A Compendium of the History and Geography of Cornwall ... Third edition, with corrections and large additions, by J. H. Collins

Front matter

A COMPENDIUM OF THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF CORNWALL, BT THE Rev. J. J. DANIELL. THIRD EDITION WITH CORRECTIONS AND LARGE ADDITIONS, BY J. H. COLLINS, F.G.S., F.I.Inst., Honorary Member of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, TRURO : NETHERTON & WORTH, 6 * 7, LEMON STREET. 1894. EFACE TO THIRD EDITION. TN preparing the Third Edition of this little work, I have tried to keep in view the needs of the general reader. Accordingly, while many new topics are here introduced, none of them are treated at length ; in general, however, such references are given as will guide the student to fuller sources of information. The addition of a map shewing the parish boundaries will, I am sure, be recognized as an improvement. The early chapters are almost entirely new, and special prominence has been given to the traditional accounts of the great Cornishman, King Arthur.

The eighth chapter remains pretty nearly as it was left by the Rev. J. Daniell iii the last edition, but the ninth has been entirely re-written by my son, the Rev. W. E. Collins, M.A., of Selwyn College, Cambridge. For the twelfth chapter, and great part of the seven teenth I am indebted to my friend G. F. Tregelles, the genial Secretary of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, and for the thirteenth to the accomplished botanist, Mr. E. D. Marquand of Guernsey. The valuable assistance afforded in the preparation of the second edition by the Rev. Canon Rogers, Rev. W. S. Lach-Szyrma, Messrs. T. Q. Couch, N. Hare, Jun., J. D. Tyerman, and other gentlemen, was acknowledged when that edition appeared, and I now repeat my acknowledgments. J. H. C. London, 18U3. CONTENTS. .Part I. Œcrrntodl as it toas.

Chapter PaS" I. Prehistoric and Legendary . . . 1 II. The Eoman Occupation . - . . • 14 III. Pre-christian Cornwall . . . . .23 IV. The Cornish Pendragons .... 31 V. Arthur's Successors . . . • .46 VI. The Normans and Plantagenets ... 53 VII. The Tudors ...... 66 VIII. The Stuarts ...... 76 IX. Ecclesiastical History ..... 104 .Part H. €orntoall as it is. X. Physical Description ..... 131 XI. Geological Structure ..... 143 XII. The Fauna or Cornwall .... 150 XIII. The Flora of Cornwall . . . . .171 XIV. Parliamentary Bepresentation and County Organization 181 XV. Agriculture, etc. ..... 190 XVI. Mining and the Produce of the Mine . . 202 XVII. Fisheries and Minor Industries . . . 214 XVIII. Social Condition and Characteristics . . 223 XIX. Language, Literature, and Science . . . 235 XX. Antiquities ...... 241 iart HI.

Chapter I

$):c:el!tet»n[ic antr fc^nttrarjr. rpilE name Cornwall is of uncertain origin. The ancient inhabitants, if not the most ancient, were known as Kernyw, and the name still survives in the th7wftm« family of Curnow and the village of Porthcurnow near the Land's End.* The affinities of the people with the Gauls of the opposite coast would naturally lead to the term Kernyw Galli (i.e. the Kernyw Gauls), and from this the later Latin name of Cornu-Gallia would readily arise, and not, as some old writers suppose, " because the country projects like a horn against the coast of France." Cornwallia or Cornwall is very little changed from this, t Later the Romans systematized the name of the people to * This name of Kernyw lends, perhaps, some support to the legend that the people and the country were named from the Trojan chief Corinœus. f The facts that Cornu is a Latin, and Kern a British name for a horn, and Wealon or Welsh wa3 the Saxon name for the British tribes, perhaps suggested the above given fanciful derivation. form Cornabii or Cornubii and the country was called Cornubia.* All British History before the time of Alfred is very meagre, and very much mixed with fable, and Aborigines. this is particularly the case as regards Cornwall owing to the entire absence of contemporary, or even of ancient local records.

This deficiency is no doubt due in part to the wholesale destruction of documents in the many troubles through which the country has passed, and the numerous predatory incursions of fees from without. But, moreover, there is reason to believe that the Cornu-British in early times were far less literary than their relatives in Wales and Ireland, although they certainly took part in the periodical bardic conventions. Thus it is that we can only get a rough idea of the condition and character of the early Cornish people by piecing together such portions of the Welsh, Irish, and Armorican legendary histories and poems, aud of the early classical references, as seem best to form a coherent whole. But earlier even than these histories are the indications we obtain from the ancient tin stream-works, &c, and in Devon, from the limestone caves.

