These voyages have, however, been seriously questioned by a modern writer of no mean authority, Dr. Vincent,[200] who denies altogether any circumnavigation of Africa previously to the expedition of the Portuguese. “Nothing is more easy,” he says, “than to affirm the accomplishment of these great attempts, where an author clogs himself with neither circumstances nor particulars; but whenever we obtain these, as we do in the journal of Nearchus, or the Periplus, we find, indeed, that the ancients performed great things with slender means; but we see also plainly what they could not do. We see with such vessels as they had, they could neither have got round the Cape of Good Hope, by adhering to the coast, where the violence of the ocean must have been insupportable, nor could they have avoided this by standing out to sea, as they had neither the means nor the knowledge to regain the shore, if they had lost sight of it for a single week.” He further asserts, that no voyages were accomplished except by coasting; and that no vessels were accustomed to cross the stormy waves of the ocean except, perhaps, the ships of the Veneti, in Brittany, noticed by Cæsar. And yet there is abundant ground for believing that the Phœnicians as well as the Carthaginians carried on a regular trade with Cadiz, and could hardly have failed to visit the British Isles; moreover, they must have often done so at seasons when they would have been liable to encounter heavy gales in the Bay of Biscay. Again, near the commencement of the Christian era, the vessels of Crete engaged in the commerce between Rome and Alexandria were evidently ships of considerable dimensions; and though, from their style of build and rig, they may not have been well adapted for long over-sea voyages, there seems no valid reason why they should not have made a coasting voyage round Africa. Besides, as the southern portions of that vast continent were doubtless as thickly peopled as the north, why should the traders on the east coast have limited their voyages and explorations to Sofala, and those on the west coast to Cape Corrientes? Even if so distant a trade did not prove sufficiently remunerative to encourage constant voyages, this is no reason why such a voyage should never have been made, or why the stories in Herodotus and Strabo should be deemed to have no foundation in fact. The admitted coasting character of all the early voyages in antiquity, is really one of the best arguments in favour of the longest of these expeditions; so that what Dr. Vincent states in support of his views, tells against the objection he raises, and tends to confirm the probability of the stories as we have them. [Sidenote: Remarks upon his opinion.]