The Adventures of Captain Mago

"Egypt! here are we sailing farther and farther away from the Straits of Gades; and yet you talk about getting this way to Egypt. Impossible!"

"Patience!" I said; "perhaps we may find you a short cut even yet!"

He shook his head dubiously; and even Hanno observed that the mysteries of navigation were very abstruse, and that the studies which he had pursued at Sidon did not enable him to solve these enigmas.

"Ah! you should have travelled more, young man," said Himilco; "and you should have learned to know the stars."

"I should think this voyage is travelling enough for any one," replied Hanno.

Chamai merely remarked that he was quite sure that they might all rely with perfect confidence in my judgment. And thus the consultation was brought to a close.

Many times did we approach the coast with the intention of landing; but either it was utterly desolate, or it was so crowded with black men, who yelled and assumed such a threatening attitude, that we always postponed any attempt to go ashore. One night in particular, as we were passing under a promontory that I had named "the chariot of the gods," the noises we heard seemed of so threatening a character that I deemed it prudent to put out a little further to sea; but at length our provisions began to run short, and there was nothing to be done but to venture on land. Bichri, patient and enduring as he ever was, complained of living on salt fish; Jonah murmured that there was short allowance for ourselves, and no fruit for Gebal; and Hannibal regretted that we were losing our chance of picking up gold. I was accordingly induced to lay to as soon as I found a convenient opportunity.

Our anchorage was the estuary of a river apparently as large as the Egyptian Nile; its banks were covered with thick woods; numbers of crocodiles and hippopotamuses were visible in the water by its shore; and great birds, uttering shrill and piercing cries, whirled around above our heads.

For four days we wandered about without finding any sign of human being; we obtained, however, an abundance of wild fruit, and shot several buffaloes and antelopes, of which a great portion of the flesh was carried on board and salted. On returning from one of the foraging excursions, Bichri came running to me, looking utterly woe-begone; he was followed by Dionysos, weeping bitterly, and Jonah, gesticulating vehemently, and apparently as much agitated as himself.

"What's the matter, Bichri?" I asked.

"Gebal has gone!" he exclaimed; "he has been carried off by Bodmilcar's monkeys."

I burst out laughing. In his indignation he looked as if he could have annihilated me.

"I am sure they were Bodmilcar's!" he insisted; "creatures with long tails; they took him away; he never would have gone with them of his own accord."

Nothing I could do served to calm him; he would not be pacified until I allowed him to take some men and go out again in search of his lost favourite; but in the evening they all returned worn out with fatigue, only to announce, as might have been expected, that their search had been fruitless. There was no doubt the monkey had been delighted to join the troop of his own tribe that was gambolling in the woods. Bichri was very inadequately consoled for his loss by bringing back a great black monster, which, after he had wounded it, the men that were with him, in spite of the huge brute's desperate defence, had succeeded in despatching with their pikes. It certainly was a most formidable-looking creature, and I subsequently had it stuffed, and it may now be seen in the temple of Ashtoreth in Sidon. Bichri told us that after it had six or seven arrows in its body it snapped a pike-staff in two as easily as if it had been a reed; upon which Hannibal remarked that the strength that could break asunder a pike-handle made of oak of Bashan must be prodigious.

We were obliged to depart without finding any vestige of Gebal. After sailing on for about a fortnight, our supplies again ran short, and as we were discussing what steps we should take in consequence, Hannibal interrupted us by shouting:

"A gaoul ahead!"

Every eye was bent in the direction to which we were pointed, and sure enough there was a gaoul of Phœnician build; but on farther scrutiny it was evident that it was all dismantled, and drifting at the mercy of the waves.

"May be a ruse of Bodmilcar's," suggested Himilco.

Taking his hint, we approached very cautiously, and it was not until we had thoroughly satisfied ourselves that there was no one on board to answer our signals that we ventured close alongside. It was perfectly deserted.

Gisgo said that he remembered having once abandoned his ship off the Pityusai Islands, and that probably this was a similar case; but he could not understand what current could have borne the gaoul to this distant shore.

"Never mind where she comes from," I answered; "let us hope she may prove a godsend."

Hannibal and Himilco, who went on board, brought back the welcome intelligence that the hold was well freighted with corn and wine, the whole of which we joyfully transferred to our own vessels, leaving the empty hull again to the wind and waves. In the evening I caused an offering to be made to Ashtoreth in acknowledgment of her manifest interference on our behalf.

Next day we hove in sight of a lofty promontory, the top of which was as flat as a table. A strong gale was springing up.

"Never mind the wind," cried Jonah. "What do I care for the wind now? I've a purse full of gold; plenty to eat; plenty to drink; and a red tunic before long. Tempests be hanged! Long live the King!"

