[Footnote 348: The story is discredited by Mannert, _Geographie der Griechen und Roemer_, bd. i. pp. 19-26; Gossellin, _Recherches sur la geographie des Anciens_, tom. i. p. 149; Lewis, _Astronomy of the Ancients_, pp. 508-515; Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean_, vol. i. pp. 303-311, vol. ii. pp. 13-15; Leake, _Disputed Questions of Ancient Geography_, pp. 1-8. It is defended by Heeren, _Ideen ueber die Politik, den Verkehr_, etc., 3e aufl., Goettingen, 1815, bd. i. abth. ii. pp. 87-93; Rennell, _Geography of Herodotus_, pp. 672-714; Grote, _History of Greece_, vol. iii. pp. 377-385. The case is ably presented in Bunbury's _History of Ancient Geography_, vol. i. pp. 289-296, where it is concluded that the story "cannot be disproved or pronounced to be absolutely impossible; but the difficulties and improbabilities attending it are so great that they cannot reasonably be set aside without better evidence than the mere statement of Herodotus, upon the authority of unknown informants." Mr. Bunbury (vol. i. p. 317) says that he has reasons for believing that Mr. Grote afterwards changed his opinion and came to agree with Sir George Lewis.] [Footnote 349: In reading the learned works of Sir George Cornewall Lewis, one is often reminded of what Sainte-Beuve somewhere says of the great scholar Letronne, when he had spent the hour of his lecture in demolishing some pretty or popular belief: "Il se frotta les mains et s'en alla bien content." When it came to ancient history, Sir George was undeniably fond of "the everlasting No." In the present case his skepticism seems on the whole well-judged, but some of his arguments savour of undue haste toward a negative conclusion. He thus strangely forgets that what we call autumn is springtime in the southern hemisphere (_Astronomy of the Ancients_, p. 511). His argument that the time alleged was insufficient for the voyage is fully met by Major Rennell, who has shown that the time was amply sufficient, and that the direction of winds and ocean currents would make the voyage around southern Africa from east to west much easier than from west to east.] [Footnote 350: "No trace of it could be found in the Alexandrian library, either by Eratosthenes in the third, or by Marinus of Tyre in the second, century before Christ, although both of them were diligent examiners of ancient records." Major, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, p. 90.] [Sidenote: Voyage of Hanno.]