rough mere cowardice distrusted a
strength not yet worn down, and a fortune sufficiently prosperous. But
as it was taken by general counsel and consent, we must believe that the
necessity of such a step was felt, though the event was dubious. The
event, indeed, might be dubious: in a state radically weak, every
measure vigorous enough for its protection must endanger its existence.

There is an unquestioned tradition among the Northern nations of Europe,
importing that all that part of the world had suffered a great and
general revolution by a migration from Asiatic Tartary of a people whom
they call Asers. These everywhere expelled or subdued the ancient
inhabitants of the Celtic and Cimbric original. The leader of this
Asiatic army was called Odin or Wodin: first their general, afterwards
their tutelar deity. The time of this great change is lost in the
imperfection of traditionary history, and the attempts to supply it by
fable. It is, however, certain, that the Saxon nation believed
themselves the descendants of those conquerors: and they had as good a
title to that descent as any other of the Northern tribes; for they used
the same language which then was and is still spoken, with small
variation of the dialects, in all the countries which extend from the
polar circle to the Danube. This people most probably derived their
name, as well as their origin, from, the Sacae, a nation of the Asiatic
Scythia. At the time of which we write they had seated themselves in the
Cimbric Chersonesus, or Jutland, in the countries of Holstein and
Sleswick, and thence extended along the Elbe and Weser to the coast of
the German Ocean, as far as the mouths of the Rhine. In that tract they
lived in a sort of loose military commonwealth of the ordinary German
model, under several leaders, the most eminent of whom was Hengist,
descended from Odin, the great conductor of the Asiatic colonies. It was
to this chief that the Britons applied themselves. They invited him by a
promise of ample pay for his troops, a large share of their common
plunder, and the Isle of Thanet for a settlement.

The army which came over under Hengist did not exceed fifteen hundred
men. The opinion which the Britons had entertained of the Saxon prowess
was well founded; for they had the principal share in a decisive victory
which was obtained over the Picts soon after their arrival, a victory
which forever freed the Britons from all terror of the Picts and Scots,