"What City is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the Sea."
The Capital, at this time, was partly on the Island, but principally on the mainland. It is submitted that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel alluded to this Voyage and its discoveries.
We have reserved a positive, a conclusive proof, of the accomplishment of the Expedition until this time, that it might remove all doubts upon the subject. It, also, brings direct evidence against the supposition that in reaching Ophir (the locality of which is not yet defined) the Tyrian ships of Solomon could have passed around the Cape of Good Hope,—for if they had,—leagues before they reached there, they would have observed the same (to them) strange "incident" of Nature, and consequently have recorded it.
Herodotus in writing of this Voyage (and which he firmly believed) had his doubts upon one point only,—viz., the strange reports of the Pilots and Mariners upon their return to Tyrus, which were,—that during the Voyage their Shadows (as they looked at the Sun's rising) fell upon, or from their right-hand,—they (the Shadows) having consequently changed from the left hand, as they remembered them to fall at Phœnicia and the Mediterranean;—and a greater wonder still,—that their Shadows changed back again, as they continued their voyage, from right to left!
The Greek Historian viewed this report with astonishment and disbelief; and without doubt, it was originally regarded and laughed at as a mariner's story by both Tyrians and Egyptians,—for it was not likely, in their Theory of the Solar System, (this was before Pythagoras,) that any of the Ancients could be convinced that the Sun would alter its course or nature, so as to meet the result reported by the home-returned mariners, but which was given by them as an attested fact. The Ancients [606 B. C.] believed that the Earth was a Globe, because they believed that the Sun daily travelled around it,—but of the revolving character of the Earth, or of its measurement, they had no conception. Even Herodotus, therefore, looked upon the shadow-report as
"The baseless fabric of a vision,"
and regarded it not only with incredulity, but as an entire fiction of the Tyrian voyagers.
But modern Science proves the absolute truth of the Tyrian report,—viz., their Shadows changing from left to right, &c.; and this, as a necessity, was occasioned by their having crossed the line of the Equator!
If the story of the Pilots and Mariners had not been given to their countrymen upon their return, it would at this day be a strong presumptive proof that the Expedition was not accomplished; but having rendered the "incident" of Nature upon their arrival, it is a conclusive and undeniable proof that the Voyage was successfully completed, and during the time mentioned by Herodotus. Having sailed from the Red Sea, and crossed the line of the Equator, and looking East, their Shadows must have changed from left to right, and be perceptible at, or near, Melinda; and having doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and passed the Equator of the Atlantic, their Shadows would again change from right to left, near the Gulf of Guinea, and appear the same as when sailing upon the Mediterranean.