392 



Keating, in his ^'History of Ireland," assigns to the same event 

 the year of the world 2704, on the authority of the ''Book of Inva- 

 sions/' and Cormac M'CuUinan. '' Both assert it was about 1300 years 

 before Christ the sons of Milesius came into Ireland."^' 



It is in vain that we look in Spanish chronicles for sach names, 

 or any obvious corruptions of them, as Milidh or Milesius, and his 

 sons, Donn Aireah, Heber, Pion, Amerghin, Ir, Colpa, Aranan, and 

 Heremon. Neither will we find any mention there of Gaodhal or Ga- 

 delius, Lughadius, Eennius Farsa, Partholanus, &c. On the contrary, 

 we find from a preceding extract from one of the Spanish chronicles 

 of best repute, that the accounts we have of all those personages of 

 Spanish origin, or connected with Spain, who figure in our Irish an- 

 nals as chiefs or rulers of Ireland who had passed over to Ireland from 

 Spain, are declared fabulous ; and, I may add, the names of those per- 

 sonages are utterly ignored by all the Spanish historical writers. 



Caesar was the first commander of the Eomans who ventured so far 

 along the northern coast of Spain as the Cape Einisterre, then called the 

 Promontorio Celtico. In that part of Spain the Eoman eagles had not 

 been yet seen when Csesar arrived there. The first port at which he 

 landed was that from which he departed. Most of the several coloniz- 

 ing expeditions of which mention is made in the Spanish chronicles 

 were from the ports now called Vigo and Corunna. There Csesar found 

 admirable ports, such as Ptolemy has described, remarkable for capa- 

 city, security, and commodity, and for another quality not of little 

 value in Caesar's estimate of such advantages — proximity to Britain. 

 ''The natives of the adjacent territory (we are told by Garibay) had 

 formerly been an enterprising people, for they had dared to traverse the 

 ocean on whose shores their country was situated; they had carried 

 colonies into England and Ireland ; but at the period of Caesar's visit to 

 the shores, they were so reduced in their resources that they only were 

 able to equip some small barks, on the frame of which skins were 

 stretched to keep out the waves and protect them from their violence. 

 Astonished at the sight of the various appliances to navigation of the 

 Eoman galleys and their gigantic size, the natives speedily submitted to 

 Caesar."! 



"It was chiefly from Gades (says Moore), according to Strabo, that 

 the Phoenicians fitted out their expeditions to the British Isles. But the 

 traditions of the Irish look to Gallicia as the quarter from whence these 

 colonies sailed ; and vestiges of intercourse between that part of Spain 

 and Ireland may be traced far into past times. The traditionary history 

 of the latter country gives an account of an ancient pharos, or lighthouse, 

 erected in the neighbourhood of the port now called Corunna, for the use 

 of navigators in their passage between that coast and Ireland." Mr. 

 Moore adds, in a note, a remarkable coincidence between this tradition 



* Keating's " History of Ireland," transl. by Halliday, p. 283. 

 t Garibay, tomo i., p. 57. : 



