The Golden Wind

BOOK VII — Eldagon the Gaditanian

For the rest of the summer to take my mind off my shameful infirmity, I threw myself into the work of the firm. Towards the end of the sailing season, Hippalos again appeared in Kyzikos, as the mate of a ship of our competitors, Ariston and Pytheas.

"It's that statue of Ganesha," said he with his satyrlike grin. "Didn't that Indian king say the possessor could convince anybody of anything? Naturally, my bosses couldn't refuse me promotion. By this time next year, I'll wager I shall be one of their captains."

"You had that gift before you had the statue, old boy," I said. I was pleased to see that the hostility that Astra had shown to Hippalos on his first visit was no longer evident. In fact, she seemed to have fallen under the spell of his charm like everyone else.

After a pleasant visit, Hippalos sailed off to his home port of Miletos, and winter closed down. One of our ships failed to return to Kyzikos on schedule. My kinsmen and I went around with knotted brows, fearing another wreck. Then, when snowflakes had already begun to fly, the missing ship appeared. We were ready to eat Captain Phaidon alive for taking such a risk, but his exceptional profits softened our wrath. He had seen a chance for a quick gain on a shipment of timber from Rhodes to Alexandria.

"Why did the Alexandrines need this timber so sorely?" I asked.

"They wanted scaffolding to build a grand tomb for the king," said Phaidon.

"What! Do you mean the old Sausage is dead?"

"Why, yes. He died a couple of months ago. Hadn't you heard?"

We had not, since news travels no faster than men can carry it. In winter, with the cessation of travel, the spread of news slows to a snail's pace.

"Zeus, Apollon, and Hera!" I said, my mind in a whirl. "That means another chance to make a killing from an Indian voyage, if I can reach Alexandria ahead of Hippalos. To go by sea now were out of the question; but I could go by land . .

"Calm down, Eudoxos, calm down," said my brother-in-law. "It would take you over twice as long to get to Egypt by land. And suppose you did? When could you leave for India at the earliest?"

I thought. "If I remember rightly, the southwest wind begins to blow across the Arabian Sea five or six months from now."

"And when could you start back, at the earliest?"

"It's another six months before it begins to blow the other way."

"You see? There's no rush. You would only have to idle around Alexandria for months and then do the same in India. Besides, you'd have to cross the highlands of Bithynia and Pontus in the dead of winter. If robbers didn't get you, you'd probably freeze to death in a snowdrift."

"Oh, rubbish!" I said. "I've ridden the Scythian steppe in worse weather than that."

"Ah, but we were all a bit younger then."

"But Hippalos will have heard of Physkon's death, too, and he'll hasten thither to drum up royal backing for another voyage!"

"Let him. The winds won't blow any sooner for him than for you, and there's enough trade in India for both. If he gets the Sister to send him off in one ship, you can get the Wife to send you in another."

The other kinsmen—my two brothers and my cousin— joined in and talked me round. I was pleased that they seemed to value me as the head of the family and the firm, but a little hurt that they looked upon me as such a fragile oldster that I could no longer risk a strenuous overland journey.

It was early Skirophorion when I again saw the marble and gold of the palaces on Point Lochias. This time I came to Alexandria, not as a herald and ambassador, but as a mere sea captain in one of Theon's Sons' ships. So there was no special welcome.

Gnouros had complained of rheumatic pains, so I had left him at home to help with the house. Instead, for a personal attendant, I hired an orphaned cousin of fourteen, named Pronax, whom one of my brothers was bringing up.

When I asked at the palace for Ananias, the colonel himself came out to greet me. "I wondered how soon you would arrive, best one," he said. "Did that rascal Hippalos come with you?"

"No. I thought he might have gotten to Alexandria ahead of me."

"There has been so sign of him. Do you know aught about him?"

"The last I heard he was an officer on a Milesian ship."

"Hm, hm. This may complicate matters."

"How so?"

"I cannot stop to explain now. Be here tomorrow after the siesta hour. A meeting I shall arrange to discuss these things."

When I arrived next day, an usher led me to a small chamber where sat the two queens—the fat old one, in a billowing purple gown, and the plump young one, loaded as usual with jewelry. With them were General Chelkias, Colonel Ananias, Agatharchides the tutor, the rotund little Prince Ptolemaios Philometor—the one we call Lathyros—and some official whose name I forget to assist the elder queen. When the bowing and the wishes for everyone's good health were over, and I had expressed insincere regrets for the death of the old monster, the Wife said:

"Master Eudoxos, Colonel Ananias tells me you are ready to undertake another Indian voyage."

"That is why I came to Alexandria, Your Divine Majesty."

"Then we are well met. I am sure—"

"You're not sure of anything!" snapped the Sister between wheezes. "Where is my dear Hippalos, Master Eudoxos?"

"The last I saw of him, my lady, was when he stopped at Kyzikos as mate of a Milesian ship."

"Why didn't you fetch him with you? Speak up, man; don't mumble." I raised my voice to compensate for her deafness. "Madam! How should I know where he is now? He might be anywhere from Karia to Carthage."

"Well, you could have waited at Milestos to intercept him."

"I didn't know Your Divine Majesty wanted him so badly."

"It's my business, whom I want."

"Oh, Mother!" said the Wife. "Stop fussing over every little detail. You shouldn't bully Captain Eudoxos—"

"Little detail? As if the choice of leaders weren't the moat important—"

"You don't even know he'd want to go—"

The Sister smote the arm of her chair. "That's my business! You mind your—"

"It's my business, too! You're just being a stubborn old—"

"Shut up, Kleo!" shouted the Sister. "Anybody knows that, on such a mission, everybody should have somebody to watch him. You never had any sense about men, anyway."

"Better than you! I never let that red-haired trickster beguile me—"

"Arrk!" The old queen emitted a loud, angry squawk, like an enraged parrot. "Don't you dare call my man a trickster, you slut! He was more faithful to me than your tame Judaens will ever be to you—in bed or out of it!"

"Don't you dare talk to me that way!" screeched the younger woman. "I'm a queen, too!"

"Ladies! Ladies!" bleated the official, trying to calm the storm. Chelkias and Ananias looked at the ceiling. The two queens went right on screaming and shaking fists, until I thought we should have a hair-pulling contest. "—you're still my daughter—" "—smearing the sacred name of the Ptolemies with dung—" "—foul-mouthed vixen—" "—fat, deaf old harridan—"

The guards around the walls traded nervous glances, evidently wondering where their duty would lie in case the twain came to blows. Being so old and fat, the Sister ran out of breath first. She took a gulp of wine, choked, sputtered, coughed, gasped for breath, and finally muttered:

"May the gods help the kingdom when you're sole queen! It's a mercy I shan't be here to see it. No matter what you say, I won't approve this voyage until I learn what has become of Hippalos."

