get
their teeth cleansed. In this same river, there are many beasts
resembling horses; and upon the land, there are certain birds like our
cranes, which continually make war upon the serpents, which come thither
out of Arabia: Which birds, and likewise the rats, which eat the eggs of
the crocodiles, are held in great reverence and estimation, by the
Egyptians.

But now, to return to my subject of discoveries. In the year 485 before
Christ, Xerxes, king of Persia, sent his nephew Sataspis to discover
India; who sailed from the Mediterranean through the Straits of Hercules,
and passed the promontory of Africa, which we now call the Cape of Good
Hope; but, wearying of the length of the voyage, he returned back again,
as Bartholomew Diaz did in our days[27]. In 443 A. C. Hamilco and Hanno,
two Carthaginian commanders who governed that part of Spain now called
Andalusia, sailed from thence with two squadrons. Hamilco, sailing
towards the north, discovered the coasts of Spain, France, England,
Flanders, and Germany; and some allege that he sailed to Gothland, and
even to Thule or Iceland, standing under the Arctic circle, in 64 degrees
north, and continued his voyage during two years, till he came to that
northern island, where the day in June continues for twenty-two hours,
and the nights in December are of a similar length; on account of which
it is there wonderfully cold. His brother, Hanno, took his course to the
south, along the coast of Africa and Guinea, and discovered the Fortunate
Islands, now the Canaries, and the Orcades, Hesperides, and Gorgades, now
called the Cape de Verde islands. Proceeding onwards, Hanno doubled the
Cape of Good Hope, and went along the eastern coast of Africa to another
cape, called Aromaticum, now called Gardafu, and thence to the coast of
Arabia, and was five years employed in this voyage before his return to
Spain[28]. Others allege, that Hanno proceeded no farther than Sierra
Leona, which he colonized, and afterwards discovered as far as the
equinoctial line; but it would rather appear, from the length of time he
employed, that he must have accomplished the more extended navigation.

It is reported that the inhabitants of the country at the Cape of Good
Hope are great witches, and by inchantment bring certain serpents so much
under command, that they preserve their churches, churchyards, gardens,
orchards, barns, and cattle, both from wild beasts and thieves. When
these serpents see an