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1§2 THE HISTORYmakes its public appearance in the world.return to theBut Iantient writers who mention the remotestBrittish ilands, of whom Pytheas of Massilia,a Greec colony in Gaule (now Marseilles) isthe very first on record. He liv'd in the time ofAlexander the Great, and publish'd his geographicalwork, or rather his voyages, intitul'd the Tourof the Earth^, before his contemporary Timeuswrote, or Dicearchus, or Eratosthenes, or Polybius,who follow'd each other, and who insomethings disagree. This Pytheas, and also oneEuthymenes, were sent by the senate of Marseillesto make discoveries, the former to the north,the latter to the south. Euthymenes, sailingalong the coast of Africa, past the line;and Pytheas,landing in Britain and Ireland, as well ason the German coast and in Scandinavia, sail'dbeyond Iceland. Both the one and the othermade such discoveries, as long past for fables:but time, by means of our modern navigation, hasdone both of 'em justice.Pytheas, on his part,was terribly decry'd by Strabo, who without ceremonycalls him a most lying fclloiv'\; tho' he'ssince found, and now known by every body, to bemuch more in the right than himself. Nothingis more exact, than what he has related,or thatis related after him, of the temperature of the Brit-» FK? TTEpioJo?. Scholiast, in ApoUonii Argonautica, lib. 4. advers. 761.t Uvhaq avlf ^iv^fg-arog 6^nT«c«». Lib, J . p, 110,