A. D» 1066. 299 



[Will. Malmjh. f. 57.] We muft, indeed, fay, that a very different na- 

 tional charader might have been expeded ia the long-continued reign 

 of a king thought worthy of a place in the calendar of the faints. 



About the fame time that the duke of Normandy got polTeflion of 

 the crown of England, Godred Crovan, an adventurer from Iceland, 

 ufurped the maritime kingdom of Mann and the Ifles. He afterwards 

 reduced Dublin and a great part of Leinfter under his dominion : and 

 he is faid to have kept the Scots of Ireland in fuch a ftate of depreffion, 

 that he did not permit any of them to poffefs a veifel or boat with more 

 than three nails in it. [Cbron. Mannia ap. Camdeni Britaun. p. 840.] 

 This, if at all credible, muft furely be underllood only of the wicker 

 boats covered with hides ; and indeed it does not appear that the native 

 Irifh, or Scots, who were now flmt up in the interior part of the illand, 

 could have any occafion for fea veflels, unlefs fome of them lived in the 

 maritime towns under fubjedion to the Ortmen. 



1068— Spain, after being fully conquered (except the mountainous 

 diftridts on the north coaft) by the Saracens, and colonized by the na- 

 tives of Syria, Perfia, and Arabia, among whom were the defcendents 

 of the moft antient commercial nation of the Saba;ans, long continued 

 to flourilh in fcience, manufadures, and commerce, beyond any coun- 

 try in the weftem part of the world. The port of Barchinona (now- 

 called Barcelona) became the principal flation of the intercourfe with 

 the eaftern countries bordering on the Mediterranean fea : and the ma- 

 nufacturing and commercial importance which very foon diftinguifhed 

 that city, and have in fome degree continued to diftinguifh it down to 

 the prefent day, feem to infer that its inhabitants may boafl of the real 

 honour of deriving their blood from the moft enlightened of the weft- 

 em nations of Alia, with probably fome fmall mixture of that of their 

 Carthaginian founders *. 



The defcendents of the fmall remainder of the Goths, who had taken 

 refuge among the mountains of Afturia, made frequent, and often fuc- 

 cefsful, attacks upon the Saracens, and gradually, though fcarcely in as 

 few centuries as thefe employed months in the conqueft, recovered the 



• Barcelona is faid to liave been founded by prcdeccfTors : and probably his countrymen of Ca- 



Haniilcar, the father of tlie great Hannibal, who talonia, as the moll commercial people in Spain, 



Irom his tamily name, Barca, called it Barcino. may have retained more Arabian vocables than 



Though few of the modern Spaniards, who thofe of the other provinces. Algodoii, <:o/;on, al- 



reckon it an indelible difgrace to have any mixture miray, admiral^ alfondech, the original name of the 



of Arabian (or iVIooritli) blood, will be willing to exchanp-e of Barcelona, (which tfience appears to 



acknou'lege tliemfclves indebted to infidels for aay have been an Arabian foundation) figaifying gene- 



acquifitions in fcience or civilization, Don Anto- rally a place ivhsre merchants tranfaS their bufincfs 



nio de Capmany, led by his reftarches to fee the (called/«n(//V-aj by the Latin writers of the middle 



truth, and to h<ive more liberal ideas, owns [f. i, ages), azucar, fugar, arc a few of the many words 



Com. p. 26] that many of their commercial and that a Spaniard, defirous of the honour of deduc-^ 



maritime terms are derived from the Arabian Ian- ing his gci-.ealogy from the molt enlightened iia- 



guage, or, in other words, that they acquired com- tions of aiitiquity, might adduce as proofs, 

 mercial and maritime knowlcge from their Arabian 



