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.

Hic, ubi nunc Roma est orbis caput, arbor et herbæ, Et paucæ pecudes, et casa rara fuit.

Ov. Fast. L. 5. v. 93.

LONDON:

M. DCC XCI.

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.

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.

This Subject, as far as I can learn hath never been particularly examined, though mentioned by various Writers. I have, therefore, ventured to declare my Opinion, and the reasons by which it is supported, in hopes that some more able and judicious Antiquary will take it into Consideration.

To preserve Connection and perspicuity, the Reader will find some Facts and Remarks more than once mentioned. I hope that it will be excused, as it appeared to me unavoidable.

I beg the Gentlemen to whom I am obliged for much Information to accept my grateful Acknowledgments.

Every Author cited in this Treatise hath been consulted, excepting Francis Lopez de Gomara, Postell. Comp. Cosmo. and the 7th and 8th Decades of Peter Martyr, to which I could have no access.

Sydenham,—Feb. 1st, 1791.

AN ENQUIRY, &c.

That the original Inhabitants of America were descended from our common Parents, Adam and Eve, will admit of no doubt. In Form, Figure, and in the powers of the mind, we are the same. The only difference between the Europeans and Americans was, that the former were in a civilized state, the other uncivilized. By whom, how, and when that vast Continent was first peopled, are questions which have employed the thoughts and pens of learned Men for several Centuries. Hornius in his De Originibus Americanis, and Dr. William Robertson in his History of America, with great probability, were of opinion that they were descended from the Jews, Canaanites, Phœnicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Scythians; and that the Chinese, Swedes, Norwegians, the Welsh and the Spaniards, sent Colonies thither in later ages.[a]

[Footnote a: De Originibus Americanis, Lib. I. Cap. 2. Dr. Robertson's History of America, Vol. II. Page 28, Edit. 1788.]

That America was originally peopled by some of the above Nations seems most probable from the resemblance between the Inhabitants and Animals of the northern Regions of America, and the Inhabitants and Animals of the northern Regions of Europe and Asia. If any are desirous of knowing the sentiments of different Writers on this Subject, let them consult the above Authors. In the discusion of this point I am not concerned; my only design being to examine which of the European nations, since the eleventh Century discovered the Western Continent.

When we reflect upon the populousness of America when discovered, as supposed, in the 12th Century, we must be convinced that it was known in