treated. Yet this mistake, material as it is, does not seem to mif lead the tranflator in other respects: for he is as inconfiftent with his own incorrect map, as both he and his map are with the real fituation of the ground; and, by not having afcertained any invariable and fixed idea of the scene of action, either true or falfe, he has led his author into a labyrinth of contradiction, out of which no imaginable difpofition of the fcene can extricate him.

"Thus, when he fuppofes that the Greeks had not paffed the river before the beginning of the fixth book, it is a neceffary confequence of fuch a fuppofition, that they were, till then, at fome miles diftance from Troy. But this is inconfiftent with that beautiful digreffion of the third book, where Priam and Helen fee the Grecian leaders fo diftinctly from the walls of that city, as to distinguish the perfons and figures of the leaders from the walls of Troy.

In short, this map would not deferve the few lines, which we bestow upon it, were it not for the refpectable name of Pope, who, no doubt, trusted this inferior part of his work to unfkilful or negligent hands. I was at a lofs to account for fo much obvious inaccuracy, collected into fo fmall a compass, till I discovered, befides the mistakes of the draughtfman, a certain method and regularity of error, which could belong to the Engraver alone, who, by a piece of negligence, not lefs unpardonable in the artist than fatal to geography and Homer, has given a map, which reverfes the drawing from which it was engraved, and of courfe changes the refpective fituation of all the parts, from right to left, and from left to right; fo that the Sigeum ftands where the Rhaeteum fhould be, and the Scamander runs on that fide of Troy which belongs to the Simois.

"How fo material an overfight fhould have remained hitherto unnoticed, or how Mr. Pope could contrive to explain his own reversed map *, is not to our prefent purpose. To fay more on this head, is needlefs; to have faid thus much, on the only chart which has hitherto attempted to illuftrate the principal fcene of the action of the Iliad, was unavoidable.

"It has been already obferved, that while places diftant from Ionia are marked more diftinctly, as objects of curiofity, the fame attention has not been paid to thofe in the poet's neighbourhood. Though we find him thoroughly acquainted with the scenery round Troy, these objects are introduced lefs upon their own account, than as circumstances connected with the action. This I take to be a principal reafon, why the correctness of his map of the Troade, opening thus gradually with the ftory, has hitherto efcaped particular obfervation; and has been taken for granted, upon flight examination. It is fcarce to be expected, that a tranflator of Mr. Pope's tafte could, in the midst of the poetical beauties of the Iliad, fubmit to a dull patient attention to its mere topographical accuracy t."

*See Pope's letters with regard to this map.

Mr. Pope was affifted in this part of his work by Mr. Broom, who fupplied most of the notes collected from former expofitors of Homer, to which he added fome obfervations of his own. Mr. Pope adopted the whole, and under his daily revifal every theet was corrected. If Mr. Broom really went through the voluminous commentaries of Euftathius, as is hinted in the introduction to the notes, he

muft

That Mr. Pope, however, did fubmit to the attempt of paying attention to topographical accuracy, appears from his letters, to which Mr. Wood refers us. Thus, in a letter to Edward Blount, Efq; we find the following paffage:

"I find still more reafon to complain of the negligence of the geographers in their maps of Old Greece, fince I looked upon two or three more noted names in the public libraries here (i. e. at Oxford). But with all the care I am capable of, I have fome cause to fear the engraver will prejudice me in a few fitua tions. I have been forced to write to him in fo high a style, that, were my epiftles intercepted, it would raise no small admiration in an ordinary man. There is fcarce an order in it of lefs importance, than to remove fuch and fuch mountains, alter the course of fuch and fuch rivers, place a large city on fuch a coaft, and raze another in another country. I have fet bounds to the fea, and said to the land, thus far fhalt thou adyance and no farther."

Extraordinary as the circumftance, of fo grofs an errour, escaping after so much attention, may appear to fuch as have never had occafion to employ this clafs of artists, it will not feem ftrange to others; at least not more fo than that Mr. Wood's own map of Troy is defective in point of accuracy, from the inattention of the engravers. The conftant practice of geographers in placing the North point of the compass uppermoft, requires that the letters of the names, of the several places, engraved on the map, fhould ftand upright when it is placed in that fituation. This indeed is fometimes neglected in charts and plans of fmall extent; a needle, indicating North and South being engraved on fome part of the plate. But even in this cafe (which in maps of a large district is not very allowable) the letters of the names should stand all upright in fome

