Origin of the Milesian dynasty.

23

"About 140 years after the deluge Ireland was discovered by one Adhua, who had been sent from Asia to explore new countries, by a grand-. son of Belus: he plucked some of the luxuriant grass as a specimen of the fertility of the soil, and returned to his master. After that, the island remained unoccupied for 140 years; and about 300 years after the flood, one Partholan, originally a Scythian, and a descendant from Japhet in the sixth generation, sailed from Greece with his family and 1000 soldiers, and took possession of the island. They all died off, and left the island desolate of human beings for the space of 30 years. Afterwards, different sets of emigrant adventurers occupied and peopled the island at different periods. About 1080 years after the deluge, and 1300 years before Christ, Niul, (the son of Phenius, a wise Scythian prince,) who had married a daughter of Pharaoh, inhabited, with his people, a district given to him by his fatherin-law on the Red Sea, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The descendants of that Phineus (more generally called Feniusa Farsa) were afterwards expelled by Pharaoh's successors on account of their ancestors having favoured the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea. They then emigrated and settled in Spain, whence, under the command of Milesius, a colony of them sailed from Brigantia in Galicia to Ireland, gained the ascendancy over the inhabitants, and gave laws and a race of monarchs to the island. The

24

Historical scepticism useful.

Milesian dynasty continued to govern Ireland, without interruption, till about the year 1168, when it ceased in the person of Roger O'Connor, and the sovereignty was assumed by our Henry II. Of this race of kings the first 110 were pagan, the rest Christian. St. Patrick was sent from Rome about the year 431, to preach the Christian religion to the Irish in the reign of Loagaire, the first Christian monarch, who received baptism from the hands of St. Patrick."

The authenticity of the greater part of these traditional events Mr. Plowden labours to establish by reasonings which evince more research than ingenuity; but though he should fail in convincing any one that he is right in his deductions, he will surely succeed in impressing them with a notion that his opinions are entitled to attention. The maxim of Voltaire, that incredulity is the source of wisdom, is peculiarly applicable to historical details, where the less we believe the more we shall certainly know. Lord Bolingbroke, indeed, has pronounced it to be great folly to endeavour to establish universal pyrrhonism in matters of history, because there are few histories without some lies, and none without some mistakes. lordship was a free-thinker, and in him it was consistent to believe what others doubted, because he invariably doubted what others believed. To me there appears more truth in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, who used constantly to maintain that all the colouring of history was false; an opi

His

Anecdote of Sir Walter Raleigh.

25

nion which no man can venture to dispute who reflects but for a moment on the uncertainty of human testimony. Even in the present age, when every facility of communication is to be found in the invention of printing, and the various channels of intelligence which a free and unlimited press provides, how impossible is it to find any two accounts of the same event reconcileable, I will not say in minute and unimportant features, but in the great and leading circumstances. How then can it be supposed that the transactions of successive ages, preserved only in oral traditions delivered down from one generation to another, or if recorded in a less perishable shape, restricted to a narrow compass, and incapable of being contrasted with living witnesses, how can it be supposed that such transactions can have come down to us without such an enormous admixture of fiction as must entirely conceal and vitiate the little portion of truth that may exist in the whole? There is a striking anecdote related of Sir Walter Raleigh, which peculiarly illustrates this subject. While that great man was confined in the Tower he occupied his hours of improvement in composing his History of the World. One morning, when he was deeply engaged in reconciling the contrary accounts of various historians respecting some noted transaction that had occurred in the early ages of the world, he was disturbed by a fray which took place in the court-yard exactly beneath his window. He was not able to see the occur

26

Fabulous records of Irish history.

rence, but he enquired of the first person who entered his room what it was, and received from him a full account of it, for he had witnessed the whole affair. Shortly after, another friend dropped in, and the discourse turning upon the recent disturbance, Sir Walter enquired of him if he had been present, to which he received an answer in the affirmative, followed by an account of it altogether different from the preceding one. The nar rator had scarcely gone, when a third person en tered Sir Walter's room; and having been an eye. witness also, he gave a recital of the business, differing no less from the other two, than they had differed from each other. No sooner was Sir Walter alone than he began to meditate deeply upon this circumstance. "Good God!" he exclaimed, "how is it possible I can pretend to arrive at certainty respecting events which hap. pened 3000 years ago, when I cannot obtain a correct account of what happened under my own window only three hours ago?" The impression was so strong upon his mind, that he immediately threw the nearly finished manuscript of his ancient history into the fire.

My apprehension of the wisdom of this proceeding will be best known by my practice; and in passing over altogether what may certainly be considered as the fabulous eras of Irish history, I feel that I am inflicting no punishment upon the reader. They, however, who may wish to dive deeper into the actions of imaginary beings, and

Historical epochs.

27

to store their minds with the lumber of antiquarian research, ought to be informed how they may gratify such propensities. Such then I refer to Giraldus de Barri or Cambrenfis; to O'Flaherty, who published in 1685 his Ogygia seu rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia, relating chiefly to the ancient history of that country; to Sir Richard Cox, to Dr. Warner, to Dr. Leland, to the Annals of Sir James Ware, to Mr. Archdale's Monasticon, to General Valancey's Collectanea, to Dr. Ledwich, and last, not least, to Mr. Grose. I need not. add, that I mean no insinuation as to the value and importance of the labours of these writers, for they deserve to be highly estimated; but their enquiries, generally speaking, are not such as need find a place in a work like the present. I shall therefore proceed to commence my narration at the period of Henry Plantagenet's invasion of Ireland, presenting first of all to the reader the following useful enumeration of historical epochs from Mr. Pinkerton's Geography.

The first historical epoch of Ireland is its original population by the Celtic Gauls, and the subsequent colonization by the Belgæ.

2. The maritime excursions of the Scoti against the Roman provinces in Britain.

3. The conversion of Ireland to Christianity in the fifth century, which was followed by a singular effect; for while the mass of the people retained all the ferocity of savage manners, the monasteries produced many men of such piety