159 



of Ireland ; and indeed from the very charting of that island by Taci- 

 tus himself, (" Hibernia medio inter Britanniam atque Hispaniam 

 sita,")* as well as his caUing the Irish and the Picts " nations 

 hitherto unknown ;"-f while Strabo describes the island as so intensely 

 cold that its inhabitants can scarcely endure it, (" KUKcog oiKovvrotv 

 dia ^vxoq")% That a portion of this commerce relating to the slave 

 trade was carried on with Gaul, appears from Probus, who mentions 

 of Saint Patrick, that he was carried off by a merchant and sold in 

 Gaul. (" Suscepit eum vir in navem suam, et vendidii eum in Galliam 

 et portavit pretium ejus domum, solidos scilicet triginta.")^ But that 

 the Phoenicians were the principal, and long the exclusive " negotia- 

 tores," is sufficiently shewn by the passage already cited from 

 Strabojll as also from that in Ptolemy,** where he speaks of the rejec- 

 tion of information relative to Ireland, not as false, but as gleaned by 

 Phoenician merchants, who from their caste and profession were not so 

 likely to investigate the truth, in matters unconnected with their busi- 

 ness. 



As to the subject matter of this mercantile intercourse, Doctor 

 O'Conor, in the Prolegomena to his Rerum Hibernicarum Scrip- 

 tores,-f-t* starts an opinion, which, as the result of his knowledge, should 

 be entitled to much credence, that the Phoenicians worked some of 

 these mines, which Nennius records as surrounding the celebrated 

 lakes of Killarney,:j:| and exported those " margaritas," that are said 

 to have allured Caesar to the invasion of what were called the British 

 isles ; and he intimates, that in return for this article, the Irish re- 



* Ante, p. 51. f Ante, p. 50. 



+ Geog. lib. 2. p. 153. § Vita S. Patricii, lib. 1. s. 13. 



il Ante, p. 32. «* Ante, p. 34. 



ft Vol. 1. part 1. p. xTii. j+ Vide post, per 2. sec. 5. 



