Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/421

 3$<J THE HISTORY Book It joining to alt, and St. Mary's and the Eaftern iffes, muft all have compofed this original iftand. And large banks- (HI) extend from St. Martin's nearly to St Mary's and the Eaftern iftes, which are all uncovered at low water and have only a depth of four feet at high. The Hies of Guel and Brehar, now half a mile diftant from the rock of Silley, appear plainly to have been once conne£H ed with it. And Trefcaw, Brehar, St. Martin's, St. Sampfbn's* and their adjoining iflets, were once evidently united together.. Sands extend from Brehar to Trefcaw, and may fbmetimes b+ croffed an foot, Betwixt Trefcaw, Brehar, and St. Sampfon's the flats are laid entirely bare at the reccfs of a fpring-tide, and a dry paflage is opened over the fand-banks from the one ta tha other. In thefe banks* over which the tide rifes ten or twelve feet in depth, hedges and walls of ftone are frequently difctofed to the view by the (Tufting of the fands. And from the general iseniains of ftone-hedges. ftoae- walls, and contiguous, houfes, and from the- number of barrows which are diiperfed over the face of theft iilands, the whole appeals, to. have beea once fully cul- tivated and thoroughly inhabited . This, iflaacl was. peculiarly replenished with mines of tinv tbofngh the prfcfent unburied reriiains of it exhibit no veftiges of the antieat 'works aad'fcarce carry any appearance* of the antlent metal. But in the month of May 1767 a rich vein of till wa^ difcovered in St. Marges* which bore dire£tly .into the 4ea and poihted towards the fluire of Cornwall And the cargo j«vhi th • Midaaritus brought from the ifland^ and the account which.he gave of it and its contiguous ifles* occafioned a regular refort of the Phoenicians to the coafts of Silley. The trade was infinitely advantageous ta the Gate* And- the- track was moll iblicitpufly concerted by the public 9 ; Thus. con.tinjed the trade of Britain for nearly three htm* dred years, being efteemed the- moft beneficial commerce inEu* .rope* ^nd being careftUly fought after, by all the commercial powers in the Mediterranean*". The Greeks of M&rfeillos firft -fallowed tbfi track Qf the Phoenician vojagers^and foth$ time be- fore the days of Polybius and 'ahftut two hundred years before the