The cave men appear to have been a small race of skilful hunters who used chipped stone, or bone weapons and implements, and who, in other countries at least, possessed in no mean degree artistic tastes and abilities. How long ago they were in sole possession of the West we have no means of knowing, but it must have * According to Sharon Turner (History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. 1), there were three or perhaps four tribes of Cornabii in Britain when the Romans came, viz. in Cornwall, in the midlands, and in the northern part of Scotland (Caledonia); and we find long after in the times of Aurelius Ambrosius and Arthur a very close connexion between Cornwall and Caledonia, been more than four thousand years, and may have been very much more. The men who worked the stream gravels for tin more than three thousand years ago * were skilled not only in mining, but also in smelting, in fishing, and in agriculture.

They may very well have been the same intelligent race, who having learned to grind and polish their rude stone implements into "neolithic" forms, to prepare and smelt the tin, to mix it with copper, and to cast it into the well-known early forms of the bronze non-socketed "celts" were further improved by admixture with that race of Trojan adventurers who, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth,t were led hither by Brute and Corinœus soon after the fall of Troy. The later " socketed " bronze celts were perhaps introduced by them. The first mention of Cornwall in Geoffrey's history is in connexion with this Corinæus, who wrestled with the giant Gog Magog on the Hoe at Plymouth, and ended the contest by throwing him over the cliff into * See Mr. Worth's "Antiquity of Mining in the West of England." + His History is a translation into Latin of one form of the "Brut y Breinnoedd Ynys Pridain " (History of the kings of the Island of Britain), which is believed to have been written in verse from much older records by the famous Welsh Bard Tysilio.

It was translated in the 12th century, by Geoffrey from an Armorican M.S. since lost, and though it contains much obvious fable, it was doubtless translated in good faith, and it seems to contain a thread of historical truth through out, since it is supported in many important particulars by the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch early traditions and histories. Every reader must decide for himself how much or how little of Geoffrey's " History " he will accept, but it must be said that corroboration from independent sources extends to many of its most remarkable, though not its most wonderful statements. The Irish Nennius in particular supports it on several very important points. sea. He was made by Brute (the first), chief or " Earl" of Cornwall.* Gwendoloena, the daughter of Corinæus, married Locrin, son of Brute.

He was the second " King " or overlord of Britain, and on his death Gwendoloena reigned alone for ten years, until her son Maddan was old enough to be crowned. This is said to have been about the time when Samuel governed Israel. The subordinate Princes of Cornwall seem to have played considerable parts in the affairs of the nation from this time. Thus Regan, one of the daughters of Lear the eleventh king, was married to Henuinus, who then con spired to dethrone his father-in-law ; when Cordelia, who had married Aganippus of Gaul, came to his relief and restored him to his kingdom. After the death of Lear, Cordelia ruled the country for five years, after which the son of Regan succeeded as 13th king, reigned thirty-five years, and was succeeded by others of his line, with intervals of civil war until about four and a half centuries B.C. At this time Dunwallo Molmutius (Dyfuwal Molmyd of the Welsh triads), a son of Cloten, Prince of Cornwall, became twentieth king of Britain and reigned forty years.

He established many good laws which were afterwards known as the Molmutines, and it is said they were many centuries afterwards translated into Latin by St. Gildas and into English by king Alfred. This Dunwallo had two sons named Belinus and Brennius who reigned jointly for five years, when after some serious » This story may be accepted without our believing that the giant was twelve cubits high as stated by Geoffrey. Giants always grew bigger after they were dead until printing was invented. This west country giant is represented as two, Gog and Magog, in the mediæval statues which have such prominence — no one knows why — in the Guildhall in London. The names appear also in the Gog Magog hills near Cambridge. quarrels they agreed to divide the kingdom. However, the peaceful division did not last long, and Brennius was at last defeated and driven into Gaul.

