CHAP EV. PHOENICIAN COLONIES & COMMERCE. "The breath of heaven has blown away What toiling earth had pil'd Scattering wise heart and crafty hand, KEBLE. BOUT three centuries after the first colonization of Britain, by the descendants of the sons of Japheth' the island was visited by those enterprising navigators the Phoenicians; "whose antiquity is of the earliest date :" and who engrossed all the traffic carried on at that time in the world. The dwellers on the Kentish shores equally imbued with a love for the sea, gladly cultivated their connexion and sought their commerce: and the productions of Britain were exchanged for those of Tyre, to reciprocal advantage; The great extent of coast possessed by the Britons, was favourable to their continuing the pursuit of a maritime life, long after their occupation of the Kentish shores. 1 Richard of Cirencester affirms that it was about A. M. 3000, that Britain was first visited by the Phoenician merchants. Lib. 2, c. i. § VI.. G Holy Writ furnishes us with a concise pedigree of the descendants of Noah, and the division of the earth amongst them. It states that Noah begat Japheth, who begat Javan, one of whose offspring, was Tarshish. Amongst this race, says the inspired chronologist, "were the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations ;"-and in ourselves, their descendants, we experience the fulfilment of the prophetical benediction of Noah "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Wherever the Phoenicians penetrated, there they planted colonies, and it has been feasibly supposed,* that the Gaël or Gauls, were drawn from the two Galilees, and Gaulonitis, the inland provinces, Gael, or Gaul, to the ports the Phoenicians selected for fixing their establishments, and called themselves Gael 2 TALIESEN in the antient poem, entituled-The Appeasing of Lludd, thus graphically describes the first colonists, Llwyth lliaws, anuaws ei henwerys Amlaes ei peisiau, pwy ei hefelwys? A numerous race, fierce they are said to have been, Were thy original colonists, Britain, first of Isles, Natives of a country in Asia, and the country of Gafis; Said to have been a skilful people, but the district is unknown, Which was mother to these children, warlike [fearless] adventurers on the sea The nations, the offspring of Japhet, possess from Mount Taurus to the North, all the middle part of Asia, and all Europe, as far as the British Ocean, and give their names both to the places, and to the people. Origen, l. ix. c. 2. We are aware of the attempt to prove from the etymology that the descendants of Gomer the eldest son of Japheth, first peopled the isles of Britain, and although we have been accused of too readily listening to tradition, yet 3 and Gaeltach, or Celta, and thenceforward, the abori gines, whose descent was similar, were confounded in this instance, we do not coincide with the learned and ingenious theory. It is nevertheless a curious fact that the radical part of the names of Gomer should be found in the appellation of the Cimmerians in Asia; Cimbri and Umbri in Gaul and Italy; and Cymri, Cambri and Cumbri in Wales and Cumberland, at the present day. Camden deduces it thus: Gomer, Gomari, Gomeræi, Gomeritæ, Kumero, Cymro, Kumeri, and gives Josephus and Zonaras as authorities. Gomer in Hebrew Signifies Bounding, or the utmost border. Sir W. Betham says, "it has escaped all observation, as far as I have discovered, that the country about Tyre and Sidon, as far as Acre, antiently bore the name of Galilee, or country of the Gael on the sea coast; the very name, Gael, the Phoenician colonies in Europe called themselves, and gave to their settlement in Europe; 3ael, the Gael-Ja, country of-L), sea coast.....The conclusion therefore appears irresistible, that the Gael were a Phoenician colony, who conquered and settled Celtic Europe, at such remote antiquity that when they were found by the Romans in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, they had forgotten all but a tradition of their original country, their gods, their religion, and their language." Gael and Cymbri, p. 84. Diodorus Siculus says yaλarai is only another appellative of the κελτοι. Origen calls the Gaulish Druid γαλατων δρυαδας Galli is probably but the abbreviation of Galatai, a clipping prac tice too often employed by the present generation in daily conversation, i. e. omnibus vulg. bus; railroad vulg. rail; steamboat vulg. steam or boat. 3 The Irish, the Gael of Scotland and the Manks, are now the only descendants of that antient people who have retained the language. The discovery, by Sir Wm. Betham, that in the Irish a people still exist who speak the language of the Phoenicians, is of the first historical importance, for by it, Phoenician inscriptions may be decyphered, and the extent of their commerce and navigation, traced by the antient names of places in the world known to the antients. Plautus happily establishes the clear identity of the language of Hamilcar, of Carthage, itself a Phoenician colony, with the vulgar Irish of this day. Hanno the Carthaginian, in Plautus, under the same cognomen. The Romans afterwards denominated the whole continent by the name of the people on the coast. The Hebrew for Galilee is GALIL; and at Isaiah ix, 1, "Galilee of the nations," seems to be an expression referring to the connexion which Galilee had maintained with distant climesas if it were the Mother of Colonies, "Galilee of the nations!" or, as in Matt. iv, 15, "Galilee of the Gentiles." The Greeks and Romans gave the general name of Celta to nearly all the interior natives and tribes who lived in the forests of Europe. It corresponds exactly to our name Indians, conferred on all the tribes of America. There were no people more Celt than any other, but it happened that some other name was often given for distinction. Celt was the genus; Gael, Gaul, Cymri, &c., the species. The terms "Western Isles" and the "Isles of the Gentiles" are used indiscriminately by sacred and profane writers, to express BRITAIN or TARSHISH. The etymology of the name of Tarshish is mnemonically significant of its position :-The particles of which it is composed, demonstrate, according to the explanation of Sir William Betham, the identity of the Gaelic and exclaims in Carthaginian-" Byth lim! mo thym noctothii nel ech anti dias machon." Which in current Irish would be written at this day-" Beith liom ! mo thyme noctaithe niel ach anti daise maecoinne." In another sentence the Roman Plautus is accurate to a letter as in current Irish :-" Han donc filli hanum bene filli in mustine." In like manner, Hanno's "Meipsi et an eiste dam, et alaim na cestin um." Is in current Irish," Meisi et an eiste dam, et alaim na cestin um." Phoenician languages-" It is TIR, country-IAR, western-SIOS, down in ;-that is literally the western country, or the country down in the west, pronounced Tiarshish." 4 At the close of the fourth age of the world, about one thousand years before Christ, we read of the celebrity of the ships of Tarshish, for Solomon "the king had a navy of Tarshish" always at sea, and it is further recorded, that their voyage to Tarshish and back, trading on the route, lasted three years.5 Gold and silver are two of the articles of commerce mentioned, both of which the mines of Britain and Ireland produced. The route pursued by the fleet appears to have been from Eziongeber on the Red Sea, and thence, 6 41 Kings, x. 22. 2 Chon. ix. 21. 5 About two hundred years afterwards, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, who reigned between the years 616 and 600 B.C., directed a similar voyage to be undertaken. (Herod Iv., 42). The vessels sailed from the Red Sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, performing the voyage in three years; just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pliny (Nat. Hist. ii. 67,) that the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, was known, and frequently practised before his time; by Hanno the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in its glory, by one Eudoxus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus king of Egypt; and Cælius Antipater, an historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies, that he had seen a merchant who had made the voyage from Gades to Æthiopia. The Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, nearly three hundred years ago, recovered this navigation after it had been intermitted and lost for many centuries. 6 Griffiths says that an ardent spirit for mining adventures must have pervaded Ireland at a very remote period, from the numerous traces existing of formerly worked mines. Report to the Royal Dublin Soc. on the Metallurgic Mines of Leinster, 1828. |