Page 328 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

328 from Italy to the Canary Islands

In the time of the gods

here is more than one document attesting that people had gone
beyond the Pillars of Hercules in antiquity. Although for times of
antiquity validation is always difficult, we can give credence to
writings about the African coast and what is beyond the Pillars of Hercu-
les; Herodotus is quite a remarkable source in this sense. In a passage of
his Histories, the narrative has the African coast as its setting, and therefore
beyond the Pillars of Hercules, which at that time caused less spiritual
distress.
According to this narrative, harking back to well before the 5 cen-
th
tury BC, Carthaginians were dealing with natives. In exchange for their
wares, the Carthaginians would be given gold. Mutual satisfaction could
be reached after negotiating “at a distance” - the Carthaginians would stay
on their ships and the natives would leave the gold on the beach - even so,
at least according to the narrative, the two sides would usually reach an
agreement. One may wonder whether the Canary Islands were the setting
th
th
of such trade. According to some Arab sources of the 12 and 13 cen-
turies, the most reliable hypothesis is that these exchanges would occur
along the coast of southern Morocco, around the island of Mogador, rather
than around subtropical Africa.
But let us hear directly from Herodotus, Histories (1.96), “The Carthag-
inians state the existence of a populated Libyan territory also beyond the
Pillars of Hercules; when they travel to these populations, they unload
their wares neatly on the beach, get back up on their ships and send out
a smoke signal; seeing the smoke, the natives rush towards the shore and
deposit gold there in exchange of the goods and then back away. The
Carthaginians disembark, examine the gold and, if it seems appropriate to
the value of the goods, they take it and leave; if it seems little, they go back
on the ships and wait for the locals to add more gold until they are satis-
fied. Neither tries to cheat the other; the Carthaginians do not touch the
gold until it seems appropriate to the value of the goods, and the natives do
not touch the goods before the others have collected the gold”.
Regarding Carthaginians and documents of antiquity, it is important to
mention Carthaginian Admiral Hanno’s account of his travels in the Atlan-