COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 495
land trade thus first connected the inhabitants of the coasts of
the North Sea with those living on the shores of the Adriatic
and the Euxine.
The Phoenicians of Carthage, and probably those inhabiting
the cities of Tartessus and Gades, which had been colonised
two hundred years earlier, visited a considerable portion of the
north-west coast of Africa, even beyond Cape Bojador, although
the Chretes of Hanno is neither the Chremetes of the Meteoro-
logica of Aristotle, nor yet our Gambia.* Here were situated
the numerous Tyrian cities, whose numbers were estimated by
Strabo at 300, which were destroyed by Pharusians and Nigritians.
Amongst these was Cerne (Dicuil's Gaulea according
to Letronne), the principal station for ships, as well as the chief
emporium of the colonies on the coast. The Canary Islands
and the Azores, (which latter were regarded by Don Fernando,
the son of Columbus, as the Cassiterides discovered by the
Carthaginians,) and the Orkneys, Faroe Islands, and Iceland,
became the respective western and northern intermediate
stations for passing to the New Continent. They indicate
the two directions by which the European portion of the
human race first became acquainted with the natives of North
and Central America. This consideration gives a great, and
I might almost say, a cosmical importance to the question
whether and how early the Phoenicians of the mother-country
or those of the Iberian and African settlements (Gadeira,
Carthage, and Cerne). were acquainted with Porto Santo,
Madeira, and the Canary Islands. In a long series of events
we willingly seek to trace the first and guiding link of the
chain. It is probable that fully 2000 years elapsed from the
foundation of Tartessus and Utica by Phoenicians, to the
discovery of America by the northern course, that is to say,
to Eric Randau's voyage to Greenland, which was followed by
voyages to North Carolina; and that 2500 years intervened
before Christopher Columbus, starting from the old Phoenician
settlement of Gadeira, made the passage by the south-west
route, f
* On the Chremetes, see Aristot., Meteor., lib. i. p. 350 (Bekk.) ; and
on the most southern points of which Hanno makes mention in his
ship's journal, see my Rel. Hist., t. i. p. 172; and Examen crit. de la
Geog. t. i. pp. 39, 180, and 288 t. iii. ; p. 135. Gosselin, Hecherches mr la
Geog. System, des Anciens, t. i. pp. 94 and 98; Ukert, th. i. 1, s. 61-66.
t Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 826. The destruction of Phoenician colonies