jason in less than a month, thoughdriven from his course by violent tempests ; the ma-ria, or land of darkness, were also both derived from the same Phoeniciansource ; Ach-ron in Hebrew signifying the last (Iwellinn or end ; and Alixim,the shut or happy. See Bochart. These foreign additions to the l'elasgianmythology never made a deep impression on the Greeks ; they were soonresigned wholly to the poets.


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CHAP. II. THE GREEKS. 25nceuvre of the Argonauts in dragging their ship alongthe shore with a rope, to avoid the perils of the deep ;and Pindar's account of their crossing the continent ofLibya in twelve days, all combine to illustrate the in-adequate ideas entertained by the early Greeks of themagnitude of the earth's surface and of the ocean.The accurate geographical knowledge of the Greeks,in Homer's time and the ages immediately succeeding,may, without much injustice, be stated as not extendingfar beyond Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the islandsBeyond these limits all objects appear in the prismatichues of wonder and enchantment ; we find nothing butmonsters, nations of dreams, and the abodes of bliss.These delusive forms were chiefly gathered in the west-ern or rather north-western quarter of the hemisphere.All the early writers in Greece believed in the existenceof certain regions situated in theWest beyond the boundsof their actual knowledge, and, as it appears, of toofugitive a nature to be ever fixed within the circle ofauthentic geography. Homer describes at the extremityof the Ocean the Elysian plain, where, under a serenesky, the favourites of Jove, exempt from the commonlot of mortals, enjoy eternal felicity. Hesiod, in likemanner, sets the Happy Isles, the abode of departedheroes, beyond the deep ocean. The Hesperia of theGreeks continually fled before them as their knowledgeadvanced, and they saw the terrestrial paradise still dis-appearing in the West.


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26 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.

CHAP. III.GREEKS CONTINUED. HISTORIC AGE.

SYSTEMS OF EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. HERODOTUS. HISLITERARY ARDOUR AND SUCCESS. HIS TRAVELS. DE-SCRIBES THE SCYTHIANS. RECEIVED INTELLIGENCE RE-SPECTING THE ARIMASPS AND GRIFFONS. IN VAIN SOUGHTTHE HYPERBOREANS. EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE GROWTHOF HORNS. EXTENT OF THE KNOWLEDGE HE ACQUIREDFROM THE SCYTHIANS. THE CIMMERIANS OF THE BOS-PHORUS. THEIR ORIGIN CONJECTURED. THE CASPIAN SEA.HERODOTUS ACQUAINTED WITH THE BACTRIANS, AND WITHINDIA. EASTERN ^ETHIOPIANS. THE GREAT ANTS OFINDIA WHICH GUARD THE GOLD. EG7PT. THE AUTO-MOLES OR EXILES. ROUTE UP THE NILE, AND TO BORNOU.JOURNEY OF THE NASAMONES TO THE NIGER. ALLEGEDCIRCUMNAVIGATION OF AFRICA UNDER KING NF.CHOS.VOYAGE OF SATASPES. HERODOTUS IGNORANT OF THE WEST.THE RIVER ERIDANUS AND THE RIPH.SAN MOUNTAINS.COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE OF THE GREEKS. SUMMARY.

While the poets of Greece perpetuated the memory ofthose happy regions of the West where innocence andcontentment were supposed still to exist unalloyed, itwas the occupation of Grecian philosophers to devisecosmological systems equally remote from truth andreality, and not unfrequently drawn, perhaps, from thesame ample stores of Indian mythology. Brilliant fic-tions and daring hypotheses are, perhaps, the naturalprecursors of successful investigation : they serve at leastto awaken curiosity ; and where the freedom of the hu-man mind is not fettered by the arts of an interestedpriesthood, even the fancies and extravagancies of activeintellect make some progress towards the discovery oftruth.

Thales (600 B. C.) taught the sphericity of theearth ; but Anaximander, his disciple, compared it to acylinder ; Leucippus gave it the shape of a drum ; otherspreferred the cubic form ; and some, following Xeno-


