"And is not Madoc by the whelming wave Slain? How I sorrow for the helpful friend! Even in battle was he free from hate, Yet not in vain grasp'd he the warrior's spear." There is a Welsh triad entitled "The Three Losses by Disappearance." The first loss was that of Gavran, the son of Aeddan Vradog, a chieftain of distinguished celebrity of the latter part of the fifth century. He went on an expedition to discover some islands which are known by the name of Gwerddonan Llion, or the Green Islands of the Ocean. He was never heard of afterwards, and the situation of these islands became lost to the Welsh. The second loss was that of Merddin, who was the Bard of Emrys Wledig, or the Ambrosius of Saxon history, by whose command Stonehenge was erected. Merddin is held as one of the three Christian Bards of Wales,--Merddin Wyllt and Taliesin being the other two. This Merddin, with twelve Bards, went to sea, and they were heard of no more. The third loss of this remarkable triad was Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd, who, with three hundred men, went to sea in ten ships, and it is not known whither they went. About 1440 A.D., Meredydd ab Rhys, having obtained the loan of a fishing-net by a poem, sent a second poem with it when he returned it, and wrote thus: "Let Ivan, of a generous stock, Hunt, like his father, on the land; In good time, on the waters, I, By liberal aid, will hunter be. Madoc the brave, of aspect fair, Owain of Gwynedd's offspring true, Would have no land,--man of my soul!-- Nor any wealth, except the seas. Madoc am I, who, through my life, By sea will seek my wonted prey." Madoc was a navigator, and made the sea his home. No doubt can be entertained on that point. In the above quotation the poet likens himself to Madoc as the true type of a sailor. It has been said that the Welsh Bards were historians. They were retained in families of importance to record the actions of their ancestors and those of the Bards themselves in odes and songs. While they may have employed a poetic license in their construction, the facts themselves were not lost out of sight. So far as can be known, it appears that these odes were written prior to any definite notion of a Western world, known subsequently as the American Continent. Madoc's voyages might not have been very familiar to many except the Welsh, and they were ignorant whither he went. One thing, however, is absolutely certain, that this tradition having existed for centuries could not have been invented, as some have suspected, to support the English against the Spanish claims of prior discovery. A period of three hundred and twenty-two years intervened between that of Madoc and that of Columbus. CHAPTER IV. SUPPORTED BY WELSH AND OTHER HISTORIANS.