Himilco

“ I may answer therefore to Himilco, that I have not ceased to regret the war, nor shall I cease to censure your invincible general until I see the war concluded on some tolerable terms; nor will any thing except a new peace put a period to my regret for the loss of the old one. Accordingly those achievements, which Mago has so boastingly recounted, are a source of present joy to Himilco and the other adherents of Hannibal; to me they may become so; because successes in war, if we have a mind to make the best use of fortune, will afford us a peace on more equitable terms ”

“ Furious at the insults offered alike to his god and to his rulers, the Chaldean threatened to break every bone in Gisgo's skin; whereupon Gisgo replied that he was quite ready to accept a challenge, and that he would fight it out in any way he pleased; like the people of Prydhayn or Ar-Mor, if he chose.
"You had better not be fighting with us," said Himilco; "we conquer wherever we go; Sicilians, Garamantines, Suomi, Germani, we have thrashed them all. ”

“ Himilco was in high spirits; he came up to me and said that he and Gisgo had been spending the morning in going from tavern to tavern, and that they had engaged the orchestra, which we now saw, to accompany them for the day wherever they went, and to entertain them while they regaled themselves.
"Poor girls!" said Abigail; "are they obliged to perform for all the sailors alike?"
"No, indeed," I replied; "they take good care never to perform unless they are well paid, and I suppose there is not much hardship in that." ”

“ I'll take care of that," said Himilco. "Sooner than the painted hound should interfere with us too much, I'd have a rope to his heels, and he should dangle, head in the water, all the way from Joppa to Tarshish. 'Tis not for us to permit ourselves to be treated like dogs."
"No," said I; "but maybe, all will go well; Moloch will be our guardian; and once at sea we shall not fail to secure the protection of our Ashtoreth. To tell you the truth, I am really far more apprehensive about Hanno's pranks with Bodmilcar." ”

“ Himilco, holding his cutlass and shield, took his post at the stern, directing the helmsman; Hannibal and Chamai placed themselves at the head of their own companies, and stood almost on tiptoe in their eagerness to get the first glimpse of the enemy.
Before the hour of sunrise we could hear the rushing of the water at the river-bar, and in the faint dawn could make out Bodmilcar's three ships blockading our exit The Melkarth was in the middle; the decks of all three being perfectly thronged by men in helmets. The shore was quite deserted. ”

“ Their general, Himilco, however, omitted no means of resistance in his power, and by counter-building and counter-mining caused the enemy no little difficulty. Every day he would advance and make attempts on the siege works, trying to succeed in setting them on fire, and with this object was indeed engaged by night and day in combats of so desperate a character, that at times more men fell in these encounters than usually fell in a pitched battle. ”

“ And that I may not be the only one to be surprised at your delight - for as I have answered Himilco, I have a perfect right to ask questions in my turn - I should be glad if either Himilco or Mago would tell me, since, you say, the battle of Cannae has all but destroyed the power of Rome and the whole of Italy is admittedly in revolt, whether, in the first place, any single community of the Latin nation has come over to us, and, secondly, whether a single man out of the thirty-five Roman tribes has deserted to Hannibal. ”

“ As soon as his back was fairly turned, Hanno, who had been seated quietly arranging his papyrus leaves, rose from his seat, and advancing towards the door, made a low and solemn bow, a proceeding on his part that caused Himilco to burst into a roar of laughter.
"Our friend Bodmilcar," remarked Hannibal, "seems to be rather a morose sort of gentleman."
"Nothing of the sort, I assure you," said Hanno, satirically; "I hardly know a man of a brighter and more genial temperament; however, I confess that we may thank our stars that we have not to sail in the same ship with him." ”

“ Perhaps you haven't been with us old mariners long enough to learn our seamen's song about the Egyptians?"
I began to whistle an air, and Himilco, with a merry laugh, broke out with the gay refrain:
"The bull-head tribe, with all their skill,
Must catch the man they fain would kill."
The effect was instantaneous. My whole party almost smothered me in their delight. Hanno threw himself at my knees and grasped one of my hands; Abigail seized the other, and covered it with kisses; Hannibal caught hold of my cuirass on one side; Chamai lugged at me on the other. ”

