GREAT RISE OF THE OCEAN. 197 



According to these documents, the first inhabitants of 

 the marsches were Frisii or Frisians, designated also under 

 the names of Cimbri and Sikambri : the latter name, M. 

 Hartz conjectures, might come from the ancient German 

 words SecJcampfers, i. e. Sea-warriors ; the Frisians being 

 very warlike. These people appear to have had the 

 same origin with those, who, at a rather earlier period, 

 took possession of the marsches of Ost-Frise, (East-Fries- 

 land,) and of that Friesland which forms one of the United 

 Provinces ; but this common origin is very obscure. 

 Even at the present day, the inhabitants of the marsches, 

 from near Husum to Tondern, or Tunder to the North, 

 though themselves unacquainted with it, speak a language 

 which the other inhabitants of the country do not under- 

 stand, and which is supposed to be Frisian. It is the same 

 at a village in the peninsula of Bremen, by which I have 

 had occasion to pass. 



The Sicambri or North Frisians, are traced back to some 

 centuries before the Christian era. At the commence- 

 ment of that era, they were attacked by Frotho, King of 

 Denmark, and lost a battle, under their king Vicho, near 

 the river Hever. Four centuries afterwards they joined 

 the troops of Ilengist and Horsa. In the year 692, their 

 king Radebot resided in the island of Heiligeland. 

 Charles Martel subdued them in 732 ; and some time 

 afterwards, they joined Charlemagne against Gottric, 

 King of Denmark. These are some of the circumstances 

 of the history of this Frisian colony, recorded in the 

 chronicles of which I have spoken ; but the history here 

 interesting to us is that of the lands whereon they settled. 



It appears that these people did not arrive here in one 

 body, but successively, in the course of many years : they 

 spread themselves over various parts of the coaits of the 