After some further struggles the brothers were again reconciled, and a peace being made, they united in the conquest of Gaul, the invasion of Italy, and the famous capture of Rome (390 B.C.)* On his return to Britain, Belinus confirmed his father's laws and added others to them. He also made roads through out the island, from Cornwall to Caithness, and from Menae via to Hamo's Port (Southampton). No further reference to Cornwall now occurs in Geoffrey's " History " until Heli or Beli Mawr, the 65th king of the Britons, who extended his rule or overlordship from Hampshire and Wiltshire across the Parret and Exe, and over the whole kingdom of Dam nonia, which then included all the country westward to the Land's End and the Scilly Isles. This took place about 85 B.C., and, though it is not likely that his rule was felt much beyond the Tamar, yet Beli Mawr must be looked upon as the superior of the Cornish chiefs.

Lud, the son of Beli Mawr, so beautified and strengthened London that one of the gates was thereafter called by his name, and he was buried there. We next hear of Teunantius or Timan, son of Lud, being made Prince of Cornwall by his uncle Cassivelaunos who made himself or was chosen 67th king. This was about the time of Cæsar's invasion. Cassivelaunos was succeeded by his nephew Timan, and he by his famous son Cunobelinus • According to Richard of Cirencester, the Gauls who seized Rome under Brennius were the Senones who, he says, emigrated from Britain to Gaul. There were Senones on the banks of the Seine centuries after this, and their ancestors may have formed part of the army of Brennius. But Richard's statement that the Senones all emigrated from Britain, leaving their county vacant to be occupied by the Belgic Gauls is uncorroborated and improbable.

Cymbeline of Shakspere* who ruled from B.C. 13 to about A.D. 43. His sons Caradoc (Caractacus) and Togid umnus were apparently joint kings in 46 A.D. when Aulus Plautus landed with his invading legions. He was bravely resisted by the Belgic tribes of the south and by the Silures from South Wales, and doubtless there were Damnonian contingents in the allied army although there is no record of their exploits, and they were as usual fortunate in the fact that they fought for the protection of their homes, if not on a foreign yet on an external soil. The after history during the Roman occupation will be dealt with in a future section. Geoffrey's history speaks of the Britons as being essen tially of one race right up to the time of Caesar's invasion, yet there are indications in his work of conflicts arising from successive invasions.

And from other sources The Belgæ. . .... _ we have clear intimations of such, some peaceful, others accompanied by violence. The new comers appear to have been mostly big light-haired men, strong, but far less quick of intellect than the people already in possession. The Welsh triads say there were three peaceful invasions of Britain (i.e. without much fighting, for the inhabitants seem to have retired before the invaders, or, to have submitted to them). The first was of Kymry under Hu Cadarn. and these came from the far south-east; the second of Lloegrwys from Gwasgwn (Gascony) 1 who were also " of the first race of the Kymry," and the third of "Brythons from Llydaw" which is probably the country known afterwards as Armorica, and to which many of the Cornish and Welsh fugitives retired centuries later when hard pressed by the advancing Picts and Scots.

These three peoples of one race were probably the * Cunobelinus obviously means king Belinus, or as Mr. Beale Poste says " Apollo the King." same as the Firbolges of the Irish " Annals of the Four Masters," and as the Belgæ of Cæsar's Commentaries.* It is not likely that these successive invasions of Kymry, Galli, Kaltæ, Celts, or Belgæ were made by large bodies of men. The great bulk of the people were probably still of the "aboriginal " and the " Trojan" (" Iberian" or " Silurian'') races, but the big strangers knew how to fight, and had far better weapons. They also knew how to build hill castles and entrenchments to which they could retire in safety when out-numbered, and from which they could issue from time to time to harry the country around, thus giving rise to some at least of the tales of giants, so rife not only in Cornwall, but also in many other parts of Britain, and especially of Celtic Britain. t The legend of Corinæus and Gog Magog, however, must have had an older truth-source than this.

But gradually the " giants " and the " dwarfs " seem to have coalesced, and notwithstanding the nursery tales of giants in the much later times of King Arthur, it is likely that the Cornish people were pretty nearly what they are now as regards race-characteristics, before the incursions of the Saxons and the Danes. We have several glimpses of the early West Country people in the classical writings. Long before the coming of • The first invasion of Belgæ was about 350 B.C. when they occupied a great part of southern and midland Britain ; the second was about 150 B.C. (the Corauians) who occupied the northern midlands and North Wales, and the third under Diviaticus occupied Hampshire, Wiltshire and the south. This may have been connected with the movement under Beli Mawr already alluded to.

