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this system, in order to compare it with the actual geography; as well as in certain cases, with the systems of Eratosthenes, Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny 2. We have said, as far as it goes, because the geography of Herodotus is confined more to ASIA and AFRICA, than to EUROPE and is by no means intended to form an abstract system, but to explain with more effect, the transactions recorded in a history, the theatre of which includes little more in Europe, than the provinces bordering on the Egean sea, the Propontis, Euxine, and Palus Mæotis; and in Africa, the kingdom of Egypt and its dependencies; but almost the whole of the

times, and to mark the various steps of their progress in any line of exertion, will soon have the mortification to find, that the period of authentic history is extremely limited. It is little more than 3000 years since the books of Moses, the most ancient and only genuine record of what passed in the early ages of the world, were composed. Herodotus, the most ancient heathen historian whose works have reached us, flourished 1000 years later. If we push our inquiries concerning any point beyond the æra where written history commences, we enter upon the region of conjecture, of fable, and of uncertainty. Upon that ground, I will neither venture myself, nor endeavour to conduct my readers."

The materials of our author's geography may be reckoned of a date of 450 to 500 years before our æra. Dr. Usher fixes his birth at 484 before Christ. He also says that he read his books before the council at Athens, in 445; of course, when he was about 39 years of age. This was about 44 years before the expedition of Cyrus, and the retreat of the ten thousand; 111 before Alexander crossed the Hellespont.

2 In order to form an idea in detail of the systems of the three first of these great geographers, the reader is referred to the work of M. GOSSELIN, entitled Geographie des Grecs analysée, 1780.

known parts of Asia.

Limited, however, as the

theatre of war in Europe might be, the brilliancy of the transactions on it, surpassed those throughout all the rest of the space.

If it be supposed (as in reason it may) that our Author was master of all the geographical, as well as historical knowledge, of his own times, it may be inferred that the Greeks knew but little concerning the western part of Europe, besides the mere sea coast; and although our Author seems to entertain no doubt of the existence of a Northern ocean, he confesses his ignorance, whether, or not, Europe was bounded on the north and east by the ocean.

It is proper to remark, that Herodotus considered, and perhaps rightly, the whole of the earth then known, as ONE SINGLE CONTINENT: regarding Europe, Asia, and Africa, as nothing more than divisions of that continent. In effect, he does not attach any degree of importance to the question concerning the boundaries of these divisions; and therefore speaks of the line of separation between Europe and Asia, Asia and Africa, in a vague way. "I am far," says he, Melpom. 45, " from satisfied why to one continent, three different names, taken from women, have been assigned. To one of these divisions (meaning Asia) some have given as a boundary the Egyptian Nile and the Colchian Phasis; others, the Tanais, the Cimmerian Bosphorus, and the Palus Mæotis."

It appears that he adopted for the boundary of Asia, the river Phasis, and not the Tanais: and for that of Africa, the Isthmus of Suez, in preference to

the Nile; for, speaking of Africa, he says, that it is "bounded by the sea, except in that particular part, which is contiguous to Asia." Something, however, like contradiction appears in respect of this subject: for it will be seen hereafter, that he excludes Egypt from Africa, as well as from Asia; which appears very extraordinary, and can only be accounted for, on the ground that he does not, like others, distribute the habitable world into continents, but into regions: and that Egypt might be considered as a region of itself.

The shore of the Baltic sea, from whence amber was brought (Prussia), seems to have been the extent of his knowledge, that way. The British Islands he knew in part, as being the place from whence the Phoenicians, and from them the Greeks, had their tin; an indispensable article, it would appear, as without it they could not harden their copper, so as to make it answer the purposes of iron, in weapons, or in armour. He accordingly speaks of the Cassiterides, as the islands from whence the tin was said to be brought. It has been very much the custom to refer the Cassiterides to the Scilly Islands alone; but the idea ought to be extended to Cornwall at least and, it is possible that very great changes have taken place in the state of Scilly and Cornwall since the date of that traffic 3.

'There are some curious particulars in Diodorus Siculus respecting an island near the British coast, to which carriages Jaden with tin came at low water, in order to its being embarked on vessels for the continent. See the course of this merchandize in lib. v. c. 2.

The fact of the insular nature of Britain must of course have been ascertained by the Phoenicians, who sailed between it and the continent, in their way to the amber country: but whether they knew much concerning the extent of Britain northward, or of the existence of Ireland, is a fact that appears not to have reached us. It is, however, very probable, that in the idea of Herodotus, the Cassiterides were a cluster of small islands, insignificant in any other point of view, than as containing tin mines.

Of ASIA, by much the greater part was unknown; and yet, notwithstanding this deficiency, the proportion of space on the globe, known to Ptolemy, about 600 years after Herodotus, did not greatly exceed that, which was known, in a general way, to Herodotus himself; although during that interval all the knowledge acquired by the Macedonian and Roman expeditions, had been brought forward to public view. This is easily explained. The track of Alexander was confined generally within the limits already known to our Author; so that it brought no accession of space. And although the discoveries and inquiries made by the Romans, had added to the space known to Herodotus, the north and northeastern parts of Europe, together with the British islands at large; as well as Serica, the borders of China, the Peninsula beyond the Ganges, the eastern part of India, and Taprobana; yet the ground lost by geographers in Africa, nearly, if not entirely, overbalanced all the latter acquisitions. So that in Africa, Herodotus knew more than Ptolemy, vastly more than Strabo. For, it is certain, that

Herodotus had a very positive, and in some degree, circumstantial, knowledge, of the course of the river Niger; now, by the discoveries recently made by Mr. Park, shewn to be the same with the Joliba, or great inland river of Africa: so that we must extend his knowledge of the inland part of Africa to the same point, known to Ptolemy, and to the Romans. Again, Ethiopia, and the general course of the Nile, to a certain point, were alike known to Herodotus and to Ptolemy, by report; although the place of the distant fountains of the Nile was involved in obscurity. But the striking difference in the quantity of space known, in Africa, to these authors, respectively, arose from Herodotus's knowing that Africa extended a vast way to the south of the Nile, and Niger, and that it had been sailed round; whilst Ptolemy was either ignorant of the circumstance, or disbelieved it.

In point of discrimination also, as well as of extent, geography, in some particulars, lost ground between the times of Herodotus and Strabo for Herodotus knew that the Caspian sea was a lake, and describes it as such; but this was afterwards either forgotten, or the opinion was overruled: and from the date of Alexander's expedition, to Ptolemy, the Caspian passed for a gulf of the Northern ocean; to which it was supposed to be joined, by an exceeding long and narrow strait. So that an actual visit to the spot, by Alexander and his followers, had the singular effect of falsifying, instead of improving, the systems of geography.

It is a common and just remark, that the authority

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