perhaps to that of the important city of Santa Fé, situate on its banks, and vlepepes dw to the enormous height of the Andes mountains, in which that vast river has its sources: there is laid down in the maps, a river (the Dolce) which should find its way into the Plate, but appears to lose itself in the sands near Santa Fé, which may serve perhaps to explain what is said of Antiphates, ενα μαρψας έταρων. The 120th line, &κ ανδρεσσιν εοικότες αλλα γιγασι may perhaps relate to the desert country on the east of Chili, in opposition to a country capable of human cultivation; and, (which is truly remarkable), when coupled with the expression φθιμοι λαιςρυγόνες, would seem, further, to furnish an argument for the affirmative, in the well-known controversy respecting the gigantic size of the Patagonians. The words αλλοθεν άλλος (119), and αι αλλαι αολλέες, would appear to refer, the first to the country of Chili, and the second to the island of Chiloe, with the numerous smaller islands under the same name surrounding it; or those terms may perhaps only allude to the desolate state of the country owing to the eruptions of the volcanoes, with which it abounds, of which volcanoes we have a special notice in καπνον δ' οιον ορωμεν (99), and in 121, Οιρ' απο πετράων ανδρα χθεσι χερμαδίοισι One of the epithets applied to λαμδ πτολίεθρον, (which city probably means Lima, the capital of Peru,) is TλεπUλov, which I take to allude to the distant strait or passage (uλa, janua) between Cape Horn and the ice at the south pole, by which that city, in a westward course from Europe, is approached; and thus am I led to say a few words upon that famous Cape and the passage by it. In the explantion (offered in the second chapter) of a part of the 23d Iliad, it was said that Nestor (who, as well as Ulysses, it is to be recollected, represents England) gives a description there to his son Antilochus (Ireland), of the pas sage to China by way of the Cape of Good Hope; and this is no unfit place to add, that it appears to have been Nestor's intention there to recom mend the latter passage to his son, by contrasting it with the difficulties of that by Cape Horn, of which latter the following quotation seems to me descriptive: 23 Il. 319, Αλλ' οι μεν θ' ιπποισι και αρμασιν οισι πεποιθως Αφραδέως επι πολλον ελίσσεται ενθα και ενθα Ιπποι δη πλανοωνται ανα δρομον δε κατισχει implying, as it seems to do, that there are violent currents prevailing in the neighbourhood of Cape Horn, in opposite directions, which would inevitably carry a navigator much out of his reckoning (πλανοώνται ανα δρομον), after all the tossing about by those currents, which the words ελισσε ται ενθα και ενθα would intimate must ensue. The following lines, in continuation of this subject, are further descriptive of that passage, and prescribe the caution proper to be observed, in order to avoid being wrecked against the ice; which (namely, the ice) is alluded to under the metaphor of stone: 23 Il. 340, -λιθο αλεασθαι επαυρείν Μήπως ιππός τε τρωσης κατα θ' αρματα αξης Χάρμα τε τοις αλλοισιν ελέγχειν δε σοι αυτω Εσσεται αλλα, φιλος, φρονεων πεφυλαγμένος είναι Ει γαρ κ' εν νύσση γε παρεξελασησθα διωκων The ice above noticed to be alluded to under the idea of stone, 28, is not to be considered as in its fixed state only, but as formed into moving islands, common in the latitudes in question, and implied by ιππος Λαομέδοντος (Λαος, stone). Lastly, as in the second chapter was explained the poet's description of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, so it seems clear that in the lines just cited he intended to refer to this passage by Cape Horn, as well from the other circumstances above noticed, as, more especially, from the con. cluding words, which mention both passages, ω παιδι εκας πειρατ' εειπε. The following lines are the last that I shall cite on this subject: II. 416, Στενωπω εν οδω -αιψα δ' επειτα Στεινος οδε κοιλης ιδεν Αντίλοχος μενεχάρμης Ρωχμος εην γαίης η χειμεριον αλεν ύδωρ Those lines indeed should not be omitted; for the words κεινος οδε κοιλης and ςειπωπος οδος, thrice mentioned, appear to refer most plainly to the Straits of Magellan, which separate the Terra del Fuogo from the continent: indeed a most accurate description of those straits is contained in the words ρωχμος εην γαίης, &c. as αματροχιας αλεξινών are referable to the opposite currents |