A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 | Page 5

right, and the south the left of the
world.
The principal circumstance attending this narrative, which is supposed
to destroy or greatly weaken its credibility, is the short period of time in
which this navigation was accomplished: it is maintained, that even at
present, it would certainly require eighteen months to coast Africa from
the Red Sea to the straits of Gibraltar; and "allowing nine months for
each interval on shore, between the sowing and reaping, the
Phoenicians could not have been more than eighteen months at sea."
To this objection it may be replied, in the first place, that between the
tropics (within which space nearly the whole of the navigation was
performed) nine months is much too long a time to allow for each
interval on shore, between the sowing and the reaping: and, secondly,
that though the period occupied by the whole voyage, and some of the
circumstances attending it, may be inaccurately stated, the voyage itself
ought not to be wholly discredited on these accounts.
The very circumstance which the historian rejects as incredible, is one
of the strongest arguments possible in favour of the tradition; though
this alone is not decisive, for the Phoenicians might have sailed far
enough to the south to have observed the sun to the north, even if they
had not accomplished the navigation of Africa. The strongest argument,
however, in our opinion, in support of the actual accomplishment of
this circumnavigation, has been unaccountably overlooked, in all the
various discussion to which the subject has given rise. It is evident that

in most voyages, false and exaggerated accounts may be given of the
countries visited or seen, and of the circumstances attendant upon the
voyage; whereas, with respect to this voyage, one most important and
decisive particular lay within reach of the observation of those who
witnessed the departure and arrival of the ships. If they sailed from the
Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, they must have
circumnavigated Africa. It is obvious that if such a voyage was not
performed, the story must have originated with Herodotus, with those
from whom he received his information, or with those who were
engaged in the expedition, supposing it actually to have been engaged
in, but not to have accomplished the circumnavigation of Africa. The
character of Herodotus secures him from the imputation; and by none is
he charged with it:--Necho lived about six hundred and sixteen years
before Christ; consequently little more than two hundred years before
Herodotus; moreover, the communication and commerce of the Greeks
with Egypt, was begun in the time of Psammeticus, the immediate
predecessor of Necho, and was encouraged in a very particular manner
by Amasis (who died in 525), who married a Greek, and was visited by
Solon. From these circumstances, it is improbable that Herodotus, who
was evidently not disposed to believe the account of the appearance of
the sun, should not have had it in his power to obtain good evidence,
whether a ship that had sailed from the Red Sea, had returned by the
Mediterranean: if such evidence were acquired, it is obvious, as has
been already remarked, that the third source of fabrication is utterly
destroyed. Dr. Vincent is strongly opposed to the authenticity of this
voyage, chiefly on the grounds that such ships as the ancients had, were
by no means sufficiently strong, nor their seamen sufficiently skilful
and experienced, to have successfully encountered a navigation, which
the Portuguese did not accomplish without great danger and difficulty,
and that the alleged circumnavigation produced no consequences.
It may be incidentally remarked that the incredulity of Herodotus with
regard to the appearance of the sun to the north of the zenith, is not
easily reconcileable with what we shall afterwards shew was the extent
of his knowledge of the interior of Egypt. He certainly had visited, or
had received communications from those who had visited Ethiopia as
far south as eleven degrees north latitude. Under this parallel the sun

appears for a considerable part of the year to the north. How, then, it
may be asked, could Herodotus be incredulous of this phenomenon
having been observed by the Phoenician circumnavigators. This
difficulty can be solved by supposing either that if he himself had
visited this part of Africa, it was at a season of the year when the sun
was in that quarter of the heavens in which he was accustomed to see it;
or, if he received his information from the inhabitants of this district,
that they, not regarding the periodical appearance of the sun to the
north of the zenith as extraordinary, did not think it necessary to
mention it. It certainly cannot be supposed that if Herodotus had either
seen himself, or heard from others, that the sun in Ethiopia sometimes