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the test of truth; for they made a point of revifing these works with great care, and correcting them with impartiality.

THE books of greatest authority, with Dr. Keating, are the Pfalter of Tara; the Pfalter of Cafhel; the Book of Conquefts; the Book of Provincialifts, or the Roll of Kings; the Book of Ages; an Account of the People who lived in the fame Age; the Book of Antiquity; the Book of Etymologies; an Account why the Woods, Hills, Rivers and Lakes in the Kingdom were distinguished by the Names they bear; the Pedigrees of Women; befides the White Book, and feveral others which he quotes occafionally in the course of his hiftory. These records, from every confideration, in my opinion, bespeak a particular regard from all lovers of antiquity; being apparently more ancient and authentic than any other, except the Jewish; and the reason why these are fo well preferved, to our times, befides what I have mentioned of the care of the ancient triennial affembliy, is that they were never totally fuppreffed by the tyranny of foreign intruders and invaders; for although the Danes gave them great trouble for many years, yet it was impoffible, among their ravages, to destroy them all; becaufe, from the care taken to have a number of copies made, and the several hands in which they lay, they were fecure from a total destruction, though several may have fallen into the hands of thofe enemies. This is what fcarce any other nation can boaft of, where the fame methods were not made use of for their prefervation; and we do not meet with any accounts of fuch a national plan being followed for record

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ing the history and antiquities of nations; nor fuch care and diligence used for fecuring them from the violence of destroying armies, as that pursued by the monarchs and noblemen of Ireland. Other nations, all over Europe, were frequently over-run by Romans, Gauls, Goths, Saxons, Saracens, Moors, &c. who made it a rule to destroy all the records of the countries they fubdued; but Ireland, after the feveral plantations of colonies, that peopled it, were established and settled in it, was never harrassed by any but the Danes and Norwegians, and they never occupied the inland receffes, to which the antiquaries and bards retired, with the hiftories and records they were obliged, from their office, to take due care of and preserve; and these were totally driven out and destroyed, in some time, by Brian Borembeu, the monarch.

LET us now see what our author fays of the first peopling of Ireland; to which, as it appears ftrongly to me, inhabitants came very early by fea to the Northern parts, and, after feveral ages, from Spain.

It is very remarkable, that the earliest Irish records are as closely conformable to Scripture, in the divifion of the world between the fons of Noah, as they are in other respects, mentioned before; especially if it be confidered, that several of them were wrote long before revealed religion was received in Europe, and others compofed and handed down by the bards many centuries before the birth of CHRIST, and committed to writing in later times. And alfo, that I find not much faid of Gomer and his iffue, in fuch of them as I have feen: but they derive the first inhabitants that came into Ireland, and indeed every other

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colony that afterwards invaded it, from Magog, the father of the Scythians, and have also brought the Milefians originally from Scythia into Spain, and thence, in process of time, into Ireland. I offer this remark here, to fhew the truth of the Northern records concerning the Getes; and that what I have all along infifted on, about the derivation of the inhabitants of Europe, from the two brothers, Gomer and Magog, as chiefs, can admit of no doubt; and hence, that the first inhabitants of Ireland were Scythians, or Magogians, and the first of Britain were Gomerians.

A very ancient Irish poet fays: that Noah, the monarch of the world, divided it in the following manner: to Shem, he gave Afia; to Ham, Africa, and to Japhet, Europe.

"Shem over Afia did the scepter bear,
"Ham govern'd Africa, for heat fevere,
"And Japhet rul'd in Europe's cooler air."

He also names the wives of Noah and his fons; he calls the wife of Noah Cobha, of Shem Olla, of Ham Olvia, and of Japhet Olibana; and further fays, that Shem was the father of twenty-feven fons, from whom came Arphaxed, Afur and Perfuir, and from them defcended the nation of the Hebrews; that Ham had thirty fons, and Japhet fifteen; that Japhet inhabited moft of the Northern countries of Afia, and all Europe; that Magog, one of the fons of Japhet, was the great ancestor of the Scythians, and the several families that invaded the kingdom of Ireland after the flood, before the Milefians made a conqueft of that ifland; this is what, in the course of this treatise, I have made appear before, from Scripture, Herodotus, and other fucceeding authorities.

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An ancient poem, to be found in the Pfalter of Cabel, fays that the first person who landed in Ireland after the deluge, was a meffenger, whofe name was Adhna, the fon of Beatha, fent by Nion, the fon of Pelus, to discover the foil of the country, where he landed; and, at his return, gave an account of the fertility of the land. He made

no stay upon the island, any longer than was neceffary to make a true judgment of the condition of the foil, and other neceffary circumstances, for the information of those that sent him; and this is said to have happened one hundred and forty years after the flood. The words of the antiquary are:

"Adhna, Biotha's fon, we all agree,

"After the flood first tried the Irish sea;

"He prov'd the foil, and from the earth he tore “A handful of rich grass, then left the shore.

Ir appears, notwithstanding this discovery, that Ireland was three hundred years uninhabited after the flood, till Partholanus arrived there with his people, which the poet mentions thus:

"The Western Isle three hundred years lay waste, "Since the wide waves the stubborn world defac'd, "Till Partholanus landed."

Ninus and the Pfalter of Cafhel declare, that this leader was attended by his wife, Dealgnait, and his three fons, Rugbraide, Slainge and Laighline, with their three wives, and a thousand foldiers. Another poet declares, they came from Greece, and landed, upon the 14th of May, at a place called Inbher Sceine, in the Weft of Munfter:

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The fourteenth day of May the Greeks came o'er, "And anchors caft, and landed on the fhore,

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Now I am ftrongly perfuaded, that the colonies that came northward into Ireland, were long before the arrival of these with Partholanus; for if they came from Greece, they must have mixed with the fons of Gomer, because all Greece was firft inhabited by his fons and their offspring, except the defcendants of Togarmah, his youngest, who went to the North-east, as I have mentioned it before.. And, indeed, there are fome authors, among the ancient records, who affert that Partholanus found inhabitants. upon the island, who lived by fishing and fowling along the coafts; and made fome resistance to his landing with his people, but were over-powered and deftroyed. These were, without all doubt, of the Scythian race, and might be a colony from the Getes, who fettled there very early.

Now Keating, from a very ancient record, draws out the genealogy of Partholanus, as defcended from Magog, although he is faid to have come from Greece; which fhews that fome of the iffue of Magog had gone down from the Northern quarters, and mixed among Gomer's fons in fome parts of Greece. He says, that Partholanus was the fon of Seara, the fon of Sru, the son of Eafru, the fon of Framant, the son of Frathochda, the son of Magog, fon of Japhet, son of Noah; which might very well be, because the first settlements of the race of Magog were not remote from the isles of Elisha, or Greece.

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