378 



tations, have always, from father to son, so efficaciously preserved this 

 tradition in memory, that to the present day they esteem and pride 

 themselves on being Spanish in their origin and dependence. The same 

 is the opinion of Polydore Virgil, expressed in the 1 3 th book of his 

 English history, in the description which, in the life of Henry, King of 

 England, the second of this name, he gives of the island of Ireland, 

 about which he writes that it took its first name of Hibernia from a 

 Spanish captain named Ibero, who, with a great number of people, 

 passed over to that country to form its first population ; or, according to 

 others, it took its name from the river Ebro, called Ibero, and from it 

 was called Hibernia.""^ . . . 



Forty years," says Garibay, after the death of King AMdes, the 

 Habidi of other writers, about 1030 years before our era, according to 

 the computation of Elorian and others who follow him, a great scourge 

 and affliction visited Spain, greater than any that had befallen it since 

 the deluge. Eor this calamity commenced with excessive, and till then 

 unexperienced, heat and drought, so that for the space of twenty- six 

 years there was no rain, and thus Spain was depopulated, as previously 

 by the deluge, by the violent gales, and extraordinary heats, so that the 

 earth was dried up, and the rivers, with the exception, of the Ebro and 

 the Guadalquiver ; and trees and plants perished, except some olives, 

 and pomegranates on the borders of the Guadalquiver. In this great 

 calamity it was not the poor alone who suff'ered ; and soon all who could 

 get away from the country fled ; some went to Africa, others to Erance 

 and Italy, and to other parts, to Asia even, and many more to the re- 

 gions of Cantabria, Asturias, and GaHicia, which, lying northwards, 

 escaped better than other parts of Spain, and tbe same is said of several 

 places in the Pyrenees."! 



It is right to state, however, that Garibay says — all men of letters, 

 and those conversant with the ancient records of Spain, do not consider 

 it a thing sure and certain that this great drought was so general, and 

 of such long duration, as has been represented ; for many of the best and 

 most ancient Spanish authors make no mention of it, neither do any 

 foreign historians, nor any Greek and Latin vsrriters refer to it. 



It must also be observed that Garibay' s special reference to Spanish 

 migration into Ireland is to the time of King Brigo, who began to reign, 

 it is said, 1805 years before our era. 



Doctor Erancisco de Pisa in his Descripcion y Historia de Toledo 

 y Discurso cerca la Antiquedad de Espana y de sus Principios" (4to, 

 Toledo, 1605, page 4), thus refers to the Gran sequedad de Espana : — 

 ''Some of our Castilian chronicles," says De Pisa, ''state that about 

 those times (of Siculo, Eey de Espana) there was a general and frightful 

 drought, which lasted for twenty- six years, which occasioned the depo- 

 pulation of the country, and its remaining uncultivated. The writers 



* Garibay, torn, i., p. 83. 



t Garibay, " Hist. Univer. deEspagna," p. 102. 



