6. Tin, also, must have been in common use in the time of Moses; for it is mentioned without any observation as one of the common metals.[56] And from the way in which it is spoken of by Isaiah and Ezekiel, it is obvious that it was considered as of far inferior value to silver and gold. Now tin, though the ores of it where it does occur are usually abundant, is rather a scarce metal: that is to say, there are but few spots on the face of the earth where it is known to exist. Cornwall, Spain, in the mountains of Gallicia, and the mountains which separate Saxony and Bohemia, are the only countries in Europe where tin occurs abundantly. The last of these localities has not been known for five centuries. It was from Spain and from Britain that the ancients were supplied with tin; for no mines of tin exist, or have ever been known to exist, in Africa or Asia, except in the East Indies. The Phœnicians were the first nation which carried on a great trade by sea. There is evidence that at a very early period they traded with Spain and with Britain, and that from these countries they drew their supplies of tin. It was doubtless the Phœnicians that supplied the Egyptians with this metal. They had imbibed strongly a spirit of monopoly; and to secure the whole trade of tin they carefully concealed the source from which they drew that metal. Hence, doubtless, the reason why the Grecian geographers, who derived their information from the Phœnicians, represented the Insulæ Cassiterides, or tin islands, as a set of islands lying off the north coast of Spain. We know that in fact the Scilly islands, in these early ages, yielded tin, though doubtless the great supply was drawn from the neighbouring province of Cornwall. It was probably from these islands that the Greek name for _tin_ was derived (κασσιτερος). Even Pliny informs us, that in his time tin was obtained from the Cassiterides, and from Lusitania and Gallicia. It occurs, he says, in grains in alluvial soil, from which it is obtained by washing. It is in black grains, the metallic nature of which is only recognisable by the great weight. This is a pretty accurate description of _stream tin_, which we know formerly constituted the only ore of that metal wrought in Cornwall. He says that the ore occurs also along with grains of gold; that it is separated from the soil by washing along with the grains of gold, and afterwards smelted separately. [56] Numbers xxxi. 22. Pliny gives no particulars about the mode of reducing the ore of tin to the metallic state; nor is it at all likely that he was acquainted with the process. The Latin term for tin was _plumbum album_. _Stannum_ is also used by Pliny; but it is impossible to understand the account which he gives of it. There is, he says, an ore consisting of lead, united to silver. When this ore is smelted, the first metal that flows out is _stannum_. What flows next is _silver_. What remains in the furnace is _galena_. This being smelted, yields _lead_.