The voyages of the Carthaginians were, from the situation of their
territory, and the imperfect state of geography and navigation at that
period, usually confined to the Mediterranean and to the western shores of
Africa and Europe; but several years antecedent to the date usually
assigned to the voyages of Himilco and Hanno, a voyage of discovery is said
to have been accomplished by the king of a nation little given to maritime
affairs. We allude to the voyage of Scylax, undertaken at the command of
Darius the son of Hystaspes, about 550 years before Christ. There are
several circumstances respecting this voyage which deserve attention or
examination; the person who performed it, is said by Herodotus, (from whom
we derive all our information on the subject), to have been a native of
Caryandria, or at least an inhabitant of Asia Minor: he was therefore most
probably a Greek: he was a geographer and mathematician of some eminence,
and by some writers is supposed to have first invented geographical tables.
According to Herodotus, Darius, after his Scythian expedition, in order to
facilitate his design of conquest in the direction of India, resolved, in
the first place, to make a discovery of that part of the world. For this
purpose he built and fitted out a fleet at Cespatyrus, a city on the Indus,
towards the upper part of the navigable course of that river.
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