44 Before Chrlfl 548. 



^48 The Lydiar.s have already been remarked as a civilized people, 



who paid fome attention to commerce ; but it was chiefly oi that paf- 

 five kind which prevails in countries pofTeliing rich mines, where the 



the head of the Indus, and in the province oi Nan- 

 kin in Chin:;. \_S!ri.io, L. r.v, p. 1055 — -D"'-'- •5'•'''• 

 L ii, (J 56 — Thevenot, V. ii, /. 127.] 'I iitre was 

 alfo anifl?nd in the Indian fea, called Cafiitcia, tor 

 its abundance ot tin. [Sltpha^i. de Kri.J The 

 iflard oi" Banca, on the call iide of Sumatra, pro- 

 ducts great quantities of e>icellent tin, which af- 

 foids a confidcrable revenue to the Dutch. 

 [^S.'aunton\- Account of an cmbajfy lo Chiiin, V. \, p. 

 30J ] ^/f/v. If it is the Caihtera of Sttphnrii'; ? 

 Ti'e opinions refpcding llie pofition of th^ Caf- 

 fittrides, may be reduced to three : — t ) that they 

 were fome finall iflands adjacent to Spain: — 2) 

 that ;hey were thufe now called the Azores, or 

 Wcftern iflands: — 3) that they were the Siiley 

 iflands, or the fouth-w eft extremity of Britain, or 

 perhaps both of thcfe. — But, i) no iflands near 

 the weft ccall of Spain, (which includes the mo- 

 dern Portugal ! are of any confequence ; nor is 

 there the fligiiteft authority for fuppofmg, that an) 

 of them ever produced tin : thougf, Don Joleph 

 Cornide, and fome other Spanifh writers, have, 

 witli great labour and ingenuity, but in direct con- 

 tradidtion to Pofidonius, Diodoius Siculus, and 

 Strabo, endi avoured to prove, that the Cafliterldes 

 were the fmall iflands on the weft coall of Spain, 

 which feem to be thofe called by Pliny \_L. iv, c. 

 22] the fix iflands of the gods, and diflinguifhed 

 from the Cafiitcrides. — 2) The Azores being 

 fituated in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, above 

 600 geographical milts from Spain without any 

 intervening land, it was abfolutely impoffihlc for 

 the bell of the aniient Mediterranean navigators 

 to find the way to or from them : and no one, 

 who adverts to the timid creeping courfcs of the 

 antients in the Mediterranean, (fee yife^ow/;;/ //r-r 

 marUt'num) wiien., if they ventured to lland acrols 

 out o! IJgl't ot land, lliey were fure of falling in 

 ■w\l\\ fome land on the oppofite cunliiient^ will lup- 

 pofe they would vcntuic to launch out in the 

 boundlefs ocean in fcarch of iflands, wliich if they 

 milTed, they would moft probably have been fwept 

 away by the trade-winds to the Weft-Indies. 

 E-'n modern navigators, witii all their fuperior 

 advantages of excellent inllrnnients, accurate cal- 

 culations, correal charts, and im). roved knowlege, 

 bcfi'lcs lofty malls which enable them to fee dif- 

 taiit lands, fometimcs mils iflands. How, then, 

 can we fuppole it podiblt, tnat tlie Azores could be 

 difcovered by the Romans, the moll ignorant and 

 awkward failors in the Mediterranean ; and they 

 were llill more ignorant and awkward in the Ocean, 

 as appears by their mifmanagement of Ca:far's 

 fl>ip» on the C'lft of Kent. Yet we know for 

 certain I'om Sfahi . [£ ' \, p. 275] that the Ro- 

 fr.an»,by perle/crin^ in repeated trials, which could 



only be repeated coafting voyages in various direc- 

 tions, aftually difcovered the Caffiterides : and there 

 needs no better p:oof againll the identity'of the 

 CaiTiterides and the Azores, which, moreover, pro- 

 duce no tin, ncr have the hiialleft appearance of 

 havii-.g ever produced any. — 3) Though Herodo- 

 tus ri- iii) <■• lis] acknowltges his ignorance of 

 the iituation of the Caffiterides, yet he pretty evi- 

 dently claffes them with the unknown countries in 

 the northern parts of Europe. Pofidonius, an au- 

 thor copied by Strabo, [Z. iii, p. 219] and ap- 

 parently alfo by Diodorus Siculus, \_L. v, ^ 38J 

 fays, thut tin is produced in a country north of 

 Lufitania (Portugal), and in the Cafliterides, and 

 is alfo brought from the Britifli iflands to Maflilia. 

 — Diodurus \_L. v, i 2a] alio defcribes the peo- 

 pie near Belerium (Cape Cornwall) as the miners 

 and fellers of the tin, wherein he csattly agrees 

 with the defcription of the natives of the Caffiterides 

 in other authors. It is alfo worthy of remark, that 

 he gives them the charadler of being more civilized 

 than the other Briton;, in conftquencc of their in. 

 tercourfe with foreign merchants. — Dionyfius Pe- 

 riegetcs fays, \y. 561 j the wealthy fons of the il- 

 luftrious Iberians, dwc'l in the Helperides, the na- 

 tive country of tin, ( Hefperides, Oefti-ymnides, 

 and Cafliterides, appear to have been fometimes 

 ufed lynoiiymoufly. See Eiiflathii Commeni, in 

 Diony.t ) and he immediately palfcs to Britain and 

 Ireland. — Strabo [Z. ii, ^. i8i ; i. iii, p. 265] 

 defcribes tlie Caffiterides as producing cattle, tin, 

 and lead ; and i;e places them In the gieai ocean, 

 to the tiorlhxi-ard of the Artabrians, who occupied 

 the norih-well part ot Spain (now Gnllicia), and 

 in the fame climate, or latitude, with Britain.— 

 All thefe autliors wrote before the Ron-.ms began 

 to make any conquclls in Britain. — Pumponius 

 Meh [i. iii, c. i] places the Caffiterides in the 

 Celtic fea, which name can only apply to the fea 

 ailjacent to Gaul, BrI'.ain, and the north part of 

 Spain, tl'.e countries occupied by the Celtic nations. 

 — Feftus Rufus Avienus, in an account of the 

 Oeltrymnides, profefTedly taken from Himilco, the 

 Carthaginian difcoverer, is fo confufed and luigeo. 

 graphical, that it is impoffible to fix their fitua- 

 tioii. But the inention of the iflands of the Hi- 

 beriii, and Albiones, (apparently Ireland and Bil- 

 tain) as being near then , iheir mines ot tin and lead, 

 their leather boat?, the commercial fpirit of the 

 people, and the refovt of the Tartcll.ins, (Pheeni- 

 cians of Gai.ir) and ot the Carthagim.ms, aulwer fo 

 well to the dcleiiption.s of the Caffiterides by other 

 authors, and alio to the Sillcy iflinds, that we may 

 believe Richard of Cinicefto, (.ho, though a late 

 author, jet, wilting from Ron: an materials, may 

 be ranked among the antients) when lie fays, 



