POXWELL CIRCLE. 155 



to carry sufficient supplies and stores, including food for from ten 

 to fifteen thousand soldiers and sailors on a voyage of very 

 uncertain duration, since oars and sails were the only means for 

 propelling their vessels. The ships must also be large enough 

 and strong enough to face heavy gales in the Bay of Biscay, the 

 Atlantic, or the English Channel. At what period in their 

 history could they have done that ? If at all, could it have been 

 at any other period than when they were in the highest state of 

 civilization and in the zenith of their power. 



We may arrive at the same conclusion from another point of 

 view. Glance at a map of ancient Europe, and you will see that 

 there is reasonable ground for believing that the colonies nearest 

 Phoenicia were planted before those that were more distant, so 

 that Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, Carthage, perhaps Thrace, Sicily, 

 and Sardinia received their colonists before Spain and the parts 

 about the Straits of Gibraltar. As one evidence of this, note 

 that Carthage in Spain was called Carthago nova. 



And this suggests a question how is it that, if England was 

 colonised by the Phoenicians at so late a period, there is no 

 record of it ? How is it that there is sufficient evidence of the 

 existence of these very early colonies, and none of the latest as 

 Britain, and at a time, too, when historical evidence was multi- 

 plying ? I have only to do with colonies. I do not enter into 

 the question whether there were any Phoenician settlers in Corn- 

 wall. It seems not improbable that there may have been a few 

 Phoenician settlers there connected with the tin trade ; they 

 might have come by the regular trade route, which, according to 

 Diodorus, was across the Channel to Gaul, thence through Gaul 

 to Marseilles and the Mediterranean, so that at the time to which 

 he refers the Phoenicians might have received tin from Britain 

 without leaving the Mediterranean. 



But allowing that the Phoenicians did found colonies in 

 England. Where was the seat of them ? Besides Cornwall 

 Mr. Cunnington suggests Portland, the Isle of Purbeck, Salis- 

 bury, Marlborough, and elsewhere. The only kind of evidence 

 offered of the occupation of Portland is that there were beehive 



