CHAP. II. 



BRITAIN. 105 



The inhabitants of this island had carried on 

 mining operations, solely by their own disco- 

 veries arid inventions, several centuries before 

 the Romans had acquired dominion over the 

 country. The existence of gold may be pre- 

 sumed, from money of it being found amongst 

 the inhabitants when the Romans first gained 

 a knowledge of them. Strabo informs us that 

 silver mines were worked 1 . There was no want 

 of copper, though probably the Britons had made 

 no progress in the art either of refining or of 

 converting it to useful purposes, for their copper 

 tools and utensils were supplied to them from 

 foreign countries 2 . Although in the time of 

 Julius Caesar iron was so scarce that pieces of it 

 circulated in the place of gold, yet in the time 

 of Strabo, one century later, it had so increased 

 as to become an article of export 3 . 



The most celebrated metal of Britain was tin. 

 This the Phoenicians had brought to Cadiz, and 

 enjoyed a monopoly of it; but the secret of the 

 district from whence it was extracted was at 

 length discovered by some Romans whose ships 

 followed those of the Phoenicians to the before 

 unknown country of Cornwall in Britain 4 . Pub- 

 lius, the Roman proconsul in Spain, after several 

 unsuccessful attempts, opened to his country- 



1 Strabo, iv. p. 305. 2 Caesar and Strabo. 



3 Caesar. Strabo, iv. p. 305. 4 Strabo, iii. p. 255. 



