There Are
Several Circumstances Respecting This Voyage Which Deserve Attention Or
Examination; The Person Who Performed It, Is Said By Herodotus, (From Whom
We Derive All Our Information On The Subject), To Have Been A Native Of
Caryandria, Or At Least An Inhabitant Of Asia Minor:
He was therefore most
probably a Greek:
He was a geographer and mathematician of some eminence,
and by some writers is supposed to have first invented geographical tables.
According to Herodotus, Darius, after his Scythian expedition, in order to
facilitate his design of conquest in the direction of India, resolved, in
the first place, to make a discovery of that part of the world. For this
purpose he built and fitted out a fleet at Cespatyrus, a city on the Indus,
towards the upper part of the navigable course of that river. The ships, of
course, first sailed to the mouth of the Indus, and during their passage
the country on each side was explored. The directions given to Scylax were,
after he entered the ocean, to steer to the westward, and thus return to
Persia. Accordingly, he is said to have coasted from the mouth of the Indus
to the Straits of Babelmandel, where he entered the Red Sea; and on the
30th month from his first embarking he landed at Egypt, at the same place
from which Necho, king of that country, had despatched the Phoenicians to
circumnavigate Africa. From Egypt, Scylax returned to Susa, where he gave
Darius a full account of his expedition.
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