According to his account, there had formerly, south of Libya, been an extensive sea, which received the water of several rivers, and to the south of which again lay the land of the negroes, who had faces like monkeys. This sea was the original Lake Tritonis, or Pallas, and the chain of lakes, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, extending from the vicinity of Gades to Karth,[35] in Byzatium (now known to us as the Tritons), are either marshes formed by the overflow of two great rivers from the south, whose waters have been diverted by Mount Atlas, or, when salt, are probably the remains of the same great sea. There are then, he represented, two mountainous ridges, the more southernly of which outpours its streams as far as the Tritonis and Mount Atlas, and the other sends its rivers, the Macar and the Bagradas, into our own Great Sea. Further west, issuing also from Mount Atlas, are other important rivers, which lose themselves in the sands. These, however, long centuries back, had an outlet into the inland branch of the great Atlantic Ocean, which, at that remote period, was the southern boundary of Libya, and extending eastwards towards the confines of Egypt, ultimately joined the Syrtes. Libya was thus a great peninsula, connected with the mainland only by a narrow isthmus, now the Straits of Gades, and enclosed on every other coast by water; on the north and east by the Syrtes, by which it was separated from Egypt; on the south by the inland sea that covered the present sandy desert; and on the west by the ocean itself.
But as time went on great changes were evolved. His face beaming with intelligence as he spoke, the old man told of mighty convulsions of the earth, and how they changed the isthmus of Gades into a strait, and how the waters were swept back by the shock, so that the whole flood of the ocean rushed through to the Great Sea, and the Great Sea receded and yielded to the upheaving of the land.
I listened with increasing interest. I knew already how the sea could overwhelm the land. I was also aware how the Siculians maintain that long ages back a neck of solid land had joined their country to the continent of the Vitalians. Many times, too, I had heard amongst Phœnicians how a deluge had detached the isle of Chittim from the mainland. And now I was hearing the wondrous tale of how the sea had retreated from the south of Libya.
He went on to say that when the waters rolled away they submerged an immense number of islands, leaving the Fortunate Islands[36] (of which I shall have to speak hereafter) as the sole representatives of what had previously been a vast archipelago, that had made communication easy, even in small boats, not only with the land of the Atlantides, but with that other great country that lies still further to the west. Now, however, that Atlantis has disappeared, all intercourse has been dropped with that remote land, from which both the red and white Libyans assert that they originally came, and whence migrating eastwards they founded cities as they advanced, became the first settlers in Egypt, and spread far and wide the knowledge of their gods, which were really the Dionysus and Minerva of the Hellenes and Vitalians, and Zeus, known among us Phœnicians as Baal-Hamon. According to their own account (which is confirmed by the Hellenes), the Pelasgians, under the leadership of Melkarth-Ouso, came into Libya, but afterwards retreated to the east. Then came the great convulsion when the land was upheaved and the waters receded, and the earth subsided into its present configuration; then, too, the Sidonians, protected by their gods, began to assert their sovereignty on the sea, and sending forth ships to every region of the world, opened emporiums of commerce, discovered mines, founded cities, taught the art of writing, and disseminated knowledge of every kind.
More and more as the aged Libyan recited his ancient legends had we become rapt in attention. Hannibal sat with his eyes wide open, and from time to time gave vent to ejaculations of astonishment; and I, though less surprised, for I had already speculated very much on these matters, was nevertheless deeply impressed with the clearness with which they had been laid before us. I retired that night with my brain agitated by excitement, and dreamed that I was commanding a magnificent fleet, and that we discovered the land beyond Atlantis; and when I woke in the morning, I made a vow in my mind that no sooner should my present expedition to Tarshish be completed, than I would set out on a voyage of discovery to the west.
We had been in Utica three days when Adonibal sent me a message that he wished to speak to me. Without loss of time I presented myself at the palace, and was conducted to the apartment from which the admiral can at once overlook the city, the harbour, and the sea. To his enquiry how long it would be before I took my departure, I replied that having taken in my cargo I hoped to sail in two days.
"Here, then," he said, "are letters for the suffects of Rusadir and Gades; and I intend to give you ten seamen to supply the places of those you have lost. I am sure there ought not to be any deficiency in your numbers in the event of your coming into collision with Bodmilcar."
I was proceeding to thank him for his liberality, but he stopped me, and said that he should have to trouble me for fifty shekels that I owed him.