In like manner, _Diodorus Siculus_ undertakes to prove, That _America_ was known to the Antients; telling a Story, how the _Phenicians_ were driven by a Storm from the Coasts of _Africa_ West-ward, falling at last upon a great and altogether unknown Island, which our late Expositors take for _America_; Must it therefore be so? Surely not, for it is onely a bare Story, without any Proof or the least Testimony. They endeavor to make _Aristotle_ bolster up their opinion that he had a knowledge of this New-World, which with no small pains they pump from these Words: “Beyond the _Herculean_ Pillars, certain _Carthaginian_ Merchants penetrated the Atlantick Ocean so far, that at last they found a vast, yet un-inhabited Island, producing nothing but Herbage, Plants, and Wild-Beasts, yet interlac’d with many Meandring Rivers, abounding with several sorts of Fish, lying some days Sail from the Continent; they Landing, found a Soyl so fertile, and Air so temperate, that there they setled, and were the first Planters of that Isle. But the _Carthaginians_ having intelligence thereof, Prohibited all Persons whatsoever, upon Pain of Death, to go thither, fearing the place being so much commended, all the People would be ready to flock thither, and desert their own, and so utterly unfurnish and debilitate their then growing Common-wealth.” [Sidenote: _Æneid._ lib. 6.] But how could the _Carthaginians_ find _America_, without the use of the Compass? How happen’d it, that they were so taken with the fertility of this their New-found-Land, when the Adjacent Countreys and Fields about _Carthage_ are every where Flourishing, and most Luxurious? So that it may better be suppos’d, that what _Aristotle_ found so long since, may rather be the _Canary-Isles_, or _Great-Brittain_, than _America_. The _Greeks_ having then also made some Inspection into the _Brittish-Isles_. They would also make you believe, that _Virgil_ the Prince of Latin Poets, had known the New-World in these Verses; _Æneid._ lib. 6. _There, there’s the Prince, oft promis’d us before, Divine_ Augustus Cæsar, _who once more Shall Golden Days bring to th’_ Ausonian _Land, Kingdoms that once old_ Saturn _did command, And shall His power to_ India _extend, Beyond the Annual Circle, and beyond The Sun’s long Progress, where great_ Atlas _bears, Laden with Golden Stars, the glittering Sphears;_ Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis, _Augustus Cæsar_, divûm genus, aurea condet Sæcula, qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva Saturno quondam, super & Garamantas & Indos Proferet imperium. Jacet extra sidera tellus, Extra anni Solisque vias, ubi cœlifer _Atlas_ Axem humero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum. [Sidenote: _America_ was not known to the Ancients.]