"May I make a suggestion?" said Agatharchides.

"Go ahead," said the Wife.

"May it please Your Majesties, why not let Captain Eudoxos get his ship ready and collect a cargo, while you send a police agent to Miletos to find Hippalos and invite him hither?"

"Yes, yes, that's a good idea," said the Sister. She pressed a hand to her forehead, breathing hard. "Send for my maids. I am not feeling well."

Everybody was on his feet at once, assuring the old queen of his hopes for her quick recovery. The meeting broke up as that vast, wobbling mass of fat was helped out the door by her tiring women.

But the police agent was never sent. The next day, when I came to the palace, I learnt that the Sister had had a stroke the night before and was unconscious. She lingered for a ten-day and then died.

That ended all public business for many days, while funeral ceremonies took place. Then came a time of uncertainty, when the court was too busy settling the details of the new reign even to say good-day to me. I spent the time either in my room on the waterfront or in the Library.

Rumors of impending revolution ran wild in Alexandria. Men hurried furtively along the streets. Hellene, Judaean, and Egyptian glowered at one another, muttering threats and insults and fingering daggers. Several riots erupted and were put down by the garrison, with heads rolling in the gutters. At night, the deserted streets rang with the tramp and clatter of soldiers of the three armies, which remained united to control the city, but which might at any moment start fighting each other.

The gist of it was that the Hellenes and the Egyptians did not wish the Wife to reign alone. Their pretext was that it was indecent for a woman to play the part of a king. The real reason was that Kleopatra notoriously favored the Judaeans and relied on their support. The non-Judaeans wanted at least one co-ruler to redress the balance.

At last—luckily, without tearing the city apart first—the factions reached a compromise: that Kleopatra might keep her throne, but only as joint ruler with one of her sons. She chose the eldest, Philometor "Chick-pea." There was another monster parade, and the whole court went up the Nile to Memphis for a coronation according to the old Egyptian rites.

It was midsummer before Ananias could arrange a conference to set the final terms of my voyage. Luckily, the constant north wind off the Inner Sea keeps Alexandria pleasant even in summer.

At this final meeting, Queen Kleopatra said: "You must understand, Captain Eudoxos, that the laws governing trade in our kingdom, established by my divine husband, still stand."

"Does Your Majesty mean," quoth I, "that you don't want me to do any trading on my own?"

"That is right. Our royal monopoly must remain inviolate."

"Then perhaps Your Divine Majesty had better find another captain."

"Are you defying my commands, sirrah?"

"Not at all, madam. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe that your writ runs in the free city of Kyzikos, whereof I am a citizen. If—"

"Now look here, Master Eudoxos, I am not accustomed to having mere mariners tell me what I shall and shan't—"

"Mother—" began the young king.

"Hold your tongue!" snapped the queen; then, turning to me: "As for you—"

"Please, my lady!" said Ananias. "Hear the man out."

General Chelkias leant near to the queen's chair and spoke in a low voice: "He's right, you know, Kleo dear. If you do not make this voyage worth the captain's while, he can do as he likes outside your jurisdiction, and there is nothing you can do not make him return to Alexandria. Let's not spoil a profitable project by a petty argument over royal prerogative."

The queen grumped and growled but finally gave in. I continued: "As I was saying, this voyage involves no small risk, and I expect a chance for gain in proportion to the risk."

"What had you in mind?"

"I do not mind trading the bulk cargo as part of my duties as your captain. But I want to be allowed to buy pearls and precious stones on my own."

"Ei!" cried the queen. "But that is just what I want for myself!"

I had expected this, so after a haggle we agreed to go equal shares on pearls and precious stones. Queen Kleopatra and I should each furnish half of the fund for buying these baubles, and we should divide the things equally when I returned. Distribution should be by letting me divide the loot into two parts and giving the queen her choice of the two.

Thus it came about that, almost three years to the day after my departure on my first Indian voyage, I weighed anchor in the Ourania at Myos Hormos for a second try. This time I knew better than to take olive oil to sell to the Indians. I loaded more copper ingots instead.

The second voyage was in most respects like the first, but less adventurous. With Linos as mate, I found Barygaza without difficulty. This time I did not seek out holy men for advice on stiffening my yard, having given that up as a bad job. Neither did I gallop all over India, getting involved with snake charmers, kings, robbers, and religious fanatics.

I stayed in Barygaza and did well enough. My friend Otaspes was no longer there, having left for his native Karmania. I partly disarmed the suspicions of the Arabs by buying some of my return cargo from them. I also bought some of the rare woods that India supplies, being sure that the skilled Egyptian cabinetmakers would find good use for them. The only event of any moment was that poor young Pronax fell sick with a flux so severe that I thought I should lose him; but he recovered.

I bought a statuette of Ganesha, like the one King Girixis had given me on the first voyage. It had irked me to have to give my first one to Hippalos, even though I had promised it to him. After hunting all over Barygaza, I found another, the same size as the first but carved from ivory instead of cast in bronze. Moreover, it showed the elephant-headed god riding on a mouse instead of sitting on a flower. Either the divinity must be a very small godlet, or his mouse must grow to even more gigantic size than do the real mice of India, which are as large as kittens or puppies.

To replace my fine Persian sword, which had been stolen, I also bought a sword of the marvelous Indian steel, with a rippling pattern on the blade and edges sharp enough to shave with. I had to have it fitted with a new hilt, however, to fit my big hands.

On the way home, we met a storm. The stout old Ourania rode it out well enough, but it threw us off our course, so that we raised the African coast far south of the Southern Horn. The shore was more heavily wooded than that around the Southern Horn, but the woods were of a scrubby, thorny sort. The coast ran nearly straight for many leagues, with no sign of a decent harbor. A heavy surf beat against terrifying offshore rocks. Altogether, a coast less inviting to mariners were hard to find.

