28 THE SAME MONUMENT NOTICED מלך אמציה Strange to say, however, there were found such bad Hebrew scholars, who were able to favour the world with a literal translation, as they think, of the inscription; and it is the following: "Of Oran Nebahh, the President, who rebelled against his prince. The Lord has taken him and his glory to King Amaziah." The only words which I conceive to be Hebrew are Marah, which has been translated "rebelled," instead of bitter; yah, the Lord; and Melech Amaziah, King Amaziah. I candidly confess, that were I asked to translate the above, I would have humbly acknowledged my ignorance, without the least compunction. I find, however, in an an old Hebrew book, called Darcay Noam, or "Ways of Pleasantness" (written by R. Moses, bar Shem Tob, Aben Chaviv, above a century before Villalpando instituted the inquiry), an account of an epitaph which, I have no doubt, is none other but the same with the one which the Jesuits attempted to decypher; and the fol BY A JEWISH TRAVELLER. 29 lowing is the rabbi's account of it according to his own words: "When I was in the kingdom of Valencia, at the synagogue of Morvitri [Murviedro], all the people at the gate, as well as the elders informed me, that a sepulchral monument existed there, of a prince of the army of Amaziah, King of Judah; I hastened, therefore, to inspect it. The monument stands on the summit of a hill; whither having ascended with labour and fatigue, I read the inscription, which was in verse, and as follows: שאו קינה בקול מרה לשר גדול לקחו יה : * "Raise with a bitter voice, a lamentation For the great prince; the Lord has taken him." I could not read more; but at the conclusion was the word "To Amaziah." It seems evident that there was more than one Hebrew monument at Murviedro. * Any one acquainted with the Samaritan alphabet can easily trace the blunders in the Jesuits' version of the same. 30 VILLALPANDO'S CONCLUSION I hesitate not in saying that, after having examined rigorously these and various other evidences bearing on the same question, I see no reason for disbelieving that there were Jews in Spain in the time of David and Solomon-startling as it may appear. It is easy indeed to treat the arguments of a young lecturer with a sneer, and to resolve them into the rashness, or conceit, of inexperience; allow me to suggest, however, that denial is not answer, and that of all logic flat contradiction is by far the most illogical. Villalpando did certainly not arrive hastily at his conclusion; but it was after mature consideration that he decided that there existed colonies of Hebrews all over the world, in the reigns of David and Solomon, and that the Hebrews thus scattered remitted large sums of money for the erection and support of the temple.* The short time allotted for a lecture of * See Appendix D. NOT PREMATURE. 31 this kind, prevents me from dwelling much longer now on this subject. To do justice to this investigation would require a whole series of lectures, exclusively, on it.* I proceed, therefore, at once to trace the probable footsteps of the Israelites into Britain. Taking for granted that it is highly probable that the Jews visited Spain in the days of David and Solomon, in company with the Phoenician merchants; may we not extend the probability also to Britain ? Appian tells us, that the Spaniards of his time used to perform the passage to Britain in half a day. Britain was a place of attraction to mercantile persons at a very early period, and London was styled by the ancients, at a remote date, "nobile emporium." There remaineth now no doubt whatever respecting the early intercourse between the Phonicians and the Britons-all historians are unanimous upon it. * See Appendix E. † Quando in Britanniam, una cum æstu maris transvehuntur quæ quidem trajectio dimidiati diei est." 32 ETYMOLOGY OF BRITAIN. Sir Isaac Newton tells us, "With these Phoenicians came a sort of men skilled in religious mysteries." Might they not have been Jews? True it is that we cannot appeal to monuments in order to establish our position; but we can, at the same time, appeal to the languages of the Hebrews and ancient Britons, which furnish a strong argument that they have known something of each other. I begin with the name your country bears, viz. Britain. Various are the conjectures which antiquarians and philologists advanced in order to account why this island is so called. Herodotus calls the British Isles Cassiterides, which signifies, the islands of tin. It is a name whereby the Phonicians jealously contrived to conceal from their Mediterranean neighbours the locality of these islands, being the remote sources of their wealth. Now, Strabo calls Britain Βρετανικη. Bochart, a profound Oriental scholar, shows that Вperavin is a corruption of the Hebrew words N Barat |