from the Hebrew _Leb_, (heat,) and was sometimes partially extended to the
continent, but was geographically limited to the provinces between the
Great Syrtis and Egypt. The name Ethiopia is evidently Greek, (burning, or
black, visage.)

There is strong reason to believe that the Portuguese boast of the
sixteenth century--the circumnavigation of Africa--was anticipated by the
Phoenician sailors two thousand years and more. We have the testimony of
Herodotus, that Necho, king of Egypt, having failed in an attempt to
connect the Nile with the Red Sea by a canal, determine to try whether
another route might not be within his reach, and sent Phoenician vessels
from the Red Sea, with orders to sail round Africa, and return by the
Mediterranean. It is not improbable that, from being unacquainted with the
depth to which it penetrates the south, he had expected the voyage to be a
brief one. It seems evident that the navigators themselves did not
conceive that it could extend beyond the equator, from their surprise at
seeing the sun rise on their _right hand_. The narrative tells us--"The
Phoenicians, taking their course from the Red Sea, entered into the
Southern Ocean on the approach of autumn; they landed in Lybia, planted
corn, and remained till the harvest. They then sailed again. After having
thus spent two years, they passed the Columns of Hercules in the third,
and returned to Egypt." Herodotus doubted their story--"Their relation,"
says the honest old Greek, "may obtain belief from others, but to me it
seems incredible; for they affirmed, that, having sailed round Africa,
they _had the sun on their right hand_. Thus was Africa for the first time
known."

Thus the very circumstance which the old historian regarded as throwing
doubt on the discovery, is now one of the strongest corroborations of its
truth.[2] There appear to have been several attempts to sail along the