For eight days did the tempest rage, when, at the end of that time, the wind dropped and the sky cleared, I found that we were quite close to the shore, and off a headland beyond which the coast stretched away indefinitely to the south. Continuing our course in that direction, we came in sight of a mountainous island, richly wooded and extremely picturesque. The glowing sun and the genial temperature reminded us of our beloved Phœnicia; and so tempting was the aspect of the place, that I resolved to disembark, not merely as a matter of pleasure, but to look to the ships, which, after their strain, required some examination.

We anchored in a charming bay, and were soon surrounded by canoes full of savages, of whom the first characteristic that I noticed was their low foreheads and yet elongated skulls. To my surprise, they addressed us in the Libyan tongue, and proved to be the true Garamantine or red Libyans. We were the first Orientals they had ever seen on their shores; but one of their old men stated that he had been to Rusadir, and had seen Phœnicians there. They received us very kindly, and told us that their island was one of a group that was situated to the west of Libya. Ignorant of navigation, they could give me no information about distance; and all that I could make out was that the coast of Libya extended far to the south, and was inhabited by people of the same race as themselves; and that still farther south there was a region where the men were like animals, and perfectly black.

"That's a country worth seeing; I should like to catch a black man," said Bichri.

The residents, I observed, wore bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, which were, I found, made of gold; and in reply to my inquiry whether the gold was found in the island, they told me that they obtained it both in nuggets and in dust from the Garamantines of the mainland, who collected it by means of fleeces at the mouths of their rivers.

The people did not attach any great value to their gold, and were quite ready to barter it away very freely for many things we had to offer them; for instance, for some glass trinkets they gave me as much gold dust as I could hold in the hollow of my hand, while for such things as knives, lance-heads, or swords, they would give an equal weight in gold. The delight of my people was unbounded, and I had the utmost difficulty in preventing them from bartering away all their weapons. Hannibal sold his helmet, crest and all; and Jonah even parted with his trumpet, boasting that he could now have one of pure gold, with which to play before the King; but so enchanted was he with the country, that if the inhabitants would have accepted him for their god he would have been quite ready to reside permanently amongst them.

I spent a fortnight in purchasing gold and repairing the ships, and an interesting period we all found it. The fertile soil was productive of some of the finest fruits I had ever seen; one fruit in particular with a scaly covering was very delicious. The valleys were full of orange-trees of the growth of centuries, and the mountains were clothed with magnificent woods, in which beautiful little birds with yellow plumage were fluttering about, and singing exquisitely. Bichri, who did not care about purchasing more than just enough gold to ornament his belt and quiver, spent several whole days in these woods with Dionysos, and succeeded in catching some of the bright little songsters, which he secured in a cage; but his trouble was of little avail, as they all died upon their passage.

As for Judge Gebal, he manifested such a keen appreciation of the charms of the scenery that we had to keep him tied up to prevent his running away; but the time for our departure necessarily arrived, and, after the repairs were all completed, we reluctantly bade farewell to the lovely archipelago, upon which I bestowed the name of the Fortunate Islands.

Once more at sea, I had no difficulty in determining my course. All my party were eager to visit the wonderful gold-countries, and Bichri persisted in saying that he should like to catch sight of the black men; Himilco just at first protested against going in a direction where wine would not be forthcoming, but his objection was soon overruled, and he was contented with our resolution to sail southward. What caused us much bewilderment as we advanced, was, that not only did the sun rise higher over our heads, but the Cabiri descended lower towards the horizon. Himilco complained that we were sailing out of reach of the protection of the gods; I pondered the matter, but kept my thoughts to myself.

After running some distance to the east, the coast resumed its southerly direction; and then it was that the sun, which day by day had gradually risen higher in the heavens, stood vertically over our heads, and then began to change its position, shining at last upon my left hand instead of upon my right. Evening after evening, too, brought into view constellations that were quite unknown to us; and so great was the amazement of all on board, that I resolved upon holding a general consultation of officers and pilots, and the more intelligent of the sailors, in order to discover a solution of the mystery.

