The late celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, in a letter to a Friend well known in the literary World, which I heard read, said that he was fully convinced that there was such a Current from West to East, and that he did not think that the Captain's remarkable Expedition impossible, nor even, altogether, improbable. It seems to me not a little strange that Lord Lyttelton should say, "that no certain Monument, Vestige or Memorial of Madog's Voyage was ever found." It is hardly possible that his Lordship would say it, if he saw Hornius, and some other authorities, above produced, especially Peter Martyr for we have above seen that many such Memorials were, and are now to be found in America. His Lordship, indeed, seems to have entertained a most contemptible opinion of the Ancient and the Modern Britons, as appears in his Letter from Snowdon. These Remarks, I presume, if they do not remove, yet very considerably weaken, Lord Lyttelton's Objections.[ss] [Footnote ss: Lord Lyttelton's, History of Henry the 2d. Book V. Note 339. 8th Edit. 1773.] I shall now confider Dr. Robertson's Observations on this Subject.[tt] [Footnote tt: History of America. Vol. I. p. 373. Edit. 1788.] What he hath, in general, advanced, is much the same with what had been said by Lord Lyttelton and others; and therefore, what I have already said, will serve as a general Answer: but I must examine some particulars. He first says, "that the Pretensions of the Welsh to the Discovery of America, seem not to rest on a foundation much more solid, (than the Discovery of it by Behaim) because that Powel, on whose Testimony the authenticity of the Story rests, published his History above four Centuries from the Date of the Event which he relates." It is granted that Humphry Llwyd, and Dr. Powel, lived some Centuries after Madog's Emigration; but Dr. Robertson must also grant that there are several Events, mentioned in History, now commonly believed, even by the learned, which have no memorials for as long a Period. Where shall we find any Evidence for the Originality of Ossian and Fingal, from the Time in which they are said to have been written, till their publication, a few Years ago by Mr. Macpherson? Whether these Poems are of Scots or Irish Origin I know not; but they were not known to the World till very lately. If Dr. Robertson says that they always were, and now are known in the Highlands of Scotland; I say in Answer, so was the Expedition of Madog in the High Lands of Wales, as appears from the Poems of Sir Meredyth ab Rhy's, and of other Bards. This, by the Way, is an Evidence in which the Poems of Ossian and Fingal are deficient. The silence of History for about 1400 Years is much more unfriendly to the Authenticity of these Poems, than that of about 400 to the Truth of Madog's Voyages. Ossian and Fingal are supposed to have flourished about the End of the 3d Century. The Bards drew their Information, chiefly, from the