John Wall Wrote:
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> I'm unfamiliar with the detail in Herodotus -
> although it's on the www somewhere - but iirc it
> talks about them planting crops, etc and mentions
> a shipwreck.

To the best of my knowledge, there's no mention of a Phoenician shipwreck in Herodotus's account. I suspect Mikey was investigating South African claims (a la Menzies) that such a shipwreck existed.

Here's the relevant section from Herodotus in its entirely.

Histories 2, 158f

Libya [ie. Africa] shows clearly that it is surrounded by the sea, except where it borders on Asia. Nekos king of Egypt [ie. Necho II, 609-594 BCE] made this discovery first known. When he had stopped the digging of the canal connecting the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent Phoenicians in ships, with orders to sail on their return voyage past the Pillars of Heracles [ie. The straits of Gibraltar] until they entered the northern sea and so returned to Egypt.

The Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and sailed the southern sea. Whenever autumn came they landed and planted grain in the part of Libya they had reached, and there they waited for harvest time. Then, after gathering the crop, they continued their voyage, so that two years had passed. It was in the third year that they rounded the Pillars of Heracles and returned to Egypt. There they claimed and some may believe it, though I do not, that when sailing around Libya they had the sun on their right hand.

From [nefertiti.iwebland.com]

Damian