i ee 
their country by the denomination of Ezrean, Erin or Ibh Etrean, 
pronounced like Ow Erin or You Erin, whence the Greeks could 
exprefs the found no otherwife in their language than Iepve or 
Tovep@, nor the Romans than by Hibernia. Even the Welfh 
call it Yverdon, and alfo the Anglo-Saxons, according to Alfred in 
Orforius, Jghernia. The Danes were the firft who gave this ifland 
the appellation of Irdand or Traland, or the land of the Jra; but 
which like the others is derived. from the indigenous Tbh Erin. 
Hence we may obferve the care the ancients took to obtain 
the true names of the countries they difcovered ; and Ptolemy, 
in the method he has taken in defcribing the coaft, feems to 
have followed the real tra€t of the Roman fleet, which having 
circumnavigated the northern coafts of Britain, fell in with the 
weftern ifles, which are thus defcribed, “ Demetrius ait, infularum 
“ qua Britaniz adjacent, effe multas defertas—quam pauci ad- 
“ modum incolerent, fed qui Britannis facri omnes erant, et ab 
“ omni direptione injuriaque tuti,” (Eufeb. Prep. Ev. |. 5. c. 175 
et Plutarch de Oracul. defe@t. T. 2. p. 419.) From thence failing 
for Ireland, the firft land they could make would be the northern 
parts of the county of Donegal about the north cape, called 
by Ptolemy Bopesov axpoy popes, whence they proceeded eaftward, 
till they came to Fair Head in the county of Antrim, the utmoft 
ftretch of the northern coaft eaft, then returned and coafted along 
the weftern fhores of the ifland, thence along the fouthern, then 
teturning by the eaftern again to Fair Head, croffed the channel 
and ran down the weftern coafts of Britain to the fouth, and 
finifhed their circumnavigation of both the ifles. 
Ptolomy 