The gale for some days increased in violence, and all attempts at steering were quite useless. When, after eight days, the sea became calmer, I could make out that the land was lying to our left. This was according to my prognostications, and I followed the coast to the north with renewed confidence, day by day becoming more and more convinced that the sun was again rising in the heavens; and one lovely night, about a fortnight afterwards, Himilco suddenly seized my arm, and making me point to the northern horizon, exclaimed in a voice trembling with excitement:

"See, the Cabiri!"

"Yes; true enough; there are the Cabiri," I answered, as full of delight as he was himself. "We have accomplished an unheard-of thing," I added; "we have circumnavigated Libya."

"And to-morrow," he said, "we shall have the sun once more on our right; we are on our way to the Sea of Reeds."

"Aye, to the Sea of Reeds! and to Sidon, our own Sidon! Sidon the glorious, Sidon the incomparable!"

There was none to witness; the crew were sleeping in their berths; and in the fervour of our enthusiasm we threw ourselves into each other's arms.

A month later, as we were taking in fresh water at the mouth of a river, we fell in with some black men, who bore a marked resemblance to the Ethiopians, who are often seen in Egypt. One of them could speak a little Egyptian; he told me he had learnt it in Ethiopia, which is subject to Pharaoh. His own country, he stated, was six months' journey below the southernmost limit of Ethiopia; but he could give no information whatever about its distance by sea. These negroes called themselves Kouch, and having never seen any Phœnicians, took us for Egyptians; but as soon as we explained that so far from being subjects of Pharaoh we were enemies of the Misraim, they welcomed us as friends, and treated us with the utmost cordiality. They had evidently a great abhorrence of the Egyptians on account of the cruel ravages that had been committed on their northern boundaries.

For the next three months we never found a favourable wind to speed us on our way. We employed our time in transacting business with the Kouch, and in making hunting-expeditions into the interior of the country. In the way of exchanges we procured gold, ivory, pearls, and skins; and an immense success attended our hunting-excursions in a region that was found to abound in elephants, rhinoceros, and giraffes, as well as in smaller game. There was not one of us who had not some trophy of our good fortune or our skill to exhibit. Bichri killed a lion, with the skin of which he made himself a mantle, and even little Dionysos brought down a panther.

At length the opportunity for which we had watched so eagerly arrived, and we set sail once more. Ten days after our departure, while a stiffish breeze was blowing from the north-east, I noticed not very far ahead of us a large Phœnician gaoul, which appeared to have sustained some damage, and to be drifting along under the action of the wind. In answer to my signals, she gave me to understand that she had lost some oars and her yard-arm, and that she was in need of help. Always anxious to render assistance to a vessel in distress, but yet fearful of treachery I immediately ordered out my men, but meanwhile instructed Hannibal to have the catapults in readiness; and thus prepared, the Ashtoreth approached the gaoul on one side, and the Adonibal on the other, the Cabiros following in the rear.

There was no need for any apprehension on my part. As soon as we were fairly within view of each other, the captain, standing on the stern, raised his arms and shouted:

"By Baal Chamaim! it's Mago!"

"By Ashtoreth and all that's holy!" I exclaimed; "it is my cousin Ethbaal!"

The recognition was a mutual pleasure; our ships were soon alongside, and we were grasping each other's hands.

"How rejoiced I am to see you, Mago!" he repeated over and over again; "Phœnicia has given you up in despair; every one mourned you as lost. By Ashtoreth! you must have been saved by a miracle!"

And he put his hands upon my shoulders and long and keenly scrutinised my face.

"Tell me two things," I said; "where am I? and what has brought you here?"

Ethbaal seemed full of surprise; but said:

"Come, come; you are laughing at me. You must know well enough where you are."

I assured him that I was in earnest in what I said, and repeated my assertion that I was by no means aware of where I was; and when Himilco informed him that we had come from a place where the Cabiri could not be seen at all, and where the sun shone on the wrong side of us, he looked as if he thought we had taken leave of our senses. Nor did he appear to understand much better when Himilco went on to expatiate upon having once drunk fish-oil, and having had no wine for many months together.

"Mysterious!" muttered Ethbaal to himself; "here is Mago, close to the entrance of the Sea of Reeds, only six days' voyage from Ophir, and yet he comes from the south, after sailing four years ago westward to Tarshish! Strange!"

He pondered awhile, and then addressed himself to me:

"Yes; you are close to the Sea of Reeds."

I uttered an exclamation of delight, and turning to my people cried triumphantly:

"Was I not right? Did I not tell you that we were on our way to Egypt? Lucky we did not turn back from the Fortunate Islands!"

Ethbaal appeared to be confirmed in his suspicion that I must be mad, and declared his total ignorance of the Fortunate Islands:

"I have never heard of them!"