It is only by collecting the local traditions of distant regions, by comparing the records of various nations, the writings of different times, by analyzing the names of places,[130] and reasoning upon all these various data at an interval of twenty centuries, that we are discovering the extent of the settlements of the Phœnicians. They had hidden their footsteps and concealed their ways from the wise[131] alike and from the simple: who can tell how many secrets lie buried in their tomb? If I have shown that the ignorance of “classical writers” is neither an argument nor an objection, the other objection that, “if known, it could not have been lost,” falls to the ground, for if concealed, it must have perished with the possessors. It is strange that, having regained it, we do not detect its ancient vestiges, and are unable to interpret the words, names, and phrases which, to the initiated, unmistakably reveal it. After Galileo, we detected in antiquity, by a passage of Pythagoras, the knowledge of the science of music. From similar indications, we found out, after we possessed the knowledge ourselves, that the whole scheme of the heavens was understood by them.[132] After Franklin had drawn down lightning, we apprehended, for the first time,[133] what chance had befallen Salmoneus, Servius Tullius,[134] and Sylvius Alladus.[135] Yet, if any discovery might be supposed to be notorious and incapable of concealment, and therefore not liable to perish, it would be the calling down of thunder and lightning, signalized, too, by the catastrophes of a prince of Greece, a lucumon of Alba, a king of Rome, and an eastern legislator.[136] Although the great ancient states did not pursue the sea trade, the Phœnicians were not without competitors. The Pelasgi, the Etruscans, the Greeks were their equals in _seamanship_. The two latter were far more powerful. They reserved the long voyage by no navigation laws, and must have been in possession of some exclusive knowledge. The compass, however it might aid, is not absolutely required in many long voyages. The Pacific was peopled without it. Within the Mediterranean the land served to guide, weather shores to protect. These, and the tides, aided the navigator all round Europe. The monsoons wafted him along on the Indian Ocean. But there was one voyage, which, with none of these aids, the Phœnicians, and they alone of all antiquity performed,--that of Western Africa. It was upon that coast, and in sight of its insurmountable natural difficulties, that the idea, here developed, first occurred to me. I then turned to the records of antiquity, and to those first and best pages of history, the myths, and found confirmation, and what rocks and reefs, blasts and currents had taught me.