*

_Who inhabited this Iland before the comming of Brute: of Noah & his
three sonnes, among whom the whole earth was diuided: and to which of
their portions this Ile of Britaine befell._

THE FIRST CHAPTER.

What manner of people did first inhabite this our country, which hath
most generallie and of longest continuance beene knowne among all nations
by the name of Britaine as yet is not certeinly knowne; neither can it be
decided fr[=o] whence the first inhabitants there of came, by reason of
such diuersitie in iudgements as haue risen amongst the learned in this
[Sidenote: The originall of nations for the most part vncerteine.]
behalfe. But sith the originall in maner of all nations is doubtfull, and
euen the same for the more part fabulous (that alwaies excepted which we
find in the holie scriptures) I wish not any man to leane to that which
shall be here set downe as to an infallible truth, sith I doo but onlie
shew other mens conjectures, grounded neuerthelesse vpon likelie reasons,
concerning that matter whereof there is now left but little other
certeintie, or rather none at all.

[Sidenote: Whither Britaine were an Iland at the first.
_Geog. com. lib._
No Ilands at the first, as some coniecture.]
To fetch therefore the matter from the farthest, and so to stretch it
forward, it seemeth by the report of Dominicus Marius Niger that in the
beginning, when God framed the world, and diuided the waters apart from
the earth, this Ile was then a parcell of the continent, and ioined
without any separation of sea to the maine land. But this opinion (as all
other the like vncerteinties) I leaue to be discussed of by the learned:
howbeit for the first inhabitation of this Ile with people, I haue
thought good to set downe in part, what may be gathered out of such
writers as haue touched that matter, and may seeme to giue some light
vnto the knowledge thereof.

[Sidenote: In the first part of the acts of the English votaries.
Britaine inhabitied before the floud.
_Genesis 6_.
_Berosus ant. lib._ 1.]
First therefore Iohn Bale our countrieman, who in his time greatlie
trauelled in the search of such antiquities, dooth probablie coniecture,
that this land was inhabited and replenished with people long before the
floud, at that time in the which the generation of mankind (as Moses
writeth) began to multiplie vpon the vniuersall face of the earth: and
therfore it followeth, that as well this land was inhabited with