The Very Circumstance Which The Historian Rejects As Incredible, Is One Of
The Strongest Arguments Possible In Favour Of The
Tradition; though this
alone is not decisive, for the Phoenicians might have sailed far enough to
the south to have
Observed the sun to the north, even if they had not
accomplished the navigation of Africa. The strongest argument, however, in
our opinion, in support of the actual accomplishment of this
circumnavigation, has been unaccountably overlooked, in all the various
discussion to which the subject has given rise. It is evident that in most
voyages, false and exaggerated accounts may be given of the countries
visited or seen, and of the circumstances attendant upon the voyage;
whereas, with respect to this voyage, one most important and decisive
particular lay within reach of the observation of those who witnessed the
departure and arrival of the ships. If they sailed from the Red Sea, and
returned by the Mediterranean, they must have circumnavigated Africa. It is
obvious that if such a voyage was not performed, the story must have
originated with Herodotus, with those from whom he received his
information, or with those who were engaged in the expedition, supposing it
actually to have been engaged in, but not to have accomplished the
circumnavigation of Africa. The character of Herodotus secures him from the
imputation; and by none is he charged with it: - Necho lived about six
hundred and sixteen years before Christ; consequently little more than two
hundred years before Herodotus; moreover, the communication and commerce of
the Greeks with Egypt, was begun in the time of Psammeticus, the immediate
predecessor of Necho, and was encouraged in a very particular manner by
Amasis (who died in 525), who married a Greek, and was visited by Solon.
From these circumstances, it is improbable that Herodotus, who was
evidently not disposed to believe the account of the appearance of the sun,
should not have had it in his power to obtain good evidence, whether a ship
that had sailed from the Red Sea, had returned by the Mediterranean: if
such evidence were acquired, it is obvious, as has been already remarked,
that the third source of fabrication is utterly destroyed. Dr. Vincent is
strongly opposed to the authenticity of this voyage, chiefly on the grounds
that such ships as the ancients had, were by no means sufficiently strong,
nor their seamen sufficiently skilful and experienced, to have successfully
encountered a navigation, which the Portuguese did not accomplish without
great danger and difficulty, and that the alleged circumnavigation produced
no consequences.
It may be incidentally remarked that the incredulity of Herodotus with
regard to the appearance of the sun to the north of the zenith, is not
easily reconcileable with what we shall afterwards shew was the extent of
his knowledge of the interior of Egypt. He certainly had visited, or had
received communications from those who had visited Ethiopia as far south as
eleven degrees north latitude. Under this parallel the sun appears for a
considerable part of the year to the north.
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