In like manner did they give the first name to the islands of Gades, or Gadiz, calling one Cotinis, the Ship Ifland, and the other Arthar aoi, the Ship Island, whence Cotinufa and Erythraa (1). Long or Lonn, a Ship, was another name of Cotinufa or Gadis. De fuerte que es la Erythia antigua la que oy fe llama la del Leon (m). Gadir prima fretum folida fupereminet arce Pænus quippe locum Gadir vocat undique fep tum. (Avienus Defcr. Orbis. v. 611.) This, I think, must have been the first discovery of Spain, by our Southern Scythians, Iberians, or Perfians, from the Euxine fea. The fecond vifit paid by these navigators to Spain was from the Red Sea, a voyage well known in the days of (1) Porro in medio fub vefperis columnis Atque hanc quidem incolæ fub prioribus hominibus (m) Efpana primitiva. Don. Xavier de la 194. So Alpha was the Phænician name of Chalpe, from Alphi, Navis. Dionys. Afer. Huerta. T. 1. p. Solomon, Solomon, in whofe reign Tarteffus was called by the Jews Tarfis (or Tarfhish, as in our tranflations of the Bible.) (0) Phænices præcipue frequentarunt Gades & oftia amnis Tarteffi, qui idem ac Theodorus & notiore nomine Bætis, ac Civitatem Tarteffum, quæ videtur fuiffe Tharfis (Majanfius. Topogr. Hifpaniæ, p. 213.) Not to tire my readers with the accumulated proofs and learned quotations which the best Spanish writers have displayed, in favour of this opinion, (fays the ingenious Mr. Carter, in his journey from Gibraltar to Malaga, v. 1. p. 64.) we fhall content ourselves with briefly examining, whether the fituation of this country, and its products, agree with the cargo Solomon's fleet brought from Tarfis, and then leave the facts to speak for themselves. Mr. Carter then proves that Spain abounded in filver and gold, in monkeys and peacocks, and he quotes Pliny as a proof that the oppofite coast of Africa was in his days full of elephants; therefore as Tarfis was fo universal a mart, it is no way furprising that they fhould be supplied with plenty of ivory from their neighbours. But in the preceding chapter we have fhewn from Salluft, that the Perfian colony under Hercules, or Siim Breac, did actually settle on (0) I could prove, fays Huet, that Tarfhith was likewife a general name for all the Western coaft of Africa and Spain, and in particular of that coaft in the vicinity of the mouth of the river Guadalquiver, a country fertile in mines of Silver; but this was not fufficient for the exceffive expences of Solomon. I shall undeniably establish the truth, that the Cape of Good Hope was known often frequented and doubled in Solomon's time, and for many years after. (Navigation of the ancients by Huet, bifhop of Avranches.) the the coaft of Africa near the ocean, from whence probably fome removed to Jehuda and Madagafcar, where their defcendants are yet to be found; the chief body remained in Africa, and their defcendants are now known by the name of Breber, &c. The people of Tarfis or Tharfis in Spain, are faid to be defcended from Tharfis, fen of Javan, fon of Japhet. Primus Tharfis filius Javan, nepos Japhet, ad occidentem venit. (Pedro de Zaragoza MSS.) Tharfis a quo Iberi. (Jul. Africanus ap. Eufeb.) Tharfis ex quo Iberi, qui & Tyrrheni (Ph. Labbê.) Tharfis a quo Iberi (Eufeb. in Thef.) From Tharfis came the Spaniards (Chronic Allex.) (Syncellus in Chronogr.) I make no doubt but the Aboriginal Spaniards were Tharfites. All the patriarchal names in the facred fcriptures were prophetic; and this name was well adapted to the fon of Javan, and our Scythi may have accommodated the name Tarfeis, to Tharfis. In Ireland there were two tribes or clanns named, viz. Clanna Baofcani, or the Biscaynian tribe, and the other Hui Tairfi, (i. e. Tharfis) or the fons of Tharfis. The latter, are faid not to be Gadelians, but to have been the Aborigines of Spain, who accompanied the Gadelians to Ireland. What a wonderful coincidence of history at fo remote a period! And I am of opinion, these Tharfites paffed into Africa with our Gadelians or Breberi, after the breaking up of Hercules's army, as defcribed by Salluft. Qui in Africam trajecerunt, erant Therfite, fays Polybius. (1. 