The Work Of Agatharcides, Therefore, Having Been In Such Estimation By The
Ancient Historians And Geographers, And The Only Source
From which, during
200 years, they drew their information, and having been compiled by a
person, who, it is probable,
Had better and fuller means of rendering it
accurate and complete than any of his contemporaries enjoyed; it will be
proper to give a pretty full abstract of the most interesting and important
part of its contents.
The veracity of this author was questioned by Plutarch, from his narrating
a circumstance, which, to us of the present day, is a strong confirmation
of the truth and accuracy of his information. Agatharcides takes notice of
the worm which is formed in the legs, and which insinuates itself there in
such a manner, that it is necessary to wind it out with the utmost caution.
Plutarch ridicules and rejects this story, and says it never has happened,
and never will. But that such a worm exists, and that when it insinuates
itself into the leg it must be drawn out with the utmost caution, lest the
smallest portion of it remain, and thus produce disease, is directly and
fully attested by all the travellers, and particularly by Bruce, who
carried with him to the grave the marks and effects of the attack of this
species of worm.
But the most curious and important portion of the work of Agatharcides on
the Red Sea, relates to Abyssinia; for in this work we meet with the first
genuine characteristics of this nation. He specifies particularly the gold
mines wrought by the kings of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea; - the
process which they followed to procure and separate this metal; - the
sufferings which the miners underwent in their operations are painted in
very strong language: "The multitude of bones still found in these
excavations, he says, is incredible, of wretches crushed by the falling-in
of the earth, as must naturally happen in a loose and crumbling soil." He
adds a circumstance, to which there are many parallel in our own country,
in those mines which are supposed to have been wrought by the Romans; viz.
the tools of copper found in these gold mines, supposed to have been used
by the native Egyptians, prior to the conquest of Egypt by the Persians.
The next particular mentioned by Agatharcides, respecting the Abyssinian
coast of the Red Sea, is very conclusive, with respect to his accuracy and
credibility. In Meroe, or Abyssinia, he says, they hunt elephants and
hamstring them, and afterwards cut the flesh out of the animal alive: he
adds, that the inhabitants are so extremely fond of the flesh of the
elephant, thus procured, that when Ptolemy would have paid any price to
purchase these animals alive, as he wanted them for his army, the
Abyssinian hunters refused his offer, declaring that not all the wealth of
Egypt would tempt them to forego their favourite and delicious repast. It
is a remarkable fact, that the credit of Bruce on this topic should thus be
confirmed by a writer who lived nearly 2000 years before him, of whose
writings we possess only a very short treatise, and of whose life we know
scarcely a single particular.
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