SERTORIUS. 391

coast of Africa ten thousand furlongs. These are called the Islands of the Blest ; rains fall there seldom, and in moderate showers, but for the most part they have gentle breezes, bringing along with them soft dews, which ren- der the soil not only rich for ploughing and planting, but so abundantly fruitful that it produces spontaneously an abundance of delicate fruits, sufficient to feed the inhabi- tants, who may here enjoy all things without trouble or labor. The seasons of the year are temperate, and the transitions from one to another so moderate, that the air is almost always serene and pleasant. The rough north- erly and easterly winds which blow from the coasts of Europe and Africa, dissipated in the vast open space, utterly lose their force before they reach the islands. The soft western and southerly winds which breathe upon them sometimes produce gentle sprinkling showers, which they convey along with them from the sea, but more usu- ally bring days of moist bright weather, cooling and gen- tly fertilizing the soil, so that the firm belief prevails even among the barbarians, that this is the seat of the blessed, and that these are the Elysian Fields celebrated by Homer.* When Sertorius heard this account, he was seized with a wonderful passion for these islands, and had an extreme desire to go and live there in peace and quietness, and safe from oppression and unending wars ; but his inclina- tions being perceived by the Cilician pirates, who desired not peace nor quiet, but riches and spoils, they im- mediately forsook him, and sailed away into Africa to assist Ascalis, the son of Iphtha, and to help to restore

• Menelaus shall not die in Ar- snow, no long bad weather, and

gos ; the deities will convey him no falls of rain ; but Oceanus sends to the Elysian field, and the limits of in to refresh them continually the the earth, where the yellow-haired whistling breezes of Zephyrus. — Rhadamanthus lives. In that land Odyssey, iv. 563. man's life is easiest ; there is no