To aggravate matters, we found ourselves struggling into the teeth of the seasonal wind, and the Ourania was one of those ships with little ability to beat to windward. For one thing, her mainsail was too baggy; despite my vigilance, Physkon's officials had managed to pass off an inferior piece of sailcloth on me. Up the wretched coast we plodded, zigzagging in and out from the coast and gaining only a few furlongs with each tack. Our food and water ran lower and lower—especially the water. We kept watching for the mouths of rivers, but there seemed to be none. More than ever I wished there were some sort of sail by which one could sail closer to the wind.

At last, when we were nearly dead from thirst, the lookout called that he saw the mouth of a river. Since there were no rocks in sight at this point, we felt our way in, sounding continuously, as close to shore as we dared and anchored. Then we put over the skiff. A sailor named Aristomenes rowed me ashore.

Our disappointment was great when we found that the river was only a small stream—and, moreover, that it was now completely dry. Swells from the sea washed in and out of its mouth, but this water was salt as far up as it went.

"We're out of luck, Captain," said the sailor. He sat down wearily on a piece of driftwood. "We might as well eat before we die." He began to open up the lunch we had brought ashore.

"Don't give up," I said. "There might be a pool up the bed of this stream."

He looked gloomily at the tangle of thorn bushes and long grass. "If we could ever get up there to find out. A man could get lost in that stuff and walk in circles for days until—"

The sailor broke off, staring towards the bush. I whirled to look, too.

"Company," I said. "Whatever you do, don't show fear or excitement"

A black face peered out of the dry vegetation. Behind it, I caught glimpses of the shiny black skins of other men moving about. I got to my feet with a leisureliness I did not feel.

"Rejoice!" I said with a forced smile. "Come on out! Won't you join us for lunch?"

The owner of the face could not, of course, understand my Greek, but I hoped that he could interpret the tone. Presently he pushed through the leaves and stood on the sand of the beach. He was a tall, well-built man of middle age. He was very black and quite naked save for a string around his waist, into which he had thrust a few small belongings. He trailed a spear with an iron head. His hair and beard formed a circle of frizzy gray wool around his head, and on his body were decorative lines and circles of little scars.

The black smiled a nervous little smile, as if uncertain whether to bolt, attack, or accept my invitation. I dug into the food bag and brought out two loaves of bread. I bit into one and held the other out to the black.

He came a little nearer, poised for flight, and at last nerved himself to snatch the bread from my hand. He stared at it and at me for a long time before working up the courage to take a bite. He chewed for a while with a puzzled expression, as if he could not make up his mind whether or not he liked this strange food. I sat down again and went on with my repast. At last the black squatted with us in the sand. His companions formed a line along the shoreward edge of the beach, staring and muttering. Two of them had an antelope slung by its feet from a pole.

I got out a small wineskin and poured a cup for myself and one for our visitor. He drank and burst into speech, none of which I could understand, but he looked pleased. At last I pointed to myself and said: "Eudoxos!" Then I pointed to the sailor and said: "Aristomenes!" Lastly I pointed to the black with a questioning expression.

"Bakapha," he said. When he had relished a dried fig, he spoke to the men who carried the antelope. Soon they had built a fire, which they started by rubbing sticks together, hacked off a haunch, and were roasting it. When it was done, Aristomenes and I were each given a slab.

Bakapha proved a man of some intelligence; for, when I pointed at various objects, he at once gave the names for them in his own tongue. Thus I soon worked up a vocabulary of a score of words, wishing the while that my memory were as keen as it had been thirty years before. With my few words and much sign language, I also made him realize that we needed fresh water.

Bakapha smiled and pointed up the dry stream bed, saying something that I took to mean: "Come, I will show you."

"Be careful, Captain," said Aristomenes. "They may want to get you off into the bush to kill and eat you."

"Perhaps," I said, "but we must take that chance. If they kill me, Linos can get you back to Myos Hormos."

I followed Bakapha upstream, winding through the bush on game trails that I should never have noticed alone, but which afforded passage with the least damage to garments and skin. Sure enough, a furlong or so upstream, we came to a sandy pool in the stream bed.

When I got back to the beach, I found Aristomenes standing amongst the blacks, who—chattering and laughing uproariously—felt his skin and fingered his ragged tunic. He looked unhappy but cheered up when I told him about the water. He said:

"Captain, here's something you ought to see."

He indicated the piece of wood on which he had sat. We pulled it out and knocked the damp sand off it.

"That," I said, "looks like the stem post of a small vessel, with a figurehead in the form of a horse's head. Let's take it aboard. Row out with it, while I fraternize with Bakapha here. Bring a couple of jars back with you, and a tablet and stylus from my cabin."

He rowed off, whilst I amused the Ethiopians with some of the conjuring tricks I had learnt from Hippalos. The rest of the day, the sailors spent in laboriously ferrying jars to shore in the skiff, carrying them upstream to the pool, filling them, and taking them back to the ship. Meanwhile I conversed with Bakapha, noting new words on the tablet as they came up. The tablet fascinated his men, who crowded around me, looking over my shoulders six at a time, until their pungent odor almost overcame me. I suppose they thought it was big magic.

I learnt that Bakapha was a chief from a village to the northwest. Then women were home cultivating their crops. We ended the day with a grand feast on the beach, pooling the meat of the antelope and the ship's provisions.

The next day, the Ethiopians were still there. When I came ashore, Bakapha indicated that he wanted to visit the Ourania. This was done, while I remained with his men to assure them that their chief should come to no harm. I should like to have warned him against other shipmasters who, if a naked native came trustingly aboard, would seize the man for a slave and sail off with him. But I knew too little of the language to express so complex an idea. Bakapha assured us that several other streams emptied into the sea to the north, where we could replenish our water as we had done here.

When we had refilled our water tank, we took our leave of Bakapha and his band. We last saw them waving to us from the beach. They were the nicest savages I have met.

At last, with much sweat, we rounded the towering cliffs of the Southern Horn. I got back to Alexandria in the middle of winter. When I reported to Ananias at the palace, I said:

"I got what I went for. Could you get me a room in the palace, where I can lay out my pretties in two lots for Her Majesty to choose from?"

"I think I can," said the colonel. "Don't forget that a quarter of your share I get."

"You mean, a quarter of my share after deducting what it cost me!"

"I suppose so. I'm no merchant, nor am I good at figures. I'll have a clerk from the Treasury in to check your calculations."

As it turned out, the queen could see me that afternoon. She arrived in the chamber that I had been given, with the usual guardsmen, ladies in waiting, her two Judaean officers, and a couple of other officials. Pronax and I had spread out the pearls and stones on a linen-covered table in two lots, as much alike as we could make them. One lot, for instance, had a hundred and forty-six pearls, the other a hundred and forty-seven; but the largest pearl of all was in the first lot.

