67 



being m no wise fit for habitation or devotion, was 

 dedicated to no saint, but left 'to enjoy its ancient name ; 

 and notwithstanding the modern Christian dedications, 

 sailors went on in their old, way. This high land is still 

 called Seilly, and the islands in general are still denomi- 

 nated Scilly-isles. 



It must have been a dispiriting circumstance to the 

 old inhabitants, to see the ocean so continually eating 

 away their low-lands, in which they had their treasures 

 of tin, their houses and, ports : but this gradual dew 

 was not the only misfortune which attended them.- 

 From the island of Sampson one may see the foutida* 

 tions of stone-fences running on in a strait line cross the 

 Firth, towards Trescaw-isle, till they are 'hid in the 

 sand ; which sand, when it is full tide, has from ten to 

 twelve feet water on it. Now we cannot suppose that 

 the foundation of these fences was laid as low as high 

 water mark (for who could build fences upon so dan- 

 gerous a level ?) At a medium we may suppose them 

 to have been laid six feet above the full tide. 



Here then we have the foundations, which were six 

 fret above the high-water mark, now ten feet under, 

 which together make a difference as to the level of six- 

 teen feet. 



Here then was a great subsidence, which must have 

 been followed by a sudden inundation, and this inun- 

 dation is likely not only to have destroyed a great part of 

 the inhabitants, but to have terrified others who survived 

 into a total desertion of their shattered islands. By 

 this means that considerable people, who were the 

 Aborigines, and carried on the tin-trade with the Phoe- 

 nicians, Greeks, and Romans, were reduced to the last 

 gasp. The few poor remains of this desolation, by 

 their necessary attention to food and raiment, must 

 soon have lost sight of their ancient prosperity, and the 

 faint remembrance that was left of what the islands had 

 been before, expired of itself in an age or two, through 

 the indigence of the inhabitants. 



That such an inundation has happened here, is still 

 more plain, because these islands are no longer what 