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CHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 2?nhanes and Anaximenes, believed it to be a high moun-tain, the base of which has an infinite extension, whilethe stars float round its summit. Heraclides, again, dif-fering from the others, taught that the earth has thefigure of a ship. These doctrines are all but repetitionsof those taught by the different Indian sects, who assignto the earth the figure, or rather figures, of Mount Meru,and that of the mysterious ship Arghe. The Greeksmay be excused for believing absurdities taught with somuch solemnity, and surrounded with such an apparatusof learning. Intellectual natures are always prone tobelieve, from the love they bear to knowledge ; but whenonce stored with ideas, they are sure to exercise an in-dependent judgment. Anaximander is said also to havebeen the first to draw a map of the world. The mapsof Sesostris, and those which the Colchians, instructedby that conqueror, are said to have inscribed on stonepillars, may safely be regarded as fabulous.While science was thus engaged in fixing the know-ledge of the earth, which had been chiefly collected bycommercial voyages, there appeared in Greece one ofthose extraordinary men who, though themselves calledforth, perhaps, by the spirit of the age in which they live,seem to be self-created agents of a new order of things.Herodotus read his books, which were named from theMuses, before the senate at Athens, in the year 445B. C. ; and the volumes of the Father of Historymay even at the present day be read with profit anddelight. He cannot be too much admired, whether weconsider the zeal with which he sought for information,the success which attended his exertions, or the elegancewith which he knew how to impart what he had ac-quired.As our knowledge of the globe has increased, thestatements of Herodotus have been more and more con-firmed ; the wonderful stories which he relates fromhearsay have become so many proofs of his veracity ;and if he occasionally betrays a credulity which cannotbe justified, it must certainly be excused by those who


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28 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.consider what a value attached even to fictions in thefirst days of authentic history.

Herodotus was a native of Halicarnassus, a commer-cial little city in Caria. He appears to have been of adistinguished family, and probably imbibed the love oflearning from his uncle Panyasis, a celebrated epic poet,whom the critics of antiquity ranked next to Homer.His rank, and perhaps some commercial engagements,procured him facility of intercourse with the variousnations which he visited in his travels. These extendedto every quarter of the then known world. Herodotuspenetrated in the West asfar as Pceonia, themodern Servia;he visited the Greek colonies in the Euxine, and eventravelled over a considerable portion of Southern Russia :in the East his journeys reached as far as Babylon andSusa : Tyre also detained him for a while j but Egypt,then the seat of arts and learning, was a chief object ofhis attention ; and the singularly complete descriptionwhich he has transmitted of that country proves thathe resided in it for a longer period. The Greek coloniesof Cyrene were also visited by him ; and the vivid pic-tures which he has drawn of the plains of Thessaly andof the pass of Thermopylae prove that he had examined indetail the peninsula of Greece. Herodotus first read hishistories at the Olympic games, where he received theunbounded applauses of his nation. Twelve years laterhe read them again (probably enlarged and amended)before the senate at Athens. The gratitude of theAthenians to the father of history was not confined toapplauses alone ; they even voted him a gift of tentalents. Yet he did not fix his residence in the city ofthe Muses, but preferred accompanying the Atheniancolony which settled a few years afterwards at Thurium,near Sybaris, in the south of Italy ; and there he is sup-posed to have ended his days, at a very advanced age.

Herodotus made great accessions to the knowledge ofEastern Europe. The Ister (Danube) rises, he says, inthe country of the Celts, near a place called Pyrene ; sixrivers flow into it from the North, and ten from the


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CHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 29South. Among these tributaries may be distinguishedthe Theiss, flowing through the great plain of Hungary.The ancients appear to have long considered the Saveas the chief branch of the Danube; and the Pyrene, nearwhich Herodotus says this river rises, is a general Celticnamefor high mountains, still preserved, with a slight mo-dification, in theBrenner Alps, among which the Save hasits sources. The Scythians, spread over the countrynear the Tanais or Don, were attentively surveyed bythe inquisitive Grecian. He distinguishes three greathordes : viz. the Royal Scythians, who dwelt on thebanks of the Tanais ; the Nomadic or wandering Scy-thians, who spread their tents in the great steppes to thenorth of the Crimea ; and the agricultural Scythians,whose possessions extended towards the fertile banks ofthe Bog and Dnieper. The Scythians, he tells us, origin-ally dwelt on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea. Intheir migration westward they crossed the great riverAraxes ; and arriving in the neighbourhood of the PalusMaeotis, they expelled the Cimmerians from their posses-sions in that country. This event took place, accordingto Scythian tradition, exactly one thousand years beforethe time of Darius, or fifteen centuries before the Chris-tian era.

