What manner of people did first inhabite this our country, which hath
most generallie and of longest continuance béene knowne among all
nations by the name of Britaine as yet is not certeinly knowne;
neither can it be decided fr[=o] whence the first inhabitants there of
came, by reason of such diuersitie in iudgements as haue risen amongst
[Sidenote: The originall of nations for the most part vncerteine.]
the learned in this behalfe. But sith the originall in maner of all
nations is doubtfull, and euen the same for the more part fabulous
(that alwaies excepted which we find in the holie scriptures) I wish
not any man to leane to that which shall be here set downe as to an
infallible truth, sith I doo but onlie shew other mens conjectures,
grounded neuerthelesse vpon likelie reasons, concerning that matter
whereof there is now left but little other certeintie, or rather none
at all.
[Sidenote: Whither Britaine were an Iland at the first.]
[Sidenote: _Geog. com. lib._]
[Sidenote: No Ilands at the first, as some coniecture.]
To fetch therefore the matter from the farthest, and so to stretch it
forward, it séemeth by the report of Dominicus Marius Niger that in
the beginning, when God framed the world, and diuided the waters apart
from the earth, this Ile was then a parcell of the continent, and
ioined without any separation of sea to the maine land. But this
opinion (as all other the like vncerteinties) I leaue to be discussed
of by the learned: howbeit for the first inhabitation of this Ile with
people, I haue thought good to set downe in part, what may be gathered
out of such writers as haue touched that matter, and may séeme to giue
some light vnto the knowledge thereof.
[Sidenote: In the first part of the acts of the English votaries.]
[Sidenote: Britaine inhabitied before the floud.]
[Sidenote: _Genesis_ 6.]
[Sidenote: _Berosus ant. lib._ 1.]
First therefore Iohn Bale our countrieman, who in his time greatlie
trauelled in the search of such antiquities, dooth probablie
coniecture, that this land was inhabited and replenished with people
long before the floud, at that time in the which the generation of
mankind (as Moses writeth) began to multiplie vpon the vniuersall face
of the earth: and therfore it followeth, that as well this land was
inhabited with people long before the daies of Noah, as any the other
countries and parts of the world beside. But when they had once
forsaken the ordinances appointed them by God, and betaken them to new
waies inuented of themselues, such loosenesse of life ensued euerie
where, as brought vpon them the great deluge and vniuersall floud, in
the which perished as well the inhabitants of these quarters, as the
residue of the race of mankind, generallie dispersed in euerie other
part of the whole world, onelie Noah & his familie excepted, who by
the prouidence and pleasure of almightie God was preserued from the
rage of those waters, to recontinue and repaire the new generation of
man of vpon earth.
[Sidenote: NOAH.]
[Sidenote: _In comment. super_ 4. _lib._]
[Sidenote: _Berosus de antiquit. lib._ 1.]
[Sidenote: _Annius vt suor._]
After the flood (as Annius de Viterbo recordeth) and reason also
enforceth, Noah was the onlie monarch of all the world, and as the
same Annius gathereth by the account of Moses in the 100. yeare after
the flood, Noah diuided the earth among his thrée sonnes; assigning to
the possession of his eldest sonne all that portion of land which now
is knowne by the name of Asia; to his second sonne Cham, he appointed
all that part of the world which now is called Affrica: and to his
third sonne Iaphet was allotted all Europa, with all the Iles therto
belonging, wherin among other was conteined this our Ile of Britaine,
with the other Iles thereto perteining.
[Sidenote: IAPHET AND HIS SONNES.]
[Sidenote: _Johannes Bodinus ad fac. hist. cogn._]
[Sidenote: _Franciscus Tarapha._]
IAPHET the third son of Noah, of some called Iapetus, and of others,
Atlas Maurus (because he departed this life in Mauritania) was the
first (as Bodinus affirmeth by the authoritie and consent of the
Hebrue, Gréeke & Latine writers) that peopled the countries of Europe,
which afterward he diuided among his sonnes: of whom Tuball (as
Tarapha affirmeth) obteined the kingdome of Spaine. Gomer had dominion
ouer the Italians, and (as Berosus and diuers other authors agrée)
Samothes was the founder of Celtica, which conteined in it (as Bale
witnesseth) a great part of Europe, but speciallie those countries
which now are called by the names of Gallia and Britannia.
[Sidenote: Britaine inhabited shortlie after the floud.]
Thus was this Iland inhabited and peopled within 200 yéeres after the
floud by the children of Iaphet the sonne of Noah: & this is not onlie
prooued by Annius, writing vpon Berosus, but also confirmed by Moses
in the scripture, where he writeth, that of the offspring of Iaphet,
the Iles of the Gentiles (wherof Britain is one) were sorted into
regions in the time of Phaleg the sonne of Hiber, who was borne at the
[Sidenote: _Theophilus episcop. Antioch. ad Anfol lib._ 2.]
[Sidenote: The words of Theophilus a doctor of the church, who liued
an. Dom. 160.]
time of the diuision of languages. Herevpon Theophilus hath these
words: "Cúm priscis temporibus pauci forent homines in Arabia &
Chaldaea, post linguarum diuisionem aucti & multiplicati paulatim
sunt: hinc quidam abierunt versus orientem, quidam concessere ad
partes maioris continentis, alij porrò profecti sunt ad septentrionem
sedes quaesituri, nec priùs desierunt terram vbiq; occupare, quàm
etiam Britannos in Arctois climatibus accesserint, &c." _That is_;
"When at the first there were not manie men in Arabia and Chaldaea, it
came to passe, that after the diuision of toongs, they began somewhat
better to increase and multiplie, by which occasion some of them went
toward the east, and some toward the parts of the great maine land:
diuers of them went also northwards to seeke them dwelling places,
neither staid they to replenish the earth as they went, till they came
vnto the Iles of Britaine, lieng vnder the north pole." Thus far
Theophilus.
These things considered, Gildas the Britaine had great reason to
thinke, that this countrie had bene inhabited from the beginning. And
Polydor Virgil was with no lesse consideration hereby induced to
confesse, that the Ile of Britaine had receiued inhabitants foorthwith
after the floud.
* * * * *
_Of Samothes, Magus, Sarron, Druis, and Bardus, fiue kings succeeding
each other in regiment ouer the Celts and Samotheans, and how manie
hundred yeeres the Celts inhabited this Iland._