Hamilcar gave it as his opinion that the gods must have been making some alterations in the face of the heavens; Hasdrubal suggested that perhaps we had passed the bounds of our own world and entered upon another; whilst Himilco avowed his suspicion that unless something of that kind had occurred, the world must be round, and we were on the other side of it. Absurd and outrageous as Himilco's conjecture appeared to every one else, I confess it chimed in to a certain degree with my own speculations, and set me reflecting that if it were so it must be the sun and the stars that were standing still, and the world that was moving round them. But, after all, Himilco was much more inclined to believe in a prodigy than to entertain any of these fanciful theories.

Pressed with inquiries as to what I intended to do, I announced my resolution of continuing my course to the south; if ultimately the coast should incline to the west (or what I presumed to be the west), I should return to the Fortunate Islands; but if, as I anticipated, it turned to the east, I should go on following it, under the expectation of getting to the north at last, and reaching Egypt by way of the Sea of Reeds. This scheme of circumnavigating the entire land of Libya commended itself entirely to the judgment of my pilots, but it quite baffled the comprehension of Hannibal and all the landsmen.

When I spoke to Hannibal about arriving at Egypt, he looked quite aghast, and exclaimed:

"Egypt! here are we sailing farther and farther away from the Straits of Gades; and yet you talk about getting this way to Egypt. Impossible!"

"Patience!" I said; "perhaps we may find you a short cut even yet!"

He shook his head dubiously; and even Hanno observed that the mysteries of navigation were very abstruse, and that the studies which he had pursued at Sidon did not enable him to solve these enigmas.

"Ah! you should have travelled more, young man," said Himilco; "and you should have learned to know the stars."

"I should think this voyage is travelling enough for any one," replied Hanno.

Chamai merely remarked that he was quite sure that they might all rely with perfect confidence in my judgment. And thus the consultation was brought to a close.

Many times did we approach the coast with the intention of landing; but either it was utterly desolate, or it was so crowded with black men, who yelled and assumed such a threatening attitude, that we always postponed any attempt to go ashore. One night in particular, as we were passing under a promontory that I had named "the chariot of the gods," the noises we heard seemed of so threatening a character that I deemed it prudent to put out a little further to sea; but at length our provisions began to run short, and there was nothing to be done but to venture on land. Bichri, patient and enduring as he ever was, complained of living on salt fish; Jonah murmured that there was short allowance for ourselves, and no fruit for Gebal; and Hannibal regretted that we were losing our chance of picking up gold. I was accordingly induced to lay to as soon as I found a convenient opportunity.

Our anchorage was the estuary of a river apparently as large as the Egyptian Nile; its banks were covered with thick woods; numbers of crocodiles and hippopotamuses were visible in the water by its shore; and great birds, uttering shrill and piercing cries, whirled around above our heads.

For four days we wandered about without finding any sign of human being; we obtained, however, an abundance of wild fruit, and shot several buffaloes and antelopes, of which a great portion of the flesh was carried on board and salted. On returning from one of the foraging excursions, Bichri came running to me, looking utterly woe-begone; he was followed by Dionysos, weeping bitterly, and Jonah, gesticulating vehemently, and apparently as much agitated as himself.

"What's the matter, Bichri?" I asked.

"Gebal has gone!" he exclaimed; "he has been carried off by Bodmilcar's monkeys."

I burst out laughing. In his indignation he looked as if he could have annihilated me.

"I am sure they were Bodmilcar's!" he insisted; "creatures with long tails; they took him away; he never would have gone with them of his own accord."

Nothing I could do served to calm him; he would not be pacified until I allowed him to take some men and go out again in search of his lost favourite; but in the evening they all returned worn out with fatigue, only to announce, as might have been expected, that their search had been fruitless. There was no doubt the monkey had been delighted to join the troop of his own tribe that was gambolling in the woods. Bichri was very inadequately consoled for his loss by bringing back a great black monster, which, after he had wounded it, the men that were with him, in spite of the huge brute's desperate defence, had succeeded in despatching with their pikes. It certainly was a most formidable-looking creature, and I subsequently had it stuffed, and it may now be seen in the temple of Ashtoreth in Sidon. Bichri told us that after it had six or seven arrows in its body it snapped a pike-staff in two as easily as if it had been a reed; upon which Hannibal remarked that the strength that could break asunder a pike-handle made of oak of Bashan must be prodigious.

