Now, prior to Caesar's
invasion of this island, and during the wars between the Romans and Gauls,
Caswallwn or Cassivelaunus, sent a numerous body of troops to assist the
Armoricans, or natives of Brittany, against the Romans; Caesar himself,
says, that his project of invading this country arose from the
intelligence he received of the aid the Gauls derived from the Britons;
therefore I consider that the mode, let it be what it would, deserved
somewhat of the name of a fleet, if not in the modern sense of the word.
Caesar says they had large, open vessels, with keels and masts made of
wood, and the other parts covered with hides; and about the year 384,
Cynan Meiriadog, a chieftain of North Wales, sailed to Armorica with a
great body of followers, to support the cause of Maximus, an aspirant to
the Roman throne.
Berkeley, in his _Naval History_, p. 49, says, that at the time of the
Saxon invasion, Gurthefyr or Vortimer, King of the Britons, with a fleet,
opposed the Saxons under Hengist; and after an obstinate engagement, the
Britons were victorious, notwithstanding the inferiority of their vessels
to those of the Saxons, both in number and size.
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