Free Destroy Carthage by Alan Lloyd

equalled that from the Tillars to Cerne. From here, encountering a great river which is called the Chretes, we came to a lagoon containing three islands, each larger than Cerne. A day's sailing brought us to the far end of the lagoon, overshadowed by towering mountains in which lived savages clad in the pelts of wild animals. They stopped us landing by throwing stones at us. After reaching another broad river, full of crocodiles and hippopotami ('river-horses'), we returned to Cerne.
    Later, we sailed south again from Cerne, following the coast for twelve days. The whole land was inhabited by Ethiopians who fled at our approach. Their tongue was in­comprehensible, even by the Lixite interpreters. On the twelfth day we drew near a range of high mountains covered with aromatic trees of coloured wood. Sailing beside these for two days, we came to a great bay with flat land on either side. At intervals during the night, fires flared up in all directions. Taking on water, we skirted the coast for five more days until reaching an immense gulf which the inter­preters called West Horn. In it was a big island, and within the island a lagoon containing yet another island. Landing, we saw nothing except forest, but at night fires burned and we heard pipes, cymbals, drums and multitudinous shout­ing.
    Terrified, we departed swiftly, coasting a region scented with the smell of burning wood. Streams of fire plunged to the sea, and the heat prevented an approach to land. Con­tinuing apprehensively and without delay for four days, we saw nocturnal fires at the centre of which one blaze rose above all others, appearing to touch the stars. This, it transpired, was the highest mountain we had seen, and was called the Chariot of the Gods.
    On the third day of our departure from this place, having sailed beside more fiery streams, we came to a gulf called the Southern Horn. At the head of this gulf was an island resembling the last mentioned in that it enclosed a lake containing another island. This was full of savages, of whom the greater number were women. Their bodies were covered with hair, and the interpreters called them Gorillas. We pursued them. The men were too elusive for us, climbing precipices and throwing down rocks, but we caught three women who bit and scratched their captors. We killed and skinned them, bearing their pelts back to Carthage. We went no further; our provisions were inadequate.
    Beset with obscurities, deliberate or otherwise, the Hanno report has fascinated and frustrated countless scholars. Their interpolations form a subject in its own right. Briefly, expert opinion, though divided in detail, has become decreasingly sceptical as time has passed. Among other ancients, Pliny the Elder was unimpressed by Hanno's claims. On the basis of the report, he protested, many fabulous things were asserted 'of which, in fact, neither memory nor trace remain.' Later scholars found it difficult to believe that the Carthaginians had outsailed medieval mariners. Throughout the middle ages, it was noted, Arab sailors never managed to progress beyond Cape Yubi, the southernmost point of the Moroccan coast. Even the Portuguese did not succeed until the 16th century.
    Two factors invalidate the objection that such an exploit was navigationally and logistically impossible, i, the combina­tion of winds and currents which baffled medieval sailing ships was not insuperable for galleys which could travel under oar- power. 2, long stretches of the Mauretanian coast, arid and lifeless in Christian times, were life-supporting in previous centuries. The dehydration of the Sahara, as mentioned, has accelerated rapidly. In Hanno's day, wadis now long dry bore fresh water to the western shore.
    Modern commentators observe the matter-of-fact quality of the report and the absence of such fantasies as might be ex­pected in fictional passages. Indeed, the descriptions of tropical exploration - the largely credible savages, the drums in the night,