It fignifies a low ground, whence in Isaiah, c. 24. v. 5. it is used for a valley-hodie apud Vafcones Irura vallem fignificat. Hence in Spain Gracch. urris, Bit-uris, Calog-urris, Es-uris, Ilac-uris, Lacc-urris, Ur-gallium, Ur-cefa, Ur-gavo, &c. and in Ireland Ur-gair, Ur-na-galla, Baile-Ura, Ur-gial, &c. &c. from Uir, a valley, a fituation by the low banks of a river.

Il, begins the ancient name of many towns in Spain, which makes Majanfius think, the word fignifies a town; it is the Irifh and Arabic Eile, which fignifies a fettlement, or colony, as EileO'Carroll, Eile-Uagarty, &c. So in Spain Ilergavonia, Ilerdam, Ilipa, &c.

Of these we shall speak more particularly in a work on the ancient Topography of Ireland.

To conclude-It is, I think, pretty clear from Strabo, that fome colony of people, remarkable for their skill in navigation and their knowledge of letters, discovered Spain and fettled in it, before the Tyrians; and that thefe mercantile people, being supplied by the first discoverers with the precious commodities of that country, had fent out three expeditions before they found out this great feat of wealth; the words of Strabo will justify what I here affert, and who this first colony could be, but our Nemedians from the Euxine fea, and laftly from Africa, I cannot devise. No history lays claim to the discovery but the Irish, and to them, in my opinion, it is juftly due. Strabo, 1. 3. p. 169. fays, "according to the Gaditanian "records (preferved it feems in the temple of "Hercules) being ordered by an oracle to fend a

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colony to the pillars of Hercules, those that were "fent out, being come to the entrance of the G

"Straights

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Straights near Calpe, thought this to be the end "of the habitable world, and the spot where Her"cules (our Siim Breac) had finished his expe"dition; here they halted and offered a sacrifice "for obtaining better information: but, the presages being unfavourable, they returned home: "being fent out a fecond time, they advanced beyond the Streights to an island confecrated to Hercules, fituate near Onobia, a city of Iberia, "where they offered facrifices, judging the pillars "of Hercules had been fixed at this place; but, no good omen appearing, they again returned home being fent out a third time with a fleet, they landed in the ifland of Gades, and there "built a temple at the east end of the island, and .66 a city at the weft."

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Nothing can be more evident, either that the Tyrians did not find themselves fufficiently strong in the two first expeditions to force a fettlement amongft our Feinoice, or that it was fo long after the pillars had been erected, that the memory of them had escaped tradition. But what had the discovery of the very spot where the pillars ftood, to do with the gold and filver of Spain, which they undoubtedly were feeking? It muft therefore have been for want of fufficient force that made them return a fecond time. And when they had made good their fettlement at Gades, we find a king of the Turditani, bold enough to contend with them for the command of the Straights by fea. A king of Spain equips a fleet to engage the Tyrians, the fuppofed firft navigators of the world: the fact is related by Macrobius in his Saturnalia, lib. 1. c. 20. "Theron, king of the Mediterranean fide of "Spain, intending to plunder and destroy the "temple

temple of Gades, failed thither with a powerful "fleet, which the Phænicians (i. e. Tyrians) op"pofed with their long fhips, and having difputed "the victory for a long time with equal fuccefs, (æquo marte) Theron's fleet, ftruck with a pa"nic terror turned off on a fudden, and was con"fumed by a fire from heaven. Some few of "the mariners who escaped the fire, being taken

up by the Phænicians (Tyrians) declared, that "their panic proceeded from their having feen "terrible lions ftanding on the prow cf the fhip, "and that fuddenly the (Spanish or) Iberian fhips "were confumed by fiery rays like thofe of the "fun." These facts related, no doubt, originally by the Tyrians, is a convincing proof that they were not the firft navigators to Spain; and it needs no comment to prove, that if the Iberians were able to equip a fleet to engage the navy of Tyre, they were able to fend an invading fleet to Great Britain and Ireland, prior to the Tyrian fettlement at Gades. Befides, it was of the utmost. importance to Theron to clear the feas to the weftward of these troublesome neighbours, for, by having a port at Gades, they intercepted his communication to the Caffiterides. Now, as we hear of no more disturbances of this kind after Theron's defeat, it is certain, the two powers entered into an alliance, and on this account, probably, the Iherians thewed the Tyrians the way to the Caffi

terides.

