The MSS. differ so much that it is impossible to give a correct quotation, and the reader is referred to any of the recent additions of Nennius. The settlement of the Dam Hoctor, or company of eight, was probably that in Gwyned or North Wales, which he afterwards states was driven out by Cuneda, as was the settlement in ‘regione Dimetorum’ or S. Wales. That by Istoreth in Dalmeta or Dalrieta was the same as that described by Bede. The Irish translator, in transferring the first to Ireland, and in connecting the latter with the Picts, is probably making alterations at his own hand; but is right in identifying the settlers of Builc in Eubonia with the Firbolg who fled to the isles of Man, Arran, and others. Footnote 135: Bede, _Hist. Ec._ B. i. c. 1. Footnote 136: _Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 18. Footnote 137: Feargus mor mac Earca cum gente Dalriada partem Britanniæ tenuit et ibi mortuus est.—_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 66. Footnote 138: The tripartite life of St. Patrick contains an account of the conversion of Erc and his people by St. Patrick.—_Ib._ p. 17. Footnote 139: The tale told by the Irish historians is this:—Conare, son of Mogalama, chief of a tribe of Munster Scots called the Degada, became king of Ireland, and reigned eight years, from 158 to 165. He had three sons: Cairbre Musc, from whom descend all the septs of the Muscraidhe in Munster; Cairbre Baschaein, from whom descend the Baiscnidh of Corco Baiscinn in Munster; and Cairbre Riada, who established himself with his sept in Ulster, and whose possessions there were termed Dalriada. He is said to have passed over to Argyll and settled the Scots there, and is the Reuda of Bede. Pinkerton adopts this story, and dates their earliest colony in 258. He identifies it with the Attacotti, which he absurdly explains to mean—Hither Scots, and in this Mr. Burton seems disposed to follow him; but this part of his argument is based entirely upon the spurious Richard of Cirencester. Chalmers, with more judgment, rejects it, and in fact there is no authority for it in the Irish Annals. The Scotch Chronicles are opposed to it. The oldest which gives the Dalriadic history expressly says of Fergus, son of Erc, ‘ipse fuit _primus_ qui de semine Chonare suscepit regnum Alban.’ The Albanic Duan knows of no earlier colony than that under the sons of Erc. Flann Mainistrech and Tighernac know nothing of it, nor do the Irish additions made to Nennius. Gildas, too, knows nothing of it. It is to be found in Nennius and Bede alone, and the Irish translator neutralises Nennius’s statement of a settlement of Scots in Dalrieta under Istoreth, son of Istorinus, by converting it into a settlement of Picts, while he removes the colony of Dam Hoctor, or the company of eight, from Britannia to Erin. The only Irish authority which at all points to an earlier settlement is the curious legend contained in Cormac’s