126 



nations of the west of France, from Toulouse to Armorica ; " they are likewise 

 found in the Channel Islands, and in the south and west of England, as at Ports- 

 mouth, at Mount Batten, near Plymouth, and in Devonshire." On the eastern route 

 extending from Auvergne through central France to Kent, the coins are of the 

 later type of the gold stater of Philip of Macedon, which dates only from about 

 250 B.C. From which it is evident that the earlier route was from the Isle of 

 Wight to Armorica. The more eastern route appears to have been developed by 

 the Belgae, who obtained predominance in the south-east of England before the 

 time of Julius Caesar. 



With reference to the omission of tin by Strabo, in his account of British 

 trade. Professor Ridgeway argues that " when the Romans in the time of Csesar 

 discovered the short route to the tin islands off the coast of Galicia (north-west of 

 Spain), the British trade almost ceased, so that when Strabo wrote (1 to 19 A.D.) 

 tin was no longer exported from Britain." 



When we consider the naval architecture of the period, the bireme of the 

 Phoenicians, improved by the introduction of the trireme by the Greeks, we are 

 struck with'admiration of the enterprising spirit of the ancient mariners. Their 

 communication with our coasts was, however, eclipsed by a performance two 

 centuries before any date above-mentioned. About B.C. 600, Neco, whose attempt 

 to re-open the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, which had been originally 

 constructed by Seti I. and Ramesses II., was attended with such mortality 

 amongst the workmen, despatched some ships with Phoenician mariners from a 

 port on the Red Sea, with orders to sail southwards, keeping the coast of Africa on 

 their right, and see if they could not return to Egypt by way of the Mediterranean. 

 The enterprise succeeded. The ships rounded the Cape of Storms, and returned 

 by way of the Atlantic, the Straits of Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean, to the 

 Mouths of the Nile. But they did not reach Egypt until the third year! Rawlinson's 

 Ancient Egypt, page 356. History of the Nations. 



