The Britons had long remained in a rude and independent state, when Cæsar, having overrun all Gaul by his victories, first cast his eye on this island, and being ambitious of carrying his arms into a new world then mostly unknown, he took advantage of a short interval in his continental wars, and made an invasion in Britain fifty-five years before the birth of Christ. In his first expedition the Kentish Britons immediately opposed him, and compelled him to fight in the vicinity of Dover, combating even amongst the waves with singular courage; and, although Cæsar, observing his troops to be dispirited by the attacks of the enemy, ordered up his vessels with his artillery, and poured from their sides stones, arrows, and missiles; yet the natives sustained these unusual discharges with unshaken intrepidity, and the invaders made no impression until the standard bearer of the 10th legion rushed forward, exclaiming, “Follow me, unless you mean to betray your standard to your enemies.” Upon which the Roman legions were incited to that desperate and close battle, which at length forced back the Britons and secured a landing. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood then sent a message of peace, but four days afterwards a tempest dispersing the enemy’s fleet they attacked the Romans afresh. Cæsar’s invasion in the ensuing summer was more formidable: it was made with five well appointed legions, and two thousand cavalry, amounting in the whole to thirty thousand of the best disciplined troops then known, and under the ablest commanders. Terrified at the menacing approach of such a force, the inhabitants retired among the hills, and Cæsar having effected a landing without opposition, and chosen a proper place for the security of his fleet, (supposed to be where the town of Deal, in Kent, now stands), hastened on to the scene of conflict, and found the Britons had assembled in great numbers from all parts, who continued an unequal contest with the Roman legions for several days, but were at length utterly routed, and great numbers of them slain, nor did the Britons ever after this engage the Romans with their united forces. Cæsar then led his army to the river Thames, towards the territories of Cassivellaunus, the principal leader of the defeated Britons, on the submission of whom, and having imposed an annual tribute on the vanquished, and received the hostages which he demanded, marched back to the sea shore, and shortly after took his final leave of Britain. The civil wars which ensued, and which ended in the establishment of an absolute monarchy at Rome, saved the Britons from that yoke which was about to be imposed on them, the conquerors having little force to spare for the preservation of distant conquests; the Britons were therefore left to themselves, and for nearly a century after the invasion of Cæsar, enjoyed unmolested their own civil and religious institutions. In the interval between the first and second invasion of