CHAPTER II.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN.
That Britain was first peopled from Gaul we are assured by the best proofs,--proximity of situation, and resemblance in language and manners.

Of the time in which this event happened we must be contented to remain in ignorance, for we have no monuments.

But we may conclude that it was a very ancient settlement, since the Carthaginians found this island inhabited when they traded hither for tin,--as the Phoenicians, whose tracks they followed in this commerce, are said to have done long before them.

It is true, that, when we consider the short interval between the universal deluge and that period, and compare it with the first settlement of men at such a distance from this corner of the world, it may seem not easy to reconcile such a claim to antiquity with the only authentic account we have of the origin and progress of mankind,--especially as in those early ages the whole face of Nature was extremely rude and uncultivated, when the links of commerce, even in the countries first settled, were few and weak, navigation imperfect, geography unknown, and the hardships of travelling excessive.

But the spirit of migration, of which we have now only some faint ideas, was then strong and universal, and it fully compensated all these disadvantages.