tries lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules. The age of Ezekiel is placed nearly six centuries before the birth of Christ; but we have evidence of the knowledge and employment of tin by the Ph{{oe}s}nicians at a much earlier period in the account of the erection and decoration of the Temple of Solomon, the principal workmen employed in which—and among the rest the makers of the articles of brass, that is, bronze, and other metals—were brought from Tyre.
The oldest notice, or that at least professing to be derived from the oldest sources, which we have of the Phœnician trade with Britain, is that contained in the narrative of the voyage of the Carthaginian navigator Himilco, which is given us by Festus Avienus.[1] This voyage is supposed to have been performed about 1000 years before the commencement of our era. Himilco is stated to have reached the Isles of the Œstrymnides within less than four months after he had set sail from Carthage. Little doubt can be entertained, from the description given of their position and of other circumstances, that these were the Scilly Islands. The Œstrymnides are placed by Avienus in the neighbourhood of Albion and of Ireland, being two days' sail from the latter. They were rich, he says, in tin and lead (metallo divites stanni atque plumhi). The people are described as being numerous, high-spirited, active, and eagerly devoted to trade; yet they had no ships built of timber wherewith to make their voyages, but in a wonderful manner effected their way along the water in boats constructed merely of skins sewed together. We must suppose that the skins or hides were distended by wickerwork which they covered, although that is not mentioned. There are well authenticated accounts of voyages of considerable length made in such vessels as those here described at a much later period.
It is observable that in this relation neither the Œstrymnides, nor the Sacred Isle of the Hiberni, nor that of athe Albiones in its neighbourhood, appear to be spoken
B 2
- ↑ Avienus wrote his work, entitled " Ora Maritima," in Latin iambic verse in the fourth century; but he states that he drew his information from the ancient Punic records.
