That The Original And Genuine
Work Described India Is, However, Undoubted, On The Authority Of Aristotle,
Who Mentions That There Was Such A Person As Scylax, That He Had Been In
India, And That His Account Of That Country Was Extant In His (Aristotle's)
Time.
In fact, the work which we possess under the name of Scylax, is evidently a
collection of the itineraries of ancient navigators:
It may have been drawn
up by the Scylax whom Darius employed, though, if that were the case, it is
very extraordinary he should not have included the journal of his own
voyage; or his name, as that of a celebrated geographer may have been put
to it; or there may have been another geographer of that name. The
collection is evidently imperfect; what is extant contains the coasts of
the Palus Maeotis, the Euxine, the Archipelago, the Adriatic, and all the
Mediterranean, with the west coast of Africa, as far as the isle of Cerne,
which he asserts to be the limit of the Carthaginian navigation and
commerce in that direction. The sea, according to him, is not navigable
further to the south than this island, on account of the thick weeds with
which it was covered. The mention of this impediment is adduced by
D'Anville to prove the reality of the Carthaginian voyages to the south: it
is not, indeed, true, that the sea is impassable on account of these weeds
to modern navigators, but it is easy to conceive that the timidity and
inexperience of the ancients, as well as the imperfect construction of
their vessels, would prevent them from proceeding further south, when they
met with such a singular obstacle.
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