the European public are indebted.— 
‘Lhese documents throw light on that 
interval of Cimbric or Armorican inde- 
endence, during which all that is most 
peculiar in the character of modern Eu- 
rope seems to have been hatched, as in 
jts nest. The observations of Gibbon 
(vol. iii. page 275) by no means exhaust 
the philosophy of a period, too little 
contemplated both by French and Eng- 
lish antiquaries. 
The author of the sketch before us 
has consecrated his talents and learning, 
which are considerable, to the illustra- 
tion of this obscure but important cor- 
ner of the earth; and has endeavoured 
to separate, from the confused mass of 
Welsh traditions, a probable account of 
the filiation of British sovereigns, and 
of the migration of the early settlers. 
The first remarkable disquisition of the 
text respects the Gafis of Taliesin. We 
shall report Mr. Roberts’s opinion : 
«« However idle the Trejan part of this 
history, (the history.of Brutus and his co- 
lony) and however ill-connected with the 
rest of the very history in which it is found, 
its advocates were thus far justified, that it 
was to be found in the Welsh history, from 
whence Geoflrey of Monmouth composed 
his; and that such a Welsh history still sub- 
sists. As the error of the history appears to 
have originated partly in ignorance, and part- 
ly ina mistake, respecting the person called 
Brutus by the historian, we pe safely set 
aside this part of the narrative, which has so 
long been an embarrassing difficulty to those 
who have endeavoured to investigate the real 
history of the Britons, and proceed to state 
their history, as deducible from the docu- 
ments before us. 
«© According to these the colony of the 
Gymrv, or Britons, which first took posses- 
sion of this island, came originally from Asia. 
In a poem of ‘Taliesin, which is called the 
appeasing of Lludd, the following very sin- 
gular passage occurs : 
 Tlwyth Iiaws, anuaws ci henwerys, 
Dygoreseynan Prydain, prif fan ynys, 
Gwyr gwiad yr Asia, a awlad Gatis ; 
Pob! pwyllad enwir, eu tir ni wys, 
Tamen gorwyreis herwydd Maris; 
Auulaes ei peisiau, pwy el hefelys? 
A phwyllad dyfynes, ober efais 
Europa. : 
A numerous race, fierce they are said to have 
been, : : , 
Were thy original colonists, Britain, first of 
isles, 
* Jn these early ages adventures of this kind were not deemed dishonourable. «__ ; 
+ Strabo says, that the Cimmeriaas, when expelled from the Chersonese, became adyen- 
fmrers. 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS. 
«© Natives of a country in Asia, and the 
country of Gafis;; 
Said to have been a skilful people, but the 
district is unknown 
Which was mother to these children, war- 
like* adventurers on the sea, 
Clad in their long dress, who could equal 
them? 
Their skill is celebrated, they were the dread 
of Europe. : 
*¢ In these few lines the poet nas given 
the peculiarities of national character and 
dress, and the origin of the nation, as far as 
he was able to trace it. The character of the 
nation, as warlike? adventurers on the sea, 
in the spirit of the times, however opinion as 
to tle mode, may since have varied, every 
Briton will with pleasure find to haye been 
considered by the poet as marking a naval 
superiority inherited by Britain; and it is 
that of the present times, that it never was 
more justly or more gloriously asserted. 
*« As to the particular part of Asia ftom 
which the first colony came to Britain, the 
poet candidly acknowledges that he is not 
able to point it out exactly; though he en- 
deavours to do so in some degree by the name 
Gatis. 
«« A city, whose name nearly resembles this, - 
was once the capital of a province in a part of 
the present Usbeck ‘Tartary. Gabis the ca- 
vital of Gabaza; but this-is too far to the 
fait of the route of the Cimmerians to admit 
of the supposition of its being the place in- 
tended by the poet, further than as intimat- 
ing some place bordering on the Caspian Sea. 
Perhaps the name is to be found in Panti- 
capes, the modern Kaffa; as this word, of 
Cimmerian origin, should be written Pant-y- 
Capes, or the declivity or valley of the Kapes. 
This seems the more probable from the simi- 
larity it has to the modern name, and will be 
more so, if it appear, that this was the coun- 
try from which they came. 
** Concurting with Taliesin, the Triads give 
the following information : 
« The first of the three chieftains who es- 
tablished the colony of Britain, was Hu the 
mighty, who came with the original settlers. 
They came from the Swmmer Country, which 
is called Deflrobani, that is where Constino- 
blys (Constantinople) is at present.’ ‘Triad 4. 
‘ They came in search of a settlement to 
be,obtained not by war or contest, but justly 
and peaceably.’ Triad 5. Fe 
«« There can be no doubt but that Asia is 
meant by the words Summer Country, and 
that Deflrobani was added to mark the parti- 
eular district. The exposition of the name 
is less certain. As an exposition it must 
have been added to the original Triad, Qvhen 
the first reference was in danger of being uns 
intelligible,) according to the tradition of the 
4 
