Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/68

 4^ HisTuKY OF ART IN PIKKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. alteration down to our own day, for Port Ala/ton is but a form of Port Jlfa?t>* Towards the end of the sixth century, Carthage had established her supremacy over at least half the Mediterranean, but already her merchants and captains were beginning to find the boundaries of that land-locked sea too narrow for their energies. Her ships were every year becoming more ready to pass the Pillars of Hercules and to navigate the Atlantic. There the Tyrians had preceded them, but with less boldness. With a commission from the Carthaginian senate, a certain Hanno explored the coast of Africa as far as the eighth degree of south latitude.' 2 As a result of that expedition the whole African coast from the straits to Cape Nun was colonized, more than three hundred settlements being established there, of which a few, such as Tingis (Tangier] and Sala (Rabat) are now represented by Moorish towns. Although most of these were abandoned, some retained a con- siderable commerce, such as Cerne (the island of Arguin), where great annual fairs used to be held. :! In the course of these explorations the Carthaginians discovered the Canaries and touched at Madeira. 1 " From a passage in Scylax, it would even appear that they attempted to push still farther west, and got as far as the Mcr dcs Sargasscs (?), but the quantity of weeds with which the surface of the waves was covered made them think it would be dangerous to venture farther, and they retraced their steps. 5 If the wars against the Sicilian Greeks and the Romans had not come to distract the 1 According to DIODORUS the Balearic Islands supported a large Phoenician population by the side of their indigenous tribes. J The official report of Hanno's voyage, which was deposited in the temple of Baal-Ammon at Carthage, has been preserved to us in its entirety by a Greek translation. See the Geographi Grcvci Minores, Muller's edition (I)idot, vol. i. part i.), and the two maps prepared by that learned editor for the illustration of the text. 3 SCYLAX, Periple (?), 112. 4 This we may infer from many texts which it would take too long to discuss. Among them is a passage in DIODORUS, in which he gives a brilliant description of a fertile and well-watered island, with a delicious climate, which was situated " opposite Africa, in the ocean to the west, and separated from the main land by several days' sail" (v. xix.). After its discovery by the Phoenicians they paid periodical visits to it, he tells us, down to a very late period (v. xx.). 5 FR. LENORMANT, Manuel (THistoirc ancienne, vol. iii., p. 200 ; SCYLAX, 112.