We are told that it was one result of these Northman voyages that the fame of them spread to other countries, and became known among the Welsh, at a time when, upon the death of Owen Gwynedd, who ruled in the northern parts of that country, the people were embroiled in civil strife. That chieftain’s son, Prince Madoc, a man bred to the sea, was discontented with the unstable state of society, and resolved to lead a colony to these western lands, where they could live more in peace. [Illustration: DELLO SCOPRÍMENTO DEL l’Isole Frislanda, Eslanda, Engṙoueland Estosilanda, & Icaria, fatto per due fratelli Zeni M. Nicolò il Cavaliere, & M. Antonio Libro Vno, col disegno di dètte Isole. Ne’mille, & dugento anni del la nostra salute se molto famoso in Venetia M. Marin zeno chi mato per la sua gran virtù, et de strezza d’inge gno podestà in alcune Republi. d’Italia, ne’governi dellequali si portò Sempre cosi bène, che era amato, & grandemènte riverito il suo nome da quelli anzo, che non l’havevano mai per presenza conosciuto; etra l’altre sue belle opere particolarmente si narra. NOTE.—The cuts above are facsimiles of the title and of the first page of the section on Frisland, etc., from the Harvard College copy. The book is rare. The Beckford copy brought £50; the Hamilton, £38; the Tross catalogue (1882) price one at 150 francs; the Tweitmeyer, Leipzig, 1888, at 250 marks; Quaritch (1885), at £25. Cf. Court Catalogue, no. 378; Leclerc, no. 3002; Dufossé, no. 4965; Carter-Brown, i. 226; Murphy, nos. 2798-99. The map is often in fac-simile, as in the Harvard College copy.] Accordingly, in A.D. 1170, going seaward on a preliminary exploration by the south of Ireland, he steered west, and established a pioneer colony in a fertile land. Leaving here 120 persons, he returned to Wales, and fitted out a larger expedition of ten ships, with which he again sailed, and passed out of view forever. The evidence in support of this story is that it is mentioned in early annals, and that sundry persons have discovered traces of the Welsh tongue among the lighter-colored American Indians, to say nothing of manifold legends among the Indians of an original people, white in color, coming from afar towards the northeast,—proofs not sufficient to attract the confidence of those who look for historical tests, though, as Humboldt contends,[532] there may be no impossibility in the story. * * * * * There seems to be a general agreement that a crew of Arabs, somewhere about the eleventh or twelfth century, explored the Atlantic westward, with the adventurous purpose of finding its further limits, and that they reached land, which may have been the Canaries, or possibly the Azores, though the theory that they succeeded in reaching America is not without advocates. The main source of the belief is the historical treatise of the Arab geographer Edrisi, whose work was composed about the middle of the twelfth century.[533]