He wandered through Africa for forty-two years, and passed by the lake of Salinae to the altars of the Philistines, and between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came by the river Mulon, and by sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the Tuscan Sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt there many years, and he increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied." Herodotus gives an account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians, which may have some coincidence with this narrative.

His only reason for rejecting the tradition, which he relates at length, is that he could not conceive how these navigators could have seen the sun in a position contrary to that in which it is seen in Europe.

The expression of his doubt is a strong confirmation of the truth of his narrative, which, however, is generally believed by modern writers.[49] This navigation was performed about seven centuries before the Christian era, and is, at least, a proof that the maritime power of the Phoenicians was established at an early period, and that it was not impossible for them to have extended their enterprises to Ireland.

The traditions of our people may also be confirmed from other sources.
Solinus writes thus: "In the gulf of Boatica there is an island, distant some hundred paces from the mainland, which the Tyrians, who came from the Red Sea, called Erythroea, and the Carthaginians, in their language, denominate Gadir, i.e., the enclosure." Spanish historians add their testimony, and claim the Phoenicians as their principal colonizers.

The _Hispania Illustrata_, a rare and valuable work, on which no less than sixty writers were engaged, fixes the date of the colonization of Spain by the Phoenicians at 764 A.C.