The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

THE BRITONS ASSERTED, i^t
of the Channel ; in confequence of the Belgic in-
vafion of Britain, and about the year 350 before
the Chriflian ^ra. And this, the firft colony
that came into Ireland, was fucceeded by ano-
ther, which was as litde deduced from the nor-
thern Britons or the hills of Caledonia, and came
equally from the fliores of the fouthern fea, in
confequence of the advances of the Belgas into
the interiors of Britain, and about the year 100
before Chrift '.
1 have alfo fliewn from the f^mie authorities,
that Ireland, for two centuries and a half after-
wards, was continually recruited with frefh fwarms
from Britain ; as the populoufnefs of this ifland
and the vicinity of that, invited them to fettle
in the one, or as the bloody and fuccefEve wars
in Britain, during this period, naturally induced
them to relinquifli the other. The third and
fourth colonies that fettled in Ireland, as I have
obferved in the Hiflory of Manchefler, were in
all probability derived from Galloway and Can-
tire. As the Epidii and Damnii of thofe coun-
tries lay the neareft of any Britons to the ifle of
Ireland, they muft therefore be fuppofed, after'
the extraordinary embarkations of their fouthern
brethren, to have been the firll of all the Bri-
tons that made fettleraents within it. And the
* See Hiftory of Manchefler, p. 432—435.
L 4
name