in the methods of extracting Metal from other Minerals, muft have directed them in what manner to purge our Metal from its native drofs. The richness of the Mineral, and its natural eafy fluxility in the fire, foon confirmed their conjectures; and the beautiful colour, and innocent properties of the Metal, no doubt rendered it as valuable in their eftimation as Silver and Gold; until, by great abundance, which renders all things cheap, it funk in the scale of comparative excellence with those Metals. Tin, in its Mineral state, being totally unknown to all other countries but our own, affords ample reason to affert, that we fupplied all the markets of Europe and Afia with that commodity in early ages. Accordingly, we read of Tin in Judah fo long back as the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; (Ifa. i. 25.) and alfo in the writings of Homer, who flourished 907 years before Christ : "In hiffing flames, huge Silver bars are roll'd, Pope's Hom. Iliad, L. 18. From hence we would infer, that all Tin produced in the primitive ages of the poft-diluvian world, was from ftream or Thode; perhaps many ages before deep Mining was at all known. We have authority to fay, from Mr. Carew, and a M. S. of Serjeant Maynard, which we have seen, that the working of Lodes was unknown to our ancestors in the firft ten centuries after the incarnation; fo that we may reasonably conclude, our Lode or Mine works are not of 700 years standing. It has been hitherto an object of enquiry, from whence our Tin was shipped in the time of the Phenicians fome say, from the Caffiterides or Scilly Islands; Bolerium, or the Land's-End; others fay, from St. Michael's Mount; and others, from Oftium Kenionis Valubia, or Falmouth. The ignorance of true geography and navigation in the times of Timæus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Polybius, and all the ancient hiftorians and geographers, was fo great, and their descriptions fo obfcure and contradictory, that it may ever remain a matter of conjecture and controverfy, whence our Tin was exported for Phenicia Phenicia or Rome, by the records they have left behind them. It seems probable, that they included the promontory of Bolerium among the Caffiterides, and denominated all the fouthwestern coaft of Cornwall as part of them; which being the firft land difcovered by the navigators of those days, gave one general appellation to the whole. The vestigia of any Tin Lodes, Mines, or workings, in the iflands of Scilly, are infufficient to convince us, that they only gave this beautiful Metal to the world: the remains of any fuch workings are fcarcely difcernible; for there is but one place, that exhibits even an imperfect appearance of a Mine; and fo neceffary an appendage to. a Mine as an adit to unwater the workings, is not to be feen in all the islands. If, in thofe days, the Metal was produced from stream or shode ftones only, we must undoubtedly have difcovered, in latter times, thofe Lodes or veins from whence they were difmembered by the deluge. They must have been wrought for Tin fince the earlier ages; and fome remains of fuch Lodes would now be visible on the fea coaft or cliffs, if many fuch had ever been: we are, therefore, ftrongly induced to believe, that the Mineral Ore of Tin was anciently procured within the four weftern hundreds of Cornwall, and there fmelted into white Tin, by charcoal fires, as the want of a proper bitumen in thofe days, and the entire demolition of all the woods near the Tin Mines, very plainly evince. Befides, unless we make great allowances indeed for encroachments of the ocean fince thofe early ages, the islands of Scilly are merely in their present state a cluster of barren rocks, the principal of them measuring but three miles long and two wide. Whence fhould all this Tin arife? Likewife the ftate of lation then could not admit of emigrations from the infular continent for digging, raising, and fmelting a Metal, which the mother island produced in fuch vaft profusion from her own bowels. popu Without partiality to any particular opinion, we must own the harbour of Falmouth feems to us the most commodious, both for natives and foreigners, to have carried on the business for exportation of this grand monopoly, which supplied all the Mediterranean markets and we are not fingular in this thought, but are very plaufibly fupported by a learned collator of our own country, in whofe MS. we find an ingenious etymology etymology and topographical agreement in relation to the matter before us. (Hals). "This harbour of Falmouth has been famous over Europe and Afia ever fince the island was first known, though but darkly diftinguished by the Greeks and Romans under feveral appellations; for inftance, by one (in Greek) The Mouth of the Dunmonii Ifland: for neither Greeks nor Romans knew whether this province of the Dunmonii was an island of itself, or part of the infular continent of Britain, till the time of the Roman emperor Domitian, when he circumnavigated the whole ifland with his fleet. Befides, it was the cuftom of the Jews and Greeks, to call remote and strange lands, Islands, and the natives, Islanders: to which purpofe we read, Ifaiah lxvi. 19. "Tubal, Javan, and the isles afar off," which were the continent of Greece and Spain." Alfo, Genefis x. 5. and elsewhere, by the name of the ifles are meant the islands, and in general all the provinces of Europe. And it is obfervable, that where the prophet Isaiah foretels the