“ Himilco started to his feet; without relinquishing his hold upon the skin of wine, with his single eye he steadily scanned the horizon in the direction in which Bichri was pointing. After a few moments, he said:
"The archer is right; my eye seldom deceives me; we are to leeward of land."
Notwithstanding the incessant downpour of rain, I could just see enough through the mist to discern that there were mountains behind us to the right. Feeling sure that we had been driving to the north, I had no doubt in my own mind that the land we saw was some promontory on the north coast of Crete ”

“ Himilco screamed in Iberian; "and the first rogue that shirks his work is a dead man!"
Placing the prisoners in the middle, we proceeded cautiously to continue our ascent; and while we were prosecuting our toilsome march, I asked Bichri to give me full particulars about the encounter with Bodmilcar.
"As accurately as I can," he said, "I will. On leaving you we advanced without obstruction some hundred paces into the wood, when in a moment we found ourselves with a host of Iberians in our front, and as many in our rear, pelting us with stones and darts. ”

“ I looked out once or twice, but I saw nothing alarming."
"Neither did I," said Himilco, gravely. "The truth is, the old monster does not show herself every day, or, maybe, something scared her; perhaps Hannibal's red crest, or perhaps Jonah's big trumpet. Anyhow, there's no accounting for the freaks of these monsters."
[Pg 168]
"She was quite right in keeping out of my way," said Jonah; "now I have seen Nergal's kitchen, I have courage enough for anything." ”

“ Hannibal was loud in his praises of my stratagem of the stockade.
"Ah! that's an old trick," said Himilco; "we once played it off upon the Carians of Rhodes, and took eleven of their ships and no end of plunder. Old Tarshish mariners are adepts at schemes of that sort."
Chamai held up a pair of twisted bracelets, and a necklace of a similar pattern, ornamented with a large flat crescent.
[Pg 162]
"Are these solid gold, captain?" he asked me.
"Aye, and of the finest sort," I answered; "it is the gold they get from the Eridanus and the Rhone; you are to be congratulated on your lucky prize." ”

“ Towards midnight, five or six hours after our anchoring, I resigned my watch to Himilco, intending to take some rest. On my way to my berth I cast my eye towards the right bank, and through the gloom I could see indistinctly that there was a crowd of vessels there ”

“ I shouted to them, but they made no sign, and continued skulking along the bank.
"Bichri!" cried Himilco, to the archer, who was sitting on the poop with Jonah, both of them playing with the monkey, "Bichri, just put an arrow into one of those scaramouches, will you? they pretend they cannot hear the captain."
He started to his feet, and was in the act of raising his bow, when I interposed:
"Leave them alone; time enough to attack them when they attack us." ”

“ Genuine Sidonian as he was, my cousin could not brook any insinuation against his seamanship, and colouring deeply at the slight which he conceived was offered to him, he said in a tone of anger:
"Out upon your insolence! do you call a man a coaster who has made the voyage to Ophir? do you call my gaoul a cockle-shell? Are you mad, or are you drunk, you one-eyed fool?"
Himilco, recalled to a sense of propriety, changed his banter into cajolery:
"Now then, my dear fellow, you can do a great deal better than bully me. Haven't you a little wine on board? It would be a great boon to give us a skin ”

“ The familiar sound of these names rekindled the courage of my people, who one and all avowed their intention of accompanying me eastwards to the amber-coast.
"Yes," said Himilco, "although the wine is all gone."
Our new vessel (which was called the Adonibal, after the naval suffect at Utica) was well freighted with our cargo of tin; like the other ships, she took in a good supply of water and a quantity of dry salted meat, as well as some grain and some of the sour native fruits. ”

“ I agreed; "and from the thickness of the wood, and from the bolts being driven in without wedges, I have no doubt that it is an Egyptian craft that has been wrecked."
"Look here!" cried Himilco; "here is proof positive; the goose's neck from the prow!"
"It may be," I said, "that some Egyptians accompanied Bodmilcar, and have come to grief in the tempest."
"I hope Bodmilcar has not shared their fate," said Gisgo; "drowning is too good for him; I want him to have a stout rope round his neck. And besides, the rascal has three-quarters of our merchandise that I should like to get back." ”