The country beyond the Ister, a vast and boundlessspace, was inhabited, as far as he could learn, by theSigynte, who reached on the other side to the Veneti, onthe Adriatic. The horses of that people were verysmall, and long haired. They were unable to carrymen, but when yoked to carriages were remarkablyswift. This answers the description of the Swedishponies, which are still found wild in the woods of Goth-land. The islands in the Gulf of Venice have also pre-served the same breed. The name of the Sigynce wasused by their neighbours as equivalent to merchant.The GcttE are described

byHerodotus as the bravest

and most upright of the Thracians. They pretend,he says, to immortality : whenever any one dies, theybelieve him to be received into the presence of their god


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30 GEOGRAPHY OP THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.Zamolxis. Each man has several wives, who, when hedies, are emulous to sacrifice themselves on the tomb oftheir husband. To the north-east of the Scythians werethe Argippcei, who shaved their heads. They passed theirlives under trees, never took up arms, and being thoughtsacred characters, suffered no molestation ; vegetablesand milk, with a beverage called aschy, or asky, weretheir only nourishment. Here we have a picture of theIndian faquir. To the east of the Argippcei dwelt theIssedones, among whom the women enjoyed morethan ordinary consideration. From this people Aristaeusthe poet had received some intelligence respecting theArimasps and Griffons, whom Herodotus anxiously wishedto see. He learned that the latter possessed golden trea-sures, of which it was the occupation of the former todespoil them. The Hyperboreans also seemed to flycontinually before the friendly enquiries, of our traveller,who was at last informed that they dwelt to the northof the Argippcei, and that their possessions extended tothe sea. Among the nations dwelling to the north of theScythians were the Androphagi, and the Mclanehlceni orblack-mantled, of whom the latter alone were cannibals.A people, called by Herodotus Jyrcce, and situated to theeast of the Tanais, have probably left their name to theriver Yrgis.The Scythians did not appear to the discriminatingGreek as barbarians ; on the contrary, he commendsthem as an upright and civilised nation, though, as hecharacteristically observes, there are none among themof eminent learning or genius. It is not surprisingthat when Herodotus reached the bounds of authenticinformation in his enquiries after the Hyperboreans, heshould positively affirm, that in the north of Europethere are many wonderful things, and a prodigiousquantity of gold. He had heard of the long winters'nights of the North, but could not believe that thepeople who lived beyond thaMassagetce slept six monthsin the year. The cold of winter, he says, was so severein the country north of the Euxine, that the Scythians


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CHAP. III. THE GHKEKS. 31could cross the Cimmerian Bosphorus with their loadedwaggons to the country of the Indians. By these hemeans the people called by Strabo Sindi, and who for-merly occupied the plains at the mouth of the Cuban.Having learned from Homer that lambs in Libya havehorns at their birth, and seeing that sheep in Scythiaremained hornless all their lives, he concluded that awarm climate is especially favourable to the growth ofhorns. This was the error of a too narrow experience ;had he seen the four and six-homed sheep of the Baltic,he would have immediately discarded his frail theory.The observation, however, that horses are much betterable to endure the rigours of a northern climate thanasses, was just and valuable.

It is impossible to ascertain, with perfect precision,the regions occupied by the various nations which Hero-dotus enumerates ; and the geographers, who have un-dertaken to expound him, have taken such liberties withthe text, that their deductions, however ingenious, canseldom be relied on. In a primitive state of society,nations are usually divided into many different tribes, sothat a geographical nomenclature, obtained from a No-madic people, seldom reaches to a great distance. Inter-course, or mutual acquaintance, rarely exists amongthose simple communities, where there is not some ori-ginal affinity of race and language. How then is itpossible to credit the opinion, that the Issedones, withwhom terminates the knowledge of Herodotus towardsthe East, were the inhabitants of Chinese Tartary ?How much more probable is it that they were the Asi,or Asiani (perhaps Asi-t


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CHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 33Thracian goddess Cimmeris* might be supposed to bethe tutelar deity of the nation ; but these conjecturesmust not be implicitly adopted. The tribes of theConiari or Comani (for these names are constantlyconfounded) held a distinguished place among the rest-less warrior tribes of the Indian Caucasus; they also werecalled Sacee, and might have preceded the Getic Scy-thians of Herodotus in their course to the Tanais, as aforemost wave of the same great tide. The Caumdraand Caumdri, the young man and maiden, or Mars andBellona of the Hindoo pantheon, have found their wayinto the languages and superstitions of many nations ;and conspicuous names of this sort, when adopted asnational designations, are apt to suggest a proximateconnection where it never really existed. But in orderto estimate fairly the merits of the first conjecture, itmust be remembered that the Cimmerians, when drivenby the Scythians from their possessions on the Bosphorus,instead of retiring into Europe, crossed the Euxine intoPontus, whence they afterwards made some formidableirruptions into the neighbouring states ; that the worshipof Comana (a variation of Comara), a Bellona, sur-rounded by six thousand priests, appears to have hadits origin in Pontus ; and, finally, that the Georgian coun-tries have been always called Comania by the orientals.Herodotus obtained information of a very correct na-ture respecting the Caspian Sea : The sea, he observes, which the Greeks navigate (the Mediterranean); and thatbeyond the Pillars ofHercules, which is called the Atlantic;and the Erythraean, are all supposed to be but parts of thesame ocean ; but the Caspian is itself a distinct sea : itslength is such that a vessel may be rowed from one end tothe other in fifteen days ; and in the broadest part the pas-sage may be made in eight. These measures are believedto be perfectly exact. The geographers of a later age, andStrabo among the number, while they drew their mapsof the world in conformity with arbitrary hypotheses,rejected the authority of Herodotus, and made the Cas-