T For many stories of these giants and of their enemies and victims the country people see Hunt's 'Drolls of the West of England.' Belgian Gauls, a colony of Phœnicians from Tyre had settled on the northern shores of Africa, and Phœ^ians founded a city at or near the site afterwards occupied by Carthage. After this, but still in very early times, a body of these colonists, or of Phœnicians direct from the mother city sailed through the straits, past Gibraltar and Ceuta (the " pillars of Hercules ") ; and built the town of Gades or Cadiz on the southern coast of Spain. This was about 1200 B.C.* Thence pushing north ward, probably by land and sea, these enterprising travellers explored the coasts of the countries now known as Portugal, France and Britain. They may have obtained small quantities of tin in all these countries, but it was from Britain especially that this valuable commodity was obtained.

In fact they called the country Bratanac,i which means in their tongue " the land of tin." From its coasts and islands they carried on a brisk traffic for ages before the Christian era, and, as was eloquently said by a distinguished Cornishman of his native county, " her tin was probably a constituent part of the shield and helmet of Achilles, the tabernacle of the Israelites, the purple of Tyre, and the temple of Solomon." J This trade must have been commenced five hundred years at least before the beginning of Grecian history, and still longer before the foundation of Rome.§ * See the " Cassiterides " by Dr. Geo, Smith, pp. 43, 44. \ Bratanac or Bretinik means " the hill tin port," and as St, Michael's Mount was afterwards known as Iktin ( — tin-ik or tin port), by the Romans, it is probable that they merely adopted the already existing commercial name, but applied it to the whole country in the Latinized form of Britannia.

I " On the Mineral productions, &c, of the Parish of St. Just." Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Com. ii, p. 290. § " The Cassiterides," p. 52. It is quite probable that the Phœnicians made permanent settlements in Cornwall, as they certainly did in Ireland,* and that from them many of the inhabitants of the western part of the county are descended. The course of their voyages and the position of the " Tin Islands " were carefully hidden from other nations ; so jealously did they guard this secret, that we are told by Strabo,t who wrote B.C. 44, that in one instance, when closely followed by Roman vessels, a Phœnician trader purposely ran his vessel on a shoal, leading on those who followed him to destruction ; he himself escaped by means of a fragment of his ship, and was after wards recompensed by the state for the loss of his ship and cargo.

At a later period the traffic was conducted overland by Massilia (Marseilles) and Narbo (Narbonne\ which were for several centuries the great seats of the commerce of Western Europe. Herodotus when at Tyre heard of the tin islands or " Cassiterides," but vainly endeavoured to get from the merchants any detailed account of their situation. Himilco, a Carthaginian, made a voyage along these shores, probably about 400 B.C. He speaks of a bay and certain isles rich in tin and lead, apparently referring to the Mount's Bay and the neighbouring country which might easily be mistaken for a group of islands while only observed from the sea. He remarks that his course was much impeded by fields of sea-weed. * " The Irish language, the purest of the Celtic tongues, is the same as the Phœnician, or the language of the Carthaginians which is the same thing," Poste.

Celtic inscriptions, p. 141. " The identification of the Punic or Phœnician speeches in the Pænulus of Plautus (23 lines or more), by Mr. O'Nectan and General Vallancez), with the modern Irish was one of the greatest discoveries of the 18th century," ibid, p. 144. + iii, v, Tin was probably used in fixing the famous "Tyrian Purple," it was also largely employed in the manufacture of bronze, the material used by the ancients for weapons of war, cutting tools, and many other purposes where we now use steel. An interesting relic in the shape of a bronze bull about 2 inches high was discovered at St. Just-in-Penwith in the year 1832. It is considered by many antiquaries to be of Phœnician origin. Thus, Mr. Poole observes " it is precisely what a Phœnician trader would have carried, an idol common, no doubt, to Egypt and Phœnicia."* Mr. John Evans considers that the use of bronze weapons and implements was probably introduced into Britain about 1200 B.C. and this would agree very well with Geoffrey's Trojan story.

