An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the Year, 1170Williams, John
History
An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the Year, 1170
Williams, John
America -- Discovery and exploration -- Welsh; Madog ab Owain Gwynedd, 1150-1180?
This Circumstance is of great Weight in the debate. For whether
this Book was a Welsh Bible or not, it actually proves that the
Natives of that Country where the Book was found, had been on that
Continent many Ages, and could not be the descendants of a Colony
planted there after the discovery of Columbus in 1492. No written
Language or Alphabetical Characters can be totally forgotten by
any people, within the space of 160, or 170 Years, which was the
period that intervened between the discovery of Columbus and Mr.
Jones's visit.
It will be shewn in this short Treatise that there is not the least
reason to think that the whole was a Story invented to be the ground
of a claim to a first Discovery. For before Columbus returned from
his first Western Voyage, no Nation in Europe had any idea of a
Western Continent except the Ancient Britons; among whom there
seems to have been some Tradition that Prince Madog, many Years
before the 15th Century, had landed on some western Shores; but
that these were the American Shores, was a Discovery of later Ages.
Mr. Owen Jones, and Mr. William Owen, the Editors of David ab Gwilym's
Poems, lately published, to whom I am obliged for several Observations,
have favored me with the following account of a very late date.
In a letter, dated Octob. 1st, 1788, a Friend of theirs, a Native
of Wales, who lives on the Banks of the Ohio, informed them that
he had been several times among Indians who spoke Welsh; and that
there was at the time when he wrote, a person in Virginia from
the back settlements who had been among a Tribe of Welsh Indians,
whose situation he laid down on the River Misouris, or Misouri,
about 400 Miles above its junction with the Mississipi; that is
between 40 and 50 degrees North Latitude; This Tribe seems to have
been that which Captain Stewart saw, and which is also mentioned
in Mr. Beatty's Journal.
This Tribe seems to have little or no connection with other Indians:
the latter are of a deep Copper Colour, but the former, in general
have fair Complexions.
That Prince Madog's Adventures, are _certainly_, true, I do not
positively say; but from various circumstances, hereafter considered,
they appear so to me. However, should the Evidence produced be
thought insufficient to prove them real Facts it will prove that
some Welsh people had landed on the American Shores long before
Columbus; and as we have no account of any other, it may naturally
be concluded, that they are descended from Prince Madog's Colony.
The Traditions concerning this Welsh Prince have engaged my attention,
more or less, above 30 Years; and these Sheets were intended for
the Press, had the late misunderstanding with Spain never happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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