an Sea.]

III.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT ATLANTIC ISLAND.

The cosmographers do not write of this ancient Atlantic Island because
there was no memory, when they wrote, of its very rich commercial
prosperity in the second, and perhaps in the first age. But from what
the divine Plato tells us and from the vestiges we see which agree with
what we read, we can not only say where it was and where parts of it
were, as seen in our time, but we can describe it almost exactly, its
grandeur and position. This is the truth, and the same Plato affirms it
as true, in the Timaeus, where he gives its truthful and marvellous
history.

We will speak first of its situation, and then of its inhabitants. It is
desirable that the reader should give his attention because, although it
is very ancient history, it is so new to the ordinary teaching of
cosmography that it may cause such surprise as to raise doubts of the
story, whence may arise a want of appreciation.

From the words which Plato refers to Solon, the wisest of the seven of
Greece, and which Solon had heard with attention from the most learned
Egyptian priest in the city called Delta, we learn that this Atlantic
Island was larger than Asia and Africa together, and that the eastern
end of this immense island was near the strait which we now call of
Gibraltar. In front of the mouth of the said strait, the island had a
port with a narrow entrance; and Plato says that the island was truly
continental. From it there was a passage by the sea, which surrounded
it, to many other neighbouring islands, and to the main land of Europe
and Africa. In this island there were kings of great and admirable power
who ruled over that and many adjacent islands as well as the greater
part of Europe and Africa, up to the confines of Egypt, of which I shall
treat presently. The extent of the island was from the south, where were
the highest mountains, to the north. The mountains exceeded in extent
any that now exist, as well in their forests, as in height, and in
beauty. These are the words of Plato in describing the situation of this
most richly endowed and delightful Atlantic Island. It now remains for
me to do my duty, which is to explain what has been said more clearly
and from it to deduce the situation of the island.

From what Plato says that this island had a port near the mouth of the
strait of the pillars of Hercules, that it was larger than Asia and
Africa together, and that i