page 98, fays: “in the days of Hercules, or the Egyp"tian conqueror of Spain, a great drought is reported to "have burnt up a great part of the ground." The filids fing, that "the conqueft of Spain, together with a great drought, which happened at the fame time, forced the "Iberian Scots to fly into Ireland." This arid state of the air, which affected the greatest part of Europe and Afia, at that time, gave occafion to the fable of Phaeton's having burnt up the earth, by his arrogantat tempt to conduct the chariot of the fun. Newton has it," that the "Hercules or Hero of Spain, is reported to be the son of "Belus." The bards fay, "Milea Efpaine, or Hero of "Spain, was the fon of Bileus;" and it appears fo upon the genealogical table of Milefius, of which more hereafter.

If we were to take the trouble of going on further in these comparative inquiries, we should be able to fill a confiderable volume, with fuch agreements, in ancient history, with the bards and antiquaries of Ireland. They are an abfolute key, in many pieces of ancient times, to unlock and lay open the dark receffes of antiquity; and it is a moft remarkable thing, that they have agreed punctually with the Mofaic accounts, whenever there was occafion to mention what he treated of; though, as I have fhewn in another place, they were begun fo long before Mofes was born; and carried on, through all the migrations of the Gomerians and Magogians, to their fettling in these kingdoms; and continued to the time of their first acquiefcing to an English king, with the greatest regularity.

CAN

CAN any hiftorical facts be better authenticated, than by this reciprocal agreement between thofe bards and our great Newton, &c.? Several critical authors have been too apt to treat those records with contempt, either from their ignorance of the language in which they were written, or from the hiftories being dreffed in the fublimity of poetry, with many decorations; the facts recorded, however, will ever stand the teft, upon the ftrictest enquiry, let the allufions, and other embellishments blended with them, be never fo many, which perhaps were fome of the caufes of their being accounted intirely fabulous, by fome indifcreet: writers.

"

"THIS coincidence of times and parentage (fays the au"thor of Differtations on the Ancient History of Ireland, "from whom I have taken this view) within the fame pe"riod of time, is extreamly remarkable: from this hero, "whom the Egyptians called Hercules; the old Britons, "Hector, and the Scuits, or Scots, Milea, the ancient Irish took the honorary title of Clan Milea, (the fons of "Milea (Miletius) in allufion to which, Nennius calls "them appofitely enough, Clan Hector; noviflime venit "Clan Hector (a partibus Hifpaniæ ad Hiberniam) et ibi "habitavit cum omni gente fua ufque hodie. Hector, “in the Scotic, fignifies literally, a hero; and that it fig"nified the fame in the Phrygian we cannot doubt, as "that was originally a dialect of the Pelafgian."

THUS we see that all thofe exploits, faid, by Sir Ifaac,. to have been performed by Nil, Sihor, Ofihor, Ogmius, Toth, Belus, Dionyfius and Orus, the bards have ascribed to Niul, Sru, Afru, Ogaman, Tait, Bile, Don, &c. Thefe

are.

are reported, by the bards, to have been great travellers, spreading fame and conquests in many places, and were profeffed inftructors of mankind, wherever they went ; that they were famous in Egypt, and great heroes; were learned in arts and sciences, and were therefore revered and held in high esteem by those nations to which they went. Such an agreement of the events and names of heroes tallying fo exactly with every circumftance, in both accounts, muft befpeak the utmost credit. The circumftance of the great drought in Spain; the report of Sefoftris having planted a colony of Gethulians, who were, according to Saluft, the natives of part of Africa, in Spain, after his conquest of Lybia; and many other matters of like nature, most happily falls in with the tradi ́tions of the bards, who say in one place, that the Gethuli, and in another, the mighty Gathelas, came into Spain; and that, in procefs of time, the people who, as I have made it appear before, were Magogians, or Scythians, notwithstanding that Gathelas, or Gadelas, was born in Egypt, were driven thence into Ireland, and carried with them their learning; for they had the use of letters from Phenius; and none but Scythians, or Magogians, were the original inhabitants of Ireland after the flood, nor of England, but Gomerians.

I NOW must endeavour to inform my readers who these feveral heroes were that are juft mentioned, in a more particular account of them; in which I flatter myself it will fully appear, that the names mentioned were of feveral perfons refpectively; that they were famous in war as well as in learning; and that they took the most proper me

thods

thods to improve mankind, fpreading knowledge, acquiring and teaching the different languages with that difinterefted public fpirit, that one would think nothing but a divine affiftance could have promoted. And this can no where be found, but in the records of the filids, or bards, we have mentioned; and as we fee them coinciding with Sir Ifaac, and many others, in these matters of fact, so exactly, furely we cannot but give them a due attention in their further accounts of the very perfons, to whom the Greeks themselves, as well as more modern authors, have paid so much regard. And it must be very agreeable to the lovers of history, to find fo many noble ftrokes of the ancient hiftory of Spain confirmed by this agreement of the learned of Europe with our bards; who were in much more esteem with Camden and bishop Usher, than the Roman historians, in matters of remote antiquity.

Of the genealogy of Gallamh, or Milefius.

I HAVE fhewn before, in this work, that the records of Ireland are not, in the least instance, different in their accounts from those of Mofes, concerning the descendants from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to the placing of his three fons in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mofes, after having settled the iffue of the three brothers, leaves them, where the prophets find their posterity in future times, and pursues only the line of Shem. Sanchoniatho too, however obfcurely, is found to have traced the line from Adam, and confines himself to take the part of the impious generations of Ham: and the iffue of Japhet, е

through

through Magog, is expressly treated of by these bards and hiftorians that were conftantly employed for that purpose in the families of both Gomer and Magog, whofe general routs and migrations I have enlarged upon before.

Now it cannot be denied, that, while Noah's fons and grandfons dwelt about him, they all knew their descent and genealogies, and other affairs of their ancestors beforethe flood: and it is very natural to believe, that when they were obliged, from their increase, to file off and establifh nations of their own, refpectively, in the quarters to which Noah ordered them to go, they then had only their: own particular hiftory of fucceffions to record and hand down to posterity.

THUS it was that the Magogians, or Scythians, proceeded to employ their bards, in their northwestern migrations, and their incurfions fouthwards at certain times, till their arrival and establishment in Ireland, which was not brought to pass at once, but by the various invafions that happened from time to time, by colonies of the fame line always, except once by a colony from Africa, as mentioned in another place; who obtruded themselves upon Ireland, and well nigh overthrew the then fyftem of government.

THESE bards, or hiftorians, then begin their genealogy from Magog, as it is recorded in the Pfalter of Cafhel; indeed it may be faid from Lamech, the father of Noah ; but it is from Magog the Scythian kings and heroes are derived by them. The table is in a future chapter of this work; but fome particulars relating to the transactions and fortunes of fome of them are what I fhall now proceed upon.

THE