Theflaly by the way o f the Danube, failing up the river till
they came to its divifloil, or to the confluence o f fome other
river, that runs into it, and had a communication with the
Adriatick. In the meantime, the fhips o f Colchos were in pur-
fuit o f them. One of their fquadrons, having entered the Pro*
pontes, and paiied the Cianean rocks, or the iflands Shnpkgadi,
which in thofe times were reckoned very dangerous, traverfed
the Archipelago, fleering the courfe which it was natural to
think the Theflalians would do in returning home with their
prize; and landed in Epyrus. But the other fquadron, commanded
by Apjirtus, purfued Jafon and Medea, and even got
before them, in the fame way that they had chofen ; : and having
entered the .Danube at one o f its motiths; which baths the
fouth fide o f the ifland o f Peuce, called alfo K*Xov- got into
the Adriatick before the Argonauts, who had chofen the northerly
** W e will return to Orcbomenus . . . For the priefts of Tritonian Thebes
“ had taught the failors another road . . . And it is faid there was one of them o f
fi old, who, by his own courage, and the valour of his people, had conquered
“ many cities in Europe and Alia; fome of thofe are inhabited in our days, and
“ others are defcribed ; as many years have elapfed iince the time of thofe me-
“ morable old adventures. But the city of Ra ft ill fubfifts in its fplendour, 2nd
“ the defcendants of thofe ancient heroes which he had fettled there. They jea-
** Jouily preferve the table wrote by their anceftors, in which the roads, by fea
<c and land, over ¡all our globe, are noted. And there is a river alfo recorded,.
“ which runs into the innermoft corner o f the ocean ; it is large and deep, and ca-
“ pable of bearing a loaded (hip from one to the other fea j it is called the IJier,
“ and comes, with its name, from diftant parts. But at the confines of Thrace
“ and Scythia its ample channel is divided into two branches, one of which runs
« into the Tufcan fea, entering into a deep and feparate gulf which reaches be-
“ yond the fea of Sicily, and is not far from our land.,,
Here it is proper to obferve, that the ancient Greeks femetimes called the black
fea Pontus, and the ocean; and confounded the Ionian and Adriatick fea with
the T ufcan, as parts o f it.
therly mouth, and had loit too much time in Palagonia. Hence
it appears, that the navigation, from the black fea into the
Adriatick, by the Danube, was not only known at h a , and
Thebes in Egypt, but likewife at Colchos, where there were many
fhips and mariners. *
Jafm and his companions, having arrived fometime after inthe
Adriatick, found the Colehefians fettled already in the ifland o f
Cherfo and Ofero, inhabited in thofe remote times, by Brigii, a
Scythian race,,, allied to the ancient Phj'igians, o f whofe emigration
no written records could be expefted to come down to
us. Affirms had alfo built a fort, where the city o f Ofero now
ftands.. Apollonius goes on to relate the operations o f the Col-
chefians and Argonauts, after their arrivalin the '$uarnaro, in
the following words : -j- n Cli
“ Then
* .....
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’ lAaiov uavnrov sGvoj eTTiQgo piety ir&Kaytaffty»
«« Th e Colehefians hauled their veifels into the water, and fet fail the fame
« day. Who would have imagined to fee fo large a fleet ? they feemed more
** like a flock of fea fowl than fhips.**
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