A. D. 694. 243 



and farmers throughout the kingdom of the Well-Saxons. The ar- 

 ticles were 



10 fats of honey, 20 hens, 



300 loaves, locheefes, 



12 ambers * of Welfh ale, i amber of butter, 



30 hluttres f , 6 falmon, 



2 full-grown oxen or 10 wethers, 20 pound weight of fodder f, 

 10 geefe, 100 eels. 



Though we find the payment of falmon and eels, both indeed river 

 fifh, ordered by law among the Weft-Saxons, we are told that the Saxons 

 at Bofenham on the very confines of the Weft-Saxon and South-Saxon 

 kingdoms, did not know, that fifti could be caught in the lea, till Wil- 

 frid, a Northumbrian bifhop, taught them to make a leine by joining 

 their eel nets together (a°. 678), whereby they caught 300 fifti in the Tea 

 at the firft haul §. [Beda Hi/}, ecckf. L. iv, c 13.] 



698 — The remains of the epifcopal, rather than commercial, city of 

 Carthage were utterly deftroyed by the Saracens. Its antient com- 

 mercial fplendour may entitle its afhes to this brief notice in commer- 

 cial hiftory. 



710 — All the provinces formerly belonging to the Roman empire in 

 Africa being now fubjed to the Saracens, except only the fort of Ceuta 

 on the fouth fliore of the Strait, they were invited into Europe by Ju- 

 lian, the commander of that fort and of the oppofite coaft of Spain, 

 who took that method of revenging an injury done to him by his fo- 

 vereign ||. They were alfo encouraged by promifes of afllftance from 

 the Jews of Spain, who were unable to live under the bigotted perfe- 

 curion of the Gothic clergy. The fuccefsful inroad of a ftnall party, 

 who returned loaded with fpoil, enflamed the ambition and the avarice 

 of the Saracens to make a total conqueft of that rich country. A more 

 numerous army landed on the rock, fince called from their leader Gebel 

 al Tarik, now corrupted to Gibraltar, marched to Xerxes, and fought 

 the Gothic army, which was totally defeated (a". 711). In a few months 



* Spelman fubftitutes for amber the Roman J Dodlor Henry fufpefts a miftake in this very 



meafure amphora, and gives the Roman explana- trifling quantity of fodder. 



tion of the quantity contained in it. \_GloJf. -vo. § That the defcendents of thofe Saxons who for 



Firma.2 Arbuthnot [Table of coins'] makes the feveral ages were the moll experienced and intrepid 



amphora above feven gallons of Englilh wine mea- feamen in the Northern ocean, and muft be pre- 



fure. Lambard, makes the amber nearly the fame fumed to have alfo been good filhermen, fhould 



with the modern firkin, and fays, the word is not have already loft the knowlege of catching fifh in 



quite obfolete : and his explanation is tranfcribed the fea, v.'hich was juft befide them at Bofenham, 



by Wheloc. But it is very doubtful whether the is rather too wonderful : and, with all our venera- 



8axon meafure had any connexion with the Roman, tion for the hillorical integrity of Bede, we muft 



f Lambard, Spelman, and Wheloc make /;/a«rcx remember, that the ftory is connetted with a mi- 

 weaker ale ; but Bromton, who lived much nearer raclc. 



the Saxon times than any of them, has left it un- || The common ftory of the violation of Julian's 



tranflated. The word is an adjeftive fignifying daughter by King Roderic feems to have Little cr 



lucid, pure, fimpk, no foundation. 



Hh2 



