160 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



see, Caesar himself may never have approached the coasts of 

 Gaul closest to these islands, yet we find Syvret, in " Le 

 Chronique des isles de Jersey," saying, that " Caesar seeing 

 Jersey from the neighbouring coasts of Coutance, passed 

 over to it in a coracle (barque cCosier) ; he was accompanied 

 by a dozen cavaliers, whom he left in the island to guard over 

 its inhabitants, and ensure his authority over them." He 

 cites the " Livre Noir de Coutances " as his authority, but 

 Dupont, in his " Histoire du Cotentin et de ses Isles," says, 

 " There is in the said book no allusion to any such occurrence." 



I, myself, have often wondered whether the people 

 mentioned as coming from Britain to assist the Gauls in this 

 war did not, in part at least, come from the Channel Islands.* 

 It seems difficult to send and to obtain the help of a great band 

 of warriors from the distant island, and from people, too, who 

 had little interest in assisting the attacked or repelling the 

 invaders, but the inhabitants of these islands would be closely 

 connected with the Lexovii, &c, and would readily render 

 them all the help they possibly could. 



The author of " Caeserea — the Island of Jersey," &c, 

 tells usf " The earliest mention of the Channel Islands is in 

 the sixth book of Caesar's Commentaries, where it is stated 

 that one Ambiorix, having rebelled against the authority of 

 Caesar, was quickly overcome . . . the chief fled to the 

 shore and passed over to some islands. These islands are 

 supposed to be Jersey and Guernsey, from the description 

 that is given of their appearance from the land, which 

 corresponds to their general appearance at the present time." 

 The Eburones, the people here referred to, lived on the banks 

 of the Meuse, and what Caesar does say, is (chap. 31) "Those 

 who lived nearest the sea (these) hid themselves in the islands 

 which the tides are accustomed to form." So that these 

 islands can only be those in the delta of the Meuse and Rhine, 

 and Caesar gives no description of their appearance from the 

 land ; and in Chap. 43, which gives an account of the steps 

 Caesar took to capture the flying chief Ambiorix, we read, 

 " He, concealed by the night, sought other regions and 

 districts, with no larger a guard than four horsemen, to whom 

 only he dared trust his life." He escaped, but there is no 

 mention of his flying to any islands whatever. 



Caesar, then, does not help us ; but a few centuries later 

 there is a list of islands in the English Channel given in the 

 Itinerary of Antoninus, and the Ceserea of that list is 



* C. De B. G., Chap, ix., Auxilia ex Britannia quoe contra cas regiones posita 

 est arcessunt. 



tP. 8. 



