Before concluding this short review of the travels of our author, it may not be improper to notice the informa tion which he gives, or is supposed to give, on three sub jects, which still continue to agitate the scientific world, we mean the Niger, the Nile, and the pretended circum navigation of Africa by•the Phoenicians. With regard to the Niger, the only passage in Herodotus that can possibly allude to this river, is the account which he gives on the authority of Etearchus, king of the Ammonians, of a jour ney into the interior of Africa, undertaken by five young Nasamons, a people situated at the extremity of the Gulf of Sydra. These travellers having, in the first part of their journey, passed through an inhabited country, came to an immense sandy desert, through which they continued their route westward, till they reached an extensive plain covered with vegetation. While they were enjoying the shade, and eating the fruit of the trees which they found there, they were fallen upon by men of a very diminutive size, who conducted them across a swampy country, till they came to a town inhabited by black people, and situa ted on the bank of a large river, running from west to east.
Though the vague and indefinite nature of the account itself, the authority on which it rests, and the circumstance of its being obviously introduced for the purpose of prov ing that the Nile runs from the west, tend to throw consi derable doubts on the truth, or at least the accuracy of this relation, yet some eminent geographers are of opinion, that the town mentioned above is no other than Tombuctoo, on the banks of the Niger.
Of the Nile, Herodotus speaks with more precision; and, as his information on this subject appears to have been derived from personal observation, it is on this ac count entitled to more credit. After detailing at some length the manner of ascending the river, and describing minutely the nature and inhabitants of the countries through which it passes before entering Egypt, he concludes by affirming that it certainly runs from the west, though he acknowledges that beyond the country of the Automoles it had never been explored. The Automoles, otherwise called Asmach, were originally descended from a colony of Egyptian fugitives, but, at the time of lIerodotus, inha bited a province subject to the king of Ethiopia, and lying as far to the south of his capital Nleroe, as Mcrae was from the great cataract. According to Eratosthenes, and other ancient geographers, this town was situated on an island formed by the junction of the Atbar or Tacazze with the Nile; and this account is farther confirmed by the testimony of Mr Bruce, who discovered magnificent ruins to the north of Chandi, opposite the island of Kur gos. If this opinion be correct, it fixes the situation of Meroe in 17 degrees of North latitude, about 6 degrees south of the cataract, and 6 north of the Automoles. He.
rodotus, therefore, must have been acquainted with the course of the western branch of the Nile, as far as the eleventh parallel ; and of its course beyond this, no sub sequent traveller has yet given any satisfactory information.
With regard to the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians, Herodotus relates the story apparently as he received it, without determining any thing as to its being true or false. When Neco king of Egypt had completed his famous canal between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, he dispatched vessels manned with Phoenician sailors, who, after navigating the ocean to the south of the Red Sea, were to return to Egypt by the pillars of Hercules and the Mediterranean. This they are said to have accomplished in less than three years, including their stay on the coast of Africa, while they sowed and reaped a crop of corn. On their return, they related among other wonders, that in sailing round Lybia, the sun appeared to be on their right. cc This," says Herodotus, a appears to me altogether in credible, but it may not perhaps appear so to others.7 On this passage it has been remarked by those, who are dis posed to admit the truth of the circumnavigation in ques tion, that the very circumstance which the historian rejects as incredible, is one of the strongest arguments possible in favour of the tradition. The truth of this remark is too obvious to be disputed, and we are ready to admit the full force of the argument which it affords. At the same time we cannot by any means consider it as decisive. The Phoenicians, we think, might have sailed far enough to the south in the Indian Ocean to have observed the phenome non of the sun to the north of the zenith, though they had never attempted, far less executed, the circumnavigation of Africa ; and we cannot avoid observing in passing that they who are disposed on all occasions to magnify the discove ries, and exalt the merits of the ancients, would do well to be on their guard, lest they pull down with one hand what they have taken pains to erect with the other. May not the incredulity expressed by Herodotus with regard to the po sition of the sun, be brought forward with some plausibility, as presumptive evidence against the commonly received opinion with regard to the extent of his own travels up the Nile ? It is difficult to conceive how he could possibly have advanced so far as to the eleventh parallel of latitude, with out having heard at least of the sun being observed to wards the north. To say that such a journey as this would never be undertaken while the sun was advancing towards the tropic of Cancer, on. account of the overflowing of the Nile, is hardly a satisfactory solution of the difficulty.