We were obliged to depart without finding any vestige of Gebal. After sailing on for about a fortnight, our supplies again ran short, and as we were discussing what steps we should take in consequence, Hannibal interrupted us by shouting:

"A gaoul ahead!"

Every eye was bent in the direction to which we were pointed, and sure enough there was a gaoul of Phœnician build; but on farther scrutiny it was evident that it was all dismantled, and drifting at the mercy of the waves.

"May be a ruse of Bodmilcar's," suggested Himilco.

Taking his hint, we approached very cautiously, and it was not until we had thoroughly satisfied ourselves that there was no one on board to answer our signals that we ventured close alongside. It was perfectly deserted.

Gisgo said that he remembered having once abandoned his ship off the Pityusai Islands, and that probably this was a similar case; but he could not understand what current could have borne the gaoul to this distant shore.

"Never mind where she comes from," I answered; "let us hope she may prove a godsend."

Hannibal and Himilco, who went on board, brought back the welcome intelligence that the hold was well freighted with corn and wine, the whole of which we joyfully transferred to our own vessels, leaving the empty hull again to the wind and waves. In the evening I caused an offering to be made to Ashtoreth in acknowledgment of her manifest interference on our behalf.

Next day we hove in sight of a lofty promontory, the top of which was as flat as a table. A strong gale was springing up.

"Never mind the wind," cried Jonah. "What do I care for the wind now? I've a purse full of gold; plenty to eat; plenty to drink; and a red tunic before long. Tempests be hanged! Long live the King!"

The gale for some days increased in violence, and all attempts at steering were quite useless. When, after eight days, the sea became calmer, I could make out that the land was lying to our left. This was according to my prognostications, and I followed the coast to the north with renewed confidence, day by day becoming more and more convinced that the sun was again rising in the heavens; and one lovely night, about a fortnight afterwards, Himilco suddenly seized my arm, and making me point to the northern horizon, exclaimed in a voice trembling with excitement:

"See, the Cabiri!"

"Yes; true enough; there are the Cabiri," I answered, as full of delight as he was himself. "We have accomplished an unheard-of thing," I added; "we have circumnavigated Libya."

"And to-morrow," he said, "we shall have the sun once more on our right; we are on our way to the Sea of Reeds."

"Aye, to the Sea of Reeds! and to Sidon, our own Sidon! Sidon the glorious, Sidon the incomparable!"

There was none to witness; the crew were sleeping in their berths; and in the fervour of our enthusiasm we threw ourselves into each other's arms.

A month later, as we were taking in fresh water at the mouth of a river, we fell in with some black men, who bore a marked resemblance to the Ethiopians, who are often seen in Egypt. One of them could speak a little Egyptian; he told me he had learnt it in Ethiopia, which is subject to Pharaoh. His own country, he stated, was six months' journey below the southernmost limit of Ethiopia; but he could give no information whatever about its distance by sea. These negroes called themselves Kouch, and having never seen any Phœnicians, took us for Egyptians; but as soon as we explained that so far from being subjects of Pharaoh we were enemies of the Misraim, they welcomed us as friends, and treated us with the utmost cordiality. They had evidently a great abhorrence of the Egyptians on account of the cruel ravages that had been committed on their northern boundaries.

For the next three months we never found a favourable wind to speed us on our way. We employed our time in transacting business with the Kouch, and in making hunting-expeditions into the interior of the country. In the way of exchanges we procured gold, ivory, pearls, and skins; and an immense success attended our hunting-excursions in a region that was found to abound in elephants, rhinoceros, and giraffes, as well as in smaller game. There was not one of us who had not some trophy of our good fortune or our skill to exhibit. Bichri killed a lion, with the skin of which he made himself a mantle, and even little Dionysos brought down a panther.

