Patrick's "Confession").
St. Fiacc suggests, Probus asserts, and Professor Bury admits that St.
Patrick, after his captivity, fled to Gaul, and not to Great Britain.
Gaul, therefore, and not the Island of Britain, was St. Patrick's
native land.
If either Northern or Southern Britain were St. Patrick's native
country, it seems incredible that the-Saint should be required to
travel a distance of 200 Roman miles, from the North-East to the West
of Ireland, in order to embark for Britain, when Lough Larne is but 30
nautical miles from Scotland,, and not more than 15 miles from Mount
Slemish, and while Belfast and Strangford Loughs were within easy
distance of the place of his captivity, and more suitable for
embarkation than any seaport in the West of Ireland if North Britain
were his destination.
A voyage from the west coast of Ireland to the Clyde would take the
Saint a very unnecessary journey of 200 miles by land to the port of
embarkation, and from thence an equally unnecessary voyage by sea, from
the west around the northern coast of Ireland, past North Antrim--the
county from which he started,--in order to reach Dumbarton, Kilpatrick,
or Hamilton on the Clyde.
There are some indications which suggest that St.
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