Before Chrift 550. 4^ 



It is impoflible to alTign a date to the commencement of the Britifli 

 commerce ; but the well-known adventurous fpirit of the Phocniciatas 

 may warrant a conjedure, that they made voyages to our iflands foon 

 after their fettlement at Gadir. As there was apparently no other coun- 

 try lying north or weft from Spain but the Britifh iflands, which pro- 

 duced tin, it has been generally allowed, that thofe which the Greeks, 

 in imitation of the Phoenicians, called the Kalfiterides, or Kattiterides, 

 {iflands of tin) were the iflands of Silley, or the fouth-weft extremity of 

 Britain. And thefe were firfl: difcovered by Midacritus*, a Phoenician 

 navigator, apparently of Gadir, whofe name this important difcovery 

 has immortalized. He found the iflands abounding in tin, an article 

 then fo very valuable, that his countrymen moft anxioufly concealed the 

 route to this new-found mine of wealth from all others ; and, for many 

 ages, they enjoyed the unrivaled and unknown monopoly of a very lu* 

 crative trade with the natives of the Tin-iflands, from whom they re- 

 ceived tin, lead, and hides, in exchange for earthen ware, brafen ware, 

 and fait f . [P///;. L. vii, c. 56 — Straho, L. in,p. 265.] From the cau- 

 tious fecrecy of the Phoenicians, it is very probable that the trade was 

 carried on for feveral centuries, before the moft diftant hint of the ex- 

 iftence of fuch a country could have reached any of the Greeks, who, 

 with their Roman tranfcribers, are unfortvmately the only authors now 

 remaining to condud; us through the deep obfcurity of antient Britifh 

 hiftoryj. 



tions, as is obferved by Strabo. [Z. !!,/>. 149] authors, as the (late of the trade was much altered 



Timollhenes was the commander of Ptolemy's before his time. 



fleet, and wrote a book upon harbours ; and, it J In the early hiilory of Britain twa propofi- 



may be fuppofed, he could know very little of tions have been aflumed as hillorie truths, which 



thofe ill the Atlantic ocean. But Eratoftiienes ought previoufly to have been proved: — i) that the 



was a man of extenfive learning and great in- tin ufed in all the countries adjacent to the Medi- 



duftry ; and being librarian to Ptolemy Euergetes, terranean, was brought from no other part of the 



he had the command of the grcatelt library in the vJorldhvA. the Cafliterides, which feems not to be 



world, wiiich may well be prcfumcd to have con- true : — and, 2d) that the Caffitcridts were the 



tained every Greek book worth tranfcribing. We iflands now called Siiiey, which, though much 



may, therefor, be alTured, that, if any knowlege more probable than any other hypothells concern- 



>)f the Britilli illands could have been found in the ing thofe iflands, flill is not abfolutely uncontro- 



whole circle of Grecian literature, Eratolthenes vertible. 



would neither have let it efcape him, nor negledl- The authority of Herodotus has been very un- 



ed to make a proper ufe of it in a work profetTcd- fairly, or at leall very inadvertently, adduced, as 



ly geographical. proving that all the tin ufed in the eaflera 



* Buchart obfervcs, that Midacritus Is a Greek countries was carried from the Cafliterides. This 



name ; and he fubflitutes for it the Phoenician name mifinterpretation of the words of Herodotus car- 



i>f Melcartus : {_Geog. facra, L. i, c. 39] but, ries the commencement of the trade beyond the 



granting this, the molt fanguine advocate for Brit- aera of Mofes, by whom tin is mentioned, [_Numb. 



ifli antiqiu'ty cannot prefume to cany up the dif- c. 31] as it is alfo repeatedly by Homer. But fuch 



covery of the Cafliterides to the age of that Mel- a fuppofition, totally unfupported by Herodotus, 



cartus, or Hercules, who, according to the moft (See p. 42 note) is proved to be erroneous by feveral 



antient Phoenician writer, Sanconiatho, lived in authors of good credit. Several parts of Spain pro- 



the earlieft ages of the world. ducedtin and lead. \_Strabo, L. \\\, pp. 219, 22c— 



t" Strabo mentions thefe exchanges in the pre- P/w./,. xxxiii, >:. 16 — Sttphan.Jeurb.'uo.TarteJJus.'] 



fent tei/fe. But, I believe, he copies from antient Tin was found among the Drangae, a people near 



F2 