At length the opportunity for which we had watched so eagerly arrived, and we set sail once more. Ten days after our departure, while a stiffish breeze was blowing from the north-east, I noticed not very far ahead of us a large Phœnician gaoul, which appeared to have sustained some damage, and to be drifting along under the action of the wind. In answer to my signals, she gave me to understand that she had lost some oars and her yard-arm, and that she was in need of help. Always anxious to render assistance to a vessel in distress, but yet fearful of treachery I immediately ordered out my men, but meanwhile instructed Hannibal to have the catapults in readiness; and thus prepared, the Ashtoreth approached the gaoul on one side, and the Adonibal on the other, the Cabiros following in the rear.

There was no need for any apprehension on my part. As soon as we were fairly within view of each other, the captain, standing on the stern, raised his arms and shouted:

"By Baal Chamaim! it's Mago!"

"By Ashtoreth and all that's holy!" I exclaimed; "it is my cousin Ethbaal!"

The recognition was a mutual pleasure; our ships were soon alongside, and we were grasping each other's hands.

"How rejoiced I am to see you, Mago!" he repeated over and over again; "Phœnicia has given you up in despair; every one mourned you as lost. By Ashtoreth! you must have been saved by a miracle!"

And he put his hands upon my shoulders and long and keenly scrutinised my face.

"Tell me two things," I said; "where am I? and what has brought you here?"

Ethbaal seemed full of surprise; but said:

"Come, come; you are laughing at me. You must know well enough where you are."

I assured him that I was in earnest in what I said, and repeated my assertion that I was by no means aware of where I was; and when Himilco informed him that we had come from a place where the Cabiri could not be seen at all, and where the sun shone on the wrong side of us, he looked as if he thought we had taken leave of our senses. Nor did he appear to understand much better when Himilco went on to expatiate upon having once drunk fish-oil, and having had no wine for many months together.

"Mysterious!" muttered Ethbaal to himself; "here is Mago, close to the entrance of the Sea of Reeds, only six days' voyage from Ophir, and yet he comes from the south, after sailing four years ago westward to Tarshish! Strange!"

He pondered awhile, and then addressed himself to me:

"Yes; you are close to the Sea of Reeds."

I uttered an exclamation of delight, and turning to my people cried triumphantly:

"Was I not right? Did I not tell you that we were on our way to Egypt? Lucky we did not turn back from the Fortunate Islands!"

Ethbaal appeared to be confirmed in his suspicion that I must be mad, and declared his total ignorance of the Fortunate Islands:

"I have never heard of them!"

"No, nor yet of the Tin Islands; nor yet of Prydhayn; nor yet of the river of the Suomi; nor yet of the chariot of the gods," exclaimed Himilco. "Compared with us you are mere coasters, loafing about in cockle-shells."

Genuine Sidonian as he was, my cousin could not brook any insinuation against his seamanship, and colouring deeply at the slight which he conceived was offered to him, he said in a tone of anger:

"Out upon your insolence! do you call a man a coaster who has made the voyage to Ophir? do you call my gaoul a cockle-shell? Are you mad, or are you drunk, you one-eyed fool?"

Himilco, recalled to a sense of propriety, changed his banter into cajolery:

"Now then, my dear fellow, you can do a great deal better than bully me. Haven't you a little wine on board? It would be a great boon to give us a skin; we haven't tasted a drop this two months."

I interceded with Ethbaal, asking him to overlook what might seem to be rudeness on the part of Himilco, and assured him that our adventures had been so extraordinary that he must really pardon a little bragging. He not only took my mediation in a good spirit, but sent for a goat-skin of wine, which he himself handed to Himilco, in token of forgiveness. Saying that he should make an offering with it to the Cabiri, the pilot emptied so large a share of the contents down his throat that his companions began to wonder when his draught was coming to an end, and almost despaired of the wine lasting out till it should come to their turn to partake of it.

"Glorious wine! wine of Arvad, Hannibal," he said, smacking his lips as he removed the goat-skin from his mouth, and passed it to the rest.

Gisgo and Hannibal clutched at the bottle together.

"Nay, nay, my friends," cried Ethbaal; "do not be fighting for the wine. I have plenty more. My cargo is all wine which I am carrying to Ophir."

"Could you not take me with you?" asked Himilco eagerly; "my services are quite at your disposal."