must have done it very fuperficially; and has added very little to what had been fo judiciously done by Madam Dacier, at the fame time not acknowledging how much he was indebted to that very learned lady. As to Euftathius, not to repeat what has been fo often faid in favour of that treasure of Greek learning, from which almost every later illustration of Homer has been gleaned, I shall only observe my disappointment in finding fo little in him for my particular purpofe. Though a bithop, and one who is faid to have written in defence of the church, he makes no ufe of the fcriptures in his commentaries. I take it for granted, that he did not underftand Latin, or at least that he had not read Virgil; as he makes no ufe of him. Though an inhabitant of Greece, he truits for Homer's geography to Strabo, without any additional obfervations of his own in refpect to places in his very neighbourhood. Nor do I find that he vifited Troy, though he lived fo near it nor does he remark the changes, or agreement between either the language or manners of Homer, and thofe of his own age, which we should naturally expect from one fo well qualified and fituated for forming a judgment of both. When I add to all this, that his Commentaries, in my opinion, contain the dulleft and most infipid, as well as the moft ingenious and judicious remarks on Homer, I cannot help fufpecting, that he was rather the compiler than the author of thofe criticifms; and that his principal merit is that of having preferved from oblivion fome curious obfervations of wiiters, whofe works have perifhed fince his time.

C 3

оле

one pofition of the plate. This, however, is not the cafe in the map before us; fome of the letters ftanding upright in the direction of all points of the compafs; fo that it appears to have neither top, bottom nor fides *.

To return to a more dignified fubject, Mr. Wood takes leave of Mr. Pope, as follows:

"I fhall not trouble the reader farther on this head, it being my object, not to condemn the tranflation, but to justify the original; where we do not difcover, even in the boldeft flights of fancy, that careless contradiction of circumftances, which hiftory, poetry, and romance equally disclaim.

"But in vain do we attempt to fupport Homer's character as a geographer, unlefs we can refcue him from fome fevere imputations of inaccuracy on this head, which have gained too much credit by remaining fo long unanfwered. The accufation of this fort, which feems to have made the greatest impreffion, relates to the distance he places the ifle of Pharos from Egypt. It is incumbent on me to attempt the poet's vindication again a charge, which has fo materi ally affected his geographical reputation, that he has, in this instance, been abandoned even by fome of his best friends."

Our Author proceeds, to the juftification of Homer, in the next divifion of his work, with tolerable fuccefs; clofing the arguments, he deduces from writers, with one from his awn experience.

66

Upon the whole of this reafoning, it must appear doubtful, whether any part of Lower Egypt existed in the poet's time; which feems to have been the opinion of † Ariftotle: but, fuppofing the fouth angle of Delta to have been then formed, its distance from Pharos would make above fifty leagues, which may be called a day's fail, agreeably to the general proportion, which Homer obferves between time and diftance in his navigation.

66

Having fo far endeavoured to vindicate the poet, as to the length of this voyage, it may not be improper, while this subject is before us, to fay fomething of its difficulty and danger, which Menelaus mentions with much dread and anxiety. As fome account of the navigation of this coaft will furnish the best comment on this part of the poet's defcription, I fhall lay before the reader a narrative of what fell within my own obfervation, relatively to this matter.

"I failed, in the morning of the fifth of February, one thousand

*There is another errour attending the placing this map in the volume; but this polibly is typographical; the direction to the binder being to place it, as in the volume before us, at page 207; whereas it fhould be placed at page 307, or where the above obfervations on the defects of Mr. Pope's are introduced; which, coming curlier in the volume, would be the most proper.

4.

Ariftot. Metaph. 1. 1. c. 4.

Sce Strabo, 1. 1. p. 61, and in Abulfeda. Almegri. Alfo Coftard, p. 8. an handied Arabian miles.

See Herodotus, 1. 4. c. 86.

The curfus rampepios, 1200 ftadia. Ariftidis Oratio Egyptiaca. Theophilus in Ptolemy. Geog. 1. 1. c. 9. makes it 10co ftadia.

Herodotus alludes to the wxAnuspor; and fuppofes a fhip to fail eighty miles by day, and Teventy by night. See Weffeling's notes upon Herodotus, 1. 4. c. 86.

3

feven

1

feven hundred and forty three, in a French fhip, from Latichea in Syria, for Damiata in Egypt. We loft fight of mount Libanus, the highest land on the Syrian coaft, that evening, and had a fair view of Cyprus next morning. We got into foundings on the coaft of Egypt towards the evening on the third day, and found a flimy bottom, at fome diftance from the Bogas. This is the name by which the Arabs call the mouth of the river, where there is a bar or ridge of fand, which changes its form and fize, and shifts its pofition according to the wind.

