On the king’s widow, Cleopatra, succeeding him on the throne, Eudoxus was despatched on a second voyage, with a still richer cargo, for purposes of exchange; but his previous good fortune did not, on this occasion, attend him; for, on his return, he was driven by adverse winds on the south coast of Æthiopia, where he is said to have conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles the natives did not possess, receiving in exchange a supply of water and pilots for his voyage. Before, however, taking his departure, he had made himself acquainted with a few words of their language, and having ascertained that the portion of a prow he had seen on the beach, representing the head of a horse, belonged to a vessel which the natives said had come from the west, he took it with him to Egypt, where he exhibited it in the market-place. Some of the Egyptian pilots, it is further stated, on examining this figure head, recognized it as that of a vessel which had sailed from Gades (Cadiz), beyond the river Lixus,[198] and had not returned. She was one, they said, of a class of vessels styled “horses” (from the figure of that animal borne upon the prow), which were employed in fishing around Maurusia as far south as Lixus.[199] Eudoxus, from the account of the pilots, inferred the possibility of circumnavigating Africa, and resolved to attempt it, first visiting various parts of Europe to procure the necessary funds. Having succeeded in doing so, he equipped one large ship, and two swift boats of considerable size, embarking merchandise of various kinds, as also physicians and singing boys, no doubt to cure and delight the natives of the places he proposed visiting. No particulars are given of this voyage except that he unfortunately lost his ship, and returned to Egypt. It must be added, that Strabo doubts the story of Eudoxus, and sneers at the discovery of the head of the Spanish ship, thus casting ridicule on a statement which has at least the merit of being circumstantial, and which tends to confirm the general correctness of the narrative as well as the authenticity of the voyage round the Cape in the days of Pharaoh Necho, related by Herodotus. But Strabo, to whom posterity is indebted for a vast amount of ancient geographical knowledge, was in this case merely the exponent of the ignorant prejudices of his age. Of the fact there is little doubt. Few persons who have studied the observations of Rennell, Humboldt, and Heeren, on this subject, without reference to the questionable extent of the voyages of the Carthaginians under Hanno, will doubt the accounts preserved by Herodotus and Strabo; though both these distinguished authors treat as romance the circumstances they have recorded. [Sidenote: Opinion of Dr. Vincent on the circumnavigation of Africa.]