The queen stared at the table for a long time, as if unable to make up her mind. Then she turned to me with a frown.

"Captain Eudoxos," she said, "I wish it understood that I do not suspect you of chicanery. Nevertheless, to make sure that no question shall remain of our complete honesty with each other, you will not, I am sure, mind if I have you searched."

I did mind, but queens are queens. "All right, I suppose so," I growled.

She stiffened at my tone. "Strip him!" she commanded the guards.

"Madam!" I said. "I have my dignity, too—"

But two hulking Celts grabbed me and began peeling off my clothes. In a trice, I stood naked before the queen. She looked me up and down with an appraising eye.

"I daresay," she said, "that when you were young, you could stroke the girls many a mighty stroke. What is that thing around your neck?"

I had tucked my statuette of Ganesha inside my tunic. I explained what the amulet was and how I had come by it.

"Why," asked Queen Kleopatra, "did you not include it in the two piles on yonder table?"

"It's not a pearl, nor yet a precious stone."

"It is still a small and valuable ornament and should therefore have been included. The fact that you tried to hide it shows that you had a guilty mind."

"I did not try to hide it, Your Majesty! I tucked this thing inside my shirt because a Hellene does not ordinarily wear such a foreign bauble, and I did not wish to be conspicuous in Alexandria."

"I don't believe you, but you can earn my forgiveness by giving it to me."

"What?"

"Don't roar at me, graybeard! If you are saucy, by Pan's prick, I'll apply the old law and strip you of everything on that table. Now, will you give me that statue?"

"I will not!" I could have bitten my tongue as soon as I said it. By groveling, I suppose I could have saved my jewels even yet. But I had taken enough injury from the Ptolemies, and at this latest extortion I was furious enough to have thrown this pudgy little Macedonian queen, with her longshoreman's vocabulary, out the palace window, bangles and all.

"You will not, eh?" she screeched, the little green eyes blazing out of her round kitten's face. "We'll see about that, you dung-eating old sodomite!" She motioned to one of the officials. "Gather all that stuff up and deposit it in the Treasury. Take Captain Eudoxos' statuette, too. As for you, you mannerless old peasant, you had better be out of my kingdom tomorrow, unless you crave another lesson in gold mining!"

While I put my clothes back on, the officials hastened to assure Her Divine Majesty that she had done exactly right. "That is the way to treat these lying men of the sea," said one. "Give them a digit and they take a furlong."

He gathered up the corners of the linen tablecloth and slung the resulting sack, containing all my loot from India, over his shoulder. The queen swept out—if a dumpy little woman can be described as "sweeping"—with all her bracelets jingling. Everybody but Ananias followed her. The Judaean remained behind, glowering.

"Why in the name of the Unspoken Name did you have to bungle it?" he growled. "I thought a man of your age and experience knew enough not to sauce royalty."

"By Bakchos' balls, Colonel," I replied, "I have had all I can take from your divine mistress, and you had better not start berating me, too. I'm sorry there are no profits to give you a quarter of, but it's harder on me than on you. Besides, my beard is no grayer than your brother's, and he seems to do all right."

Although a rather humorless man, Ananias smiled a little. "I thought she had touched a sore spot. But one cannot tell off a queen, regardless of the provocation."

"I don't think anything I could have said would have made any difference."

"How so?" he said.

"I think she was lying in wait for me, determined to find some pretext to confiscate my stock. If one thing hadn't worked, she would have tried another. The old Sausage said she was mad—literally crazy—about gems."

Ananias looked at me with some sympathy, but he only shrugged. As a practical courtier, he was not going to voice any criticism of his sovran in the palace, where somebody might be listening from a secret passage.

"What's done is done," he said at last. "But what next?"

"Well, how in Tartaros shall I get out of Egypt tomorrow? The shipping is closed down, save for a few fishermen who won't go out of sight of their home port."

"Let me think," said Ananias. "Is that boy going back to Kyzikos with you?"

"Yes. He's a cousin."

"I can lend you a couple of horses from my stable. They're not the noblest steeds in the world, but home they should get you. One can carry you; the other, the boy and your baggage."

'That's good of you. But how shall I ever return the animals to you?"

Ananias waved a hand. "The next time one of your ships sails to Alexandria, tell the captain to pay me for the beasts. They cost about two hundred drachmai for the pair; that's close enough."

"That is extremely kind and generous of you."

He shrugged again. "As your go-between, I feel somewhat responsible for you."

Since it was too late in the day to set out upon our journey, I went to the waterfront with Pronax, carrying that stem post with the horse's head. There I struck up a conversation with some ships' officers, who knew my name from the first Indian voyage. I asked them if they had ever seen anything like this stem post. At last one old skipper, who spoke Greek with a Spanish accent, said:

"Aye, I know that. The fishermen in Gades put those things on their boats."

"Horse-figureheads?" I said.

"Aye. But that's not just a horse; that's a sea horse."

"What's the difference, since the carving shows the head only, not the fishy tail?"

"There be no difference!" roared the salt, slapping me on the back and doubling over with laughter. "But don't call one of them things a plain horse's head to a Gaditanian fisherman, or you'll have a fight on your hands. How'd you come by that thing?"

I told him of finding the figurehead beyond the Southern Horn.

"Oh, hah!" said the Spaniard. "Sometimes they sail their little cockleshells down the Moorish coast as far as the river Lixus. One of 'em must have sailed too far and been blown clear around Africa."

Spring had come again to Kyzikos, and the hills were bright with poppy and hyacinth and cyclamen, when Pronax and I, shaggy and worn, rode up to the Miletopolis Gate of Kyzikos. If I had come ashore at the docks as usual, every longshoreman and waterfront loafer would have known me and spread the news of my return. As it was, we arrived before my house unheralded.

Leaving Pronax to hold the horses, I banged on the door and shouted "Pai!" But all remained quiet, as if the house were deserted.

"Uncle!" said Pronax. "If you'll hold the horses, I'll run to your brothers' houses and tell of your return."

"Do so," I said.

Soon my kinsmen appeared, hastening towards me. There were my middle brother and my brother-in-law and my cousin; my younger brother was away on a voyage. They embraced and kissed me and showered me with questions about my voyage.

"Later, later," I said. "First, where is my family?"