"Here the fea began to be difcoloured with the water of the Nile, and, in another league, as I looked from the round-top of the mainmaft, the fresh water appeared like an immenfe muddy pond, as diftinct in colour from the fea as the Soane is from the Rhone immediately after the junction of thofe rivers below Lyons. And it extended circularly near three leagues outwards from the mouth of the Nile. The river was, at this feafon, within its banks; but I was told, that the femicircle of fresh water is much more extended, when the Nile overflows Egypt, and that its mixture with the fea is dif coverable fifteen or even twenty leagues from fhore. I fhould think that this account was exaggerated by feamen. The first objects, that we faw towards the fhore, were the fhips at anchor in the road of Damiata. We next got fight of the tops of fome palm trees; and foon after of fome buildings. Laft of all we difcovered the low flat land of Egypt.

"Such are the prefent appearances; and fuch, in general, are thofe, which may be collected from Herodotus. His remarks on the face of this country feem to entitle him to more credit, than he has met with, when he fpeaks from his own knowledge, and as an eyewitness.

"There being no port on the coaft of the Delta, fhips bound for Rofetta or Damiata anchor in an open road, till their bufinefs is done; expofed to much danger, when the wind blows hard upon that harbourlefs fhore. They are therefore ready to flip their cables, and run to fea for fecurity, upon the first appearance of foul weather. "We had fcarce let go our anchor, in company with a Ragufean bound to the fame port, when it began to thunder and lighten; and the wind, fuddenly shifting to the north-west, blew hard. Night approaching, our preffing object was to get off the coaft, upon which there is no harbour from Alexandria to Mount Carmel. After three days very blowing weather, we made Cyprus, and gat into Limiffo, where we were detained three weeks by contrary winds. We failed again for Egypt the thirtieth, and in two days arrived upon the coaft of the Delta.

"After the fame fucceffion of appearances fimilar to those already defcribed, we got to our anchoring ground, before the Bogas, in doubtful weather. Here a germe (which is a very ftrong-built boat of this country, entirely calculated to refift the Bogas), tempted by a reward which cuftom has established for the first boat, that ventures over upon fuch occafions, foon boarded us. By this time, things wore fo gloomy an afpect, that our captain was preparing in all hafte, to run to fea. To fhare his fate, or to risk the Bogas,

C 4

was a point, that called for immediate decifion: for neither the germe, or our veffel, could ftay a moment. I chofe the latter.

"It is not easy to imagine any thing more awful than the approach to this gas in ftormy weather. The breakers, which were heard and feen at fome diftance, had now the appearance of a fucceffion of cafcades, which we were to pafs through for half a mile. If the most striking and expreffing refemblance of a picture to that appearance in nature, which it attempts to reprefent, is a fufficient proof of the painter's having feen the original, we might conclude, from three lines in the Iliad, that Homer had been in Egypt, and paffed this Bogas. One of our boatmen got up to the maft-head; and as his voice could not be heard, he directed our courfe by repcating fignals, which he received from a boat within the Bogas, ftationed there to pilot germes, in blowing weather, through the breakers on the bar. We ftruck thrice before we got into fmooth water; and had the mortification to pass the wreck of our unfortu nate Ragufean fellow traveller, who had not been able to get off the coaft, and perished with his crew upon this bar.

"There is a proverbial expreffion ufed by the Arab failors, and adopted by the Franks, who frequent thofe feas, that he, who fears not the Bogas, fears not the Devil. Indeed the prefent ftate of this coaft feems to justify the extreme reluctance, which Menelaus exprefies at undertaking this voyage a fecond time; efpecially if we confider the greater diftance he had to run, in his own fhips, without boats calculated for the Bogas, or feamen experienced in that navigation. We may add, that the coaft of Egypt, which now projects fo far, formed a deep bay in his time, which must have added to the danger, as it was more difficult then for a fhip to difengage. itfelf from the land.

"I flatter myfelf, that this account of the antient and present state of the coaft of Egypt may juftify Homer's account of the length and danger of Menelaus's voyage; and vindicate him from the charge of ignorance on this head, under which he has fo long laboured."

Mr. Wood proceeds next to remark on Homer's religion and mythology; but, having extended the article at present to a confiderable length, we must beg leave to defer the conclufion of it to our next Review.

ART. III. Hints to Gentlemen of landed Property. By Nathaniel Kent, of Fulham. 8vo. 6s. Dodley.

Moft of the publications upon husbandry, which the prefs hath lately teemed with, feem, fays Mr. Kent, to be read more

Ως δ' ότ' επι προχρησι διέπετεος ποταμοιο

Δεόρυχον μέγα κύμα ποτιρον. Αμφί δε τ' ακραί

Ήτανες ΒΟΟΩΣΙΝ, ερευγομένης άλος έξω.

Τόσση αρα Τρώων ιαχή γενετ

Iliad, p. v. 265.

Thefe lines are faid to have determined Solon and Plato to abandon poetry, defpairing of ever being able to produce any thing like them. To thofe, who admire the art of making the found an echo to the fenfe, they certainly offer beauties, which are beyond all tranflation.

for