The

them with their formidable legions. It is said that the General Marius destroyed from 200,000 to 300,000 of them; for though the half-armed Celts could do great mischief by their sudden attacks, they could not stand against fully-armed and well-trained soldiers in an open battle-field. It is probable that after this terrible destruction, many risked their lives by sea to get well out of the reach of such an enemy, and ventured from the French coast out of sight of land, till they were driven on the shores of Britain. Celts were never fond of the sea. In this they were totally unlike the second, or Gothic and Teutonic, race, of whom the Saxons were a branch. The Saxons delighted in the sea, and their love of it led them to improve their vessels by degrees, till they became fit for long voyages. The vessels of the Celts, called by the Romans coracles, were frames of wood, over which the hides of animals were stretched. Such are still used by their descendants on the river Wye, in Wales. The mountains of Wales became a place of

C

retreat for these people when the AngloSaxons proved too strong for them. There they kept in remembrance their ancient history in the form of songs, some of which are preserved among them to this day. The history was a mixture of truth and falsehood.

We have another account of the Celts besides that which is given in their own exaggerated rhymes. The Romans, who had killed so many of them in Europe, followed them to Britain, after they had been settled long enough in it to call it their own home; and they have left some short written accounts of these early Britons, which are much more authentic than the Welsh traditions.

Discoverers in our own day, who find out new countries, usually choose to name them themselves rather than to adopt the name the natives may have given them. The Romans called these islands Prydain, or Britain, perhaps from the name of some chief they found here.

Julius Cæsar, a Roman emperor, landed in Britain fifty-five years before the birth of

our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Romans were never weary of enlarging their own empire. The discipline of their men, their armour, and their knowledge of the art of war, were all far beyond that of the Nomadic tribes. They despised the tribes, and called them barbarians. The "barbarians,” however, had great bravery, and hated the idea of being held in subjection by any civilized nation.

Julius Cæsar's visit was with a view to conquest. It is said that they had been visited before he came, by the industrious ancient nation called Phoenicians, whose own country was to the north of Palestine, and who carried on their trade by fetching the productions of many lands to their own shores. They found out that the useful metal called tin was to be found in the Scilly Islands, and there they settled a colony of their own people. They may have done the same in other southern parts of Britain; and, as they came peaceably, no doubt the Celts learnt from them how to make some

improvement in their houses, furniture, and clothing. The Carthaginians, another civilized nation, who followed the footsteps of the Phoenicians, and often dispossessed them of settlements which they had first occupied, are also said to have come to Britain-and some travelling Greeks visited it as wellbefore Cæsar's time.

When he came, and landed with a small number of soldiers, the Britons, being very numerous, might have destroyed him and his army, had they been a united people. But they were unhappily divided: one chief was at war with another, and their time was taken up in fighting out their own quarrels. They had some weapons of war, and used chariots which had scythes fixed to the axletrees of the wheels. When they drove these furiously among their enemies, they wounded them in a deadly manner. But they were destitute not only of armour, but almost of clothing. They stained their skins with a blue dye, called woad, with a view, it is said, of appearing more terrible in the eye of their

enemies; and they also marked their skin in patterns, either cut or punctured, by way of ornament. In this they resembled the New Zealanders and other savage tribes.

Perhaps the British were looked upon by the Romans with very much the same feelings we had towards the New Zealanders, when they were first discovered.

How little they could think that after their own mighty empire had crumbled away, the people of these distant and (as they found them) savage islands, should rise to the rank of a civilized nation, with possessions and power, such as are now under the rule of our Queen! It is God who "putteth down one and setteth up another."

The Ancient British yielded just as much as they were compelled to do to the Romans under Julius Cæsar, and no more. But a small portion of the south of Britain was conquered during his lifetime. Other armies under successive emperors, whose generals were well skilled in war, at length completed the conquest, as you will hear in the next chapter.