Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/164

 150 STRABO. BOOK. II. his journey back, he was carried by the winds above Ethi- opia, and being thrown on certain [unknown] regions, he conciliated the inhabitants by presents of grain, wine, and cakes of pressed figs, articles which they were without; receiving in exchange a supply of water, and guides for the journey. He also wrote down several words of their lan- guage, and having found the end of a prow, with a horse carved on it, which he was told formed part of the wreck of a vessel coming from the west, he took it with him, and proceeded on his homeward course. He arrived safely in Egypt, where no longer Cleopatra, but her son, 1 ruled ; but he was again stripped of every thing on the accusation of having appropriated to his own uses a large portion of the merchandise sent out. However, he carried the prow into the market-place, and exhibited it to the pilots, who recognised it as being come from Gades. 2 The merchants [of that place] employing large vessels, but the lesser traders small ships, which they style horses, from the figures of that animal borne on the prow, and in which they go out fishing around Maurusia, 3 as far as the Lixus. 4 Some of the pilots professed to recognise the prow as that of a vessel which had sailed beyond the river Lixus, but had not returned. 5 From this Eudoxus drew the conclusion, that it was possi- ble to circumnavigate Libya; he therefore returned home, and having collected together the whole of his substance, set out on his travels. First he visited Dicsearchia, 6 and then Marseilles, and afterwards traversed the whole coast as far as Gades. Declaring his enterprise everywhere as he journeyed, he gathered money sufficient to equip a great ship, and two boats, resembling those used by pirates. On board these he placed singing girls, physicians, and artisans of various kinds, being the offspring of his former wife, whom he had divorced, by her former marriage with Philometor. ' Ptolemy VIII. was nominally king, but his mother Cleopatra still held most of the real authority in her hands. 2 Cadiz. 3 Western Mauritania, the modern kingdom of Fez. 4 This river is now named Lucos, and its mouth, which is about 30 leagues distant from Cadiz, is called Larais or Larache. 5 Humboldt, Cosmos ii. 489, note, mentions the remains of a ship of the Red Sea having been brought to the coast of Crete by westerly currents. Pozzuolo, close by Naples.