393 



and an account given in Ethicus of " a lofty pharos, or lighthouse, 

 standing formerly on the coast of Gallicia, and serving as a beacon in 

 the direction of Ireland." 



The Eev. C. O'Connor, the author of Columbanus's Letters," ob- 

 serves that, in the remote ages of Phoenician commerce, it was the 

 custom to consecrate all the important promontories in the course of 

 their navigation " by the erection of pillars, or temples, and by religious 

 names of Celtic and primaeval antiquity. 



This is expressly," Moore adds, " stated by Strabo." And he further 

 observes — -'The 'Sacrum promontorium,' or south-western highland of 

 Iberia Antiqua, was Cape St. Yincent. That of Ireland was Carnsore 

 point, as stated by Ptolemy."^' 



Carnsore is on the Wexford coast, opposite the Tuscar light. 



The facilities for intercourse between Ireland and Gallicia are ob- 

 vious. The distance from Cape Ortegal to Cape Clear, Moore says, is 

 above 450 leagues — that is to say, about 1350 miles. He might deduct 

 a third from that amount, and the remainder would still exceed by a 

 hundred miles the actual distance between the nearest points of Gallicia 

 and Ireland. 



In conclusion, I have to observe that, although fabulous histories 

 have indeed tainted Spanish history, both general and ecclesiastical, 

 to a great extent, in the sixteenth and middle of the seventeenth 

 centuries, the latter has suffered least, because many ancient records of 

 Spanish Church history still exist in MS. But, although no such early 

 authentic records of general history exist, either in MS. or print, of an 

 emigration from Spain to Ireland, there is a regular and unbroken 

 transmission in Spanish general history, as we have seen, of a tradition 

 that has never varied, and seems to have been sent down from one 

 chronicler or historical annalist to another, with undeviating details. 

 Eut among the latter we look in vain for fixed or corresponding dates. 

 Still, Spanish history is not without considerable use and importance to 

 those who make a study of early Irish history. 



In several other Spanish works, besides those I have quoted, notices 

 are to be found of migrations from Spain into Ireland. I refer, in. par- 

 ticular, to the great work of Isidore Hispalensis, wherein he speaks of 

 Ireland being peopled by Iberians from Spain, lib. i., cap. xxxix. ; lib. 

 xix., c. xxiii. ; lib. xiv., c. xxvi. ; and to the ''Hispania Illustrata," by 

 Andreas Schotta. And, finally, let me observe, that I had made extensive 

 collections of singular references to migrations from Spain into Ireland 

 from Portuguese chronicles — references that necessitated a great deal of 

 research — but they differ so little from those which we find in Spanish 

 chronicles, that it seemed to me unnecessary to trouble my readers with 

 them. 



May T venture to hope my labour has not been entirely thrown 

 away ? 



* Moore's " History of Ireland," vol. i., cap. i. 



