In going over part of the same ground which I had taken before, I could not always avoid the use of similar expressions.
I trust I need not apologise for having, in some instances, departed from strict historical facts.

It is not true that Camoens sailed with De Gama, though, from the authority of Voltaire, it has been sometimes supposed that he did.

There are other circumstances for which I may have less reason to expect pardon.

The Egyptians were never, or but for a short time, a maritime nation.

In answer to this, I must say, that _history_ and _poetry_ are two things; and though the poet has no right to _contradict_ the historian, yet, if he find two opinions upon points of history, he may certainly take that which is most susceptible of poetical ornament; particularly if it have sufficient plausibility, and the sanction of respectable names.
In deducing the first maritime attempts from _Thebes_, so called from _Thebaoth_, the _Ark_, founded by the sons of Cush, who first inhabited the caves on the granite mountains of Ethiopia, I have followed the idea of Bruce, which has many testimonies, particularly that of Herodotus, in its favour.