DANMONII.
THAT Tract, which according
to Geographers is as it were the first of all Britain, reaching out a long way to the West, and contracted by
little and little; is bounded on the North by the Severn-Sea, on the South by the British Ocean, and on
the West by S. George’s Channel. It was formerly inhabited by those Britains, who are called in Solinus
Dunmonii, in Ptolemy Damnonii, or, as they are more correctly term’d in other Copies, Danmonii.
Which name, if it be not deriv’d from the inexhaustible mines of Tinn, found in those parts and call’d by
the Britains Moina, ⌈and so implies as much as a hill of mines, for which it hath been always more
famous, than for any other thing; if, I say, it be not derived from thence, it⌉ probably comes from dwelling under the
mountains. For throughout the whole County, they live low and in valleys, a way of dwelling that the Britains call
Danmunith; in which sense, the very next County is term’d by them Duffneint, i.e. low valleys, at
this day. Ostidamnii. But whether the Ostidamnii, called also Ostæi
Ostaei Pithaeasand Ostiones, and mention’d by Strabo out of Pithæas of
Marseills, be the same with our Danmonii, I would desire the Antiquaries to consider a little more accurately.
For (as they tell us) they were seated in the remotest parts of Europe, upon the Western Ocean,
over-against Spain, not far from the Island Ushant, or Uxantissa. Which circumstances do
exactly agree in every particular, to this Country of the Danmonii. And further, since by Artemidorus
those Ostiones are called Cossini (as Stephanus in his Book of Cities has
hinted,) I would entreat them also to consider, whether instead of CossiniCossini. we
ought not to read Corini; for this Country is also call’d Corini. After the same manner, †
† Quintil. Inst. l.1. c.4.
Liv. l.3. Pag.177.Fusii is read for Furii, Valesii for Valerii, ⌈Vetusius, for
Veturius.⌉ If the Geographers exclude the Ostidamnii and Cossini from this place, it will be
extreme hard to find any other for them upon the Western Ocean. ⌈Pancirollus in his Commentary upon the
Notitia, thinks that the Tribunus Cohortis Cornoviorum should be read Cornubiorum, and so makes
that to be one of the Roman names of this Tract; how truly, let others judge. But by whatever names they were anciently
called,⌉ their Bounds are divided at this day into two parts , Cornwall and Devonshire; of which in
their order.