3. p. 187.) Or they may have been tranfported thither by Siim 'Breac or Hercules, as the Sicanians were to Sicily, from the river Sicanus in Spain, as Philiftus (apud Diodor. 1. 5.) faith; and Dionyfius affirms, they were a Spanish people who fled from the Ligures in Italy; he means, fays Sir J. Newton, the Ligures, who oppofed Hercules when he returned from his expedition against Geryon in Spain, and endeavoured to país the Alps out of Gaul into Italy, for Hercules that year got into Italy and founded the city Croton. This, adds he, was the Ægyptian Hercules who had a potent fleet, and in the days of Solomon failed to the Straights; he was called Ogmius by the Gauls, and Nilus by the Egyptians. (Chronol. p. 181.) See Niul, fon of our Fenius. Chap. 7. Goropius ventures to affirm, that Andalufia fupplied the Tyrians, Grecians, Carthaginians, and Romans fucceffively with more gold and filver than the Indies have furnished to Old Spain in thefe latter days. From Spain most probably was imported that great quantity of golden cups, ingots, chains, fhields, vafes, &c. &c. that Old Ireland abounded with, and which are daily found in the bogs of this country. About 200 years after Solomon, Pharaoh Necho manned a fleet with our y y am fiim, and sent them from the Red Sea, with orders to return by the Mediterranean; in this voyage they spent three years, not from their unfkilfulnefs in navigation, I think, but in stopping at their colonies in this route, fettling factors and comptoirs. When they arrived to the mouth of the Streights of Gibraltar, Mr. Carter fuppofes they met with some Tyrian fhips, who might tell them they were in the Mediterranean Sea, and near home. This discovery I attribute to the information of the first colony, their countrymen, un der der Siim Breac (o). Mr. Carter thinks Solomon's people were not fo enlightened, nor could it be expected from them, their voyages being at least a century anterior to the fettlement of the Tyrians at Carteia; for Solomon died 975 years before Chrift, and the Tyrians did not fettle at Carteia, according to Bochart, till about 896 years before Chrift, or 840 according to Eufebius; then, fays Mr. Carter, they either new-built or re-peopled the city of Tarteffus, dedicating it to their tutelar god Hercules, whence it obtained the name of Melcarthus or Melcartheia, fignifying the city of Hercules in the Phænician tongue. If Mel-carteia fignifies the city of Hercules, his name must have been Mel, for the latter part of the compound muft here fignify the city ;-Mel fignifies a failor or navigator, from Melah, Nauta, Irish Mellach, Arab. Malah; and doubtless this was converted by the Greeks to MHAON, the name he was known by at Athens (p (p) Ariftotle does very plainly diftinguish these colonies of Spain, but like all other Greek authors ftill confounds our first fettlers with the Phænicians or Canaanites, τις πρώτες των φοινίκων ἐπὶ ταρίσσον—they far the firft Phænicians (which he carefully by the word firft) diftinguishes from thofe, which in the following words he files φοίνικας της κατοικέντας τα Γά Serpa xave μeva—the Phænicians that inhabit Gadir- for this was after the first Phænicians made their fuccefsful voyages.. (Ariftot. Bafil. Edit. p. 553. a.) (q) Hence Miles the Constellation of Hercules, before which is that of the Harp or Lvra. Miles Septentrionale eft, notitior fub Herculis nomine. The Greeks will have this harp to have been made by Mercury, and the Conftellation Miles, they have called Thefeus, Thamyris, Orpheus, and I know not what. Thefe Conftellations received their names from the Southern Scythians, ages before the time of Thales, who brought them out of Egypt into Greece. The |