Strabo, On The Authority Of Aristonicus The Grammarian, Says, That King
Menelaus, After The Destruction Of Troy, Sailed From The
Grecian sea to
the Atlantic, coasted along Africa and Guinea, doubled the Cape Bona
Speranca, and arrived in India[19]
; Concerning which voyage many other
particulars might be collected from the writings of the ancients. This
Mediterranean Sea was sometimes called the Adriatic, the Aegean, and the
Herculean Sea; and had other names, according to the lands, coasts, and
islands, which it skirted, till, running through the Straits of Hercules,
between Spain and Africa, it communicated with the great Atlantic Ocean.
Thirteen hundred years after the flood, Solomon caused a navy to be
constructed at Ezion-geber on the Red Sea, which sailed to Tharsis and
Ophir, which some believe to have been islands in the East Indies. This
fleet was three years on its voyage, and on its return brought gold,
silver, cypress-wood, and other commodities[20]. The islands to which the
navy of Solomon traded were probably those we now call the Lucones, the
Lequeos, and China; for we know of few other places whence some of the
things mentioned as forming their cargoes can be had, or where navigation
has been so long practised.
Necho, one of the kings of Egypt, was desirous to have joined the Red Sea
with the Mediterranean, and is said in history to have commanded some
Phenicians to sail from the Red Sea by the Straits of Mecca, and to
endeavour to return to Egypt by the Mediterranean[21]. This they
accomplished, and sailed along the coast of Melinda, Quiloa, and Sofala,
till they reached the Cape of Good Hope, which they doubled; and,
continuing their course to the north, they sailed along the coast of
Guinea all the way to the Mediterranean, and returned to Egypt after two
years absence, being the first who had circumnavigated Africa.
In the year 590 before the Incarnation, a fleet belonging to Carthaginian
merchants sailed from Cadiz through the ocean, to the west, in search of
land[22]. They proceeded so far that they came to the islands now called
the Antilles, and to New Spain[23]. This is given on the authority of
Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, in his General History, who says that these
countries were then discovered; and that Christopher Columbus, by his
voyages in after times, only acquired more exact knowledge of them, and
hath left us a more precise notice of their situation, and of the way to
them. But all those historians who formerly wrote concerning the Antilles,
as of doubtful and uncertain existence, now plainly allow them to be the
same with New Spain and the West Indies. In the year 520 before Christ,
Cambyses, king of Persia, conquered Egypt, and was succeeded by Darius,
the son of Hystaspes. This latter prince determined upon completing the
projects of Sesostris and Necho, by digging a canal between the Red Sea
and the Nile: But, being assured that the Red Sea was higher than the
Nile, and that its salt water would overflow and ruin the whole land of
Egypt, he abandoned his purpose, lest that fine province should be
destroyed by famine and the want of fresh water[24]; for the fresh water
of the Nile overflows the whole country, and the inhabitants have no
other water to drink.
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