They hesitated. I was stricken with dread that my wife and child had been carried off by some mishap. Any traveling man knows this fear, which often strikes when one has nearly reached home.

"Well, out with it!" I said. "Are they alive or dead?"

"They're alive," said my brother. "But—all—"

"I'll tell him," said my cousin. "Eudoxos, your wife eloped with another man and has not been heard of since. Theon is all right; he's living with Korimos and Phyio." (These were my brother-in-law and my sister.)

I leant against the house. I suppose I turned pale, for my brother muttered: "Get ready to catch him!"

"It's all right," I said. "I shan't faint. When did this happen? Do you know the man?"

My brother-in-law said: "It was your old comrade-in-arms, Hippalos the Corinthian, who arrived as captain of a Milesian ship last summer, soon after you left for Alexandria. The whipworthy rogue gave us a party, explaining that he had come to join you in another Indian voyage. He would have arrived sooner, he said; but he had been laid up in Syracuse for the winter and so had not heard about Physkon's death until long after it had happened.

"He stayed in town for a ten-day, waiting for cargo. We had no idea he was calling daily, unchaperoned, on Astra. Then little Theon came to my house with a letter from Astra, saying that she was going away with Hippalos and asking us to take care of the boy until your return. We all grabbed our swords and rushed to the waterfront, but Hippalos' ship had left."

"Didn't anybody try to follow him, to avenge the family's honor?"

"I was coming to that. Tryphon—" that was my younger brother—"went to Miletos, since Hippalos had told our harbormaster that he meant to return to his home port. Tryphon stormed into the office of Ariston and Pytheas, demanding to know where the depraved one was.

"Hippalos, they told him, had already departed for Peiraieus. Yes, they said, he had brought a woman, whom he introduced as his wife, from Kyzikos. She had shipped with him to Peiraieus. This was somewhat unusual; but, as newly-wed captains sometimes take their brides on their first voyage after the event, they thought nothing of it.

"Tryphon thought of sailing to Peiraieus; but then he might arrive after Hippalos had left that port, the gods knew whither. He thought he'd have a better chance of catching the scoundrel by waiting for him in Miletos.

"Then Hippalos' ship returned to Miletos without its captain. The mate told his employers that at Peiraieus, Hippalos dad unloaded his cargo, loaded the new one, and announced that he was quitting to take another berth. He turned the ship over to the first officer and disappeared, and the woman with him. That is the last that anybody knows about him."

"Death take him!" I said. "And to think I could have so easily let my mutinous sailors cut his throat! Has anybody a key to my house?"

Inside, I looked around for some note that she might have left me, but there was nothing. I threw myself on a couch to weep, beat the wall with my fists until they were bloody, and cried out Astra's name, while my kinsmen stood around uneasily, making awkward attempts to console me. When I had finished, I asked:

"Where's Gnouros?"

"He went with Astra," said my brother-in-law. "Gnouros told Theon that you had charged him to take especial care of your wife, and this was the best way he could think of to do so."

"He'd have done better to have killed that temple thief," I growled.

"Oh, come now! The poor fellow was only a slave. Besides, Hippalos was much the younger and the larger of the two."

"What became of Dirka?"

"Gone back to her village. She said she'd come back to Kyzikos to work if you wanted her."

My brother entertained me and our kin that night. A somber homecoming feast it was; I could not even report a commercial success to lighten the gloom. I said:

"I hope I shall have better sense than ever to trust a Ptolemy again. To let myself be robbed once was bad enough, but twice!"

"There's still wealth in the Indian trade, though," said my brother. "Isn't there some other route by which we could come to that land?"

"There's the route through Syria, down the Euphrates to Babylon and Apologos and out the Persian Gulf. But the Parthians control that route. I doubt if an outsider would be allowed to keep much profit; Mithradates would skin him as the Ptolemies did me. And anything that he missed, the Seleucids would get."

"Of course," said Korimos, "the geographers tell us that the earth is round, and that one could reach India by sailing westward from Gades, straight out into the Atlantic."

"Let us not seek to wed Aphrodite," I said. "Nobody knows how far one must sail to raise land in that direction, nor how the prevailing winds blow. At the least, India must be thousands of leagues across the water from Spain, and your crew would be as dead as Darius the Great before they reached it. Gades, Gades ... It reminds me of something. Ah, yes. The first time Hippalos came here, he'd shipped for some Gaditanian firm—Eldagon, I think the name was."

"It sounds Phoenician," said my cousin.

"It probably is. Now, if you were running away with a friend's wife, like Paris with Helen, and wanted to put the greatest possible distance between him and yourself, whither would you go?"

"To the farther end of the Inner Sea," said my brother-in-law.

"Just so. Eldagon's ships trade as far east as the Aegean. So what more natural than that Hippalos, finding one of them at Peiraieus, took a berth on it to get to Gades? He's probably captaining one of Eldagon's vessels in the western seas right now."

"Are you thinking of going after him?" asked my brother.

"Yes, I am. I'll load up the Ainetê—"

All my kinsmen shouted objections, and a noisy argument raged. But I beat them down, one by one. For one thing, I cited the advantages of cooperation with a shipping firm whose home port was too far away to compete directly with us. By joining forces with this Eldagon—provided I liked the cut of his artemon—we could make ourselves leaders in long-distance shipping in the entire Inner Sea.

As I spoke, another thought struck me. I said nothing, because my kinsmen would have tried to make me give it up. I recalled the arguments of Agatharchides and Artemidoros about the shape of Africa, and Herodotos' tale of the Phoenician fleet that sailed around Africa, and the Gaditanian fisherman whose horse-head stem post I had found. If they could do it, why not I?

I should have to time my arrival on the Eastern African coast to take advantage of the six-monthly southwest wind. Then, I should leave this coast at the Southern Horn and head northeast over the open sea to India. Thus I could exploit the Indian trade without coming in reach of the Ptolemies' greedy »rasp, and it was surely no riskier than searching for India by sailing west into the unknown Atlantic.

I knew the danger. Beyond the deserts, Africa was said to swarm with wild beasts and wilder men, some of whom would jive a dinner for foreign visitors with the visitors as the main course. None knew how long the African coast was. It had taken King Necho's Phoenicians over two years to make the circuit, with two stops of five or six months each to grow a crop of wheat, so their actual time in transit was more than a rear. Even if, with a large, modern ship, I could better their time, the Indian Ocean was still a vast, unexplored sea. Who mew when a storm might hurl me ashore on some unknown, monster-haunted continent in the midst of it?

