We find from history that before the
discovery of the mariner's compass four attempts were made to sail round
the coast of Africa. The Phoenicians sent by Necho
[71]
and Eudoxus,
[72]
flying from the wrath of Ptolemy Lathyrus, set out from the Red Sea, and
succeeded. Sataspes
[73]
sent by Xerxes, and Hanno by the Carthaginians,
set out from the Pillars of Hercules, and failed in the attempt.
The capital point in surrounding Africa was to discover and double
the Cape of Good Hope. Those who set out from the Red Sea found this
cape nearer by half than it would have been in setting out from the
Mediterranean. The shore from the Red Sea is not so shallow as that from
the cape to Hercules' Pillars.
[74]
The discovery of the cape by
Hercules' Pillars was owing to the invention of the compass, which
permitted them to leave the coast of Africa, and to launch out into the
vast ocean, in order to sail towards the island of St. Helena, or
towards the coast of Brazil.
[75]
It was, therefore, possible for them to
sail from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, but not to set out from
the Mediterranean to return by the Red Sea.
Thus, without making this grand circuit, after which they could
hardly hope to return, it was most natural to trade to the east of
Africa by the Red Sea, and to the western coast by Hercules' Pillars.
The Grecian kings of Egypt discovered at first, in the Red Sea, that
part of the coast of Africa which extends from the bottom of the gulf,
where stands the town of Heroum, as far as Dira, that is, to the strait
now known by the name of Babelmandel. Thence to the promontory of
Aromatia, situate at the entrance of the Red Sea,
[76]
the coast had
never been surveyed by navigators: and this is evident from what
Artemidorus tells us,
[77]
that they were acquainted with the places on
that coast, but knew not their distances: the reason of which is, they
successively gained a knowledge of those ports by land, without sailing
from one to the other.
Beyond this promontory, at which the coast along the ocean
commenced, they knew nothing, as we learn from Eratosthenes and
Artemidorus.
[78]
Such was the knowledge they had of the coasts of Africa in Strabo's
time, that is, in the reign of Augustus. But after the prince's decease,
the Romans found out the two capes Raptum and Prassum, of which Strabo
makes no mention, because they had not as yet been discovered. It is
plain that both those names are of Roman origin.
Ptolemy, the geographer, flourished under Adrian and Antoninus Pius;
and the author of the Periplus of the Red Sea, whoever he was, lived a
little after. Yet the former limits known Africa to Cape Prassum,
[79]
which is in about the 14th degree of south latitude; while the author of
the Periplus
[80]
confines it to Cape Raptum, which is nearly in the
tenth degree of the same latitude. In all likelihood the latter took his
limit from a place then frequented, and Ptolemy his from a place with
which there was no longer any communication.
What confirms me in this notion is that the people about Cape
Prassum were Anthropophagi.
[81]
Ptolemy takes notice
[82]
of a great
number of places between the port or emporium Aromatum and Cape Raptum,
but leaves an entire blank between Capes Raptum and Prassum. The great
profits of the East India trade must have occasioned a neglect of that
of Africa. In fine, the Romans never had any settled navigation; they
had discovered these several ports by land expeditions, and by means of
ships driven on that coast; and as at present we are well acquainted
with the maritime parts of Africa, but know very little of the inland
country, the ancients, on the contrary, had a very good knowledge of the
inland parts, but were almost strangers to the coasts.
[83]
I said that the Phoenicians sent by Necho and Eudoxus under Ptolemy
Lathyrus had made the circuit of Africa; but at the time of Ptolemy, the
geographer, those two voyages must have been looked upon as fabulous,
since he places after
[84]
the Sinus Magnus, which I apprehend to be the
Gulf of Siam, an unknown country, extending from Asia to Africa, and
terminating at Cape Prassum, so that the Indian Ocean would have been no
more than a lake. The ancients who discovered the Indies towards the
north, advancing eastward, placed this unknown country to the south.
