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

152 THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
name of Damnii, for a tribe on the oppofite
lliores of Ireland and Britain, gives a great ad-
ditional weight to the fuppofition. Thefe mi^
grations were mod probably occafioned by the
mere populoufnefs of the latter, crouded as It
now began to be with inhabitants, and by the
mere proximity of the former, plain as it ap-
peared to the eye from the fhores of Cantire and
Galloway. But the fucceeding were occa-
fioned by the w..rs of the Britons among themfelves,
and of the Romans againft them all. And
I have endeavoured, and with no little fuccefs, I
think, to trace back every new colony to its ori-
ginal diftrifi: in Britain, and to refer their paiTage
into Ireland to the very commotion that fent them
thither. The illand appears to have been plant-
ed with colonies from the whole range of our
weflern coafl. The Belgze of Dorfetiliire and
Cornwall at one end, the Britons of Caledonia
at the other, and almoft every nation betwixt
them, all contributed to the population of Ire-
land, And the whole circuit of the country was
compleatly peopled about 150 years after Chrill.
tome hiilorical notices, that have never been
made ufe of before, have lent the general light
that has directed me in this difcovery. The oc-
currence of the fame names of tribes and towns,
in both iflands, has led me on. One or two
intimations and fome hiftorical faifls, in the Poems
g
0^