Hesych'ms.VOI/. i. D


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31 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.pian communicate with the northern ocean by a longchannel half a mile wide : this fanciful arrangement wasagain rejected by Ptolemy, who was constrained, how-ever, by his system to neglect the measures of Herodotus;and it was not till the eighteenth century that the Cas-pian Sea resumed in our maps the oblong form whichwas accurately given to it by the father of history.In Asia, the knowledge of Herodotus reached but alittle way, although it extended far beyond that of hiscountrymen. The country between the Erythraean, orsouthern sea, and the Euxine, was divided between fournations, viz. the Persians,Medes,Sapirs, (Serpars, whosename remains to Shirwan,) and Colchians. Thecountry beyond these is bounded, he says, on the eastby the Erythraean, and on the north by the Caspian Seaand the Araxes, which flows towards the east. Asia isinhabited as far as India ; but farther to the east thereis nothing but desert, and nobody is acquainted with it.The peninsulas of Asia Minor and Arabia he makesmuch too narrow ; an error in which he wras followed byPliny, who compares the peninsula of Arabia to that ofItaly. Among the tributaries of the Persian empire,Herodotus enumerates the Parthians, Chorasmiuns, theUtii (Uzes?), and Sogdians: he also mentions the Bac-trians, the farthest limit of his knowledge in that quarter,and the Massagetce to the east of the Caspian, who de-voured their parents worn out with age and infirmity.

India was but a recent discovery in the time of Hero-dotus ; it is no wonder, therefore, that his knowledge ofit should be extremely limited: indeed, he knew nothingof that country beyond the river Indus. The greaterpart of Asia, he tells us, was discovered by Darius.That prince wishing to know into what part of the seathe river Indus falls (the only river besides the Nile inwhich crocodiles are found), sent intelligent men to ex-amine its course. They descended the river towards theeast, and afterwards, turning to the west, arrived intwo years and a half at the same port from which thePhoenicians embarked, who circumnavigated Libya by


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CHAP. III. THE GREEKS. 35order of the king of Egypt. When Herodotus speaksof the Indus flowing towards the east, it is evident thathis knowledge of that river did not extend beyond theborders of Cashmeer ; but respecting the Indians hecollected many interesting particulars. The ./Ethiopians,he informs us, served with the Indians in the Persianarmies : the former (by whom are meant the dark racesof the Meckran, as distinguished from the genuineHindoo) differed from the ^Ethiopians of Africa by thesmoothness of their hair. This distinction of eastern andwestern ^Ethiopians, of which some trace is to be foundin Homer, was continued till comparatively recent times.Herodotus remarks that the Indians were the mostnumerous people known ; that they wore cotton, andmade their bows and arrows of reeds, that is, of bamboo :some tribes of them lived on fish, and constructed boatsof reeds, a single joint of the reed being sufficient to makea boat. In the Persian army were Indians who worethe skins of horses' heads for helmets, the ears and maneremaining on as decorations. These appear to be theasva-muchas or horse-faces of the Indian historians. Theabstinence of the Hindoos from animal food did notescape the notice of our author, nor the dissolute mannersand cruelty into which they are misled in many instancesby their wanton superstitions. Herodotus has been cen-sured for credulity and want of science, because he saysthat the sun is vertical in India before mid-day ; butthe passage which has incurred this censure will, if ex-amined liberally, afford new proofs of his well-directedspirit of enquiry. The Indians, he says, differ fromother nations, inasmuch as their greatest heat is not atmid-day, but in the morning : they have the heat of avertical sun at the hour when we withdraw from theforum. Here it is evident that he received his intel-ligence from the inhabitants of the coast, where the heatis most intense from sunrise in the morning till theforenoon, when the sea breezes set in.The East is rich in fables, and the great wealth ofIndia is the subject of many a strange fiction. Hero-d 2


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86 GEOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENTS. BOOK I.dotus is the first who reports the tale of the enormousants, as large as foxes, that burrow in the golden sandsof India. They are supposed to be extremely formida-ble, and it is not without great danger that the soilthrown up from their excavations is collected and car-ried off. This story was afterwards repeated by everyGreek who visited the East, and is perhaps a popularPersian tale. The Arabian travellers related it in theeleventh and twelfth centuries ; and even in the sixteenthcentury

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