CHAP, xiii.] THE SPREAD OF PHOENICIAN COMMERCE. 459 



or Tin Islands, of the later writers, which from Strabo's 

 account are probably the Scilly Islands. 1 The name, 

 however, may have included Cornwall and the tin dis- 

 tricts of Wicklow in the south of Ireland, and it may also 

 have been applied to those of Brittany. It is impossible 

 that the early writers could have had accurate geographi- 

 cal knowledge of the various islands in so remote a sea. 

 What little they knew they obtained from the narratives 

 of sailors, unaccustomed to accurate observation, and 

 unable to fix localities with the precision which is only 

 rendered possible by the use of scientific instruments. 

 Herodotus, writing in the year 450 B.C., with his 

 valuable opportunities of collecting information, con- 

 fesses his ignorance as to the position of the Cassiterides, 

 whence the Phoenicians, and afterwards the Greeks, 

 obtained their tin. Aristotle, living B.C. 34 5, 2 and with 

 equal chances of obtaining accurate information, men- 

 tions Albion and lerne 3 as being the two chief British 

 Isles beyond the Celtse, and is the first author who uses 

 these names. We may therefore consider that the 

 British coasts were visited by Phoenician traders in the 

 fifth or sixth centuries before Christ ; that merchandise 

 from the south was at that time used in barter for 

 the various products of our island, and that afterwards 

 the Greeks had tolerably accurate ideas of the British 

 Isles. 



It is very generally supposed that the chief Phoe- 

 nician supply of tin was derived from Cornwall, princi- 

 pally from the assumed non-existence of other regions in 

 Europe 4 sufficiently rich in tin to have supplied the 



1 Mon. Hist. Brit. v. 2 Aristoteles, De Mundo, c. iii. 



3 Ireland is termed Iris by Diodorus Siculus, and lerne by Strabo. 



4 See pp. 402-7. 