But then, what had I to lose? I had spent two years on lose Indian journeys, and all I had to show for them was the name of an intrepid voyager with interesting tales to tell. But had had that repute before I ever went to India. I had lost the only true love of my life. Among my fellow men, a cuckold is a figure of fun, and I had no doubt that many Kyzikenes laughed at me behind my back. So I did not foresee a serene and pleasant old age in my native city.

Therefore I resolved, while I was still active enough, to try the most daring voyage that man had ever essayed. If I succeeded, wealth and fame beyond that of kings should be mine. If I failed, I should at least go out in a blaze of glory.

One who would not sneer at my misfortunes was old Glaukos the physician. While the Ainetê was being readied, I spent an afternoon with him. I discussed my problems and plans, except the circumnavigation of Africa.

"Yes, I met your Hippalos," he said. "A charming fellow, who would be none the worse for hanging. Tell me, suppose you catch up with him and your wife, what then?"

"I'll kill him, first."

"If you can. He's a big, powerful fellow, and you are not exactly a youth."

"I can still throw men half my age in the gymnasium. Anyway, I'll take my chances."

"How about the law? Revenge is sweet, but having your head chopped off afterwards is bound to take some of the pleasure out of it."

'That's not likely," I said. "He's a homeless wanderer. There would be no kinsmen to prosecute me, not even a Corinthian consul to bring an action on his behalf."

"Don't be too sure. Gades is under Roman rule, and Roman law differs from ours in many ways."

"I'll ask about it when I get there."

"All right, suppose you slay Hippalos. What will you do with Astra?"

"Bring her back, of course."

"Will you beat her?"

"I suppose I ought, but I—I don't think I could. I love her too much."

"When you get her back, how will you satisfy the lusts that led her to run off in the first place?"

"Oh," I said. "I hadn't thought that far ahead. But a wife's duty—"

'To the afterworld with her wifely duty!" said Glaukos. "When I was younger, I took those catchwords seriously, also. We men like to think of our women as passive vessels, satisfied to keep our houses and bear our brats. Nice girls are not supposed to enjoy being frittered, but to submit as a wifely duty. The fact is that they like it just as well as we do, and they get just as cranky and skittish when they don't have it."

"You sound like one of those Egyptians, who give their women almost as many rights as men."

"Hmp. Tell me, how often have you and Astra had a really successful bed-scrimmage in the last—how long since you got back from India the first time?"

"Nearly three years."

"Well, how often during the two years between your Indian voyages? I mean, where she quaked at the climax like a fish on the hook."

I thought. "Oh, perhaps four or five times."

"There you are. A healthy woman of her age ought to be well plumbed at least once or twice a ten-day. Another of my patients has similar trouble; in her case the cause is that her husband loves another man. Howsomever, perhaps you had better leave bad enough alone."

"You mean to ignore this adulterous pair? Let them go scot-free?"

"Just so—unless Astra has repented her bargain and really wishes to return to you."

"I couldn't do that! The honor of the family demands—"

"Honor, phy! Another catchword. Don't try to make up your mind right away, but think over my advice."

A month later, I set sail in the Ainetê with a cargo of Scythian wheat, Bithynian timber, and Mysian silver and wool. I stopped at Peiraieus to sell it and loaded up with Attic goods; then on to Dikaiarchia in the bay of Neapolis, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius; then to Massilia, and so on until I threaded the Pillars of Herakles and so came to Gades.

At each stop, besides selling my cargo and buying a new one, I had talked to the shipping people of my grand project. I had no trouble in getting an audience, for my fame as the man who had twice sailed to India had run ahead of me. This reputation enabled me to profit most gratifyingly from this voyage. Many merchants, I think, bid on my goods more for the sake of questioning me about the Indian trade than because they needed the goods.

I also got offers to go shares on the journey, and some to go with me. I chose a few of these, such as the Athenian physician Mentor and his apprentice, and several shipwrights. I meant to be as well prepared for disaster as foresight could render me. As a result of these additions, the Ainetê was badly crowded by the time we reached the Bay of Gades, at the mouth of the Cilbus.

Gades is a small city, at the northern end of a long, narrow island, called Kolinoussa, across the mouth of the bay. We tied up at a quay on the eastern side of the island, next to the temenos of the temple of Herakles, among the massive, high-sided ships used in the Atlantic trade. I also saw several small fishing vessels with horse-head stem posts; but I must admit that these did not look much like the one I had found on the African coast.

Aside from this temple and one to Kronos on the west or seaward side, there was little to see in Gades. Inside the wall, the city consisted mainly of warehouses and facilities—taverns and lodginghouses—for sailors. The houses of the merchants, landowners, and officials were villas scattered around the periphery of the bay and on the smaller island of Erytheia, in the midst of the bay.

The streets of Gades swarmed with sailors, dock workers, and merchants. They were a mixture of Hellenes, Phoenicians, Moors, native Iberians, and now (since the Roman domination) Italians as well. The various peoples did not inhabit separate districts, as in Alexandria. The crowded quarters and the shifting population, over half of which was at sea at any one time, made such segregation impractical.

The different races had been mixing and intermarrying for many years, so that one met people with names like Titus Perikles ben-Hanno. They looked like any other nondescript seaport crowd. With modern transportation, all the port cities in the Inner Sea are coming to look more and more alike.

I submitted with the best grace I could muster to the insolence of an arrogant Roman harbor master, put my cargo under guard, and gave the mate the job of finding lodgings for my people. Then I set out with Pronax, now a gangling youth, to find Eldagon. At his warehouse, they told me that the boss was not in that day and gave me directions for finding his villa.

I hired a boat to take me across the bay and found Eldagon's villa. The house was a normal upper-class dwelling of the courtyard type, large but not palatial. Around it, however, stretched a remarkable landscape of parks and gardens, like those of a Persian grandee. Here grew trees and shrubs of many exotic kinds. Around the corner of the house I glimpsed a kind of stockade, whence came some curious noises— grunts, whines, and other animal sounds.

The doorman led Pronax and me into the courtyard and bade us be seated while he went to find the master. Eldagon, he said, was "with his beasts." Presently Eldagon himself came in.

Eldagon the son of Balatar was a man of medium height and muscular, broad-shouldered build, with heavy, black brows and a big, hooked beak of a nose. Unlike most Punics in these days, when everybody from Karia to Carthage affects Hellenic dress and manners and shaves his face in imitation of the divine Alexander, Eldagon retained the old-fashioned Punic dress and full beard, beginning to turn from black to gray. He wore an ankle-length gown and a tall felt hat with a low turban wound around it. He clasped his hands together and bowed over them.

