ADDITIONAL NOTES. XVli
which Hanno saw was a volcano in Camerun. But in all probability
Hanno did not sail beyond Sherboro' Sound, the limit assigned to
his cruise in the text. The island of Cerne has been sought at many
different points, but its identification with Herne, as in the text,
is on the whole the most satisfactory. Hanno's 'gorillae' were
probably chimpanzees. They were certainly not gorillas as we now
know them, for these brutes are of superhuman size and strength,
and attack men without hesitation.
Later explorers did not overpass Hanno's farthest south until
c. 1450 A.D.
Pp. 109, no. The expedition of Himilco
The voyage of Himilco may be dated soon after the reduction
or destruction of Tartessus, which took place c. 500 B.C. (editor's
note to p. 7,1. 7). We need not doubt that Himilco reached the
British tin lands; but it was left to later Carthaginian captains to
discover the open-sea route from Spain to Cornwall.
The identification of Himilco's 'sea of weeds' with the Sargasso
Sea (on which I threw doubts in The Ancient Explorers, p. 32) is
probably correct. From the confused account of Avienus (11. 380 ff.)
it does at least seem clear that Himilco stood out or (more likely)
was blown out a long way into the open Atlantic. But there is no
good evidence that the Carthaginians henceforth frequented the
Azores. Phoenician coins are reputed to have been unearfhed on
the Azores in the eighteenth century, but this find is not ^ell
authenticated.
P. 109,1. 29. Avienus
Though Himilco was unquestionably the ultimate source of
Avienus for his account of the discovery of Britain, his main
informant was probably a Massiliote captain who had visited
Tartessus towards the end of the sixth century, and had acquired
a general knowledge of the Spanish coast as far as C. Roca or even
to Corunna. See the authoritative* edition of Avienus by
A. Schulten and P. Bosch-Gimpera.
P. no, n. 4. Albion and Hierne
Albion was a pre-Celtic name for Britain. Sacra Insula=cl*/j^
which is an amplification of Hierne.
25—2