Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/118

ex PREFACE. temporarily invaded the country. Flann Mainis- treach gives the date of this settlement thus : — ^he says that forty-three years had elapsed from the coming of St. Patrick to the battle of Ocha, and twenty years from that battle to the arrival of the sons of Ere in Britain. Taking the date of 432 as that of the coming of St. Patrick, and adding sixty- three years, will give us the year 495 as the date of the colony. Tighernac has under 501 the fol- lowing : — " Feargus mor mac Earca cum gente " Dalriada partem Britannias tenuit et ibi mor- tuus est ; " but while this passage states the fact of a colony, the date obviously refers to the death of Fergus. Almost all the chronicles agree that he reigned three years, and this makes the date of the colony 498. We may therefore assume that it took place only two or three years before the commencement of the sixth century. Tigh- ernac terms the next three kings, Righ Alhan, or kings of Albania. He has under 505 the death of Domangart ^acm?,?,, Righ Alban. Under 538 he has the death of Comgall, son of Domangart, Righ Alhan, in the thirty -fifth year of his reign. Under 560 he has the death of Gabran, son of Doman- gart, Righ A Ihan. Under the same year, he has " Flight of the Alhanich before Bruide, son of " Maelcon, king of the Cruithne ;" and after this, he changes the designation of the king from that of Righ Alhan to Righ Dalriada. It is obdous that the event referred to as the flight of the Alban- ich before Bruide, son of ]Iaelcon, was a defeat of