Hanno The Navigator - Expedition

Expedition

As Warmington states, Carthage dispatched Hanno at the head of a fleet of sixty ships to explore and colonize the northwestern coast of Africa. He sailed through the straits of Gibraltar, founded or repopulated seven colonies along the African coast of what is now Morocco, and explored significantly farther along the Atlantic coast of the continent. Hogan cites the visit of Hanno to Mogador, where the Phoenicians established an important dye-manufacturing plant using a marine gastropod found in the local Atlantic Ocean waters. Hanno encountered various indigenous peoples on his journey and met with a variety of welcomes.

At the terminus of Hanno's voyage, the explorer found an island heavily populated with what were described as hirsute and savage people. Attempts to capture the males failed, but three of the females were taken. These were so ferocious that they were killed, and their skins preserved for transport home to Carthage. The interpreters called them gorillae, and when European explorers first encountered gorillas in the 19th century, the apes were given this name on the assumption that they were the "people" Hanno described.

In its inmost recess was an island similar to that formerly described, which contained in like manner a lake with another island, inhabited by a rude description of people. The females were much more numerous than the males, and had rough skins: our interpreters called them Gorillae. We pursued but could take none of the males; they all escaped to the top of precipices, which they mounted with ease, and threw down stones; we took three of the females, but they made such violent struggles, biting and tearing their captors, that we killed them, and stripped off the skins, which we carried to Carthage: being out of provisions we could go no further.