“ In the days when Hanno the Carthaginian, passing the Mediterranean Straits, explored the western coast of Africa, an event usually placed in the fifth century B.C., although Gosselin (Recherches sur la Géographie des Anciens) goes back as far as the tenth, Himilco (Pliny, N. H., ii. 67) was also sent to explore the remote parts of Europe. Sailing along the shores of Gadir, Tartessus (Tarshish) , and Gallicia, he reached the Tin Isles. ”

“ Hanno taught Bichri and the young Phocian the alphabet. Himilco, as he piloted the vessel, kept up a perpetual howling over his compulsory abstinence; Chamai and Hannibal, when they were not yawning in idle listlessness, were generally playing at [Pg 289] knuckle-bones; the two women gossipped contentedly in their cabin; and Jonah confided to Judge Gebal his dreams of future greatness.
In something more than six weeks we sighted the pillars of Melkarth, and shortly afterwards entered the harbour of Gades. ”

“ If, therefore, they were at all anxious to retain Spain they should send a man with a powerful army to succeed him, and even though all went well with his successor he would not find it an easy province to govern.
28 Although this despatch made a great impression on the senate, they decided that as Italy demanded their first and closest attention, the arrangements about Hannibal and his forces must not be altered. Himilco was sent with a large and well-appointed army and an augmented fleet to hold and defend Spain by sea and land. ”

“ Meanwhile, Himilco and I continued to employ ourselves [Pg 16] in having planks of fir from Senir [20] fitted to the flanks of our vessels, and in rigging our heavy masts of oak with yard-arms of cedar.
Our work progressed to our entire satisfaction. The Gadita was repaired and entirely refitted; the figure-head, an immense horse, was illuminated with dazzling enamel eyes; the sides of the vessel were painted red upon a black ground; and twelve shields of bronze, each glowing in the centre with a polished copper boss, were hung outside. ”

“ Once on the plateau you are secure; you can rest your men and give them food; they are knocked up. And you will have time to interrogate your prisoners."
Chagrined as I was, I could not resist the conviction that Hannibal's advice was judicious, and, however reluctantly, gave up all thought of immediate pursuit. I directed that the prisoners should be fastened together by a rope passed round their necks, and that forty men should be told off under Himilco for a guard, with orders to kill the first man that showed the least sign of resistance. ”

“ IX, 27.—The consuls in view of the outcome of their attempts and because their fleet had been damaged by its stay in the lake raised the siege. Marcius endeavored to achieve some advantage by sea or at least to injure the coast districts, but not accomplishing anything he sailed for home, then turned back and subdued Ægimurus: and Manilius started for the interior, but upon sustaining injuries at the hands of Himilco, commander of the Carthaginian cavalry, whom they called also Phameas, he returned to Carthage. ”

“ Don Miguel Hidalgo, cura, or parish priest, of the little town of Dolores, in the state of Guanajuato, was the one who first applied the firebrand to the combustible material that the past ten years had been accumulating. He was a well-educated man, a graduate of Saint Nicholas College in Valladolid, and had received sacred orders in Mexico in 1779. He was born in 1753, and was a man of great capacity, and well-instructed in agriculture and the industrial arts. ”

“ The viceroy had another army advancing from [pg 233] the north, under the command of Calleja, a skilful general. Meeting Hidalgo at Aculco on his march towards Querétaro, he attacked him with such vigor that, after a hot combat, the insurgents were utterly worsted, losing all their artillery and many men. In fact, the whole loose-joined army fell to pieces at this severe repulse, and Hidalgo was followed to Valladolid with an insignificant remnant of his mighty host. ”

“ Hidalgo put on a general's dress and marched at the head of the mob to Guanajuato. Every ranche and every hamlet on the way had furnished new recruits to join the wild shout,"Death to the gachupines and independence for Mexico!" Then Hidalgo arrested the gachupines. The whole city was in an uproar. The next morning he presented his cause to the people and carried all hearts before him. The citizens rose almost to a man and joined the insurgents. ”