ALL this story of Javan, or Jaon, which has the best authority to fupport it, as. Holy Writ, Jofephus, Aristophanes, Schol. Epiphanius, and many others, has been moft bafely perverted by the latter Greeks, who mingled with it their fabulous accounts; making Jon the son of Xutus, grandfon of Helenus the founder, and running on till they have entered upon mere fiction: but this is well confuted, by confidering that the people of Attica and Peloponefus were called Jonians, feveral centuries before the time of this supposed Jon, who was said to be a barbarous prince; and this perhaps was the fentiment of Herodotus, as quoted by Pezron, who obferves that the Athenians, and their brethren that lived in the colonies of Afia afterwards, abhorred to be called Jonians, being a name which they detefted; because they would not have it be thought that they came from Jon, the great grandfon of Deucalion; and by reason of the cowardice of the Afiatic Jonians, faid to be sprung from him. Thus was the Jonian or Gomerian language first founded in Greece, the ifles of Elisha, and afterwards called Pelafgian, of which fome mention fhall be made when we come to fpeak of the progrefs of that language.

very

WE fhall not say much of the defcendants of Magog, till we come to quit the Gomerians; because they produced different fets of people, and migrated very different ways, notwithstanding feveral authors have absolutely confounded them all under the name of Gomerians, or Celts; and it feems highly probable, that if those writers had but confulted Holy Writ, they would have seen them settled, near two thousand years after the flood,

in.

in

very different fituations, as I have quoted it from the prophet Ezekiel already; but they have chiefly relied

upon the Greeks, who were ever fond of the invention or mutilation of facts, as they were ignorant of their own origin, and of great prejudices to other nations. Indeed it cannot be denied that many colonies of the Gomerians, in process of time, fell in with others of the Magogians, or Scythians, in various countries, in the midway between the Northern and Southern parts of Europe, making together one people whenever this happened; which might, indeed, be one cause of some authors being confused in their accounts; but notwithstanding all the rencounters that could happen through many ages, yet the great and principal numbers of the Gomerians went on, and spread themselves, unmixed, to the utmost Western and Southern boundaries of Europe; as did the Scythians to the Northern and North-western bounds of the fame; where they remain distinguished from other people, and from one another, to this day: that is, that the Magogians, or Scythians, had driven before them, through all the North-western parts, fome weaker colonies of themselves into Ireland and Scotland, as well as to other Northern iflands, which was their ne plus ultra, and which were the Aborigines of these islands; and that the Gomerians, afterwards called Celts and Gallata, by the Greeks, and Galli or Galls, by the Latins, spread themselves all over the South-western parts of Europe, giving the first rife to Greeks, Latins, Franks, Bifcayans, and arriving in the Southern parts of Britain, by sea from the ifles of Elifba, about the fame time (or foon after the British

iflands

islands were inhabited by their relations, the Magogians or Scythians), and long before their brethren, the Gauls or Celts, came into any part of France or Spain.

THERE are two ftrong reasons for this affertion: the first is, that trade began to flourish very early after the difperfion in Shinar; all over Affyria, the isles of Elisha, (afterwards called Greece) Egypt, and, in short, every neighbouring part; and as they had very foon built fhips for tranfporting their merchandize from place to place, fo they soon improved in their navigation; for it must be granted, that the ark was a very good pattern for their imitation, and it was built under the directions of Noah, before the faces of his three fons, who were about one hundred years old each when the deluge came upon the earth. It need not, therefore, be a strained conjecture, to suppose that ship-building was brought into use as soon as neceffity required it; and that the numbers of men were increased, and fufficient materials and tools procured. The other reason is, that the migrations of colonies over land into neighbouring countries, as they were naturally gradual, fo they were more tedious; if we confider, that many difficulties obftructed their paffage, as woods, marshes, rivers, and long untrodden spaces of land, and mountains of great extent: whereas, the very first adventurers who failed out of the Mediterranian Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, might either be driven directly to Ireland and Britain, as it is likely fome of them were, and even to America, or might have coafted it round Spain and France, till their arrival at or near the Land's End of Britain, before the fpreading Galls could have driven

their increasing brethren to the moft Western parts of the continent of Europe; and hence it is easy to fee, that not only the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, but also those of the Western parts of Europe, were much fooner inhabited, than many countries of the continent, in the South-west parts especially: because such colonies as were much harraffed by their powerful brethren, would naturally think themselves more fecure in islands than elfewhere, from the oppreffion and tyranny of conquerors, which was often the case in many historical instances.

ANOTHER probable reafon for the later arrival of the Gomerians in the British isles than the Magogians by land, is, that the former paffed through the more fertile and defirable countries, more pleafant as to climate, foil, and every other natural advantage, which would be fome cause of their delay; whereas, those Northern countries, through which the latter paffed, could have not many such inviting causes of delay, nor commerce with ftrangers, and their numerous fwarms would continue to drive one another on over land, as they increased, till fome of them came to their ne plus, as we have mentioned it before. However, it will appear further on, that fome of the earliest colonies of the Magogians, or Scythians, that landed in Ireland, arrived there very early by sea from the Euxine, through the Mediterranean, and from the ifles of Elifba alfo.

THE limits by which we have bounded ourselves in purfuing this inquiry, will not fuffer us to make an extended history of the feats and exploits of the Gomerians, or Scythians, in their several migrations; this is well done already in that useful general hiftory, mentioned before;

we

we have but one point in view, which is their language; and in order to come at a tolerable knowledge of its antiquity, we think it neceffary to trace them, as well as we can, by fuch anecdotes as may beft ferve to fix them where their ultimate remains are at prefent.

AFTER the fons of Gomer were called Galatai, and by corruption Keltai, which, by the Latins, was after changed into Celta, they spread all over Southern and Western Eu rope, as well as to several parts of Asia.

THEY were the Galatians, to whom St. Paul wrote his Epiftles; they were the Umbrians, a corruption of Gomerians; they were the Titans, whose history is very famous; they were the Celtiberians; they were the Galli, which poffeffed Gallia Cifalpina and Tranfalpina; and, in fhort, they occupied all the Mediterranean ifles, Spain, France, Portugal, Southern parts of Germany, and all the countries between Greece and Germany, all Italy, and part of the British ̄isles.

BUT this extenfion of Gomer's defcendants was many ages bringing about; and while this was doing, fome of the earliest of them, as I faid before, came to Britain by fea; where they discovered thefe mines of tin and lead, which the Grecians, their brethren, came over for, and fold, at the fairs of Tyrus, to the Phenicians. Now it seems very probable, that these firft Gomerians who arrived here, were verfed in the business of mining, which the Magogians, they found inhabiting some parts of this island before them, knew nothing of; they were civilized by their intercourfe with trading rich nations, and verfed in the more polite cuftoms of a great variety of people, in that

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