AMERICA.                     43

  The Phcenicians, and after them the Carthaginians,
traded to Britain for tin; and we have also, as already
observed, every reason to believe that Ireland was like-
wise known to them. After the destruction, however,
of the Carthaginians, the knowledge of Britain was
lost among the ancients, till Julius Caesar saw it from
the coasts of Gaul, and added it to the conquests of
Rome. It appears, therefore, that scarcely one-half of
the world was known to the ancients, and even of that,
with the exception of Egypt, the north const of Africa,
Greece, and Italy, and the countries immediately con-
nected with them, they had a very imperfect idea.
  To confirm us in our opinion, we shall here attend to
Vesputius, a learned latin author, who made able resear-
ches, de origine gentiunm. His manusci ipts, which have not
as yet been published, are still preserved in the Vatican
library at Rome.
" Extra columnas Herculis quam vastissimus est oceanus,
in quo sitae sunt insulae duae quae Albion, et lerna apellan.
tur. Ex Gallia saepenumero colonos acceperunt, quamo-
brem lingua Gallica aut Celtica incole loqui dicuntur. Mluc
neque dubitari potest, quin Carthaginienses coloniam olim
miserint, Iinoua enim Punica quam sihillima est eorum
sermoni." This learned antiquary contends that Albion
and Erin, which are situated according to him, in a vast
ocean without the pillars of Hercules, received colonies
not only from Gaul, as their inhabitants speak the lan-
               ^ .. ~ ~ ~..   .. ...   .~~~~~..    .1  .



I the Uauls, bUt that the- rhcenicians aiso contri-
: some remote period to -the colonization of these



two islands, on account of the affinity between the Celtic
and the Phcenician languages.
  Vesputius is supported by Monsieur Boullet, a French
etymologist, in, his Mem. sur la langue Celtique:-" La
langue Celtique etant de la plus haute antiquite (says Boul-
let) n'etant memne, ainsi qu'on la prouve, qu'un dialecte de
la primitive, elle a du etre la mere de celles qui se sont
formees par la succession des temps dans les pays qu'ont
occupes les Celtes, ou Celto-Scythes. Le Latin, le Gothi-



l