Names.—Extent.— Boundaries.— Original P o ^ü la ïim .^P ro g f^éê GeógrapPy.^-.
7H fforiciiï Efiöth/ 'arid Antiqatti^si - '
T H O U G H Spain' appear to have been k nown to" th e Phmnicftms,
Vnear io o o years before the birth o f G h rift,‘and th e ir Tarfiffi to
have been the Uttle tfle o f Ta rteffu s,. ^ it'
to h a v e h e e n tuftioled to ,ihe G re ek s in ïhe; n ine' o f Herodotus. It is
probable th a t th e whole co u n try was , Tarfi (h o f the
H eb rews, though the ^ m p l H u e t f f i jjilf f it ijjfc Bptieaj,,
fbuthern p a rt o f S p a in ; which .region was, ^ s t is ..^ e lljfknQwii, the
Mexico o f the Phoenicians, who from. I t imported large q u a n titik |:g £
filver. W h en the Greeks eftablifhed a colony at MarTeilles, th ey muff
n o t long after have difcovered th e n o rth e rn p a rt o f this fertile region ;,
which from th e noble river Iberus, or Ebiro, th e y called Ib e ria ; and
from its extreme fituation in the weft it was alfo ftyled Hefperia. T h e
Romans, probably from a native term, have' fixed and handed down
H ifpania-, which has been varioufly adapted to the idiom o f modern
languages.
Spain lies between the 36th and 4 4 th degrees o f .north la titu d e ; and
its weftern extremity is about 9 0. in longitude W . from London. T h e
greateft le n g th W . to E . is about 600 m ile s ; the breadth N. to" S. more
than 5 0 0 ; th u s forming almoft a compact fquare, (if we include
‘Portugal