E-text prepared by Robert J. Hall from the library of Joseph S. Colello Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original Hebrew letters and words. See 14032-h.htm or 14032-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/3/14032/14032-h/14032-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/3/14032/14032-h.zip) The original document contained a number of errors in spelling and punctuation, which the transcriber preserved. At the end of the book is a list of errata which have not been corrected in this transcription. The only revision has been to convert the long-s characters with an 's', where they occur. AN ENQUIRY INTO THE TRUTH OF THE TRADITION, CONCERNING THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, BY PRINCE MADOG AB OWEN GWYNEDD, ABOUT THE YEAR, 1170. by JOHN WILLIAMS, L. L. D. LONDON M. DCC XCI Hic, ubi nunc Roma est orbis caput, arbor et herbae, Et paucae pecudes, et casa rara fuit. Ov. Fast. L. 5. v. 93. PREFACE The following Observations are with Diffidence given to the Public; because the Subject is rather obscure and uncertain. However, it is presumed that there are stronger Reasons for admitting the Truth of Prince Madog's landing on the American Shores, than for the contrary. There are many Relations in History, which have obtained Credit, that appear to me, not so well supported as this Tradition. We find allusions to it in the Writings of Ancient British Bards, who were dead before Columbus sailed on his first Western Voyage. We are told, also, by credible Authors, that some plain traces of Christianity, such as it was in the Days of Madog, were found in America, when the Spaniards landed there. No Nation, in Europe, hath ever pretended to have visited America before Behaim, Columbus, or Americus Vespucius, but the Welsh: it is therefore almost, if not quite certain, that if its religious Notions and Customs were derived from Europe, it must have been from the Ancient Britons. The Words in common use on different parts of the Continent, which are very near, or undeniably Welsh, in both sound and sense, could not happen by chance, and they could not be derived from any Europeans but from the Ancient Britons. The inhabitants of some parts, it is said had a Book among them, upon which they set a great Value, though they could not read it. This Book seems to have been a Welsh Bible, because it was found in the Hands of a people who spoke Welsh; and because Mr. Jones could read and understand it.