But Mr. Evans admits that tin (and probably bronze) was known and worked in Britain long before that date.t Diodorus, the Sicilian, quotes Hecatæus (born 594 B.C.), who speaks of the " island in the ocean over against Gaul, as big as Sicily, where the soil is so very rich and fruitful, and the climate temperate, inasmuch as there are The Greeks, two crops in the year." The island referred to must be Britain, and the only part of Britain so temperate as to yield now two crops in the year, as a regular thing is West Cornwall, in and around the Mount's Bay. As Mr. Pattison has saidi " It is probable that a great * For further remarks on this image, and on Phœnician antiquities generally, see Mr. W. C. Borlase's "Historical sketch of the tin trade in Cornwall," and also some remarks by Mr. C. Fox in the "Report of the Royal Institution of Cornwall," No. 38, pp. 19, 28 (1856). f "Ancient bronze implements" 1881. t Rep.

Roy. lnstit. Corn. App. iii, 1850, p. 40. Mr. Pattison might very safely have said more than two thousand with scarcely less probability. extent of the good arable land of Cornwall has been under the plough for more than a thousand years, and during the greater part of this time has been treated with similar manures," (viz., sea-sand and sea-weed). About 300 B.C. a party of Greeks who had long before emigrated from Phocis and founded the town of Massilia (Marseilles), in the south of Gaul, stimulated by the success of the Phœnicians, sent out an expedition into the Atlantic, and under their Captain Pytheas made the long-desired dis covery of the land of tin, and eagerly pursued the lucrative traffic. They called Cornwall and its islands the Cassiterides (KatrertTepog, tin), and a map of the southern coast of Britain, drawn by one of their geographers is still extant, upon which the chief headlands of Cornwall and Devon are recog nizable.* Like the Phœnicians before them, the Greeks endeavoured to conceal from the Romans the knowledge of the tin-islands, and a party of their sailors when questioned by Scipio, pre tended entire ignorance of their situation or extent.

But the chief traffic between Cornwall and Marseilles was carried on for several centuries overland through Gaul as stated by Diodorus Siculus. The tin was exported in his time from an island called Ictis or Ictin, being brought there in waggons at ebb tide. Some writers have supposed that Ictin was a port in the Scilly Isles, or in a supposed submerged district between the Land's End and Scilly, called Lyonesse ; others have thought it the Black Rock at the mouth of Falmouth Harbour, others again St. Nicholas or Drake's Island in PI3' mouth Sound, some even have supposed it was the Isle of Wight (Vectis) or Thanet, but although all of these places * Prof. Rhys of Oxford considers that the Cassiterides were certain small islands in Vigo Bay, but this seems very fanciful and even unbelievable to a Comishman who is also a tin-miner. may have been used at different times for the export of tin, it is pretty certain that the place really meant was St. Michael's Mount.* Herodotus was unable to get any detailed information respecting the tin country for his history, but Polybius seems to have known something about it, and expressed an intention of writing upon the Cassiterides or Œstrymnian islands, and of the manner of preparing the tin, but if he did so his description has not been preserved.

Diodorus Siculus, who speaks very highly of the hospitable and courteous character of the inhabitants of "Bolerium," as he calls the country, describes the processes of preparing the tin in the following terms, — " we will now give an account of the tin whicli is produced in Britain. For the inhabitants of that extremity of Britain which is called Bolerium, both excel in hospitality, and also, by reason of their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilized in their mode of life. These prepare the tin, working very skilfully the earth that produces it. The ground is rocky, but has in it earthy veins, the produce of which is wrought down and melted and purified. Then, when they have cast it into the form of astragali, they carry it into a certain island adjoining to Britain, and called Ictin.

For during the recess of the tide the intervening space is left dry, and they carry over abundance of tin to this place on their carts. And it is something peculiar that happens to the islands in these parts lying between Europe and Britain, for at the full tide, the intervening passage being overflowed, they appear islands, but when the sea retires a large space is left dry, and they are seen as peninsulas. From hence, then, the traders purchase the tin of the natives and transport it into Gaul, and finally through Gaul on foot; in about 36 * See Dr. Smith's Cassiterides. days they bring their burdens on horses to the mouth of the River Rhone."* On the whole it would seem that though the trade for some centuries was in the hands of the Greeks, they knew very little of the country inland, or of the inhabitants, and have left few evidences of their presence behind them.

