monarch continued to be followed at a subsequent period, particularly by Amasis, who reigned before, and by Nectanebo who lived after, the Persian invasion.

In the reign of Psamaticus, the Scythians* having subjugated the whole of Asia, advanced towards Egypt with the intention of invading that country. They had expelled the Cimmerians from Europe; and led by their valiant king Madyas, they over-ran the provinces to the left of Mount Caucasus on their way from the Palus Mæotis, and defeated Cyaxares, the Median monarch, who was besieging Ninus (Nineveh), the capital of Assyria. They then penetrated into Syria; and Psamaticus, alarmed at their approach, went forward to meet them, and partly by presents, and partly by entreaty, prevailed upon them to desist from their project; thus saving Egypt from the aggressions of a dangerous foe.

Psamaticus was succeeded by his son Neco II., whose wars and successes in Syria are recorded by sacred as well as profane writers. Studious of military renown and the promotion of commerce, he had no sooner ascended the throne than he applied himself to the re-organisation of the army and the equipment of a powerful fleet; and, recollecting the imprudent conduct of his father, he avoided all innovations which might tend to alienate the good will of his people, or sow the seeds of discord among his troops; and while he courted the friendship of the Greeks, and appreciated the important

*Herodot. i. 104, 105.

*

services he received from auxiliaries of that nation, he laid aside every appearance of partiality, treating them with proper consideration, and giving them a post next to the Egyptian troops, as his wise predecessors had done to their allies in the wars of Asia. In the Mediterranean he fitted out a fleet of triremes, and another in the Red Sea; and having engaged some expert Phoenician pilots and mariners, he sent them on a voyage of discovery along the coast of Africa. "They were ordered to start from the Arabian Gulf, and come round through the Pillars of Hercules (now the Straits of Gibraltar) into the North Sea, and so return to Egypt. Sailing, therefore, down the Gulf, they passed into the Southern Ocean; and when autumn arrived they laid up their ships, and sowed the land. Here they remained till harvest time; and, having reaped the cornt, they continued their voyage. In this manner they occupied two years; and the third having brought them by the Pillars of Hercules to Egypt, they related (what to me appears incredible, however others may be disposed to believe it), that they had the sun on their right hand; and by these means was the form of Africa first known." The historian ‡ then relates, on the authority of the Carthaginians, a second attempt to circumnavigate that continent, under Sataspes, the

*Herodotus calls it the North Sea. The Arabs now style it the White Sea.

+ It may appear singular that they should carry grain for this purpose; but the same was done by Timûr in his march to China, who had with his army waggons laden with seed corn.

Herod. iv. 42, 43.

son of Teaspes, a Persian, who, being alarmed at the length of the voyage and the dreary solitude of those regions, returned without accomplishing his task. He had been condemned to the cross by Xerxes for offering violence to the daughter of Zopyrus, the son of Megabyzus; but his mother the sister of Darius, obtained his pardon on condition of his going round Africa. He therefore repaired to Egypt; and having there engaged a ship and crew, he sailed to the Pillars of Hercules, entered the ocean, and passed the promontory of Soloeis on the coast of Africa.* He thence continued southwards; but, after spending several months at sea, he returned to Egypt, and endeavoured to exculpate himself to the king, saying he found it impossible to proceed. Xerxes, however, rejected this excuse, and inflicted upon him the punishment to which he had been previously condemned.

That similar expeditions round Africa were performed by other people is testified by ancient authors; and that of the Carthaginians under Hanno was described in Punic by the commander himself, and afterwards translated into Greek. Pliny states t that " Hanno, a Carthaginian, circumnavigated the continent of Africa, from Gades to the extremity of the Arabian Gulf, and wrote all the details of his voyage, which was undertaken at the period when Carthage was most flourishing;" and

The promontory of Soloeis, or Soloentia, called also the Libyan headland; and supposed by some to be the Cape Cantin of modern Africa, at the western extremity of Mount Atlas.

+ Plin. lib. ii. 67., and lib. v. l.; and Arrian's Rerum Indic. ad fin.

"founded several towns on the coast," none of which remained in the reign of Vespasian. He also mentions a certain Eudoxus, a cotemporary of Cornelius Nepos and of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who went round Africa from the Arabian Gulf to Gades and others before him were reported to have performed the same journey for the purposes of commerce.t

The voyage of Hanno happened some time after that undertaken by order of Neco; the honour, therefore, of being the first to equip an expedition for the purpose of making this discovery belongs to the Egyptian monarch, who thereby ascertained the peninsular form of Africa, about twenty-one centuries before the Cape of Good Hope was seen by Diaz‡, or doubled by Vasco de Gama.

In mentioning the expedition sent by Neco, Herodotus makes one remark which is singular, from its confirming the truth of the statements detailed to him by the Egyptians; for it is evident they could not have passed the Cape of Good Hope without observing the phenomenon he mentions; and the assertion that the sun (when rising) was on their right hand, though so improbable to Herodotus, is highly satisfactory to his modern

* Pliny says he fled from that king, "cum Lathurum regem fugeret;" but forcibly sent by him is more probable. Plin. ii. 67.

+ Plin. loc. cit. lib. ii.

Bartholemew Diaz discovered it in 1487, in the reign of John II., King of Portugal, but did not land. He named it Capo Tormentoso, from the storms he experienced there; but the king afterwards changed its name to Cape of Good Hope; and Emanuel, his successor, sent Vasco de Gama, in 1497, with orders to double it and proceed to India.

readers, who are indebted to him for thus expressing his doubts, and the proofs of a fact which might otherwise have been called in question.

Previous to projecting this voyage of discovery, Neco had commenced re-opening the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which had been cut many years before by Sesostris, or Remeses the Great. The work, however, if we may believe Herodotus, was abandoned; an oracle warning the Egyptian monarch that he was labouring for the barbarian. * This may be true; but we cannot attach any credit to the statement that 120,000 Egyptians perished before he desisted from the undertaking; or, that he was the first who commenced the canal t; and not only do Pliny ‡, Strabo §, and Aristotle attribute it to Sesostris, but the monuments which remain in the towns upon its banks afford a satisfactory testimony of the accuracy of those writers, and of the erroneous information of Herodotus and Diodorus.

Neco also turned his attention to the Egyptian conquests in Asia; and fearing lest the growing power of the Babylonians should endanger the territories acquired by the arms of his victorious predecessors, he determined to check their pro

* The same may be applied to the projected communication by the Euphrates.

f Vide suprà, p. 70. Herodotus and Diodorus mention Neco as the projector of the canal.

Plin. vi. 33. "Navigabilem alveum perducere in Nilum... primus omnium Sesostris... cogitavit, mox Darius... deinde Ptolemæus sequens." Strabo (17.) says, "The canal was commenced by Sesostris, before the Trojan war. Some suppose by Psammitichus, the son, who only began the work, and died. It was afterwards finished by Darius." Assuming him to be Remeses II.