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His knowledge of the west of Europe was very imperfect: in some part he fixes the Cassiterides, from which the Phoenicians derived their tin. The Phoenician colony of Gadez was known to him. His geography extended to the greater part of Poland and European Russia. Such appear to have been its limits with respect to Europe; and such the general notion he entertained of this quarter of the world.
In the first place, it was a time of increased daring and enterprise, in which colonies were planted upon the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and trade extended to the remote south, the more remote north, and the still more remote north-east, to the Fortunate Islands, the Cassiterides, and probably the Baltic.
Our author falls into a mistake in this chapter, supposing the Azores to have been the Cassiterides of the ancients, well known to have been the Scilly islands. The Admiral, being disgusted by the procedure of the King of Portugal, in regard to the proposed Discovery, offers his services to the Court of Spain.
There are large deposits of it in the mines of Cornwall, and it is just possible," here the professor measured his words as if speaking of something that he wouldn't promise, "that the Cassiterides of the Phoenicians contained deposits of the same sulphuret. Indeed, I defy anyone," he continued, for he was piqued in his scientific pride, "to distinguish it from gold without a laboratory-test.
Within twenty or thirty minutes, however, he was back, but in perceptibly better spirits. He worked briskly for a few minutes, then dropped brush in pail and turned to Leonard as if no shadow had crossed their acquaintance. "Well, Madden, we can hardly blame the old Phoenicians for guarding the secret of the Cassiterides, can we?" The American almost fell off the platform in surprise.
Their frail and small vessels, scarcely bigger than modern fishing-smacks, proceeded southwards along the West African coast, as far as the tract watered by the Gambia and Senegal, while northwards they coasted along Spain, braved the heavy seas of the Bay of Biscay, and passing Cape Finisterre, ventured across the mouth of the English Channel to the Cassiterides.
"They have no more regard for the movements of that ball of fire than if it was set in the sky merely to shine and keep them warm, and had no reference whatever to time. If this youth from Albion does not appear soon, I shall set sail without him, prince though he be, and leave him to try his hand at swimming to the Cassiterides.
Before the eagle of the Tenth Legion was planted on the shore of Cantium before the first Phoenician ship stowed tin at the Cassiterides the Celt had inhabited the British Islands long enough to branch into distinct sub-races, and to rise from paloeolithic savagery to the use of metals, the domestication of animals, and the observance of elaborate religious rites.
The primitive and profitable commerce of the Mediterranean was peculiar it was for slaves, mineral products, and articles of manufacture; for, running coincident with parallels of latitude, its agricultural products were not very varied, and the wants of its populations the same. But tin was brought from the Cassiterides, amber from the Baltic, and dyed goods and worked metals from Syria.
The Romans usually called the islands Sillinæ, but Sulpicius Severus used the form Sylinancis, which Sir John Rhys associates with the Silulanus of an inscribed stone at Lydney. Another name was Silura; Richard of Cirencester wrote of the Sygdilles, "also denominated the Oestromenides and Cassiterides"; the Danes spoke of the Syllingar; and in French charts the isles are "les Sorlingues."
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