WUXIAM Aim MABY.

137

was more completely out of the pale of civilisation thanKenmare. Between Petty’s settlement and the nearestEnglishhabitation the journey by land was of two days through a wildand dangerous country. Yet the place prospered. Forty twohouses were erected. The population amounted to a hundredand eighty. The land round the town was well cultivated. Thecattle were numerous. Two small barks were employed infishing and trading along the coast. The supply of herrings,pilchards, mackerel, and salmon was plentiful, and w'ould havebeen still more plentiful, had not the beach been, in the finestpart of the year, covered by multitudes of seals, which preyedon the fish of the bay. Yet the seal was not an un-welcomevisitor: his fur w r as valuable; and his oil supplied light throughthe long nights of winter. An attempt was made with greatsuccess to set up iron works., It was not yet the practice toemploy coal for the purpose of smelting; and the manufacturersof Kent and Sussex had much difficulty in procuring timber ata reasonable price. The neighbourhood of Kenmare was thenrichly wooded; and Petty found it a gainful speculation to sendore thither. The lovers of the picturesque still regret thewoods of oak and arbutus which were cut down to feed hisfurnaces. Another scheme had occurred to his active andintelligent mind. Some of the neighbouring islands aboundedwith variegated marble, red and white, purple and green.Petty well knew at -what cost the ancient Romans had decoratedtheir baths and temples with manycoloured columns hewn fromLaconian and African quarries; and he seems to have indulgedthe hope that the rocks of his wild domain in Kerry mightfurnish embellishments to the mansions of Saint James’sSquare, and to the choir of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.*

From the first, the settlers had found that they must beprepared to exercise the right of selfdefence to an extent which* Smith’s Ancient and Modern State of Kerry.

CHAP.

XII.

1689 .