Whether the Jews proper, i.e. the descendants of Judah, had a footing in Cornwall in ancient times, and in any con siderable numbers is still to some extent an open question ; it is possible that some of the traces of their sup- The Jews. posed presence may belong to their near neighbours the Phœnicians, or even to Israelites of the " lost tribes," but it is certain that local traditions assert that Jews were here, and concerned in both mining and smelting long before, as well as after, the Christian Era. Ancient tin-smelting hearths, associated with fragments of bronze refining kettles, known as Jew's houses, and ingots of smelted tin called "Jew's tin," have been discovered in many parts of Cornwall, and especially in West Cornwall. It is certain also that many Cornish names, such as Marazion, and Baragwanath, have an Hebrew sound, while others such as Bolerium or Balerium, wliich seem to be compounded of the word Baal, as well as some ancient customs still in vogue may either be of (idolatrous), Jewish, Phœnician, or other Eastern origin, t * Diod.

Sic. v. 22. See a figure and description of a peculiarly formed block of tin agreeing with this description, which whs dredged up in Falmouth Harbour, and is now in tbe Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, by Col. Sir Henry James. Rep. Roy. Inst. Corn. No. 44, p. 29, 1863. + Those interested in the question will find much information in Dr Bannister's communications to the Royal Institution of Cornwall, see especially his paper "Jews in Cornwall," Journ. Vol. 2, 1867. See also a paper read by Mr. Margoliouth to the British Archæological Congress in Cornwall in 1876.

Chapter II

%\t toman tD-crupaftmu A BOUT the close of the first Punic war, or about two centuries before the landing of Julius Cæsar, Publius Lucius Crassus came to Cornwall or to the Scilly Isles (The Cassiterides).* Strabo, in quoting from his report says that the tin was obtained by very shallow mining Early Notices, and that the people being at peace and subsisting by their cattle, and the produce of their mines, were beginning to busy themselves upon the sea. He says, too, that the natives were clad in black tunics reaching to the feet, and girt about the breast, that they walked with staves, and were bearded like goats. The account of Diodorus has already been given, and Pliny says "they carried the tin in boats of wicker-work covered with leather." These must have resembled, in some degree, the coracles still in use on the Severn and on the West Coast of Ireland, but they were probably far larger and better shaped, and even good sea-boats, for Cæsar speaks of their navigation of the "stormy ocean," and Ziphilinus quoting Dion Cassius says " first the hoary osier with its moistened twigs is woven into a small ship, and then covered with the hide of a slain * He speaks of the islands as ten in number, and may have thought the mainland with its deep creeks and inlets to b.e so many islands.

Strabo, iii, quoted by W. C, Borlase in his Tin Trade of Cornwall. bullock ; it supports the navigator upon the swollen stream. Thus the Venetian navigates the stagnant Po, and the Briton the wide-spread ocean."* We are here told nothing of the dwellings of the people, but as the ruins of many still remain, especially near the Land's End, on Carn Brea, on Caradon Moor and on Dartmoor we can form some idea of how they were sheltered from the weather. Many of these were simply circles of great moor stones gathered from the moors around, placed in order and built up with smaller stones into a wall three or four feet high, and then roofed over beehive fashion, with layers of thin stones gradually projecting inwards, or with branches of trees, and finally covered with turves. Others are said to have been artificially constructed underground caves (fogou), such as are described in many places in the Journal of the Royal Insti tution of Cornwall ; while others again were perhaps built of the beaten earthen composition still known to us all as "cob," known, but now fast disappearing.

It is likely, too, that some of the better class of houses may have been built of wood as in Scandinavia at present. The chiefs wore golden " torques " or collars,*1" and the warriors were armed with hatchets or "celts'1 of bronze made from native ores, and their spear heads were of the same alloy. Further particulars of the Britons will be given under the head Druidism in a future chapter. Poste Coins of Cunobeline, p. 7, Addenda. f Two of these golden collars were found in 1863, on the north coast near Padstow. They are beautifully wrought and in excellent preservation and are to be seen with many other interesting relics of the period in the Museum of the Royal Institution at Truro. Others had been previously found which are now in the British Museum. See Journ. Roy. Instit. Corn, ii, p. 134, The Romans were not the people to lose sight of such an important country, and eventually, on the des- First traction of Carthage and the decay of the Grecian Invasion.