In 1827 thirty-nine packets left Falmouth; in 1834 six steamers were employed. But in 1850 Falmouth ceased altogether to be a packet station. This was greatly to the detriment of the town. It still remains as a port of call for outward-bound sailing-ships. Further up the river is Penryn, which was a town and a port before Falmouth was thought of. The silting up of the river does not now allow other than small boats and barges to reach it. Letters came down on mail coaches, from London through Exeter, by Launceston to Bodmin, and thence to Truro and Falmouth. The rate appointed for the coaches, including stoppages, was bound to be thirteen miles an hour. The mail spun along night and day, without a halt save for change of horses. The stages on an average were eight miles, and the horses, four-in-hand, went at a gallop. The guard wore the royal livery of scarlet, and always had his blunderbus handy, in case of an attempt by highwaymen to hold up his coach. Charlestown and Polmear in St Austell Bay are only important for the trade in china-clay exported thence; Marazion and Penzance, and St Mary's in Scilly only for the conveyance of flowers to London. But these ports and such as are on the north coast are convenient as mouths through which Welsh coal can be imported to feed the cellars and fires in the peninsula. Pilchards also are exported from these little ports to Italy and Spain; and anciently a considerable trade was carried on between them and France, Spain, and Portugal in wine, and a considerable amount of wine and spirits entered the county through small creeks and coves, into which smugglers conveyed their kegs. The gentry and taverners were kept well supplied with liquor that never paid duty. =19. History.= The original population of Cornwall was probably Iberic, of the same primitive race as the dark-haired population of Ireland, before the island was invaded and subjugated by the Celts. The branch of the Celts in Britain and Cornwall was Brythonic, and there is nothing certain to show that the Goidels were in Cornwall before the Brythons. It is true that some few river names, and again inscriptions are Irish, but these latter pertain to the settlement in Cornwall of Irish expelled from Ossory and Wicklow in the fifth century. Popularly the dark hair and dusky complexions of some of the Cornish is attributed to Spaniards wrecked from the Armada. But no Spanish wreck came on shore in Cornwall. The first loss the Armada sustained was east of Plymouth. On its way back to Spain none of the vessels came near Cornwall. Several were wrecked on the coast of Ireland and their crews massacred to a man by the natives.