"Rejoice, sirs!" he said. 'To whom am I indebted for this visit?"

"I am Eudoxos Theonos, a Kyzikene shipmaster," I said, "You many have heard of me, sir."

"Not the one who sailed to India?"

"Yes, sir."

"By Milkarth's iron yard!" cried Eldagon. "This is indeed an honor. Sit down and tell me all about it. Miknasa! Fetch wine! Our best Campanian!"

A half-chorus of wine and an hour later, I got down to business. "Have you a sailor named Hippalos the Corinthian in your employ?"

Eldagon stared. "How strange that you should ask!"

"Well, have you?"

"Yes; at least, I did have. A few years ago, he signed up as a deck hand. Then he quit to work somewhere in the East. A few months back, he reappeared as a mate on one of my ships. The mate of that ship had fallen off a pier at Peiraieus while drunk and drowned, and Hippalos—who was then the skipper of a merchantman in those parts—persuaded my captain to ship him in the dead man's place. He was so eager to get back to the West, he said, that he would give up a step in rank. My captain had always liked him and knew him for an able mariner."

"Where is he now?"

Eldagon shrugged. "He sailed as first officer on two short coastal voyages from Gades, and then he disappeared again. Why or whither, I know not"

"Did he say anything about having sailed with me to India?"

"Not a word. Do you mean this man had actually been to India with you?"

"On my first voyage."

"But why—why should he be silent about so thrilling an adventure? You Hellenes—no offense meant—are the most garrulous folk on earth, and I cannot imagine a Hellene's keeping mum when he had such a tale to tell."

"I think he had his reasons. Tell me: when he put in here from Peiraieus, had he a woman with him?"

"Now that I think, I believe he did, albeit I never met her. He also had a slave—an elderly little barbarian of some sort. But, Master Eudoxos, you arouse my curiosity to the fever pitch. What is this all about?"

"I have a little matter to settle with Master Hippalos," said I grimly. "Might I speak to some of your officers, to learn if he gave any hint of whither he was going?"

"Thrice evil to evildoers! I have no objection." Eldagon looked closely at me. "Was this woman your daughter?"

"No, but you're close." To change the subject, I asked: "What is that stockade behind your house, whence come those strange bestial noises?"

"Oh, my dear sir!" cried Eldagon. "I must show you my beasts! Come, we shall have plenty of time to see them before dinner. They are my main interest in life. Ships and cargoes and contracts are all very fine, but I chiefly value them because they let me indulge my hobby. Come, and bring the youth, too."

We went out to the stockade. This was actually a number of adjacent inclosures housing various beasts. Pronax gave a little shriek and shrank back as an elephant thrust its trunk between the bars to beg for dainties. Eldagon dug a handful of nuts out of a pocket in his robe and gave one to the huge beast.

"The trouble with such a creature," said Eldagon, "is that it never stops eating. Malik, here; consumes three talents of hay and greens every day, and he is not yet full grown. Tell me: is it true, as many aver, that the elephants of India are larger than those of Africa?"

"That's hard to say," I replied. "I rode on one monster in India, seven or eight cubits tall; but the late King Ptolemaios Evergetes of Egypt had one in his menagerie, from Ethiopia, that was at least as large."

"This one comes from Mauretania," said Eldagon. "King Bocchus got him for me. They seem to be a smaller race, seldom exceeding five cubits. Now, here in this next cage is my most dangerous single beast, a wild bull from the Idubedian Mountains of Spain. This next is the common European lynx. And now, here is one that, I am sure, would like to make your acquaintance. Will you step into the cage with me?"

I followed Eldagon into the cage, with Pronax behind me. At first I saw nothing. A big oak grew in the cage, and something lay in the shade on the far side. The something got up and came towards us, and I saw that it was a lion, not quite full-grown. It trotted over to Eldagon and rubbed its head against his knees, making throaty noises. Eldagon scratched the roots of its scanty young mane as if it were a dog. Then the lion looked me up and down with its big, yellow eyes. I stood my ground. But Pronax backed against the bars, and the lion made for him, stopping a foot from him and looking up at him with a deep, rumbling growl.

Frightened half to death, the poor lad pressed himself against the bars with his eyes goggling. Eldagon pulled the lion back by its mane and spoke sharply to it. The animal let me nervously pat it and wandered back to its patch of shade.

"Hiram loves to frighten people who shrink from him," said Eldagon. "But he has never hurt anyone. In this next cage, I have a pair of gazelles from the African desert ..."

And so it went. Eldagon was still talking about his animals when lengthening shadows reminded him of dinner time. He pressed me to stay, which I did without reluctance.

"You must remain the night, too, best one!" he exclaimed. "Why, I have not even begun to tell you about my rare plants and trees!"

Here, evidently, was a man with a real enthusiasm—or obsession, depending on the point of view. In fact, if given a chance he would talk about his collection of plants and animals until the hearer became deaf or fell asleep. I said:

"This park and its beasts must cost you a pretty obolos to keep up."

"It does that. My wife scolds me for not saving the money to spend on her jewels, or to give to the poor, or anything but a lot of 'ungrateful beasts' as she calls them. But then, what does one live for? My children are ah grown and doing well, so why should I not indulge this harmless passion?"

"No reason at all, sir. Do you show your menagerie to many people?"

"A great many. Twice a year I invite all of Gades to file through and take a look. My main worry is that our dear governor may take it into his head to seize my animals and ship them off to Rome, there to be butchered in those bloody public games. I make handsome gifts to the Roman to keep on his good side."

I kept hoping that he would bring the talk around to the shipping business, so that I could introduce my own proposal. But all he wished to discuss were exotic animals and plants. At last, as dinner was brought on, I said:

"I saw some remarkable animals in India, you know. There was a rhinoceros ..."

Now I had his attention. He listened eagerly, asking searching questions, as I described the beasts of the East. "Would that I could go thither," he said. "But I fear my health would not withstand the journey. How about you? Do you ever expect to return to India?"

"Not unless I can get around the Ptolemaic blockade." I told him of my difficulties with that grasping dynasty. He shook his head.

"We have a saying," he said, "never trust a river, a woman, or a king. But what is your plan for the future?"

