farther to the northward, where their descendants still occupy the North Frisian Islands and the opposite coast of Schleswig. They and the Goths of the Baltic coasts were the greatest maritime nations of Northern Europe in the early centuries of our era. The old Frisian settlements, indeed, extended into the Baltic, where they came into contact with the Goths, Danes, Wends, and other nations. This was the direction of their early trade, by which they were brought into commercial connection with the Eastern trade route. The Scandinavian ratio of the value of gold to silver—1 to 8—which prevailed in ancient Frisia in the payment of the gold wergelds of the district near the Weser in a silver equivalent,[1] appears to be satisfactory proof of this commercial intercourse. It was without doubt from the Frisian coast that many expeditions started for the coasts of Britain, that resulted in the conquest of the country and the settlement of new races of people in it. Much has been written about the Anglo-Saxon settlement, but little has been told of the part which the Frisians played in this great migration. Some English historians only tell us of their settlements on the Scotch coast in the Firth of Forth and around Dunfries at the head of the Solway Firth. The evidence is, however, abundant that the part they played in the settlement of England was hardly second to that of any race. They were probably included in the designation Saxon within the confederacy of the Saxon invaders, and as they were the chief maritime nation of North Germany at that time there can be no doubt that Frisian ships were used.
The settlement of some Frisians on the east coast of Britain in the time of the Empire is probable from Ptolemy’s reference to the Parisi in the Holderness district, and the Teutonic equivalence of this name, Farisi.
Procopius also, the Greek historian of the sixth century,[2]
5—2