calling of the Gentiles, he makes particular mention of the iflands, (chap. xli. xlii. xlix. li. lx.) which many interpreters have looked upon as a plain intimation, that the Christian religion fhould take deepest root in those parts of the world, which were feparated from the Jews by the fea, and peopled by the pofterity of Japhet, who fettled themselves in the islands of the Gentiles. So that the islands, in the prophetical stile, seem particularly to denote the western parts of the world, the weft being often called the fea in scripture language. But to proceed : "Strabo calls this mouth of the Vale river, Oftium Kenionis, and more properly Valuba, or Valubia; that is, the wall, defence, point, or promontory, of the faid Vale, now St. Anthony's Point; or Val-Ubii, from the colony of the Ubii, a people of Belgia, who planted themfelves on the Vale river before Cæfar's days. (From which Ubii, might come Cornubi-enfis.) Further, Diodorus Siculus tells us, that all Tin was fetched out of Britain: as it is in fome authors, after the Greek verfion, from Nñdos Inta, Ki Oxтa (Nefos Ikta, Ki Octa) which feems to fay in British, first, the Good Lake, or Haven Ifland, and the fecond (what we now call Bud-Ok) a Bay of Oak Island; and, indeed, the memory of fuch Ike feems yet preserved in the prefent names of Car-ike road, the chief part of Falmouth harbour, from whence, to this day, the major part of our Tin is still exported; and Arwynike, and Bud-ike lands, by which the faid harbour is bounded. Now, this word Ike, I am informed, is derived from the fame Japhetical origin as the Greek xo, (Eko) venio, to come, arrive at, or enter into a place; and, therefore, as aforefaid, in Cornish British, it means not only a haven of the sea for traffick, but a place where a river of water hath its current into the fea; from whence, perhaps, the Latins had their Ictus, to fignify the course of a river. And from this etymology we may the better understand the words of Diodorus Siculus, from the Greek rendered into Latin, thus: “Britanni, qui juxta Valerium Promontorium, incolunt, mer"catoribus, qui eò Stanni gratia navigant, humaniores reliquis erga hofpites habentur. Hi ex terrâ faxofâ, cujus venas "fequuti, effodiunt ftannum ; quod, per ignem eductum, in quandam infulam ferunt Britannicorum juxta, quam Ictam "vocant." "The Inland which he calls Ictam or Icta, adjoining thus with Britain, is certainly that which is now called the Black Rock Island in Car-ike road aforefaid; which, as he faid, was then an island at flood or full fea, though at low water paffable from the main land. There is alfo a Cornifh MS. of the Creation of the World, a Play, brought into Oxford in 1450, and which is ftill extant in the Bodleian library there; which will at the fame time serve to evince, that the now Black Rock of Falmouth was in old time the Ifland, the Ikta of Diodorus Siculus, from which Tin was tranfported into Gallia : a few words of it therefore here follow faithfully transcribed, with their tranflation: they being spoken as by Solomon, rewarding the builders of the universe (a very great abfurdity in the poet) page 151; which was then, perhaps, a true defcription thereof: "Banneth an tas wor why; "Hag goad Penrin entien Bleffing of the Father on you; And the wood of Penrynentirely, charter. Leland 募 Leland the elder, in his Itinerary, tells us, that this river was encompaffed about with the loftieft woods, oaks, and timber trees, that this kingdom afforded, temp. Hen. VII, and was therefore, by the Britons, called Caffi-tir, and Caffi-ter ; that is to fay, Woodland. From which place and haven, the Greeks fetching Tin, called it and the Ifland, fo often here mentioned, in their language, Cafliteros. In further praise of which famous port, may the reader accept the following lines : In the calm fouth Valubia's harbour stands, Fetching from hence, furs, hides, pure corn, and Tin, Hals's Paroch. Hift. We may, hence, conclude it very probable, that this part of Great Britain, was the firft reforted to by the most ancient maritime powers in Europe and Afia, on account of its valuable, beautiful, and precious Metal; and therefore gave a name to the whole island, which, with fome little variation, it retains to this day, and proves the antiquity, locality,* and fuperiority of our product, and its universal supply for the use of mankind. Such an abundance of Copper Ore, which the Mines produce at this time in Cornwall, is a clear evidence of the fertility of our county in that Metal, preferable perhaps to all the rest of England for quantity, quality, and employment. Former times might have been equally celebrated for our production of this Metal with that of Tin, had its proximity to the surface been fo great: but this rich and ufeful Metal is placed by divine appointment more remote from the reach of human induftry; and fo deeply concreted in the bowels of the earth, as to elude the fearch of man, without the help of mechanicks and philosophy : Tin is a Metal become very neceflary in common life, and yet in fome meafure the rareft of all others. There are but few Tin Mines in Germany; nay, in refpect of other Metals, few in Europe. All in Germany, as far as I know, are thofe in Mifniá, Bohemia, and Carinthia ; and formerly in Fitchelberg at Wonfiedel. Whole kingdoms, as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, &c. have no fuch Mines, but are fupplied with Tin from England. Auth. Preface to Henckell's Pyritologia. no |