Page:The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon.djvu/46

 migrating from thence to Britain, added a third nation there to the Britons and the Picts; for the part which remained still speak the same language, and are called Navarrese. There is a broad gulf of the sea which formerly divided the nation of the Picts from the Britons. It runs from the west deep into the country, where stands, to the present day, a strongly-fortified city called Alcluith, on the north side of which the Scots, of whom we have already spoken, fixed their settlement.

Julius Caesar was the first of the Romans who invaded Britain, sixty years before the incarnation of our Lord, and in the year 693 after the building of Rome. He was joined in his consulship with Lucius Bibulus, and, having subjugated the Germans and Gauls, who were then parted by the river Rhine, he came into the country of the Morini, from which is the shortest passage to Britain. Here he caused eighty ships of burthen and light galleys to be equipped, and transported his legions into Britain. Things did not at first turn out according to his expectation; for, when disembarking, he had to encounter an attack from the Britions much severer than he had expected, and, finding his force outnumbered by a foe whom he had greatly underrated, he was compelled to re-embark his troops. On his return to Gaul he was met with a violent storm, in which he lost a considerable part of his fleet, great numbers of his soldiers, and almost all his horses. Exasperated at his ill success, having established his legions in winter quarters, he caused six hundred ships of both sorts to be fitted out [ B.C. 54], and early in the spring sailed again for Britain with his whole force. But, while he marched his army against the enemy, his fleet lying at anchor was assailed by a furious tempest, which either dashed the ships against each other, or drove them on shore as wrecks. Forty of the ships were lost; the rest were after some time, and with great difficulty, repaired. The consummate general, therefore, seeing all hopes of retreat cut off, the more urgently