CHAPTER II 



THE ISLE OF HONEY 



IF we are to accept all that the old Roman 

 historians have put on record to the glory of 

 their race, we must believe that their con- 

 quering legions found everywhere barbarism, and 

 left in its place the seeds of a high civilisation — 

 high, at least, in the general acceptance of the word 

 in those lurid, moving days. 



But it may well be questioned whether the 

 Britain that Caesar first knew was as barbaric as 

 it has been painted. We are accustomed to look 

 upon Caesar's account of his earliest view of Albion 

 — of Eilanban, the White Island, as the Britons 

 themselves called it — as the first glance vouch- 

 safed to us into the history of our own land. But 

 this is very far from being the truth. British 

 history begins with the record of the first voyage 

 of the Phoenicians, who, adventuring farther than 

 any other of their intrepid race, chanced upon the 

 Scilly Isles and the neighbouring coast of Corn- 

 wall, and thence brought back their first cargo 

 of tin. 



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