TIN TRADE BETWEEN BRITAIN AND ALEXANDRIA. 285 



learned and candid Guizot, are not ashamed to own themselves 

 occasionally indebted to such authority. 



The story, which I have appended to this paper in a Latin 

 version of the original biographer by Anastasius, contains the 

 following incident in the life of John the Almoner, patriarch of 

 Alexandria. 



A shipowner, or master (for " nauclerus " may stand for either), 

 who had suffered severely by repeated disasters at sea, applied to 

 John for assistance. The patriarch made a liberal advance to him 

 of money, put under his control a ship which belonged to the 

 Church of Alexandria, and advised him to lay in a cargo of corn. 

 The ship-master set sail and had a stormy voyage of twenty days, 

 during which he saw neither star nor landmarks to guide him ; 

 but, during this perilous voyage, the pilot at the helm saw (or 

 fancied that he saw) the visionary form of the holy patriarch him- 

 self, assisting at the helm and exhorting him to persevere in his 

 course without fear. On the twentieth day the ship reached the 

 islands of Britain. On going ashore, the master found that there 

 was a famine raging in the country. On hearing of the arrival of 

 a cargo of corn, the local authorities (whoever they may have 

 been) offered to buy all the corn, and to give in exchange either 

 cash or tm, as the master might choose. He accepted half in 

 money and half in tin, and then set sail on a prosperous voyage 

 back to Alexandria. On his arrival, the master sold part of the 

 tin to an old comrade with whom he had been used to deal on 

 former occasions ; but, upon assaying the metal, the tin was found 

 to have been wholly transmif^ted into pure silver ! On further ex- 

 amination of the cargo, it was found that the whole of the tin 

 had undergone a similar conversion ; — and so the story closes 

 with a reference to like miracles wrought by divine interposition 

 in testimony of the mercy and power of the Almighty. 



With regard to the prseter-natural element of this story I have 

 nothing to say. The vision of the steersman was, it would seem, 

 apparent only to himself, and may have been what some theo- 

 logical critics would call " a subjective phenomenon." With respect 

 to the transmutation of the tin, I cannot offer so convenient a 

 solution of the difficulty; and I therefore leave it to be dealt 

 with by the professional hagiologist, and confine myself to a short 

 notice of those who are the principal vouchers for the tale. 



