Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/165

CHAP. in. 4. INTRODUCTION. 151 and launching into open sea, was carried towards India by steady westerly winds. 1 However, they who accompanied him becoming wearied with the voyage, steered their course towards land, but much against his will, as he dreaded the force of the ebb and flow. What he feared actually occurred. The ship grounded, but gently, so that it did not break up at once, but fell to pieces gradually, the goods and much of the timber of the ship being saved. With these he built a third vessel, closely resembling a ship of fifty oars, and continuing his voyage, came amongst a people who spoke the same lan- guage as that some words of which he had on a former occa- sion committed to writing. He further discovered, that they were men of the same stock as those other Ethiopians, and also resembled those of the kingdom of Bogus. 2 However, he abandoned his [intended] voyage to India, and returned home. On his voyage back he observed an uninhabited island, well watered and wooded, and carefully noted its position. Having reached Maurusia in safety, he disposed of his ves- sels, and travelled by land to the court of Bogus. He recom- mended that sovereign to undertake an expedition thither. This, however, was prevented on account of the fear of the [king's] advisers, lest the district should chance to expose them to treachery, by making known a route by which foreigners might come to attack them. Eudoxus, however, became aware, that although it was given out that he was himself to be sent on this proposed expedition, the real intent was to aban- don him on some desert island. He therefore fled to the Roman territory, and passed thence into Iberia. Again, he equipped two vessels, one round and the other long, furnished with fifty oars, the latter framed for voyaging in the high seas, the other for coasting along the shores. He placed on board agricultural implements, seed, and builders, and hastened on the same voyage, determined, if it should prove too long, to winter on the island he had before observed, sow his seed, 1 Gosselin observes, that this steady westerly wind, so far from carry- ing him towards India, would be entirely adverse to him in coasting along Africa, and doubling Cape Bojador ; and infers from hence that Eudoxus never really went that expedition, and that Strabo himself was ignorant of the true position of Africa. 2 A name common to many sovereigns of the different parts of Mauri- tania ; the king Bogus, or Bocchus, here spoken of, governed the king- dom of Fez.