Cato round the shores of the
Syrtis, and to explore a region untrodden by Christian foot since the
expulsion of the Romans, the Huns, and the Vandals, by the enterprising
disciples of Mahomet." In this journey he necessarily passed the present
boundary between Tripoli and Bengaze, the same which was anciently the
boundary between Carthage and Cyrene; and our author confirms the account
of Sallust, that neither river nor mountain marks the confines. He also
confirms the description given by Herodotus of the dreadful storms of sand
that frequently arise and overwhelm the caravans in this part of the
Syrtis. At the head of the Syrtis the ground is depressed, and this
depression, our author supposes, continues to the Great Desert. Soon after
he left this barren country, he entered Cyrenaica, the site of Cyrene: that
most ancient and celebrated colony of the Greeks was easily ascertained by
its magnificent ruins. From Cyrene the army marched to Derna, and from this
to the gulf of Bomba, an extensive arm of the sea, where the expedition
terminated.
Such are the most recent discoveries in this portion of Africa.
The settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, originally established by the
Dutch, and at present in possession of the English, was naturally the point
from which European travellers set out to explore the southern parts of
Africa.
