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whence in process of time, they have been driven out by new colonies of Scythians and Germans, and banished among the northern rocks; in like manner as the ancient inhabitants of Britain have been dispossessed by the Saxons of the greatest and most pleasant part of their island, and constrained to conceal themselves among the mountains in Wales, where to this day, they retain their language, and preserve some traces of their ancient manners. But whether the Finlanders were formerly the intire possessors of Scandinavia, or were only somewhat more numerous than they are at present, it is very certain that this nation hath been established there from the earliest ages, and hath always differed from the other inhabitants of the north, by features so strong and remarkable, that we must acknowledge their original to be as different from that of the others, as it is utterly unknown to us. The language of the Finns hath nothing in common with that of any neighbouring people, neither doth it resemble any dialect of the ancient ‘Gothic,’ Celtic or Sarmatian tongues, which were formerly the only ones that prevailed among the barbarous people of Europe. The learned, who have taken the pains to compare the great Finland bible printed at Abo, with a multitude of others,