There is a strong fimilarity in Irish history to this account of Theron's defeat; it is in the reign of Dathy, whom the Irifh hiftorians place as low down as Anno Domini 438. They make him the laft of the Pagan kings:-it runs thus, Dathi, G 2 i. e. Fea

ASHMOLEAN

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MUSEUM

i. e. Fearadac a ced ainm. Ocus in tan ro gabh righ n'Eirinn, do coidh is in domhan fair na heorba go Helpa. Ro bhoi tra fear firen anucht tfleibhe Helpa in tan fin. 1. Menia a ainm : boi tor daingin dithoghal ag fear Menia, &c. &c. Ar tainig Saignon-teineadh do nimh chuige ann fin gur rus marbh in righ ann, i. e. Dathi, whose real name was Fearadac; when he was king of

-Iberia) pof עבר אי or אחרון Ireland (i. e. Eirin

feffed to the west of the west to Helpa or Calpe. A
certain king, called Menia, was then building a
ftrong tower in the bofom of Helpa-the story
goes on to inform us that Dathi befieged the
place, and was ftruck dead by lightning. Helpa
has been mistaken by fome Irish writers for the
Alps; the place here fignified was certainly Alpi
or Chalpe, i. e. the Ship-hill; its original name
was Briarius, corrupted from Bari-ros, in Irish,
the promontory of the fhip. Thus Ros-barcon, the
little promontory of the fhip, in the river Barrow,
navigable from thence for fhips to the fea. Thus
also what the Scythians first named Cadas, Caras,
Long or Arthrach, that is the Ship Island, Gadis;
the Tyrians named 5 Alpi, i. e. a ship.
fhip. La
Erythia antigua la que oy fe llama ifla del leon:
En veneracion de efta Heroina, y de Hercules, les
Phenice llamaron Alpha, fays the learned D. Xa-
vier, in his hiftory of Spain, fpeaking of Europa
carried off by a bull, for Alpha fignifies a bull and
a fhip; he afterwards proves that the fhip was
named the bull.

On the oppofite fhore was Abila, corrupted from Bolo (Bax) or Bologh, a fhip, and these formed the two pillars of our Hercules. The Spaniards now call Abila by the name of Ximia,

which fignifies an Ape, and we call it Apes-hill; Ximia is a corruption of y Siim, the plural of Si, a fhip.

It is very remarkable that the ancient Irish speaking of Spain, always express it by Iar-Eorpa, that is, the Weft of the Weft, or Weft of Europe. The Arabs and the Prophets do the fame, as we shall shew in a fubfequent chapter. This expreffion of the Irish, fhews plainly, when these names were given to Spain, their ancestors were feated to the eastward of it, and gives great room to think the affertion we have made of their blending the ancient history of their ancestors, when feated in the East, with the hiftory of Ireland, is well founded. One, out of many examples, I fhall quote of their great navigator Ugan-mor, from the annals of the four masters: Anno mundi 4606. Iar mbeith 40 bliadhann comblar d'Ugoine mor na righ Eireann agur iartha Eorba go hiomlan go muir Toirrian, do rochar la Badhbhcadh, i. e. after Ugon the great had been king of Eireann (tranflated Ireland) 40 years, and all the west of the west compleatly to the Tyrrhene fea, he was killed by Badhbhcadh. Thefe paffages evidently mark the transaction to have happened when they were feated in Sicily or fome of the islands of the Mediterranean eastward of Spain, and not when finally fettled in Ireland.

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