This was the opening for which I had been waiting. "I do have a scheme for reaching India," I said, "although it is one that some would consider mad ..." And I told him of my project for sailing around Africa. "I see, however, that I shall need another ship. My Aineti is too small for the size of the crew I mean to ship. Besides, I shall need a long-boat or two for exploring the shoreline."

"Perhaps I can help you," said Eldagon. "My brother Tubal is a shipbuilder; we work together. He makes them: I sail them."

"Would you be interested in a partnership for this voyage? You furnish the ship; I sail it."

Eldagon frowned. "I do not know. Your voyage sounds exciting but terribly risky. We have lost two ships in the last two years, so it behooves us to be cautious until that loss can be made up."

"Even if I could fetch you strange animals and plants from India?"

"Well, ah—I do not—" I could see him weaken. "I admit," he said, "that if anybody could do it, you could. I liked the way you stood up to that lion. For such a journey, all your courage and self-control would be needed. What sort of agreement had you in mind?"

Well, nobody—not even a Phoenician—has ever yet gotten the better of me on a dicker of that sort. We chaffered all through dinner—which we ate sitting in chairs, in the Punic manner—and for hours afterwards. Before we went to bed, we had our agreement roughed out.

Tubal ben-Balatar was a contrast to his brother Eldagon. There was nothing visibly Punic about him save a slight guttural accent. A younger man than Eldagon, whom he otherwise resembled, he wore a Greek tunic and cloak. His face was clean-shaven, and his hair cut short in the Roman fashion. He even gave me the Roman salute, by shooting his right arm forward and up, like a schoolboy asking his teacher for leave to speak. He examined the Ainetê at her quay and said:

"You are right in wanting a larger ship for this voyage, Master Eudoxos. Howsomever, you will need a ship different not only in size but also in kind."

"How so?"

"See that big fellow in the next dock? That's the kind of ship one needs in the Western Ocean. Notice the high freeboard and wide beam. They are required by the great swells one meets during a blow."

"The Inner Sea has some pretty lively storms."

"Yes, but you avoid most of them by lying up in winter. In the Atlantic, one meets storms at any time of year. Therefore one must either have a ship built to withstand them or do without shipping. Such a ship requires extra-heavy bracing to keep the long swells from racking her to pieces."

"Do you propose to build such a ship from the keel up, or has your brother one already in service?"

"Better than either; we have a new ship on the ways, almost ready to launch. Let's go look at her."

We climbed over the side of the Ainetê by our rope ladder into Tubal's boat, a six-oared harbor tug. We rowed to the mainland, where his shipway stood. Here on the slip sat the new ship, called the Tyria. She was a huge craft, even bigger than the Ourania, and somewhat differently proportioned. I could see from her massive construction and tubby form that she would prove slow; but then, Tubal knew more about shipbuilding for the Atlantic trade than I did.

It was evening by the time I had finished inspecting the Tyria, and Tubal wanted to show me some of Gades' famous night life. Eldagon begged off.

"That sort of thing began to bore me years ago," he said.

"Besides, I must look to my animals. The male ibex has been ailing."

Tubal indicated young Pronax. "Are you sure that you wish your cousin to attend? The girls put on a fairly bawdy performance."

"After India, I don't think anything in Gades would shock him."

And indeed the floor show, in Gades' largest tavern, was tame enough. True, the dancing girls wore tunics of transparent, filmy stuff; but none showed her naked teats and cleft as they do in India. A comedian cracked jokes that must have been funny, to judge by the roars of mirth they elicited. But oimoi! he used such a strong local dialect of Greek, sprinkled with Punic and Iberian words, that I missed the point of half of them.

I suppose the reason for the repute of Gades as a center of wicked night life is that it is virtually the only city west of Neapolis where there is any night life at all. There is little or none in the Punic cities, like Panormos and Utica, because Phoenicians are a strait-laced, sober lot The Massiliots, although Greeks with a reputation as gourmets, have much the same outlook. So, to those who like a bit of rowdy fun, Gades seems like an oasis in a vast desert of rigid morality.

Watching the girls sing, dance, and tweetle their flutes gave me an idea. I asked Tubal:

"Who owns those girls?"

"The proprietor. There he is, over there." He pointed to a burly, sweaty man talking to some sailors at a table. "May I speak to him?"

Tubal caught the man's eye and beckoned him over. "Our genial host, Marcus Edeco," he said.

After the amenities, I asked Edeco: "Would you be interested in selling any of those girls?"

"I don't know. At a price, maybe," said Edeco. "What have you in mind?"

"I'm planning a long voyage, and at the end of it are some Hellenes stuck in a far land, who want Greek wives. It's a risky voyage, so I won't take any girls who don't want to go."

"Stay around until closing time and I'll let you talk to the girls."

I had quite a time staying awake until then, since some of the customers seemed determined to make an all-night revel of it. A couple of hours before dawn, Edeco got the last of them out and lined up his girls in front of me. There were seven of them.

"Would any of you girls like husbands?" I asked. "Real, legally wedded spouses?"

All seven let out a simultaneous shriek and threw themselves upon me, kissing my hands and face and chirping: "When? Where? Who? Are they young? Are they handsome? Are they rich?"

"There's your answer," said Tubal with a grin.

"Easy, girls," I said. "It's not quite so simple as that." And I told them of the Bactrio-Greek soldiers who had asked me to fetch Hellenic brides for them. Since I did not make light of the length and hazards of the journey, the girls sobered up. In the end, four said they wanted to go. The remaining three —two of whom had children—preferred to stay in Gades. It took a ten-day of haggling, off and on, to beat down Marcus Edeco to a reasonable price. I also bought two more girls at another tavern.

Most of the crew of the Ainetê declined to sail on the Tyria. So I put my mate in command of the Ainetê, hired a few extra sailors, bought a new cargo, and sent the Ainetê off for Kyzikos.

I hired more local men to fill out the crew of the Tyria. Several had sailed down the Mauretanian coast as far as the mouth of the Lixus, albeit none had even been so far as half-legendary Kernê. Remembering the story of King Necho's Phoenician circumnavigators, I put aboard plenty of seed wheat, with hoes, sickles, and other tools for light farming. I had hired several sailors with farming experience.

And so, on the twenty-fourth of Metageitnion, in the third year of the 166th Olympiad, when Nausias was archon of Athens, the Tyria, with two long boats in tow, stood out from the harbor of Gades into the windy, tide-tossed Atlantic, on her way to India.