88 Before Chrift 280. 



Gadir, (unlefs their brethren of Carthage participated in it) and car- 

 ried on at the weftern extremity of the country, or the Silley iflands, 

 feems now to have been alfo fhared by fome other people fettled on the 

 north coaft of Gaul, who, we may prefume, were conneded with, or 

 agents of, the Maffilians. The flaple of this new commerce was there- 

 upon eftablifhed at Midis *, (one of the iflands on the fouth coafl:) to 

 which the tin was carried by the Britons in their leather boats, as we 

 learn from the contemporary teftimony of Timseus. [ap. Plin. L. v, c. 

 16 — Biod. Sicul. L. V, § 22.] And the change of the flaple, and prefer- 

 ence of inland navigation by the principal rivers of Gaul , or of land car- 

 riage, appear to have been owing to the apprehenfion of meeting with 

 the fliips of the Phoenicians, whofe naval fuperiority was univerfally ac- 

 knowleged, if they fliould venture to coaft along the fliores of Gaul and 

 Spain, or perhaps merely to the averfion of the Maflilian navigators to 

 fo long a circuit by fea. It is reafonable to fuppofe that thefe new ar- 

 rangements were effeded by the negotiations of Pytheas with the Bri- 

 tons. 



The repeated calamities of Tyre, among which may be reckoned the 

 eftablifliment of Alexandria, muft have greatly deranged the commerce 

 of the Phoenicians. The oriental trade, which, by the afliftance of land 

 carriage acrofs the ifthmus between Africa and Afia, they had enjoyed 

 exclufively during many centuries, (for the tranfient participation of it 

 by the Ifraelites was only for their own confumption, and lafted but a 

 few years) was in a great meafure transferred to that new emporium, 

 where it could not fail to take root and flourifli by the favour and pro- 

 tedion of the Macedonian kings of Egypt, who had powerful fleets in 



* There can be little doubt that Mic\is was the bay in Wight, it has feven fathom and a half at 

 fame ifland which was afterwards called litis by low water. Though the many changes made by 

 Diodoriis Siciilus. [L. v, { 21. ed. ylm/lel. 1746.] the fea on this part of the coall render it not irr.- 

 By the moderns it has been fuppofed Silley, or pojjllk that the anticnt Miftis or Iftis and the mo- 

 Wight : the former, bccanfe Timxns, as copied deni Wight may be the fame, yet the iflands of 

 by Pliny, reprefents it as producing tin ; and the Portland and Purbeck, wiiicli, though now pcnin- 

 later, apparently for no better reafon than the flip- fulas, are conftantly called iflands, probably in me- 

 pofcd relemblance of the name, which is fuither mory of having formerly been fiich, (asTlianet on 

 faid to remain with little variation to this day the coall of Kent alfo is) tlie fmail illands in Poole 

 among the Welfli, who call it Guith ; and perhaps bay, and alfo Portfey and Haling, may all compete 

 alio bccaufe it is the principal ifland on the fouth for the name of Mic\is or litis with more proba- 

 coalt, and moft confpicnous on the map. But bility than Silley or Wight. But of the whole 

 Timxus mnft have had his information from fea- Portland anfwers bell to the defcriptlon of Dio- 

 men, with whom it is iifiial to call every article dorus. 



the production of the place where they take it in : The error of placing Midis at the didance (jf 



and Diodorus, from later, and apparently better, fix days' fail from Britain need not be wondered 



information, defcribes litis as the port to which at in Timxns, a Sicilian Greek, who wrote of this 



tlie tin was brought from the place of its produc- trade when it was in its infancy. Perhaps the au- 



tion in order to be Ihipped. — litis was fcparated thor of his information underllood it to be fix days' 



from the main by a channel fordablc at low water j fail from that part of Britain which was nearcll to 



but the channel between Wight and the main has the continent ; and that is the only explanation 



a depth of above thirty fathom where it is nar- which can make it apply to any ifland conneited 



rowell at Hurl' calUe, and, where it is Ihallowell with Britain, or indeed to any ifland whatever. 



between Bcauly river in Hamp-fliirc and Gurnard 1 



