“Having taken in water there, we sailed forward during five days near
the land, until we came to a large bay, which our interpreter informed
us was called ‘the Western Horn.’ In this was a large island, and in the
island a salt-water lake, and in this another island, where, when we had
landed, we could discover nothing in the daytime except trees; but
in the night we saw many fires burning, and heard the sound of pipes,
cymbals, drums, and confused shouting. We were then afraid, and our
diviners ordered us to abandon the island. Sailing quickly away thence,
we passed by a country burning with fires and perfumes; and streams of
fire supplied thence fell into the sea. The country was untraversable
on account of the heat. So we sailed away quickly from there also, being
much terrified; and, passing on for four days, we observed at night a
country full of flames. In the middle was a lofty fire, larger than the
rest, which seemed to touch the stars. When day came, we discovered it
to be a huge hill, called ‘the Chariot of the Gods.’ On the third day
after our departure thence, after sailing by streams of fire, we arrived
at a bay, called ‘the Southern Horn;’ at the bottom of which lay an
island like the former one, having a lake, and in the lake another
island full of savage people, far the greater part of whom were women,
whose bodies were hairy, and whom our interpreters called ‘gorillæ.’
Though we pursued the men, we could not catch any of them; but all
escaped us, climbing over the precipices, and defending themselves
with stones. Three women were, however, taken; but they attacked their
conductors with their teeth and nails, and could not be prevailed upon
to accompany us. So we killed them, and flayed them, and brought their
skins with us to Carthage. We did not sail further on, our provisions
failing us.”
The style of this short work, though exceedingly simple and
inartificial, is not without its merits. It has the directness, the
perspicuity, and the liveliness of Cæsar’s Commentaries or of the Duke
of Wellington’s Despatches. Montesquieu[1317] says of it:--“Hanno’s
Voyage was written by the very man who performed it. His recital is
not mingled with ostentation. Great commanders write their actions with
simplicity, because they receive more honour from facts than words.”
If we may take the work as a specimen of the accounts which Phoenician
explorers commonly gave of their travels in unknown regions, we must
regard them as having set a pattern which modern travellers would do
well to follow. Hanno gives us facts, not speculations--the things which
he has observed, not those of which he has dreamt; and he delivers his
facts in the fewest possible words, and in the plainest possible way. He
does not cultivate flowers of rhetoric; he does not unduly spin out his
narrative. It is plain that he is especially bent on making his meaning
clear, and he succeeds in doing so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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