History of the Reed family in Europe and America

16
of ships and merchandise, with silver and gold, precious
stones, &c.
The people generally were very ignorant of the country ;
and the popular opinion was that the limits of the world in
this direction were what were called the Pillars of Hercules
(now Gibraltar) and a mountain on the opposite side of
the straits. This place was supposed to be the gates, or
entrance, to the infernal regions, or dominions of Pluto ;
but, to the Phoenician or Milesian merchants, tins belief was
known to be ignorant superstition. The Tyrians had esta-
blished a colony a little beyond the gates, to which they gave
the name of Gades (now Cadiz), where they traded, and ex-
tended their commerce through the colonists to the natives
of Spain. This place became a rendezvous for their ship-
ping in sailing and trading along the coast ; and while the
other inhabitants of Asia, Europe, and Africa, knew com-
paratively nothing of that section, the Phoenicians and
Milesians had become fully acquainted with the coast of
Ireland.
About five hundred years before the Christian era, the
Athenians having burned the city of Sardis, — the capital
of Lydia, one of the provinces of the Persian Empire, — the
Persians became enraged, and began to invade the Grecian
States contiguous to them with an immense army. The
city of Miletus was next in importance to that of Tyre, and
was one of the twelve cities which constituted the confede-
racy of Ionia, — one of the Grecian States. A company of
merchants from Miletus, Erythras, and other confederate
cities of Ionia, rather than suffer the evils of a Persian inva-
sion, fled with their shipping, effects, and retainers. They
visited the friendly colonies along their route, and made
headquarters at Gacles ; and, from that place, an expedition
was fitted out against Ireland, which they conquered, and
divided into two kingdoms. The capital of one they called