"We are Hellenes," he said, "of the tribe of the Phocians. We have no regular home, but we have been in the country round Mount Parnassus. We left our haunts there at the bidding of Apollo, who told us to depart, and to seek for other settlements. With our wives and children we were on our way to join our kinsmen, the Ionians, either in Epirus or in Corcyra. We were hoping there to find a happy and a settled residence."
Great tears stood in his eyes, and his companions in adversity could not suppress their sobs. I assured him that it was far from my wish to aggravate their misery, and that I really pitied them in their misfortune, so that they need not fear any harsh treatment at my hands.
"If we had been meeting you in regular warfare," he continued, "we should have fought on to the very death, and would have borne disaster and defeat without a murmur; but now who shall blame us, if we weep for our wives and dear ones perished in the waves?"
"But why, then, did you attack us?" I inquired.
"Listen, and you shall hear," he answered: "three days ago, we fell in with a great Phœnician ship; it was not alone, but was accompanied by several others. The captain hailed us and asked us to sell him some provisions: regarding the Phœnicians as all divine, we were all most ready to oblige them; we sent them oxen, fruit and corn; my own poor son and many others went besides; but no sooner had they got the supplies on board, than the pirates hoisted sail and made away. We had no remedy; there was no hope of recovering our people or our property; our boats cannot compete with yours in speed. In our fury we swore that we would be avenged, and vowed we would attack the first Phœnicians we should see. You were the first. Now you know all."
"Bodmilcar! by all the gods!" ejaculated Himilco. "It is Bodmilcar that has involved us in this trouble. To him we owe the death of our brave Hadlai, and the loss of all our men! Ten thousand curses on him! Moloch's bitterest curse be on his head!"
Anxious to learn whether this suspicion was well founded, I made inquiry as to what the Phœnician ship was like, and not only ascertained that it was large and round and high, but that the men on board were quite different to the men upon the smaller boats, who had brown faces, and wore dresses of another shape. These boats, too, carried the figure of a goose's head at every prow.
"The Melkarth and the Egyptians beyond a doubt!" I cried.