The discoverer of this valuable metal was said to have been St. Piran, or St. Perran—­as the Roman Catholic Church in Truro was dedicated to St. Piran we agreed to record that as the correct name.  The legend stated that he was an Irish saint who in his own country had been able by his prayers to sustain the Irish kings and their armies for ten days on three cows!  But in spite of his great services to his country, because of his belief in Christ his countrymen condemned him to die, by being thrown over a precipice into the sea, with a millstone hung about his neck.  The day appointed for his execution was very stormy, but a great crowd of “wild Irish” assembled, and St. Piran was thrown over the rocks.  At that very moment the storm ceased and there was a great calm.  They looked over the cliffs to see what had become of him, and to their intense astonishment saw the saint calmly sitting upon the millstone and being carried out to sea.  They watched him until he disappeared from their sight, and all who saw this great miracle were of course immediately converted to Christianity.  St. Piran floated safely across the sea and landed on the coast of Cornwall, not at Truro, but on a sandy beach about ten miles away from that town, the place where he landed being named after him at the present day.  When the natives saw him approaching their coasts, they thought he was sailing on wood, and when they found it was stone they also were converted to Christianity.  St. Piran built an oratory and lived a lonely and godly life, ornamenting his cell with all kinds of crystals and stones gathered from the beach and the rocks, and adorning his altar with the choicest flowers.  On one occasion, when about to prepare a frugal meal, he collected some stones in a circle and made a fire from some fuel close to hand.  Fanned by the wind, the heat was intensified more than usual, with the result that he noticed a stream of beautiful white metal flowing out of the fire.  “Great was the joy of the saint when he perceived that God in His goodness had discovered to him something that would be useful to man.”  Such was the origin of tin smelting in Cornwall.  St. Piran revealed the secret to St. Chiwidden, who, being learned in many sciences, at once recognised the value of the metal.  The news gradually spread to distant lands, and eventually reached Tyre, the ancient city of the Phoenicians, so that their merchants came to Cornwall to buy tin in the days of King Solomon.  The Britons then, fearing an invasion, built castles on their coast, including that on St. Michael’s Mount, while St. Piran became the most popular saint in Cornwall and eventually the patron saint of the miners of tin.  His name was associated with many places besides the sands he landed upon, including several villages, as well as a cross, a chapel, a bay, a well, and a coombe.  But perhaps the strangest of all was St. Piran’s Round, near Perranzabuloe Village.  This, considered one of the most remarkable earthworks in the kingdom, and of remote antiquity, was a remarkable amphitheatre 130 feet in diameter, with traces of seven tiers of seats; it has been used in modern times for the performance of miracle-plays.